Vegetable Garden Tour | July in our Organic and Permaculture Inspired No Dig Vegetable Garden

Hello and a very warm welcome back to the garden and I'm very excited to take you on a July tour of our raised bed organic and permaculture inspired vegetable garden. We've got 19 raised beds outside and two raised beds in the solar tunnel and I'm just going to show you what's growing on and how things are progressing. This year I tried a completely different method of which is intuitive or no rules gardening rather than creating a garden plan. So hopefully you find it interesting because this garden has no garden plan at all and it's just developed as the season has developed. So I'm going to start off with this first raised bed here. I've got an L shape of alderman peas and these have been cropping amazingly. We've got beautiful big pea pods and harvesting loads, made a really nice salad. All you need are garden peas, a lot of them, tomatoes, cucumbers, a bit of salt, bit of olive oil, absolutely delicious, a pure taste of summer. Then behind there we actually have a courgette which I'm just going to see how that develops and a cornflower and we've already harvested a lot of lettuce that has now been removed. Moving down the bed this is where I had the initial swede and a bit of parsnip failure. Some of the parsnips have come through, probably about three plants, but I then replanted the swedes from modules and they're growing really well. I've never grown swede from modules before but I am most definitely going to try again because they got obliterated by flea beetle and voles and moles and I think this method is a lot better. Something that will be a common appearance in this garden is lots of cosmos. I was inspired when I went to visit Liz Zorab and she had so much cosmos last year. This is just beginning to flower but yeah, you'll see it a lot around the garden. Something that I try and put a big emphasis on every year is succession planting. So this was where we had our new potatoes which initially were obliterated by frost even though we protected them but they bounced back, had a good harvest and then I put in some leeks. So at the top here you can see these first four rows are looking more upright in comparison to these leeks and I just wanted to show you how leeks rebound. So these ones were planted out about a week before these. So if you see your leeks looking a little sad and tired like this, don't worry they will bounce back soon enough. Here's our main salad beds. We've got swiss chard and perpetual spinach here. It's beginning to run to seed. Great thing that I love about it though is even if swiss chard or perpetual spinach runs to seed you can still eat the leaves. They don't go bitter like they do when lettuce bolts. Then I've got a couple of rows of lettuce that we've been harvesting a lot of and then this is more of a ornamental mustard greens mix that has also gone to flower as you can see. But very often I like to just let things go to flower as you'll see with some more lettuce later on. You can still eat the leaves but it just adds a bit of structure and also these lovely yellow flowers are pretty beautiful as well. These have been a massive success this year. These are the sugar snap peas. Norley they're called. It's a variety. They're just beginning to go over now but they are so tasty. I tried them as a mange too. Didn't really work but let them bulk up a bit and man they are so sweet. I've been sticking these in loads of stir fries. I'm actually going to let a lot of these grow so I can save their seed just because I love them so much. Behind the peas out of view I have two varieties of dwarf french bean including ying yang which is a new addition to the garden and it will be interesting to see how it does. And then I have a row here of lettuce grown using the Charles Dowding method and honestly we just have so much lettuce. We've been harvesting these four weeks and it's such a brilliant method. Now here is the kale bed or primarily the kale bed. I've been interplanting it with a lot of radish that has been very successful. There's actually a second batch of radish going in there. I feel now the kale has got a little bit too big so I'm not too sure that this radish, if it will get enough light to create roots. But I've got the Russian red kale and also the dwarf curly green kale, one of my favorite varieties. Really hardy and I'm going to leave this in until around April next year when it starts to flower and you get all of those flower shoots and it's a it's an absolute excellent replacement to purple sprouting broccoli. Then as I mentioned before I've actually got more cosmos here. This is absolutely amazing. There's also lupins hiding behind which you can see in the b-roll at the moment. They've been absolutely gorgeous, went in earlier this spring actually. And then in front of me this is one of my favorite, this is actually one of my favorite beds in the garden. But I did an experiment where I grew runner beans and then underneath I interplanted parsley. Parsley likes to grow in shade otherwise it can run to seed easily and we've just had way too much parsley. It's been such a big success. This is our squash and cucurbit bed. You might feel that there's a lot of wasted space in between and perhaps there is, but I just like growing this way. It likes to keep it nice and tidy. Perhaps there is actually space to put another plant in here but these grow so massive and so quickly that often even if I try and grow something else it will get swamped before it's ready. Now in the middle I was growing a choggia and that's a trailing squash but unfortunately it got absolutely destroyed by the wind. We've had a lot of windy weather so I've just put in a spare plant there and hopefully that's going to be okay. But it's nice to be harvesting a lot of the courgettes. Here I've got a striato which is a Italian striped courgette and an absolute staple summer crop and I just love to roast these with a bit of olive oil and garlic and they taste so good. This here is pretty unusual because it's turning yellow and usually I'd think that this is malnourished and perhaps needing some intervention in terms of an organic feed which I haven't actually used this year but this is quite interesting. This is a yellow courgette shooting star and the other plants around this garden and also the new garden are showing the same traits of the yellow leaves and this is growing in the same bed as the other courgettes and squashes that show no kind of malnutrition. So I'm thinking that perhaps that's just part of the variety but that's something that I need to look into in a bit more detail. So we're now coming down to this bed. This is kind of a bit of a hybrid between annuals and perennials. By next year there should just be a complete perennial vegetable bed as I experiment with those. Firstly on the annual side you've got the sweet peas, one of the three sweet pea wigwams here, a bit of cosmos behind it, more cosmos, lettuce in front, pak choy. This didn't work, it did run to seed but letting it flower because why not. Then behind this I've got I believe it's a perennial kale and a purple tree collard. I've got more sugar snap peas of the norleigh that were planted a little bit later and those are in their prime right now so it's nice to space that out a bit. Then here we've got asparagus planted earlier this spring. I seem to be doing well. I've got another asparagus bed which I'll come on to later. I've really got to get around to actually supporting these so that will be kind of my next main job. And then moving down more into the shade I've got perpetual spinach that I've planted out around the hostas and then I've got various kind of climbing things for example caucasian spinach, some dwarf beans here just as an experiment and then these here are dwarf Jerusalem artichokes. The bed behind me is mainly soft fruits and rhubarb but I'm just going to focus here on the Jerusalem artichokes. I absolutely love these how tall they grow. They're looking so lush and it really when I'm up close I feel like I'm in a jungle. These are a staple crop for us during winter and they're highly productive as well and very resilient and they do grow really well in partial shade. So a lot of people worry about them spreading but we've managed to contain them in this space in this part of the raised bed for the last 15 or so years. But yeah Jerusalem artichokes aka sun chokes I absolutely love them. Here is the second early potatoes bed but we're going to treat them more as a main crop and really try and let them die down. Already harvested some of them though. You might be able to see the handle of a fork because this is the five percent of the dig part of the garden. The rest of the garden is kind of 95 percent no dig. This will be the last time I grow potatoes just this way. Try to give it one more shot but wasn't very happy. My plan now for this bed is at the moment to once the potatoes have gone really try and treat the soil with a lot of organic matter just so I can turn it into a no dig bed and keep this covered ready for October where I'll plant a load of garlic perhaps perhaps perhaps I'll plant this whole bed up with garlic but that's kind of my thinking with the direction that I'm going to take this one in. So behind the runner bean structure is where we get a lot of the wind coming into the garden so the idea is this can act a bit of a as a buffer zone to protect the garden. It hasn't obviously done its job extremely well because of the loss of the courgette but turbulence within the garden is out of our control. So the top I actually have four potato plants here. These are Shetland black sent to me from Shetland. They're flowering now and I'm just gonna let these again die down and give these a harvest and see how they perform. Then I've got a couple of swede amongst here then some kale. I had some spare plants so the thing about intuitive gardening is it's a lot of plugging gaps so if there's a bit of space and I have some spare plants put it in. Then radish here been really good actually this radish yes some kind of unusual shapes but this one's a really good one this is a cherry bell. I'm going to be starting off for a load more radish because I want to try pickling them and then again plugging gaps here some multi-sown mixed beetroot variety and also these are leeks that were started off in modules. I never usually do that I just tried it and they should be okay. Then some more radish and then finally a spare courgette plant here. So here's a prime example of just using intuitive gardening to really if I have spare plants find a home for them and still get crops. This bed is just an example of a polyculture which is how a lot of beds are this year. I've got spinach esconder seed that's okay I'll just try it again a bit later on in the season. I've also been growing some radish in between like that loads of radish which is great. Then obviously more cosmos. Now you might be wondering where on earth have these marigolds appeared from based on watching previous videos. These are actually in a watering can and it's because earlier today we were filming a video which is coming out next week about how I apply permaculture principles to pest control natural pest and disease control in the garden. So stay tuned. Right in front of these calendula or the pot marigolds I've got Caillan 60 day kale a very interesting plant still trying to learn how to best harvest that and enjoy it. But it's fun easy to grow and they say from transplanting it takes about 60 days to mature and to harvest. Then I've got a fennel here that I planted out from modules and then I've got two rows here that have kind of been sown direct. I didn't put a plank over and the germination was a bit sporadic. I don't really mind I can fill some of the gaps that's okay. Then I've got a line here of dwarf french beans some more dwarf french beans here some of these were destroyed actually by the winds but they seem to have picked up okay. More beetroot really treating that as a staple this year. And then here more runner beans I've really been trying to add a lot more wigwams around the garden this year. I just think it looks great and this is quite interesting it's beginning to climb up the cotoneaster here are getting quite high so I'm just going to leave it and see what happens to that. It'll be cool to come back in a month and compare. And then behind in that corner was the seed bed for the leeks which you had seen earlier in this video that replaced the new potatoes but I've got some spare ones there which will go somewhere else. Something I've been trying to do is just to introduce some more flowers hence a cosmos and turn it a bit into a potager garden. I've got this isn't actually meant to be a flower it's an example of letting something go to flower it's coriander and every time I walk past I get a lovely smell of coriander and I'm going to try save the seed from them. Here I've got cornflower which is a mixed variety as you can see some amazing pinks purples and blues and then gypsophila covent garden is the little white flowers which also look lovely. Then I've got beetroot and beetroot is one of my absolute favorites and plays an integral role in our diets. You can see they're just beginning to reach the the ideal size I mean my ideal size is a massive beetroot because I'll usually cook it anyway but I've been starting to to eat these like making a bush and things like that really happy with the beetroot. Six rows these are actually sown direct I do a bit of multi-sowing but I also do like to sow direct beetroot as I did in the previous bed. Then here very simply got carrots they're probably about some of them about a month away from harvesting from my ideal size for me it's kind of the bigger the better not so worried about flavor usually because I add them into stews or chuck a load of herbs or honey onto them but these are doing well use the plank method to aid germination and then up here just because there's a bit of spare netting I put in five cabbages just to protect from cabbage root fly but it really hasn't been that necessary over the last few years. Here's the onion bed these onions are stew on grown from sets I never grow onions from seed honestly because I can't be bothered with that extra bit of faff and I always get really good results from sets you can see the size of some of these are amazing these are just beginning to flop over which means it's close to harvesting I'll probably go through and just bend over the tops to help with the storage so I don't always do that I don't find it make that much of a difference and then just here a bit of cosmos because a couple died off for some reason ages ago so I had a spare cosmos plant to put in then at the top I did have a different onion variety it just didn't perform very well at all so I let these self-sown lettuce just continue growing they've just began flowering and yeah it's just something nice and something different and again just letting nature sometimes do what it naturally does to bring in some beneficial insects earlier this season this bed started off as the broad beans bed those have all since been cleared you can see the evidence of them because they grew quite high and it almost blanched the base of these sweet peas which are really starting to grow tall and beginning to flower and these smell amazing in the evening just grow them for the smell honestly even though they look beautiful then moving down I've these are just spare courgettes not looking too happy they're looking a bit better since I've put them out because they were root bound and I'll just see what happens also just down here I've planted parsley and two plants either side of both of the sweet peas and they've been performing really well then just some really young beetroot plants this is a climbing bean I can't actually remember what climbing bean it was but sometimes it's okay because I get a surprise when it appears and when it starts to grow then here is this is swiss chard it's the white variety I really like it seems to be really productive out of the colored varieties so yeah just going to see how this performs by itself and then coming down here this is mixed beetroot variety that I got as a patch that I've multi-sown planted out these are really beginning to take hold now you can see how luscious they look and then right at the end I've capped the bed just with a few radish just to really make the most of just spare bits of space here's the main asparagus bed again as I mentioned earlier I really have got to get my act together and just add a little bit of support for these spare courgette went in the corner right there and then this has been mulched actually with wood chip just to try and help retain the moisture over on this bed this is ochre also known as New Zealand yam usually I grow these in line tires but growing them here because I had spare tubers this is a globe artichoke I think this whole bed will eventually be just for artichokes next year because I've got a lot that I started from seed then beans loads of beans this is a self-sown tomato which is beginning to flower and I mean it doesn't have much luck outside in Wales in a Welsh summer but you never know it might turn out to be a success story and this thing looks quite intense and it kind of is because this is where the wind has hit the peas it's coming from this direction quite interesting wouldn't have expected it to come in from here but it's kind of toppled over the peas over to the other side I don't really mind that much and then this thing here a bit of support but it's doing fine it's a hang down blue heritage pea variety doesn't taste amazing I will be honest but I'll try cooking in it and I'm sure a bit of melted butter would fix it and then finally this is a self-sown borage borage is a wonderful plant you can eat the beautiful blue flowers and just before I forget I've actually put in a couple of chard plants here that are looking really good and healthy again spare ones plugging the gaps but yeah gonna get some great harvests out of these this weedy bed in front of me is the strawberry bed we got some actually nice harvests off these it was just the first year for this bed though and I have got to remove the covering give a good weed but also try and pot up a lot of the runners that have been sent out I've got just add cream there's one variety and these are Cambridge favourites that I propagated last year and planted out this spring so Cambridge favourites taste better from the two so I'm going to try and propagate as many of those as possible this bed behind me is another experimental bed mainly around perennial vegetables which I will go into more detail in a later video but in terms of annuals I'm just trying things like kohlrabi here I got multi-sown beetroot doing really well and also fennel here and they're all looking pretty happy pretty healthy and yeah pleased with how this is growing here with the two beds right at the top of the garden the bed furthest from me has cosmos then some spare courgettes and then just a couple of cabbages and purple sprouting broccoli just put in there there's a bit of space in the middle where I'll probably be planting out more beetroots this is Blauhilde climbing bean it had a really weird start couldn't work out what was happening but it's eventually kicked in and started growing up and then I've got a couple of kale plants and these are fennel in here so now from planted out from modules looking really good this is more of the pak choy that ran to seed and this is the kale kailan 60 day it's a big stem that apparently you peel off and you can eat just letting this flower a bit sending off more shoots so this is useful to see where it could end up and then finally one of my favorite vegetables mainly because they look extraterrestrial is kohlrabi I think this is the azur kohlrabi and yeah it's looking pretty healthy and hopefully in about a month I can start harvesting them here we are in the solar tunnel and there's a little bit of shade from the grapevine which has recovered from the frost and then to my right these are the tomatoes a really good fruit set this year as you can see and they're just beginning to ripen now I can see the tagliarella is beginning to ripen and I can't wait to start tasting homegrown tomatoes at long last then on this side it's more kind of experimental aubergines cucumbers courgettes this is a kind of fissilis I think and then a couple of loofahs in the back but again this bed is just more experimental because we have a polycrub which is a much bigger undercover growing area that I've already shared and done some tours on over on my patreon page and that's where a lot more of the undercover growing is happening this year I'm just outside the solar tunnel this is a cut flower bed cornflower again and cosmos but a lot of it this is the first one to start flowering there were so many flower heads beginning to form though so still got a couple of weeks perhaps a little bit more before they go into full flower so it's just important that I deadhead them when they stop flowering just to keep them nice and vibrant but yeah I just love this patch here this actual patch of the garden feels so much of a jungle and it's completely unplanned so there you have it a tour of the vegetable garden and I'll be doing another one probably around end of August early September as a comparison on how much the garden can change and I hope you enjoyed it and if you want to get some extra bonus content then check out my patreon I upload two exclusive videos every single week showing you more things about gardening and behind the scenes on projects I'm working on so thank you very much for watching and I look forward to seeing you again next week where if you remember we're talking about pest and disease control