- It's an absolutely glorious day today
here in Mid- west Wales
and there's warmth in the sun
and it gives us a bit of a hint of spring
but I know it can be deceiving
and there's also a cool bite to the air.
So being patient is very important.
Now with the approaching spring and summer
and the rest of the growing season,
we also have busy lives and I understand this
because in winter we take a break from almost everything
but then suddenly lots of things happen.
So I thought I'd create a video
outlining seven habits, weekly habits,
so these aren't daily these are just weekly habits
for us to use as gardeners so we can just stay in control.
One of the main reasons why I garden
is because it's relaxing and a chance to escape
from really, really busy lives
but it's not very relaxing when you have so many tasks to do
and you feel a little bit out of control.
So here are seven weekly habits I'm going to be doing
and feel free to follow these
but after outlining these habits I'm going to talk
why it's so important to adapt and word
and create your own habits as well.
So the first habit is once a week
have a little scout around the garden
and any bits or bobs that are just lying about,
try and just pick them up and keep things clean
and organised, and try not to drop seed labels.
The reason why I think this is such a key habit
is because personally I'm quite an unorganised person
and a little bit untidy.
And then it all catches up with me
and I can't find anything that I need.
So simply once a week, it'll take five minutes at most,
go around the garden collecting bits
that aren't meant to be in particular areas
and just give it a nice tidy
because a clean garden and a decluttered garden
means a decluttered mind and it's nice to be in the garden
and not have to worry about clutter.
The second weekly habit is to look at your planting plan
or your planting calendar.
Now I haven't completed mine yet,
mainly because in next Saturday's video
I'm going to be talking in detail about how I plan
and how I also put the information then onto a calendar.
And so what you need to do after you've watched that video
is every week have a look at the calendar and look ahead
and see what you need to do this week, next week
and in a month's time so you don't miss out on anything.
Because, for example,
you might be succession sowing something
and you might have to start some seeds
in pots or modules beforehand.
So in that way just by once a week having a quick glance
at your planting plan or your calendar,
you know what's coming up next
and you're not gonna miss out on any of those opportunities.
Wow, what nice tomatoes.
The third weekly habit can be done either in the garden,
or in the comfort of your own home, if it's damp and dismal (outside),
and that's to spend half an hour every week
reading through gardening books
and I absolutely love doing this
because books are a fantastic source
of ideas and inspiration
and whenever I'm reading a book,
I always keep a notebook nearby
and write down lots of different things
so you know Vera has made an excellent book
called "Edible Paradise",
getting loads of ideas
and I'm excited about things I wanna try
and it also is very inspirational
because sometimes things don't quite go right in the garden
and it's nice to get inspired to try out new techniques.
And obviously I'm going to take this opportunity
to do a little cheeky plug for my new book,
"Grow Food For Free", which is coming out
on the 27th of February and is available for pre-order.
So if you're wanting to look at really maximising
how much you can grow and not needing to spend any money
or ways of saving money, then get this book.
The fourth weekly habit
which can have such a great importance to the garden
is doing a health check of the plants.
Very often in a corner of a garden you might plant something
and just forget about it
and then you come back a few weeks later,
and like, ah, it's got a disease
or pests are around or something.
But just once a week have a little look around
and look under leaves and things.
And these leeks were suffering quite a bit from rust
back in August and September
but they've they've managed to hold on
and they're doing really well
and we're getting lots of harvests.
So once a week have a little plant health check,
just maybe as you're tidying up,
just have a little look around
and make sure everything is looking in check.
The fifth weekly habit that I'm going to do
is to always celebrate a success
and whether it's something like harvesting
or you've germinated some old seeds
or something like that.
It's so easy to become bogged down with the things
that don't go well but celebrate the successes
and look at the positive things
and remember to do that every single week
and it's gonna help you so, so much.
A quick tip on celebrating successes
is also celebrating every step in the right direction,
no matter how small that step may be.
It is so important you feel proud of what you're achieving
and that you can see that, regardless of the scale
of a particular task or challenge,
you're always getting closer and closer
to your dream garden vision.
The sixth habit is one mainly for those of you
who are new to gardening this year
and I can't stress how important it is
to create your own compost.
And one weekly habit you should have,
or even a daily habit, is to make sure
that you just add something to the compost bin
because that little and often will just keep it going
and the sooner you can fill a compost bin
and section it off like the two in front of me,
the sooner you'll have homemade compost ready
to use on your garden.
And homemade compost is just the most wonderful resource
because without compost,
gardening can be a little bit tricky.
The seventh weekly habit is to just go around
and any weeds that you see,
there and then just pull them out
because if you let weeds grow a little bit too much,
they become really hard to pull out very quickly.
So just once a week go around the garden maybe with a hoe
or if it's a smaller garden,
just pull out some of the smaller weeds
and it's gonna be really easy to stay in control
and come up into the garden and not see loads of weeds
that have to be dealt with
and that is such a liberating feeling.
For me, the whole purpose of these seven habits
is to keep the garden running as smoothly as possible
and to also ensure long-term success
and inspiration such as getting ideas
from reading the books half an hour a week
and to also make sure that I'm keeping up
with succession sowing, looking at the planting plans.
Now something that I implore you to do
is to actually create your own habits.
So you can use these as a framework,
I mean be my guest, but if you want habits to stick,
one of the key things you've got to do
is to make them your own
because firstly it's much easier to remember things
and remember your own ideas than someone else's,
but also it means that you can apply it
and perhaps structure it in a way
which hits closer to home with you
or tailored to things which you might struggle more with.
One of the best ways to make new habits stick
is to start as small as possible.
Too many people focus on wanting big change straightaway
but this is where there is a major breakdown
in the effectiveness of habits sticking,
they need to be small and simple and not take much time.
Perhaps choose one habit to start with
and once you feel it becomes second nature,
begin practising the next habit you wish to have.
I'd love to hear if you have any habits
that you've thought of watching this video
that you're going to apply weekly this year,
and remember that by doing it regularly habits stick
and they become second nature.
But the important thing is just finding a way
to remind yourself about it,
whether it's making a note at the start
of every week on your calendar,
or an alarm on your phone,
or even putting post-it notes on your bedroom door
when you wake up to refresh yourself.
When you create your habits,
make sure they each have a clear intention.
For example, don't just put weed the garden weekly,
also write down the specific intention it relates to
which in my case is so I can always enjoy
going into the garden and not having to worry
about having to do that big batch of weeding
I keep holding off.
Setting a clear intention for each habit
helps solidify it in your brain
therefore it's more likely to stick.
So spend an evening over the next couple of weeks
thinking up of a single digit number of habits
because you don't want 20 and think, oh I can never keep up.
Think of a single digit,
maybe five, seven, eight, different habits
that are suited for you and your garden and your needs
and perhaps things that you struggle with
'cause that's what I'm tailoring mine around
and let me know what those habits are.
and I hope you have found this video really useful
and if you have any further questions about this
or questions about my habits or anything like that,
please do let me know down below in the comments.