(guitar music)
- Hello and a very warm welcome back to HuwsNursery.
And in today's video, I'm going to show you
how you can grow brassicas at home.
And brassicas are a fantastic vegetable variety
that every single vegetable garden
I believe should strive to grow
because especially in cooler climates,
brassicas mean that you can have fresh, healthy vegetables
during the hungry gap which is a very, very important thing,
especially if you're trying to strive
towards being self-sufficient.
And in this video, I'm going to show you the whole process,
from preparing the seed bed all the way to showing
the plants growing healthily in their final positions.
So I hope you enjoy.
Now to prepare the seed bed where
you're going to grow your seedlings in,
you want to use a rake and create a tilth.
So this is where you just get rid of the clumps of soil
and also the stone,
so it's a nice area to plant your seeds in.
And here we're using a tarmac rake,
which is a heavy-duty rake,
which is nice and easy to work with.
Then, using the end of it,
gently tap down on the seed bed.
This just makes everything look very pretty
and also compacts the soil a bit,
so they don't affected as much by wind.
Now, turn your rake over to the other side
or use another device and create a row.
Now you wanna create rows which are about half an inch deep,
so that's just over a centimetre deep.
And we're gonna be growing all sorts of brassicas,
so create as many rows as you need.
Space 'em out about six inches apart.
And then a really important thing that you need to do is
to make sure that you don't forget
what you've planted where,
'cause it is very easy to do and
sometimes they look very similar.
So by using plant labels and writing on both sides
and sticking these on either side in the middle of rows,
in fact, you can then know exactly what you're growing.
And then, just like using a pinch of salt,
get some seeds, and sprinkle them gradually
and then later on you might need to thin them out.
Brassicas like a neutral pH but
if you don't have a soil testing kit,
just as long as you have soil with
a lot of organic matter, you should be set.
And the best time to sow outside is between April to May
and with the hopes of planting out between May and June.
So, once you've planted the seeds in the drills,
you can either use your fingers to bring the soil in gently
or you can do something much easier using the back of a hoe
and just gently popping it over like that.
Oh, um, my dad just hit a plant label
but luckily that wasn't too bad.
And then after that, you want to get a rake
and then you're gonna do exactly like you did
right at the start of the planter seed bed.
You just want to firm it down,
this is just to try and stop any wind
from blowing away seeds, should they be on the surface
and again, it makes it look nice and smart.
So we're almost ready to go but the final thing to do
is to make sure you give them a good soaking of water.
Now this is really important especially in a dry area
because obviously they need to germinate
and without water, that's not really gonna happen,
so give them a great soaking.
They're gonna love this and very soon,
they'll begin to grow.
Under any time, if it does dry out,
then just give them another water.
And there, you can see the loganberries
have kinda taken over
but we had really good germination success rates
with the brassicas, so when you want to plant out,
you want to plant out broccoli and cabbage
when they're about three inches high or taller
and kale and sprouts about six inches and higher
and by transplanting them, make sure they're always
soaked in water and you want to give the raised bed
a soaking of water too, because they do wilt quite easily
but don't worry, and I'll speak a bit more about this.
So this raised bed here is actually a raised bed
that we used the water method of building soil
over winter and we're really pleased with the quality
of the soil, so literally using a trowel,
just dig a little hole, press it down firmly
and very soon you will actually be able
to stand on your raised beds
and this is your only time that you can really get
to have a go at dancing and try to make sure no neighbours
are watching you, just to avoid any looks of confusion
but the idea of standing down
against the seedlings is just to compact the soil
because they grow quite high, so you need to make sure
that they aren't going to fall over.
Now beware, most likely they will wilt
but don't worry, they're not going to wilt and die,
just by using some water,
make sure that you give them a great soaking
and very soon, as you can see,
they will begin to poke up again
and very soon, they'll be ready during the hungry gap
and winter for you to eat.
Now I hope that has given you all the information
you need and answered all the questions you have
to do with growing brassicas.
But if you have any further questions,
then don't hesitate to either ask me on Snapchat
where you can get personalised messages
or you can simply ask down below in the comments section.
Thank you very much for watching this video
and I hope you have a very merry Christmas.