- Hello, and a very warm welcome back to the garden.
Today's video shows you a very simple, very clever,
no rules planting technique to get
extra food from your garden.
And I really hope it helps
give you ideas that you can apply.
(relaxing music)
This technique takes a lot of inspiration
from polyculture which put simply,
is where you grow a lot
of different plants in a small space.
And there's all sorts of different styles of polyculture.
One of them is inter-cropping.
This is usually where you plant crops
in alternating rows or in a set pattern.
For example, here in between the rows of sweet corn,
I've planted dwarf french beans.
You can then get more natural
or organic feeling types of polyculture planting.
For example, here where we've got quite a few
individual plants growing alongside one another.
I'm gonna run you through the steps
that I take to apply this method in the garden.
And I hope that you can just take inspiration and ideas,
and adjust it and adapt it the way that
you feel is suitable for your own growing space.
So the goal for this technique
is to increase total garden yield
to cover exposed areas, to contribute
to total garden diversity and health.
And to also create a bit of a more natural,
organic look and vibe about the garden.
And it's a great way to use up
any spare seedlings that you have lying about.
So the first step is to
have a little walk around your garden
and look out for the smallest of spaces
or any kind of space where you think,
actually I could maybe fit a plant or a few plants there.
Once you found a gap, it's time for step two,
which is to brainstorm the potential.
And you want to begin by actually thinking
what kind of size and what kind of space
are the current plants going to occupy
as they continue their growing journey?
How will this gap look in perhaps two months from now?
The other consideration I like to think about
is what do I maybe want to see in that space?
If there's a lot of greenery,
do I maybe want something that has a nice spark of color?
You also need to think about
what plants you may feel that you're lacking.
Perhaps you don't feel that you're growing enough beetroots.
So could this be a potential space where you can grow it?
And then the final thing is actually the length.
this crop that you plant in the gap,
might actually outlive the current crop
by two or three months.
Is that okay?
Does that make sense with your plan
and your kind of medium term goals with your space?
When I'm thinking about the different considerations.
I don't like to overthink about the particular plant.
With step three, it's just about
deciding on a plant.
If you think, yes, I reckon it'll work,
commit to it, put it in and see what happens.
Here, I'll have some space running along the whole bed
whilst the asparagus starts dying back.
So I just think, you know what,
running a pumpkin along will probably work.
So, in it goes.
A very common thing when I'm deciding
what plants to put in,
is I'll actually consider and have a look at
what plants I have ready to go out.
For example I have all these brassica's ready
to find their final home.
That does help a lot with decision
and actually clear some space in the polytunnel.
Cause we always have like a few spare plants kicking about.
If we can find a space with them, that's great.
We feel a bit better as well.
Then the final step is to actually review the outcome.
Once you've dedicated that plant
see how it interacts and grows with the other plants.
The idea with this oca here is
that this district nurse bean will actually grow above it.
And that's exactly what's happening.
So it's kind of nice to see
that the oca is occupying this space
the district nurse is occupying the vertical space.
And then you'll start to keep a mental tally
of particular plants or particular heights
of crops that work really well together.
That you can then apply in future growing seasons.
And I'm gonna share you 10 lessons or tips
that I've learned from the last three seasons
of applying this no rules polyculture method
to kind of show the discoveries
that you can also make from doing it yourself.
And hopefully save you a bit of time
and allow you to grow some more food.
So the first lesson for really small spaces
is it's always best to grow either floppy crops
or crops that cascade and grow away.
For example, nasturtiums or tumbling tom tomatoes.
So they're not actually impacted
by any of the main crops that's growing there.
Instead they're occupying kind
of the bed border and path space.
Similar to things such as nasturtiums,
which can flop and grow away.
I found that dwarf french beans are one of
the best go-to crops for me along edges and corners.
Because they're on a single stem
but they can also grow away, flop away
and not intrude any of the plants
that are already growing in that area.
One of the things that I didn't consider
is actually rainfall.
And you've gotta think about if you're planting
something low, growing underneath a taller plant
these leaves act as an umbrella and divert rain away.
So you might actually have to end up doing a
little bit of extra hand watering.
If you have gaps behind taller plants
which then cast shade, things such as salads
and annual herbs are perfect for shadier places
but still be able to grow a bit of food.
Borage always runs the risk of becoming massive.
So even though it might feel like a suitable space,
I found that the very corner of a bed
is an ideal spot for it.
Annual edible flowers.
For example, calendula, are always a go-to,
because just putting this one plant here
really lifts the color,
especially on a dark day like this, of the garden.
So just doting them around the place
and you can still eat the food,
eat the petals, add it onto salads.
It just, it brings me a lot of joy
and the garden wouldn't feel the same without them.
In March and April, a really fun thing to do
is if you have a few leeks left over
actually just transplant them.
And it's a great way to use up
a really small amount of space,
but create a vertical impact.
When these are out flowering, it's gonna look stunning
and it's taken barely any space whatsoever.
Another thing that I've realized,
through just marginal gains,
all these small nooks and crannies,
where you can grow food in.
When you think about the garden as a whole,
adding all of those small gaps together
actually contributes to quite a significant space
in which you can grow extra produce.
I think most importantly,
by doing this and just putting plants in
whenever there's an opportunity.
It's a lot of fun.
Because a lot of the time I'm really curious
about what will end up happening.
And I think bringing that fun element
and really adapting to my experimental need
from a garden space has been really rewarding.
The 10th lesson which brings me back to close
to the start of this video is
never underestimate how big a plant can get.
Especially in early spring.
You're like, no way it'll get that big, but they do.
So just always err on the side of caution.
But if something doesn't work, it doesn't matter.
At least you've learned that lesson
and it's gonna help you next year.
If you want to bring a little strategy to this
and see it more as plugging gaps.
Then what you can do is start a batch
of gap plugger seedlings, every two to three weeks.
Things like radish, beetroot, peas, dwarf beans, herbs.
You can sew them one row each in a module tray,
every two to three weeks, change it around.
And it means you have a constant little production line
of plants ready to occupy any spaces that appear.
One of the easiest ways to get seedlings
to plug gaps is to actually grow plants, that self sow.
And I got this video here which shows you nine crops
that you never really need to buy seeds for again.
So that means that rather than raiding
your main seed supplies, you can actually get free plants
to plug your gaps and get more food.