- I've got a really special video for you today.
It is perhaps one of the most exciting things
I've seen recently,
and it's to do with winter gardening
and a, kind of, a hack or technique
we can all use to make
our undercover growing space more productive,
and it's super easy.
For a bit of context
I stumbled across this technique by kind of sheer accident
on Instagram,
by a woman called Yen and she's from Denmark.
She grows organically,
and she focuses on being as self-sufficient as possible
during all four seasons.
And we jumped on a zoom call together
so we could share this technique with you.
A very warm welcome to the channel.
You're in your absolutely beautiful polytunnel,
and one of the reasons why I wanted
to chat to you actually was,
I was going through Instagram
and I saw a really interesting post
where you were using some interesting methods
to try and get more harvest from your polytunnel
using plants from your garden.
Could you tell us a bit about what that method is?
- Yeah, absolutely.
It is something I have been doing for four or five years.
I have been experimenting with leaving my plants to mature
in the in-ground garden
and then transplanting them into the polytunnel
come October, November time.
It actually started when I found myself
having some empty spaces in my greenhouse,
which has kind of a high value space for growing food,
especially in the winter time.
And at the same time,
I had some beautiful lettuce and celery
sitting out in the ground in the in-ground garden.
I knew that if I left them there,
they would probably succumb to frost
or be rotting due to heavy rainfall.
So this was around the November time,
and it actually turned out to be the perfect timing
for transplanting mature plants into the polytunnel,
because it was not neither too hot or too warm
for them to just keep on growing.
- That's lovely.
What kind of, what's the process
and how do you lift up those plants
and how do you transplant them?
What's, kind of, the tips and the steps that you'd give us?
- It's very simple process.
Usually I choose a time
where there are not too many extremities in the forecast,
so not too hot, not too cold.
And then I just carefully dig up the plants
in the in-ground garden,
and I'd say get them into the tunnel right away.
I think that's a important step.
You don't want to leave it out.
You just transplant it right away
into the polytunnel or greenhouse.
And then I just water carefully
for the next, maybe, week or so.
- And how much of that, how many roots do you take?
Do you try and take as many roots as possible with it,
with the soil on or do you shake the soil off?
- Oh, I actually take some of the soil on,
just, you know, not to disturb the roots too much,
and also put some of the healthy soil life
from my in-ground garden, into the polytunnel as well.
- Yeah, that's really clever.
Could you tell us what kind of crops
you've been using this method with,
and how successful have they been?
- I have been doing this for several years
with the celery, kale and lettuce.
That is my main three things
that I have been doing this method with.
And then this year, I'm also, I'm thinking about
trying to experiment with, also cabbages,
cabbages I have also done, and they also do great,
cabbage, Savoy.
So this year I'm trying out chard and spinach
and this will be
because they are in the in-ground garden now
and they're looking a bit poorly, you know.
They have gotten rain
and the deer have been munching on them.
And so now I have this extra space in here
so I'll just try and maybe get a very early
new crop of spinach and chard from those mature plants.
There are great many benefits to doing this method I think.
And the main reason was
that I can actually squeeze in an extra crop.
If I have been doing my fall garden,
typically I will have an interplanting
of kohlrabi or pak choi underneath the tomatoes
as they are maturing.
And then I planted at six weeks old,
seedlings in August or September.
Those are ready for harvest, maybe October, November time
so we are eating them right now.
At this point, not much will grow in the polytunnels,
so I felt that if I could just pop in
some of the mature plants that I had sitting out
in the in-ground garden,
for example, celery, which is kind of a frost tender,
not very hardy plant in my climate,
but if I put it into the polytunnel
then it will actually do fine.
And then I will harvest those during the winter time.
And then when comes the new spring
I will be planting, taking those out,
and planting a new crop of tomatoes.
So I actually maybe get four harvests
instead of two harvests or three harvests.
So that was the one main thing
that I thought would be very beneficiary.
And then I also think that the quality of the produce
is much better from growing undercover.
The produce is protected from the elements, the pests,
and also bigger animals like deer and rabbits.
And then of course, it's much more pleasant
to go harvest in the winter time in a clean polytunnel
than it is to be crawling on the, low tunnels (laughs)
and tents in the main garden.
- That makes a lot of sense.
Actually, a lot of things
that us gardeners are thinking about at the moment
is winter gardening
and also making the most of our polytunnel spaces.
Do you have any tips about growing in polytunnels
over the winter that gardeners should know?
- Yes. I think I have two main things.
The one being that it is very important to make sure
that you have enough ventilation in your tunnel,
or your greenhouse.
So keep the doors open because many times
it's actually not the frost that kills our plants,
it's actually maybe more to due to mold
and very much moisture in the air.
So that would be the one thing.
And the other thing I think,
when you start to go into the January, February,
maybe you can think, oh, but it's a kind of cold,
but there's also a lot of sunshine.
So I think it's very important to actually start watering
a bit more in those two months, January, February,
and maybe not water so much in November, December time,
because that is where all the issues
with the mold is going on, mostly.
- So firstly, a massive thank you for sharing those tips.
I'm gonna head to the garden now
and start moving some of my mature plants
into the polytunnel,
and I'll share some pictures on Instagram,
which reminds me 'cause I found you on Instagram,
and I think everyone should go check out your profile.
What is your username so we can find you?
- My user name is apple_acres_dk,
like Denmark.
- Perfect. That's great.
And the final thing is, obviously you're in your garden,
it's the morning time, just curious,
what's your plan, what's your plan for today?
- Today I'm actually going to,
I have an empty space over there
so I'll be popping in
some of my red rainbow chard.
So that is what I'll be doing today.
I'll be lifting them from the in-ground garden
and putting them in here,
so I don't have any empty spaces
sitting in the polytunnel space.
- Perfect. Well, good luck and yeah, thanks again.
- Thank you so much for having me Huw.
It's been a pleasure and very exciting.
- You're most welcome.