- This is about growing salads through the months of winter.
With some protection, in trays like I've got here.
That you can get for free from shops and stores.
And I'm lining each one with
just a couple of sheets of paper.
And then I'll put the compost on that.
I'm actually doing a little trial here,
using different composts.
So this compost is potting compost,
multipurpose potting in container compost,
from Moorland Gold.
Available in the UK.
It's organic-approved and certified.
And it is lovely and black.
It's pretty dense actually.
But although it's dense I've been using it
for sowing some seeds and that still works.
What I'm looking to do with these trays,
is to get as much compost in here as I possibly can.
Because I'm not thinking to feed
these plants at all.
So the salads and herbs actually that I'm gonna plant now.
My plan is, and I've been doing this for many winters
so I know the process pretty well too.
Yeah, keep it like simple, basic.
I will put it all in.
Since you are really, not sparing on the compost,
that was about, maybe about 10 liters.
Is it reasonably level, but above all
compost is not like soil, you can't really compact it.
I'm getting it firm it's good for roots
because then they can anchor nicely.
It holds more moisture, holds them upright.
These plants could actually get quite cool
by the end of winter.
So that's that one.
Now this one, is where it gets interesting
because this is my homemade compost.
From garden waste.
Plus
a little bit of wood chip,
a little bit of soil, not much.
So it's mainly organic matter, leaves,
pods, fruits, whatever the waste was from the garden here.
This is Homemakers.
So first thing then,
so climate mild, temporary oceanic.
So the winters that these plants have ahead of them,
are not freezing, freezy.
These plants cannot stand frost, even things like coriander
quite frustrating, but obviously there's a limit.
And down to maybe minus,
minus 8
that's when you start seeing in my experience
some damage to these plants that we're putting in here
including things like lettuce.
And lettuce is actually,
I was amazed how well it stands
frost particularly the variety I'm using
which is called Grenoble Red seeds,
from the Alps in Europe
and is used to low temperatures.
I find it really good.
And it's home safe seed, which also helps actually
because that way, I guess I've bred
into a bit of the knowledge of the low calcium
the weather here.
One nice thing is with this compost,
I did a couple of these trays already.
So I want to grow quite a few plants
for comparison
and you see how I'm pressing this down.
This is pure compost.
There's nothing else in here.
There's no (indistinct) or sand, or,
you've given all these recipes for lightening it up a bit.
And that kind of thing.
That's a bit of cardboard.
And in my experience,
you don't need to do any of that.
These trays, even though I've done a lot
and it's pretty much fully moist,
this heat was outside.
This really good.
This compost is just under a year old
in case you are wondering.
So, now I've got four trays,
and then it's question what to plant in them?
A little bit sticky.
So this I've got.
Again, this is based on much experience.
I can see one, one whole tray.
Yeah, I think I'll do the whole tray of mustard actually.
I got some land cress there.
The thing about land cress is .
All of these plants will,
I'm going to use my (indistinct) too.
So this is just a quick way of making the holes.
I'm not putting in too many plants, just six in each tray
which kind of at first, maybe seem a little bit sparse
but because this is for plants to survive the whole winter
they, they need a bit of a root run to keep going
for that length of time and keep producing.
And I want them to thrive more
than just survive and actually be productive.
So six holes in each tray,
if I put the same plants in each one now
so these module less plants,
I'm putting them in deep.
So I'm putting two of these green peas mustard,
which is slightly really quite hot.
Multi-sown aiming for two plants in a cell.
And I seem to have three in this one
so let me take one out I see.
So I'm looking have same in each tray.
And then Red Dragon is a really,
this is vigorous, this one.
So these are big leaves, if you let them.
They'd be great in stir fries, actually.
Where's that three again.
And I'm not doing that.
I want to keep picking them fairly small
for salad.
So now I have got three,
So we've got Red Dragon Peas
and she'll tell you what would be nice would be rocket.
And I don't seem to have any rocket here.
I'm just gonna get a bit of rocket.
These are slightly different
The modules a bit longer,
which means actually they're not quite so ideal
but I'm planting.
I really like to get loose stems underground,
coming out.
These trays are maybe not the best
in terms of ease of getting them out,
a little bit long.
So again, looking for two rocket plants,
and then the idea is to (mumbles)
have
a decent number of medium sized leaves.
Okay, so that is brassicas.
These are all brassica salads.
And then the next tray, or next two trays,
I'm gonna put in
some lettuce.
(mumbles)
Which is here, so they were sown.
All of these plants were sown
second week of September,
going up to about the 17th.
Sowing dates before winter are pretty critical.
Because if you wait too long
you basically lost your chance.
And it's something, I hate to say,
'cause I'm often asked when I'm showing something
like this, people say, what can I sow now?
It's a bit limited.
I can give you some ideas just at the end of this video
but for the moment, in October,
mid October 15th today exactly.
Yeah, there isn't a lot I'd recommend,
so because it's not gonna,
it's barely got time to really get going for winter.
Whereas these plants were so natural
on the 7th of September, so they've had it.
If you think about it in September,
there's so much more warmth and light
than we're having at the moment.
Just so different.
We're not coming to the time when there's barely 10 hours
between sunrise and sunset.
So that's when growth really slows down noticeably.
So that's the lettuce Grenoble Red
to pick leaf by leaf.
And maybe I'll put that in, shovel first,
this selection here includes things like lambs lettuce
Lambs lettuce you possibly could sow now.
But it would have been a lot better a month ago.
(giggles)
Whereas chervil, if you can get that sown
by the middle of September.
This is a beautiful feathery plant
and it grows amazingly fast.
Even in it what feels like
quite unpropitious, cool weather to us.
And that's so, that's for, we call chervil seedlings.
I'm thinking I'm not even as old as that.
There's just some sort of a bit later 16th, September
actually they are four weeks old.
This is coriander.
I find coriander transplants very nicely.
These module trays are not brilliant.
They are little bit wonky.
It does make a difference.
If you can get these cells out
with all the roots intact like that.
And even though these plants are small
they're definitely a good size to transplant.
Brilliant.
So there we are.
There's actually now, not much more to do for these.
Except to put them somewhere.
Not too cool.
I'm going to give them a quick water,
just to give you an idea.
This is how i water plants always, after transplanting.
Quite a good soaking,
I didn't fill in the holes as I planted them out.
The water is doing that now
but it also means the water soaks in there nicely.
And it wets the module completely
and increases the contact between the module
with the roots and the compost, in these trays.
And then the in my case
I'm gonna put them in the greenhouse on the bench there
because we'll have finished propagation very soon
which means that there's space in there not being used
until about end of February actually.
So during that time I can come in maybe every two weeks
even in the middle of winter and just pick a few leaves
even if it's only a few so worthwhile
it makes so much difference in the middle of winter.
And just to finish on a nice note,
if you haven't got round sowing anything
and you're thinking, what can I sow?
Well, these pea shoots peas for shoots, I should say
that we sowed them nine days ago
and they will grow slowly, but they will grow.
Pea, peas tolerate, cool conditions, even a bit of frosting.
And you can pick shoots where when they're
I'm gonna put these on into little
probably boxes actually there,
when they're a bit bigger
and you can pinch out the shoots to it as pea shoots.
So enjoy your winter salads.