- In this video, you're going to learn a resource
that I truly believe is gonna help
so many gardeners out there.
Now I spend so much time looking for gardeners
and methods and resources
that are gonna help us home growers
not just grow more food,
but improve our soil and plant health
and also to reduce our dependence on external resources
or having to buy external resources
to help us in the garden.
And this resource that I'm gonna share with you
absolutely ticks all of those right boxes.
And it's a book.
I don't often share other books on this channel,
but this single book is quite unknown,
especially in the homegrowing community in the UK,
but it's one book that has made me
share it with more gardeners and buy it for more gardeners
than any other book in the past.
And it ticks all of the right boxes
that I'm looking for as a kind of permaculture home grower.
And the book is called "The Regenerative Grower's
Guide to Garden Amendments."
And I love it because the focus is on using
natural and locally-sourced materials and resources,
so you can make biological and mineral amendments.
It's really exciting because the first half of the book
showcases the context.
Why are nutrients important?
Why is the biology in the soil important?
And how does that work in terms of helping the plants grow?
And then the second half of the book is using
loads of really useful recipes
that you can make yourself at home,
be it for free or super low cost,
that's going to help your garden,
not just in terms of getting more food,
but also increasing your plant health
and the resilience of your plants to pests and diseases
without actually needing to use any nasty chemicals.
And it's inspired by techniques
that I find truly fascinating,
such as Korean natural farming.
So I am absolutely delighted that we can speak
to the author of the book, Nigel Palmer,
to find out a little bit more about his style of gardening.
He calls himself an experimental gardener,
and I really think that all gardeners
can get a lot from this book.
I keep on going back to it.
I keep on learning new things.
So it's gonna be really exciting now to speak to Nigel
to find out a little more.
So thank you so much for joining us today, Nigel.
One of the things that really stood out to me
when I was reading your book,
and you even have it there at the back of the book,
is that you describe yourself as an experimental gardener.
And I'd love to know a little bit more
about why exactly do you class yourself
as an experimental gardener rather than something else?
- I think that the term came to me
because of how much I realized I don't know.
There's so much going on in the soil, in the ecosystem,
in the plants.
And with the whole idea of amendments,
that is absolutely experimental.
When you start making your own amendments at home
and applying them to the garden,
you really feel like you're experimenting.
There's a chemistry thing going on,
a laboratory thing where you're making these things
in buckets, and they fuzz and they foam,
and they have things going on,
and it sure seems experimental.
And so, yeah, and I invite everybody
to embrace that notion of being an experimental gardener
because we all are.
Every year is different, and every year we learn new things.
- Absolutely, so if someone is picking up this book,
what would you wanna say to someone who's just bought it --
- Yeah, so that's a really good question.
And I get questions like that from beginners,
from experienced gardeners,
from the whole gambit of participation...
Chefs, right?
Nutritionists, right?
And I think the easy answer is...
Goes something like this:
is that growing a garden is an annual event.
I like to tell people
that we go around the sun once a year,
and it changes through that whole season.
And so gardening gives an idea.
It grounds you to that annual event.
And every year is different.
So the thing to do is to do something.
Whatever your experience level is,
whatever your resources are,
is to plant something and start doing it and take notes.
And year after year,
your experience is gonna become broader and broader.
Your understanding's gonna become broader and broader.
Your successes and failures will guide you
along this lifelong path
of living in this beautiful world
and this wonderful ecosystem.
So the recommendation is, "Have at it."
Read the book and have at it.
And every year when you reread the book,
there's gonna be a new learning.
There's gonna be a new understanding.
"Yeah, okay, this is why," blah, blah, blah, right?
And to me, that is the most amazing thing, even for...
Every year for me, I learn a little bit more,
I try a little bit more,
and I get a little bit better results,
and it's just a lovely thing.
So my advice is, "have at it."
- I love it, I love it.
I also really like your influence
on using resources that are natural
and local to you as well.
Do you have thoughts of kind of other projects
around sharing your experiences,
maybe other books or podcasts or things like that?
- So I think the most important thing
is to try and get this information to other people,
especially people that, I'll say, need it.
There are many parts of the world
where there isn't a great deal of resource,
as far as money goes,
and these ideas are ripe for those sorts of environments.
So I think the idea of trying to disseminate
this information to make it available
to as many people as possible,
specifically people that need it,
is something that I'm very interested in doing.
And that's really why I wrote the book
is because I recognized that these ideas
were so empowering and so hard to find, to...
It took years to find this stuff.
And experimenting and, you know...
And making really stinky things and stuff like that.
So I think that the going forward plan
is to try and disseminate this information
to as many people as possible,
specifically those people that need it.
- Well, I love that, and all the best with that.
And thanks a lot for the chat.
- Thank you, Huw.
It's always a pleasure speaking with you.
- So how awesome does Nigel's book sound?
And I just love his approach to gardening.
It's not often that I come across a resource
that I honestly believe so many people can gain from it.
And speaking of gaining from it,
I have no affiliation whatsoever.
None of the links down below to buy his book are affiliated.
I just truly back his principles and what he's saying.
And I think a lot more people and gardeners
can get a lot more out of their spaces
by using this book to really help them.
And I know I haven't done any kind of garden how-to videos.
Those are all coming start of March,
but I thought that kind of sharing with this...
Sharing you this resource and this book
right at the start of the growing season,
something that you can read in the evenings,
is gonna really help you.
Now, I know Nigel is a great teacher as well
'cause I've signed up and bought one of his
kind of five session workshops online on Zoom.
It's totally amazing.
So I hope you really get a lot from this book,
and I look forward to hearing what you get from it.
It's one of those books where every time you reread a page,
you'll pick up some new things.
So if you're looking for something juicy to read
that's also gonna help you grow better food,
then I highly recommend
"The Regenerative Grower's Guide to Garden Amendments."
(bright music)