today my new book comes out the
vegetable growers handbook and to
celebrate it i'm sharing 19 of my
favorite vegetable gardening hacks for
no dig success which kind of emulates a
bit of what this book is about it's
packed full of practical and actionable
tips on every single page as well as
longer term strategies for you to have a
really successful and enjoyable and
productive garden there's a link down
below for you to order your copy today
to get things started
this is an amazing way to actually
visualize and plan your space if you're
looking at an empty bed and you're
thinking about what to plant it with
what i like to do is use a series of
sticks and string to actually split up
the bed into various shapes and sections
to then really start being able to
visualize what i could plant in the
different areas my absolute favorite
hack that i learned last year was from
yen from appalachia's dk on instagram
and she
uses this method of bringing her outdoor
brassicas for example her purple
sprouting broccoli and kale etc and
actually transplanting them from raised
beds into the polytunnel or the
greenhouse after the tomatoes are out to
actually get a better crop from them i
tried it out in this small area this
year and it's been absolutely phenomenal
this little bit of jungle has been one
of the highlights all through winter
this is something i wish every single
gardener tries at least once and that's
just to leave a few leaks at the end of
winter to run through the whole growing
cycle to create that amazing flower this
flour is not only beautiful you can
actually eat it you know you can add it
into salads and it's also a great way of
attracting beneficial pollinators
next is an amazing method that i've
learnt from la zorab which is actually
turning your paths into composters so
what she does is put down wood chip and
then you leave it for like a year or two
and then it starts turning into this
beautiful compost
then what you do is you can scoop it up
and mulch your beds you could also add
to this so you could mix in other
ingredients for example grass clippings
and used coffee grounds to actually turn
your parts into another productive area
of the garden wig and other vertical
trellises are lovely things to have in
the garden but as you can see they take
up vital bed space which is kind of a
little bit annoying especially for small
gardens so what i like to do actually is
to create an archway over the top
between two beds making the most of the
pathway so what that does is it opens up
more space in your raised beds to grow
stuff but you're also then turning your
unproductive pathway into a place to
grow your climbing crops
the next tip is something i picked up
from adam from adam and
it's using wool packaging this is wool
packaging as a mulch the reason why it
works so well is actually slugs don't
like to go over it so if you're getting
slug problems you can actually use this
as a way to help slug proof a lot of
your seedlings and the other thing is is
it's also a fantastic ingredient to put
on your compost bin
number eight is an ode of yesterday's
video which is about eight free
ingredients to bulk out your compost bin
and there's actually one that i didn't
include
because it's one that you usually buy
it's either municipal compost or bulk
compost now the quality isn't always
very good and usually it's quite
microbially dead however if you mix this
50 municipal compost with 50
homemade compost and leave it in a pile
for two to three months for them all to
mature together you then get this
amazing kind of charged very microwave
rich compost to use on your garden and
it helps extend your homemade compost
also the next hack is something that i
picked up
from the paddies when visiting lawson
park
and it's about angling the soil or the
compost in your beds
ever so slightly towards south so
instead of being straight on with the
sun coming down if you angle it the
sun's hitting it at a better angle which
means that your bed is going to warm up
that extra bit more to help your
seedlings
compost bins they're fantastic to have
in the garden serve a great purpose but
they can take up quite a lot of space so
what you can do when you finish filling
a compost bin and you're letting it
settle down is to actually plant in it
you can plant things like beans potatoes
even squash so last year in these
compost bins we grew quite a bumper crop
of pumpkins and it's just one way to get
a little extra from your space this is
something i first saw at charles
dowding's where he had this big bucket
full of water
always close by and always so easy to
just dunk your watering can
and there it is filled so if you think
carefully about where you could put some
of these big containers around the
garden which are always available if you
quickly need some water to water your
plant
they are there for you throughout the
growing season there are often going to
be these kind of awkward gaps appearing
around your growing area and you're not
really sure what to do with them for me
my go-to is to always fill them with
either annual herbs or edible flowers
and the reason why is that these don't
need much space but they are incredibly
productive they also add a lot of color
to the corner or the area adding to the
beauty of your garden as well as being a
great place to attract pollinators and
other beneficial insects one of my
favorite things about having raised beds
with edges is that the edges actually
bring so many benefits i'll probably end
up doing a whole video just about
utilizing the edges of raised beds but
one of the best things actually is
allowing certain trailing plants to
sprawl over so things like strawberries
and nasturtiums and squash i actually
allow them and encourage them to grow
into the pathway because i think i love
the look of the straight edges alongside
the sporting plants i just think it's a
nice way to utilize more pathway space
and also make it look more beautiful if
you have quite an exposed garden common
knowledge is to focus on creating
shelters such as undercover growing
spaces or tall hedges
one of the best things to do that i
learned when visiting limbrech croft is
to actually carefully consider varieties
there's very often dwarf varieties of a
lot of different things such as broad
beans and peas which are far more suited
to lower compact growing and then they
can then survive the winds and it's just
a really important thing to think about
don't just focus on the shelters also
think about varieties
as a gardener we often have lots of
different seed packets all over the
place but there are two things that i'm
using this year to help keep them
organized the first is really simple
it's actually a photo organizer it has
lots of different compartments and it's
really easy to keep a track now if you
end up getting more seeds something like
a jewelry organizer such as a load of
boxes with little drawers something like
that works so well and that's the main
thing that i'm using this year to make
sure that i never lose a seed packet
again
i have to mention the next one because
it's one of my favorite things about
march april and may and it's actually
the better harvest of kale forget the
leaves because when kale starts to
flower you get these amazing flower
shoots appear and they're kind of like a
poor person's purple sprouting broccoli
so let your kale grow through april and
into may and then you'll also be gifted
with a stunning display of yellow
flowers it's only the start of march and
for me there's still another potential
10 weeks of frost ahead so if you have a
tender plan or if there's a late frost
coming what i like to do is use some
kind of material
like straw or it could be leaves kind of
just draped
over the plant like that to kind of
fluff it up
and then
i'm trying to create a frost-free
protected room without having to worry
about fleece
so
coming from the back making sure
everything is scooped in
like that and then putting
a rock over the top to secure it that is
now an ideal frost-free site and then
the next morning after the frost has all
cleared you can just remove it and your
plant is going to be nice and healthy
but not pressed down potatoes are
something we all love and it's worth
growing because they taste so good home
grown but they take up a lot of space
and also quite destructive to the soil
which is not always what we're aiming
for when it comes to no dead gardening
so what i do
now as my new strategy is i'm basically
growing 90 of my potatoes in containers
most of which are a blight resistant
variety sapo mirrors which i let die
down and i leave them in the containers
all through winter and whenever i need
some potatoes i just tip out a container
and i've got potatoes ready so that also
saves a lot of storage space this next
hack has been so revolutionary i just
can't afford to not share it in this
video as well because it's something i
learned watching james pagione's channel
about bill mollison's method of helping
seeds to germinate with a plank how on
earth does that work well what happens
especially for carrots or parsnips is if
you sow them and then they dry out that
really really does affect germination
so by putting a plank after you've
direct sewn them what you're doing is
you're helping to attain all the
evaporation
to encourage really successful
germination once the first seedlings
start to appear that's when you remove
it and you've got a beautifully
germinated row of seedlings now because
i love that method so much whenever i
direct sow anything i use a plank method
whether it's beetroot or lettuce just
because it gives me the peace of mind
and the guarantee of a really really
successful germination rate i don't know
about you but my dream would be to have
a world garden what fantastic growing
space it is however we can't all have a
walled garden so what we're doing here
in this garden to compensate is using
trellising around all of the areas to
create a walled garden effect on a
budget you can even make your own
trellising it's a fantastic sun trap and
you can also start considering using
trellising within your garden to create
little sun traps little kind of pockets
of warmth to
grow more food to have more fun to add
more diversity and structure to your
space i just think it's something that's
worth thinking about to implement this
year so there are 19 hacks and tips to
really help your vegetable garden become
really abundant this year and if you
want loads more tips just like that this
book is out today is absolutely full of
them and if my channel has been any help
and if you want to support it
i would absolutely it would mean the
world to me if you could grab a copy
mostly because i'd actually really love
to hear your thoughts about it and how
it's helped you and your gardening
journey