Hi, my name's Steve Richards, my videos are all about growing organic fruit and veg all year round, as effortlessly as possible. We practice what we preach and are fully self-sufficient in veg and seasonal fruit, but being self-sufficient always means having a surplus, so we share that with our family and friends. We don't sell anything, we just love to grow and gifting means much more enjoyment and less stress. We are very concerned about the environment, sustainable living and climate change and growing a lot of food as sustainably as possible is a key part of eliminating our carbon footprint. I garden in Lytham St Annes, in Lancashire in the North West of England.
I've created a wide range of free resources to help myself and other gardener's. At the bottom of this page you'll find links to my eBook, databases, apps, diary and much more.
A great place to start is my quick links page : steves.seasidelife.com/quick-links/
1 hour a week per person that I feed, 10 hours a week in total on average, a little more in late spring and summer because of the extra hand watering : all the best - Steve
I took my pepper out yesterday, as I needed the bed to plant calabreese and lettuce In my greenhouse. Took 6 watering can to rehydrat the bed. All good now though
What’s the point of sealing the sides of the poly tunnel from bugs and slugs if you leave the doors open a few inches. Unless you have a slug trap in the door opening. How about a drop through channel at the door entrance and fill with beer to attract and capture slugs. 👍
To be honest the main reason that it’s well sealed like that is to stop the wind when it’s blowing a gale , but it does make sense for slugs and snails as it reduces the chance of ingress considerably, they only have 2m to get in rather than about 14m. I’m not worried about insects getting in, when ever I can I have the doors open
Well that’s not just Debbie and me, we have some for our local family. A big salad every day and a big cooked meal which is 2/3 veg and fruit snacks, it’s pretty easy
Lovely harvest, Steve. Should i be taking the tops off the sprouts now? I thought that it stimulated sprout growth, but last time I did it, it made them blow. Im unsure what to do for the best. All the best-Alison
Oh that’s a shame, I don’t rush to take mine off, I take them off as I need them to eat, I’ve never had them blow myself so I’m not sure why that happened.
@@SteveRichards may have been the variety? I think they were from real seeds. I grow same f1 variety as you now so hopefully will be ok. Thanks. All the best- Alison
Great video as usual. Monthly "what I'm sowing " are very important ones as I follow along for a year around gardening as space allows. Very nice detailed explanations for every sowing of the month. It's like you providing troubleshooting timeline based on experience from seed to harvest answering questions before they even appear (reasons for sowing this month, expectations, timing, placement, succession, possible issues, etc) . Never thought I could harvest peas in September from July sowing. First time growing claytonia. My seedlings look the same as yours from September 5th sowing. Fingers crossed. Thank you!
Your weather looks very different to what we’ve had here in North Yorkshire! By the way, do all of those Lettuce & salad onions survive until spring then? I had no idea
We’ve had plenty of wind and heavy rain here, but a few sunny breaks to get out and about. Yes salad onions sown in late august are harvested in spring, earlier sowings in late July and early august are for autumn and winter. Lettuce sown in September and grown under plastic often survives until spring, but I prefer to sow my lettuces for mid spring in October as it allows me to finish harvesting my peppers before planting it out
aye we are in Hyndburn (northwest lancashire) not all that far from Steve himself really, but our weather is waaaay different, i wonder if its the coastal weather blowing it over, it hasnt even been sunny today lol or the last couple of days, just rain.
Near Blackburn Mick? I'm often hiking at Rivington and I can confirm that it's definitely not as sunny and mild as I am on the coast! : All the best - Steve
@@SteveRichards yes just in the next town between Blackburn and Accrington, Rivington is a beautiful place, very scenic but yes it is misserable, i manage to grow quite abit of produce, not as much as i like to but trying to perfect it with our climate lol if there is such a thing, lots more cold frames for me next year i would think. Thanks you to.
Thanks Steve I enjoy seeing what your growing each month you grow so much we're pensioners so we watch your videos and then we grow what we have space for and enjoy ❤
Main objective is for it to be easy, I don’t have much time to garden, so I like to spend a few hours in winter to make it easy for the rest of the year : all the best - Steve
Goodnes me, Steve, I don't know how you find the time to do all the pricking out that you do. I'm hopeless at it, also I'm rubbish at the discipline of planting out :)
no, I’ve found a much better way, see the hotbed section of this chapter of my ebook steverichards.notion.site/Making-raised-beds-coldframes-and-tunnels-aa81d71a481e424b81293309723e3c0b?pvs=4
There’s no easy answer, see the ‘basics of gardening’ section of my ebook, look at the chapter on pests steverichards.notion.site/The-basic-growing-skills-and-techniques-fabeb9d9ba5d4227a63226824a29ac82?pvs=4 that’s how I do it : all the best - Steve
Thw weather has changed, getting very chilly in the morning. Think I'm in a good place with my seedling and crops so should be good for spring and winter fingers crossed
Sweet dumpling are my favourite squash. Just 6 from 4 plants this year- very disappointing. I am looking forward to eating them. Harvested beetroot, red cabbage, cavolo nero, courgettes, purple french beans, red sprouts, runner bens, apples, pears and lettuce, tomatoes, peppers and cucumber today. Happy gardening 🙂
Not as hotbeds no, I’ve found a much better way, see the hotbed section of this chapter of my ebook steverichards.notion.site/Making-raised-beds-coldframes-and-tunnels-aa81d71a481e424b81293309723e3c0b?pvs=4
HI Steve, love your videos. 🙂 Can I please ask where you got those huge plastic drips trays on your seedling bench in your greenhouse from? Thank you 👍
You wouldn’t be jealous if you saw the whitefly infested leaves up close! Yacon has storage tubers that you eat and a central root cluster that regrows, it’s easy to tell when you lift them, but they are very brittle and easy to damage so I dig them out with my hands to start with
Yes I've got the joy of whitefly - conquered in the greenhouse, but currently trying to kill my attempts at various cuttings (despite plastic-bag tents & elastic bands!) Thanks for the guidance about bacon harvesting - my first year of trying this plant... 👍
Will be interesting to see how much of a harvest you get from those yacon in the 30L pots. Due to a lack of ground space I can't grow enough of them in the beds, so if you have even just moderate success with them in pots i may well give that a try next year. ps - your greenhouse is cleaner than my house!
Hello Steve and family. Please would you provide a little input. One is pretty new to gardening. 24 was really only my first season proper. I have a polytunnel and am considering adding a greenhouse. What are your thoughts/advice? I see you went for glass. Why not the polycarbonate? What are your thoughts on the polycarbonate "polytunnels"? Hoping you have a chance to respond or even make a show and add it to the basics playlist. Gratitude for all the inspiration and advice. Best wishes from Ireland
I’ve no experience of the polycarbonate tunnels, except that they are very expensive. However my greenhouse guide should cover your questions steverichards.notion.site/Greenhouse-Design-and-Growing-Guide-b3bf5d6ee29f4feaaa1671b0ea0a42f9?pvs=4
My first time growing Kalettes (thanks to you). They all got completely eaten by caterpillars, not a leaf left on them, but amazingly they’ve all grown back and look super healthy. Not seen any of the babies on the stems yet but I’m so glad I didn’t pull them all out!
I haven't tunned in for awhile, like always I have great admiration for your consistency and beautiful garden. I'm sure you've considered planting calendula as a sacrifice plant for white fly, I find it does a great job but also really lifts the spirit to see the bright orange.
Actually I've not tried calendula, I've never yet lost a harvest to whitefly, so even though it's annoying I generally ignore it. This year is particularly bad though : All the best - Steve
Playing very, very fast and loose moving clubroot infected plants about Steve. I'd lift the lot and give the soil a good long break from brassicas to let the clubroot levels deplete. Definitely wouldn't be moving them to yet another location to spread the clubroot there. No good will come from that surely? Good luck!
I’m not, im moving them into pots for winter David. It takes 7 years to get rid of clubroot, so that’s not really an option, but I have a fairly successful strategy for growing in club root infected beds that I’ve used for a few years.
@@SteveRichards No worries. Yeah even moving pots I'd avoid personally but like you say you already know that that's a hazard :) Glad you're able to manage it. I've always found Calabrese to be pretty affected by it and sprouts utterly cannot tolerate it. I wonder has it affected your Kalettes? They've always been the most tolerant in my experience. Thanks as always Steve.
Hello, I am a computer science student. And I am designing a database for accounting for growing and selling fruit and vegetable products. Can you provide a list of tables and attributes for the sale of products, such as: consumers, customers, their addresses; not the exact values, but the scheme itself, because I don't have a picture of this whole process yet.
@@SteveRichards However I have always been curious as to how you assign value your crops ( I know you keep records and it is part of your criteria for what to grow). I try to keep track of the value of what I grow with reasonable success, but you grow so much out of season , and so many crops that are not really readily available to purchase ( eg. oca, yacon and kalettes in this video). Do you factor in any of this , its grown in the Uk locally , its out of season , its organic, cannot buy it in the local tesco etc? or you just assign a reasonable nominal value based on average shop price at the time regardless of origin? Imo this topic would be worth a mini video.
I've explained this in a few older videos, but I also wrote it up in this chapter of my ebook steverichards.notion.site/How-much-space-time-do-you-need-97c72254b81242728b3c7f1aba62a834?pvs=4
What a super efficient way you garden! Always fascinating to hear about your methods and good to hear the ups and downs of your gardening journey. Such a pity you have club root though. 😔 it seems club root and onion rot are everywhere this year. Not forgetting the slugs and snails!
I have so little time, I have to be efficient, maybe in a decade or more I can just grow only for pleasure and not for food as well, that would be interesting : all the best - Steve
Thanks for sharing, I always enjoy watching up dates, I noticed your sprout plants have no leaves on the bottom, I'm growing sprouts for the first time, I have very small sprouts on the stems, do I have to remove the lower leaves, thanks ..
@@SteveRichards Hi Steve, sown the sprout around back end of May, planted out in summer, they're the early half tall ones, they're coming along nicely.
That’s late for sprouts, so no surprise they are small right now. They might grow to a decent size, but they will need full sun, wide spacing and good soil, if not then sprout leaves and sprout tops are lovely
@@SteveRichards Thanks Steve appreciate that, one plant the sprouts are about a thumb nail size others are catching up, I got them off line from an organic grower & followed the instructions that he sent with them. I was telling my hubby about your greenhouse, I would love to have a greenhouse but no room unfortunately....
