How to Start a Garden in 2023 

Dear Huw. I've been trying to reach out to you about the book called Nature of food that you guys have released. Would it be possible to give me an email address to write to? My posting address have changed and I'm not sure if those books have been posted. I have also ordered one of those

@@tngy9481 absolutely, huwsnursery@gmail.com

In my experience, vertical garden options require more extra water as they dry out faster. For me, the most time -efficient way is to hugelculture/permaculture and water with collected rainwater. The hugelculture has very good water regulation on its own.

@@fishndchick2228 I don't know if we are thinking about the same thing. By "Vertical growing" I mean growing vines, that are planted in the ground, up a trellis. Rather than have them spraw along the ground. A "Vertical Garden" I think of as plants stacked in several layers in a tall planter or several planters on a wall. In the latter, you are right, they dry out super fast.

@@ecocentrichomestead6783 we were indeed not thinking about the same thing hahah. I just count climbing and vining plants in with the usual gardening. With vertical gardening I thought of vertical alternative spaces for things we usually grow horizontally. Like grow towers, hanging pots (you can grow tomatoes from hanging baskets) or green walls. For us (we have a language barrier possibly), vertical gardening and growing are interchangable for what I was thinking of. For what you meant, we usually chose to describe it as specific "trellis" gardening etc. But in the end, I do agree with you. There's a lot of plants we can have grow vertical while maintaining their base and roots on the same solid ground, instead of having them spraw. It does save up water. It can cause more shade/block sunlight over the area. That could both be a pro or a con, depending on the plant so plants have to be chosen carefully. I made that "mistake" this year, by putting a trellis in the middle of my raised bed-area. The sweet peas and morning glory grew really tall (and really pretty) but caused a lot of shade. Which became very usefull due to the unusually intense hot summer. I think it saved my strawberry bed.

@@ecocentrichomestead6783 I don't think anyone would ever have vines growing across the ground? What you call vertical growing is just the plant's natural growth, which is upwards on a trellis or against another surface. It's not really a technique.

@@wolfsbane1991 Cucumbers are vines that grow along the ground.

We’ll said! Community is important.

Hi Dolly, yes because I designed this garden for me.

@@HuwRichards :) My point is that I too designed a garden where the aisles were too narrow as a young woman. And maybe it should be pointed out if you don't want to have to totally redesign the garden later on.

I’ve just assembled, filled and planted six Birdies 2ft 6inch high raised garden beds. Reason? It nearly killed me picking my forty strawberry plants last year. I agree with you. I can’t see the sense in the small height garden beds for anyone. All the best.

@@runningwarrior5468 She's wonderful and I do follow her :)

Are they surviving the current winter storm??

Expanding is always so exciting!! You are most welcome, I hope you have a great winter of planning :D

Awh Ruby thank you so much for that comment - so lovely to read!!

Uguuuuuhi

Exciting!! I had a bit of a garden this year but mostly a flop. Although we have black soil we did some raised beds using soil that was dug/scraped away from when we built our home but I think the soil was from too far down. Majority of things (carrots, parsnips, turnip) just had extremely bad germination ☹️

@@theirishcailin333 Our summer was extremely hot this year. We were hitting triple digits and pest infestation was extensive also. I think the only thing that saved our tomatoes and green beans was drip irrigation my husband did at the last moment. We also have raised beds and those we did with hugelkultur method. We have ten raised beds ...so far lol and planning to add more. Happy holidays and happy new year gardening.

Thank you so much!!

Preparation is key, have fun with it and patience ❤

Do it! ❤

Nothing like gardening

Thank you Carolyn :)

I’m with you. Started growing herbs in my front yard (perennial/annual) garden and now we’re on 20 acres and starting to plan a raised bed garden and orchard. 😊 No infrastructure yet, but looking forward to the process.

You're very welcome! Good Luck :)

Thank you Wendy. Merry Christmas to you too! :)

Fantastic! Thank you! Merry Christmas to you too! :)

My pleasure!:D

You're so welcome!

Great Tip!

I have asked a shop (rhymes with fresco 😉) for cardboard and they had mountains of the stuff! They were more than happy to let me have as much as I wanted. For those in the USA, liquor stores are always happy to give away their boxes as well (in my experience they're a great size for moving boxes too!)

@@shaunmcgovern422 😄, it’s good for composting too mate 😄👍

@@shaunmcgovern422 plain cardboard breaks down and feeds the soil 😄👍

Always a joy to help a fellow gardener 😄👍

You're very welcome! :)

We just had a farmer drop off a truckload of horse manure compost for free today! We have compost for a good while now.

That sounds amazing!! Hope your herb garden is full of flavour, aroma, and pollinators!

Thank you so much Sheila

Nettles are the most valuable resource in your garden. Don't dig them out, just cut them at soil level. Eat them, drink them, mulch with them, make weed tea, compost.

@@SamStone1964, nettles spread because of their roots growing below the surface. If I do not remove them in and around the beds, and dig out as many roots as possible, they will continue to grow into my veggie beds. I also need to walk around the beds. Since I rent 1/10 of the whole property, there is still more than enough space for nettles.

Thank you! :)

I dont kow if this will help you but it helps me. I have old umbrellas i place throughout the garden. Change out when necessary.

You could try adding hoops or trellises to your garden and then putting shade cloth over them to reduce the sun’s intensity on your garden beds.

Thank you so much!

@@HuwRichards you're welcome dude

Good morning and afternoon to you too!:)

Your patience is laudable. 🥀

@@ebradley2306 Thank you! Take a look at the result on my YT channel (I don't know whether I'm allowed to write such a thing here).

@@englishwithanerudite I will check it out.

Enjoy him breathing down your neck because nothing nor no one last forever.so for now let him enjoy being with you and you with him working in his garden.best of luck in doing so.(LoL).we sure can get set in our ways I'm 75+yrs of age.have patients with us oldies but Goodies (LoL) again.

@@bosslady2002 Yes, I know, but I wish we could work together instead of "against" each other. He never asks what my plans are and simply puts something in the middle of the flower border because he fancies it. Right now I have a new plum tree (of the standard size) there and it is growing very fast. I will have to get rid of it, perhaps at night ... ;-) My father's old fruit trees have already cost me a lot of money and back-breaking work; I have to pay for the pruning, collect the fruit and dispose of it, nobody wants those apples any more. The trees look magnificent in spring, though.

Redcurrants!:)

It's the simulation. 🙂

An allotment is a piece of land you can rent especially for the purpose of growing food. I have applied for one about 15mins walk away from my home but the wait list is 2 years in my area because they are so popular and they don't have many.

@@samirose1778 What a grand thing! It makes so much sense to do. I wish you the best of luck getting in swiftly, and a happy and plentiful harvest! 🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱

Good luck 👍

Yeah! These huwsgarden.com/en-gb/collections/propogation-trays 😉🌱

@@HuwRichards cheers!