Category: Gardening Youtube

Welcome back to the homestead, everybody. If you garden, you know how important worms are to the health of your soil. Well, what you see behind me is a continuous flow worm bin that I’m going to show you how to build so you can grow your own worms and produce the best soil you possibly can.

Before

we jump in, wanted to let you know there is a materials list below in the description as well as a cut list. All of this stuff I found at Home Depot for just under 200 bucks. So, the first thing we’re going to do is we’re going to cut our eight foot sidewalls down just a bit so that when we build our top, our screen top, it can fit nice and flush over it. To do that, we’re going to take off just about an inch and 3/4.

All right, we got our sidewalls cut. This is going to be our in walls. And we’re going to cut this to 27 in. The reason being is because I want my overall bin, the overall width of it to be 2 1/2 ft.

Okay. So, there’s our basic layout. Let’s go ahead and screw these together. When you’re drilling these screws in, these are 3-in screws. You’re gonna want to pre-drill first because you’re right on the edge here. So, it’s just nice to not have any cracks in this thing. So, I’m gonna put four screws in each side here.

All right, we got our frame all done. The next thing we’re going to do is we’re going to create the poles that go at the bottom of this bin. Now, you’ll learn exactly what that’s for later on in the video. Um, but for now, just think of it as the bottom of the worm bin. To do that, we have 1/2 in conduit, metal conduit, and we have a 13/16 drill bit. So, we’re going to drill a hole about every inch and a half along the bottom here, all along this bottom on both sides of the sidewalls. So to do that, we’re going to measure down on one side. We’re going to say right at about 9 and 1/2 in from the top is going to be the where our holes are going to be. Again, 9 and 1/2 in. We’ll strike a line right at this 9 and 1/2 in mark.

Okay. So, we’ll go ahead and make our marks for our conduit. To do that, we’re going to come 3 and 1/2 in over to do our first mark for the first hole to be drilled. Uh, and then after that, we’re just going to go 2 in every single time. So, lay our tape measure out and go 2 in. So,

all right, we got our holes marked. Let’s go ahead and drill a ton of holes.

All right, holes are done on one side. We got to do it on the other side. Okay, so we got our um holes drilled. Everything looks nice. Set the conduit in there. Looks good. Um the next step is we have to cut our pieces of conduit. We need 45 of these. And I suggest to measure them on your own. For me, I’m going to do 29 and a half. That’s kind of the median number between these two sideboards. Again, measure yours because your sideboards could be bowed or whatever it is. Make sure you measure before you cut. So, let’s cut 45 of these 29 1/2 in pieces of conduit.

Okay, so we got our conduit in. Next thing we’re going to do is cover our holes on each side with our one by two.

These are just inch and 5/8. Okay, that’s going to hold our piece of the conduit in. And then we’ll do one on the other side. All right, we got our sides on. Again, this is just to stop the conduit from being able to get out on either side. Got those on each side. All right, the next thing we’re going to do is attach or cut and attach our legs. And I’m doing my legs to 46 in. What you doing? What are you doing? I’m doing my legs to 46 in. So, it’ll be about 36 and 3/4 off the ground.

So, we’re going to meet it flush on the top. That’s why I said it’s going to be countertop height or about countertop height when it’s all done. I’m just going to put one in here. And I’m using uh 2 and 1/2 in screws this time.

And we’re just going to level it out.

All right, we are done. The main kind of structure here. I like it. I like the height. Uh my wife asked me why is it so tall? And the reason I built it so tall or put the legs so tall is because a lot of the work that you’re going to be doing is underneath. So, a lot of the laborous work is going to be underneath. So, the next step is we’re going to be making our screened top. I wanted an extra layer of protection from bugs and stuff like that. And so, we’re going to be tacking together uh this one by two around the whole edge. And then, we’re going to be stapling a screen on top.

I’m just taking a good amount of wood glue, putting it on there. And we’re just

brad nailing this together.

All right. So, we got our top stapled and glued together. I found this at Home Depot. This is just some It’s like screen, mosquito screen, bug screen, whatever. It’s 36 in wide and 25 ft long. So, we’re going to take this and I’m just going to staple it on top of that uh top frame that we just made. You could use some batten tape like like you would use on a greenhouse.

just to secure it a little more.

But I’m not going to do that.

All right, we got our top done. Screen is on. So, this will add another just an extra layer of protection against the bugs. Um, because this is going to go in our basement and we want to keep the bugs to a minimum. The next step is we are going to add hinges to the back here. These are just some surface mounted hinges that I had laying around. All

right. So, we got our worm bin in the basement, but before we start filling it up, I wanted to add a base layer of just about 4 in of compost. We have some compost that’s been sitting over here for quite a while, but it’s a little bit too thick. It’s got too many big chunks in it. So, what I’m going to do is I’m going to sift it or seve it through this screener right here. This is a/4 in screener. And this is going to take the consistency from something like this to something like this, much finer. And this will be a much better bedding for the worms.

Okay, so now we got our nice fine compost. This is going to be a great bedding material.

But before we put it in our uh worm bin, we’re going to give it a little water. We’re going to just soak it down just a little bit. We’re not going to overdo it. We’re not going to drench it. We’re just going to get it a little bit moist so that when it goes into the worm bin, everything’s a little bit saturated. is

we grow. All right. And that’s kind of the finished product there. You can see it doesn’t fall apart as easy. It’s got good moisture in it. So, we’ll take this down and put it in our bin. Okay. So, we’re in the basement now. And this is where the worm bin is going to stay permanently. Couple key things. Uh it’s nice to have a light right over where the worms are so you can really do a good inspection. Uh you can feed them. You can see what’s going on. So the first thing we’re going to do now that we have it in place is we’re going to take some like a roll of craft paper basically. Um I got this at again at Home Depot. Uh it’s just some masking paper for painting. And we’re going to roll out two layers on the bottom on top of our conduit here.

So once you got it all kind of situated, you’re just going to soak it down.

Now all we’re going to do is just start dumping our soil in.

You’ll always be my every second, every day.

All right, so we got our bedding down. I am super impressed with the way this compost screened. Um it is uh soaked with water and so we got good moisture, not too much. So the next step guys, we are going to put our worms inside of our bin. Now this is just a really small kind of portion of worms that we got started off with from a friend. And so we’re going to go ahead and put those in here. But I have about a thousand more worms coming next week. And then when they come, I’ll go ahead and put those in there. All right. And here is our kind of temporary. This was our temporary holding bin. You can see

they’re all down in here. We got some nice chopped up watermelon.

Probably get a handful in here.

We got something in here.

I’m going to start them on this edge over here.

Love

Me and Isaiah got most of the worms in here. Hopefully all of them. I didn’t want to dump the whole bucket in because it has really thick compost in it. I wanted to keep everything pretty fine. And like I said, we have 1,000 worms coming next week. We’re going to put in here. But for the last step, all we’re going to do, this side’s pretty good and wet, but we just added a little bit more compost on this side. So, I’m just going to do a quick

drench over here. So, the last step we’re going to do is we are going to put something over top of the bedding. For us, that’s going to be that craft paper. Again, we’re just going to use that craft paper and put it on top. You can use a lot of different items. Um, a lot of people use plastic, clear plastic. The good thing about clear plastic is worms, uh, they can’t tell up from down. And so the way that they do that is by light. And so a lot of people will come and they’ll put lights on the side of their worm bin, which we’ll probably do. We’ll come back and do that because it drives them more down into the uh into the interior of the soil. So let’s grab that craft paper and lay it on.

The other good thing that adding a covering to the top does is it keeps the moisture in your soil. And then the other beneficial thing is that it just keeps down on the flies. So obviously we’re in our basement. We don’t want a ton of flies. Um we have this added layer of protection for the screen so they don’t get through and down into the soil or out.

So obviously if you’re using craft paper or any sort of cardboard or anything like that, it’s going to break down over time. So we’ll probably have to replace this every once in a while, which is fine. So that’s it, guys. We are done with our worm bin setup. Let’s go ahead and close the top.

Before I close this video, I want to take a minute to address a couple questions that might come up as you’re watching this video. So, the first one is this is, like I said before, a continuous flow through system. So, that means as the worms break down this area up here, they produce worm castings. Obviously, the worm castings come and they end up on the bottom of your worm bin. And then

when you’re ready to harvest, you take a tool kind of like this one, whatever works for you, just so that when you place it in between your pieces of conduit, it kind of lines up with the underside of the soil. And then all you do is you pull backwards and you rake out the worm castings and they fall into these bins. So that’s how the continuous flowth through system works. That’s why it’s continuous. You never have to dump anything. You never have to change anything. This system is going to last forever. So, that’s a really cool aspect of this worm bin. The next question I want to address is the height of this bin. Now, there’s other models out there you can find on the internet that do this same kind of method, but with uh OSB or plywood. I chose to not use plowwood or OSB because uh I wanted the structure to be very strong and I wasn’t convinced that the amount of kind of cubic material that we needed called for something very tall. But as always, do kind of what works for your application.

What’s going on, gardeners? It’s Saturday, June 11th, and it is a scorcher here on the southeastern coast of North Carolina. Today, I’m going to show you six different types of fruit trees to grow so you are harvesting fresh, delicious fruits all year long, even throughout the winter, so you will always have a source of easy, lowmaintenance, healthy, fresh food for you and your family. At the time of filming this video, it is June of 2022, and inflation, food prices, and food shortages are out of control. Many of you have reached out to me because for the first time in many of our lifetimes, we are genuinely concerned about food shortages and prices. I am making this video for two reasons. Number one, for those concerned about current food prices and availability and are looking for a smart, affordable way to have more food security for you and your family. And two, for those of you that just want lowmaintenance sources of fresh, healthy foods all year round that taste better and are healthier and cheaper than those at grocery stores. Whether you’re watching this during the current inflation crisis or you’re watching this many years later and things are going a lot better in these fears of mostly past, this is a smart thing for all homeowners to do to have a little bit of food security in all of our lives and cut down on grocery costs. Here are the three rules of the video. Rule number one, I’m focusing on fruit trees, not vegetable gardens. Vegetable gardens require active management. Fruit trees are passively managed and are a lot lower maintenance. Fruit trees are true investments, and a single $30 fruit tree, once planted, can reward you and your family for your entire lives with annual harvests. Also, most fruits can be stored for months in proper cold storage for long-term food security. And many of these trees have varieties that you can source that have been specifically bred to store for 6 months or longer. Rule number two, I’m selecting fruit trees that grow well in hardiness zones 4 through 9 because that’s where most people in the world live. And I want to focus on providing food for those with tough winters that can lead to scarcity. If you’re in zone 10 or warmer, you probably don’t need this guide because there are plenty of tropical fruits that grow all year round and can provide you food. I want to focus on the people with tough winters where growing food is thought to be difficult if not impossible. And rule number three, this guide is a general outline that you must customize by choosing proper varieties for where you live. While you can grow, say, apples in both zone 4 and zone 9, different varieties will need to be chosen based on your growing season. Warmer zones will need more heat tolerant disease resistant selections, and colder zones need earlier maturing selections. Always remember to research varieties within a species that do best where you live. Your local county cooperative extensions website is a great place to start. Now, let’s get into it. And the first type of fruit that we are going to discuss are berries. And when I say berries, I mean strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, and mulberries. We’re going to begin with strawberries. Now, strawberries can be grown anywhere from USDA hardiness zones 3 through 9 and ripen generally from April to June, depending on your location. And some varieties of strawberries also have a smaller fall crop. Now, I want to make this clear for every single plant that I list here moving forward. When I say zones 3 through 9, those border zones like your threes and your nines, not all varieties are going to work in those locations. That’s where you have to do your research because you may need a really cold hearty variety if you’re on a border zone or a really heat tolerant variety if you’re on the warmer border zone. Now, for me here in North Carolina, I grow day neutral varieties of strawberries which bear periodically throughout the year. And my first strawberries I start picking in the middle of April. So most of my berries have already been picked clean now that it’s June 11th. The heat of the summer is going to set in. They are going to stop producing and then once it cools back down in the late fall, I will get another fall crop. But there are also everbearing and Junebearing varieties that have either shoulder season harvests on the everbearing types or they are ready in June if you go for the June bearers as the name states. I love strawberries because they are one of the very first things you can pick in your garden every new season. Then we have our blackberries and our raspberries. Blackberries are generally hardy to zones 5 through 9 and raspberries are generally hardy from zones 3 through 9. Both are ready for picking roughly between May and September depending on where you live. Here you can clearly see my blackberries are looking pretty shot. That’s because I have been harvesting off of them since mid to early May. So they have been almost picked clean and the bugs are starting to get to them as is the heat. If you live in a place with cooler summers where they take a long time to grow, they can hang all the way until frost if you don’t harvest them and the pests don’t get them. here where our growing seasons are longer, sometimes we’re even fortunate to get a small fall harvest as well. Aside from the pests, if you just cover these with insect netting, they are a pretty much maintenance-free plant. Aside from annual pruning, blueberries, depending on the variety, are hardy anywhere from zones 2 through 9. And they’re ready for harvest anywhere from May to July, depending on where you live and what variety you’re growing. Now, I will link to a video above which is the most in-depth blueberry growing variet that I put together. So, please check that out to know varying different types of varieties for blueberries. These are my southern high bush blueberries. They’ve already been picked clean. I have harvested them because they were ready for me to eat in early May. Then over here, we have my rabbit eye variety of blueberries. These are much later than the southern high bush varieties and they are still loaded with fruit and I’m in the process of picking ripe berries. These still have about 50% of the fruit on them and they’re not ready here until about June. So hopefully you can see how you can use variety selection to your advantage to extend your growing season. And one of the easiest, lowest maintenance varieties of berries that you can grow is the mulberry. Mulberries grow from hardiness zones 4 through 9. And depending on where you live, they can be ripe as early as March all the way through August. Now, mulberries are known for their extremely low maintenance. In fact, even if you live in the oppressive conditions of Florida, there are native varieties of mulberries to Florida that are virtually pestfree, disease-free, maintenance-free, and they are known to be one of the earliest things that you can pick in your garden, and they are the first sign of spring. The second type of fruit tree you should grow for a continuous supply of food all year round are stone fruits. And when I say stone fruits, I’m specifically talking about peaches, plums, nectarines, and apricots. Now, peaches are generally hardy from zones 4 through 9 and are ready for harvest anywhere between May and September, depending on the variety in your location. Plums are hardy from zones 3 through 9 and are generally ready for harvest May through September. Nectarines are hardy from zones 5 through 9 and are generally ready for harvest May through September. And apricots are hardy in zones 4 through 8 and are generally ready sometime between June and August. Again, depending on your location and your variety selection. Now, I will say that out of all the categories that I’m mentioning in this video, stone fruits are going to be one of the most challenging to grow, especially if you live in the United States like I do because they are generally not native to the United States. So, our climate conditions are a little bit tougher on them and they are more prone to diseases and pests. So, you may have to spray them occasionally to keep them safe. The most common pest for stone fruits is generally the plum culio. So, you need to make absolute sure that you throw away any uh any fruits that have dropped to the bottom of the tree every year and discard them because that pest over winters in them. And they’re also uh prone to fungal issues. So, treating them with a natural sulfur or copper spray every year a few times is generally advisable. You can also use things like surround kale and clay spray in order to coat everything and keep the pests off. So, this little bit of extra work is totally worth it because they are so widely adaptable to so much of the land mass that we all live. And there’s so much variety there that it would just be tragic to not have at least one of them in our garden. And the third category of fruit trees that we should all be growing for year round harvests are apples and pears. Now, at first it may seem strange that I lumped apples and pears together in the same category, but I did that for a reason, and that is because here in the United States, there are native apples and pears to where we live. We have a problem here in North America because we have the latest freezes on average for any degree latitude versus any other inhabited continent on Earth. So when we import fruit trees from Asia and Europe and Africa and Australia and South America, their frosts stop earlier in the year than ours do. So a lot of times those imported fruit trees will bloom before our frosts end per degree latitude. Well, the thing about apples and pears is because you can get varieties that are adapted to North America, they flower later in the year. So those trees are less prone to late frosts and freezes, so they aren’t as much maintenance for people in the United States to maintain. Now, apples are extremely cold hearty and they can also be quite heat tolerant. Apples can grow anywhere from hardiness zones 3 through 9 and depending on the variety can ripen as early as July or as late as November. So they are one of those plants that you really want to pair with your climate. And uh generally speaking, we all associate apples with the autumn. So, it’s usually a good idea to get an apple that will ripen when the weather starts to get a little bit cooler out. The other awesome thing about apples is because they have so many different varieties that can ripen at so many different times of the year, you can grow many different early, mid-season, and later varieties and really extend your harvest. There are also very disease resistant varieties of apples out there and I suggest you buy more disease resistant cultivars. Then we have pear trees. Pear trees are generally hardy from zones 4 through 9. And depending on your location and the variety, they can ripen as early as August or as late as October. And pears are really cool because you can choose between European pears and Asian pears. And both are very different when it comes to flavor. Here I actually have an Asian pear tree. And these Asian pears are not self-fertile. So they do require cross-pollination from other varieties. And what I’ve done is I’ve grafted two different varieties onto a single tree. So I’m going to have a 3in-1 Asian pear tree. So make sure to look out for that video. One thing worth mentioning about apples and pears, whether they are apples, Asian pears, or European pairs, you have to check and make sure if the varieties are self-fertile or not. Most of them require cross-pollination, so you will need in most cases two trees that are compatible with each other and flower at similar times. So, make sure you do your research and you know how many trees you need. The fourth type of fruit tree that everybody should be growing for year round harvest is the pawpaw tree. And the thing about pawpaw trees is it’s funny that most people have never seen, tasted, or even heard of a pawpaw. Yet, it is the largest native fruit tree to the United States. Pawpaws naturally grow from southern Ontario all the way down to northern Florida, making them a no-brainer to grow here in the United States because they are virtually pest and diseasefree. However, here’s the catch with growing pawpaws. The reason why you’ve almost certainly never heard of them or tasted them or seen them is because pawpaws are almost impossible to grow commercially because they have a limited shelf life of only a few days. So the only way that you can eat them really is to grow them because they store so poorly. Now paw paws are hardy from zones 4 through 9. As I said, they grow from southern Ontario all the way to northern Florida. So, they are widely adaptable and because, like I said, they’re native to the United States, they have almost no pests and disease, making them a maintenance-free tree. However, the only thing that you need to know about pawpaws is they require cross-pollination to set fruit. So, you have to have two trees that are genetically different. So, you either need two seedlings or you need two different named varieties. And they have to be planted very close to each other, six feet apart or closer because they are not bee pollinated. They actually are pollinated by flies because their flowers smell a little bit like rotting meat. So they have to be really close together in order to get adequate pollination. The fifth type of fruit tree that everybody should be growing for year round harvests is the pimmen tree. Now there are three different types of pcimmen trees. There are American pcimmens which are hardy from zones 4 through nine and are native to the United States and therefore virtually pest and diseasefree in North America. There are Asian pimmens which are hardy from zones 7 through 11. They’re much more heat tolerant, not as cold hearty. And then there are AsianAmerican hybrids where breeders have crossed Asian and American pimmens and they are generally hardy from zones five/6 on the border of a warm five cold six to zone 9. So with the hybridized version you get the larger fruit of the Asian pimmen with more cold hardiness from the American pimmen. And some hybrid uh varieties are Nikita’s gift and Rosiana if you’re interested. Now here is the interesting thing about pimmens. Pimmens ripen after they get hit by frost. So for that reason pimmen harvest season is generally between October and December depending on where you live. However, there is something that you need to know about pimmens. Pretty much all American pcimmens that I’m aware of and most Asian pimmens are what they call aringent. And that means that you can’t eat them until they’re completely soft like a bag full of jell-o. If you were to eat them, they would uh before they’re ripe, they would be so high in tanic content that they would it would be like having a cotton ball in your mouth. It would be absolutely horrible. So, you need to wait until they’re fully ripe and they get hit with that frost. So these are one of the greatest uh fruits that you can grow for season extension. And this variety right here is actually an astringent Asian variety called Giambo. Now it’s on its third year uh second full year in ground. It set fruit this year, but it dropped them. So I won’t get any Asian pimmens off this tree this year. However, this variety of pcmen right here is an Asian pcmen called Itchy Jiro. And it’s only on its second season. first few uh first full year in ground and it’s already set some fruits and it’s already gone through its dropping spell. So I think there’s a good chance it may actually hold some if not all of these fruits. Now what’s interesting about this variety is it is a nonasting pimmen. You can eat it before it’s ripe. The con uh the tannin content is very low. So you can eat them when they’re hard like an apple if you so choose which is a great way to extend your growing season. You don’t have to wait until that frost rolls in and softens your pimmens. Now there are two things about pimmens that you must know. Uh number one most varieties of American pimmens require cross-pollination. So you need two genetically unique varieties planted nearby to cross-pollinate. Most varieties of Asian pcimmens are self-fertile and don’t need a pollinator. However, some say pollination improves the fruit. Some Asian pcmen varieties do require crosspollination. So, make sure you research the varieties that you’re interested in and make sure uh that you have the proper trees to make sure that they will set and hold fruit. The second thing about pimmens is the astringent varieties of pimmens because you have to wait until they’re completely soft to eat them. They don’t store well. So generally uh when it comes to aringent pcimmens if you want to store them for food storage you need to make things like purees or or jams and jellies or you need to dry them because they won’t store in their natural form very long. However the non-asting pimmens like these because you can eat them when they’re hard like an apple you can store these for a lot longer. They will eventually ripen in storage and get a lot softer, but because uh they don’t get as soft as an astringent pimmen ever, uh they are better for a storage variety. So, you may want to mix and match various varieties if you find out that you’re a big pcimmen fan. And the sixth variety of fruit tree that you must grow to have year round fresh fruit is citrus trees. Now, bear with me on this one. There is a very good reason why I need to include citrus trees in this video and that is because they are one of the few fruit trees that are fairly cold hearty and can take frost and freezes that also give you fresh ripe fruit all throughout late fall and the winter. It’s the winter time that is the citrus ripening season. So that is how you can get fresh year round fruit. Now, what type of citrus you grow is going to dictate when it ripens. Things like Satsumas, like my Oari Satsuma tree here, depending on the variety of Satsuma mandarins, they can ripen anywhere from October to December. Most orange trees like your navl oranges and your blood oranges like this carakara red navl orange right here and other larger fruited citruses like your grapefruits generally ripen between January and March. and that will take you all throughout the winter. However, you also have everbearing citrus trees like these uh kumquat trees down here that have the ability to flower and fruit periodically throughout the year and are not really based on a hard seasonal flower pattern like some of the larger citrus trees are. The same thing goes with lemons and limes. Lemons and limes are capable of flowering and fruing irregularly all throughout the year. This meer lemon tree right here, as you can see, is loaded up with fruit. And the fruits will hang and hold on the tree for a very long time. So, if you can’t eat them all at once, never fear. Just let them sit on the tree until you want to eat them. Of course, one of the problems with citrus trees is the overwhelming majority of good quality edible citrus is only able to be planted in ground between hardiness zones 8 through 11. So for people like me in the Carolina South, it is totally doable. But I know many of you watching this video cannot plant good quality citrus in ground. However, the reason why I am including citrus in this video is because citrus do fantastic in container culture. If you buy yourself dwarf citrus like I am here, this right here is a blood orange. I have showed you videos on this blood orange in the past and how this little tree, which only weighs maybe 30 pounds or so in this container, just loves it in here. And I overwinter it because it’s a little too cold where I live for it to be planted in ground without a lot of protection. And it does just fantastic. But it doesn’t just stop at my blood orange tree. I have purely tropical key limes and variegated pink lemons here. These are zone 10 plants. They can barely tolerate a light frost. They are purely tropical. But I’m growing them in these little containers and they fruit profusely. They do great in these containers. And I’ve showed you videos on these in the past. They make absolutely wonderful fruit. So, I’m growing my own citrus in containers as well to get what I need throughout the year because let me tell you, there is nothing better than having delicious fresh fruit picked right off of a tree during the doldrums of January. Now, I know what some of you are thinking, especially those of you that have been a part of my channel for a long time. How could I have not included fig trees in this video? Uh well, that’s because fig trees just aren’t widely adaptable. And I’m trying to make a video uh where it’s very easy for almost everybody in temperate regions to grow fruit trees in ground. And the fact of the matter is figs are really hardy to zones 8 through 10. And if you live in colder zones than that, you’re going to have to overwinter them in containers or you’re going to have to deal with dieback to the ground every single year. Yes, there are growers that are growing them in ground in zone 6, maybe even some 5B growers out there with protection. It can be done, but I’m trying to make this video as easy as possible. Uh, the citrus is pretty much mandatory because that uniquely fruits in the winter and that’s how we get our fresh winter fruits, but figs have a lot of overlap. They generally ripen August and September into early October. So, there are a lot of easier fruits to grow out there if you just want a food source that won’t be nearly as high of maintenance that will also uh store a lot better because figs don’t store well at all unless you dehydrate them. However, for those of you that are able to grow figs in ground or if you don’t mind figs in containers, I absolutely wish that every single person out there capable would grow at least one fig tree. They are my favorite fruit. And that right there are six different types of fruits that you can grow to have yearround food security. And you can sneak those trees into your backyard, place strategically along the fence line like I do, and people won’t be the wiser that you have your own source of sustainable, great quality, healthy food all year round. And for those of you in colder climates that are willing to grow citrus in containers, you really can have fresh fruit right off the tree 365 days a year. Now, these things are very smart things that we should all be thinking about regardless of our personal economic situations and and uh I truly believe that it’s in all of our best interest to have a little bit of food security around the yard because what happens if uh if if our grocery stores really do run low on food? I mean, it’s something that should always be in the back of our minds, and if we never need to use it, we never have anything to lose because worst case, you’re only going to save a bunch of money and get better quality food than what you get at the grocery store. So, it’s a win-win no matter what you do. And you’ll get a lot more sunshine and exercise planting and tending to those trees as

Good afternoon, growers. It’s Sunday, July 5th, and we’re at that point in summer right now where any figs that will have a prayer of ripening within warm temperatures had to have already set on our trees. So, right now, we are just playing the waiting game, waiting for our precious figs to ripen. And today I wanted to discuss with you three tips that will help speed up the ripening processes of your figs so you will have the best chance in having good quality fruit that ripen while ideal temperatures are still here with us. A conservative estimate for the amount of time a fig takes to ripen from its initial figlet formation is about 90 days. Here you can see a little tiny figlet has formed on this tree. So this figlet is probably anywhere from 80 to 90 days from ripening. Figs come from a climate with very warm summers and ideally they ripen when temperatures are still in the 80° range. So with today being July 5th, if I add 90 days to this figlet, I’m going to wind up right around October 5th. And for most areas of the northern hemisphere, we’re starting to cool down around mid to late September. So any baby fig that forms at this point in the year probably won’t be able to ripen for us and it’ll just be a waste of energy for your tree to have to carry those figs to maturity. So what I’m going to do is I’m going to show you some ways that your trees can dedicate as much energy as possible so you can still get your figs to ripen when temperatures are still warm and you get a great quality fig. It’s the goal of any life form in nature to reproduce. And the way that fruit trees reproduce is to form fruit because that fruit contains the seeds that can then spread along the earth and make more baby seedlings and more new trees. And figs are no different than any other fruit tree. They want to send and mature fruit in order to perpetuate the species. However, trees have a very limited source of energy and that energy gets siphoned into all different directions. And a tree cannot spend all of its energy simply ripening fruit. Trees have a very finite source of energy. They are limited to the amount of energy that they can draw up from the roots and the amount of energy they can absorb from the sun via photosynthesis. But they have to split that limited amount of energy between all different life processes. So they have to grow roots. They have to grow new trunks and new leaves and new stems because they want to get taller and larger. And they also have to set fruits and ripen those fruits. So all of that energy gets siphoned into various directions. And since they have a finite source of energy, you’ll notice that trees that grow more vigorously, that put on more leaves, that want to grow taller and bigger and put on more stems, they are going to have less energy that they can put into their fruits to ripen. So the more they’re trying to grow out and get large and grow vigor and grow green wood, the less energy they’re going to have to put into their fruits and ripen them. So what we need to do is we need to force our trees to focus more of the limited energy into fruing and ripening those fruits than into growing into all different directions. Most of my fig trees are over 6 ft tall and I have no need for any figs to be this tall. I want them to ripen fruit lower and that is where most of the fruit is forming on these trees. So anything that’s happening up here I don’t really need. So, the first tip I’m going to give you is to pinch off the growth tips of all of the leading stems and branches of your fig tree. Trees grow through a hormonal process called apical dominance. And what that means is the hormones that are concentrated in the trunks of the trees, they move from the ground and they move up to the tallest growth points of the tree because they are always trying to get taller. They are always trying to grow up. So having these tips on the trees is forcing the hormones of the trees to go higher and higher and higher because that is where their growth points are. Well, the problem is most of the fruit on my tree that has a chance of ripening this season is quite low to the ground. So as the growth hormones go higher and higher into the tree, they’re actually being forced away from the lower parts of the trees that house the fruit that I want to actually eat. So, what we’re going to do is we are going to go around and on all of our fig trees, we are going to pinch off the top tips of all of the leading branches that we don’t want to grow into a certain form. And what do I mean by that? If I want my if I want my tree growing as one single trunk and I want it to end right here, I want the the main trunk to end right here, but it’s only this tall. Well, I’m not going to pinch that one yet because I want it to grow up to be a certain point in my own mind. However, for these trees, these are way too tall. I have no need for any of these trees to be quite this tall. So, I’m going to go ahead and I’m going to pinch off all of the leading branches of those trees because I don’t want the hormones to keep growing up to infinity. I want the hormones to come up the tree, say, “Hey, this uh this tree has been headed. We’re just going to we’re going to send those hormones right back down to the lower parts of the trees where the branches are. So, I’m going to go ahead and show you how to do that. I’m also going to link above a video that is indepth on pinching because pinching can be advantageous for forcing early fruitruing and also shaping your tree while they grow. And that’s something you can do throughout the season. I won’t bore you with the details on that, but please check out that video if you want to find out more information on fig pinching. But before I start to pinch my trees, I want to show you an example of a tree that I’m not going to pinch first. This tree is only about 2 feet tall. It’s one single stem and it set fruit so incredibly heavily that it just hasn’t put on a lot of growth into the stem. So, this is an example of a tree that I’m not going to pinch at the top because I need it to get a little bit taller and I need that trunk to thicken up some. So, this is a rare example of a tree at this point in the year where I wanted to put energy into the vigor of the tree. That being said, the fruit set on this little tree is actually really heavy and the figs are pretty far along. They were some of the first to set. So, because the tree is so small, the growth hormones are focused all in this one little tiny area. So, there’s no need to pinch a tree of this size. I’m going to focus my energy on pinching the trees that are much larger and sending far too much energy into all of the growth stems than they should be sending energy into ripening the figs. Now, before we get too far into this video, let’s discuss safety. Figs contain a very costic sap that is latex based, and it’s very irritating to the skin. If you get too much of the costic sap on your skin, it will create red patches and burn your skin. And if you’re particularly sensitive to it, it can create all kinds of welts. So, please wear hand protection. I’m wearing uh latex disposable gloves. So, I’m going to wear these throughout the uh the entire video. And normally, when it comes to fig pinching, I just go ahead and I pinch the tips off. But because I’ll be doing so much of this today, I’m actually using a pair of pruners that I already washed and sanitized because it’s just too much to pinch and we want the cuts to be nice and clean. And while you’re at it, put on some eye protection just in case. A simple pair of sunglasses just because of all the cutting and all the sap flying around. The last thing you want any fig sap in is in your eye. We don’t want to turn this into a trip to the emergency room. So, now that we got our safety moment out of the way, uh in front of me is a rende bordeaux fig tree. And this thing has just grown out of control. There’s just growth tips everywhere. And there’s figs as high as right here, which is just about 6 ft tall. So any of the tree growth up this high I have no use for. So I’m just going to go ahead and I’m going to pinch that off. And if you can see that uh what is dripping there is the costic white sap of the fig. So I’m going to toss this in a bucket. And I’m just going to simply go ahead and I’m going to prune off all of the tips of this tree because I have absolutely no need for this tree to grow any more vigorously. It’s it’s already given me tons of growth. It will give me tons of cutings to sell or trade to whoever wants them for the next season. And all this energy is just taking away from the fig ripening. So, I’m just going to go through here with my shears and I’m going to cut off every single growth tip and make really darn sure that I do not get any of the dripping sap on my skin. So, you probably shouldn’t wear a tank top when you do this like I did. If you can wear uh something with more arm protection, please do so. But, it is 94° and deathly humid out today and I’m just taking the risk. So now I’ve gone through and I’ve simply pruned off all of the tips of my fig tree. And that is the number one tip I’m going to give you. Stop the growth points. Because if you stop these growth points, the fig tree is not going to grow out anymore and it’s going to have more energy to place into fig fruit ripening instead of vigor. Now I’m going to go ahead and I’m going to give you the second tip for improving the ripening time of your figs. And the second tip that I’m going to give you is to prune off all of this unnecessary side growth that may be coming out of the nodes in different shoots. So here you can see examples of branches that are growing out between the leaf nodes at 45° angles with this main stem. All of these growth points that are suckering out, they’re all useless wastes of energy at this point in the year. And if you were trying to achieve a certain form out of your fig, if you wanted some kind of chalice form where it it shoots out exactly here for some reason, maybe you’d want to save these side growth uh pieces. But I have no need for this. So, I’m going to pinch off all of these 45° angle suckers that are shooting off because I just don’t need that. I want my fig trees to grow figs, not more side growth. So, simply doing that, uh, those little suckers are diverting all sorts of energy away from my fig trees that would be better spent, uh, growing fruit. So, I’m taking off all of these little uh, these little 45° angle side shoots. And we’re going to go ahead and we’re going to do that from all of our trees as well. And when I say side growth suckers, I also mean any suckers that are growing out of the bottom of the tree as well. This sucker right here is actually growing out of the base of the tree. So, I’m going to have to get my shears down there and prune that off the base because again, it’s trying to divert energy away from my tree and I just don’t want that. And we’ll take that one off as well. These suckers were far enough along that they were starting to ligignify. So, we definitely want to get them out of there because they are siphoning off way too much energy. And the third and final tip that I want to give you is to ensure that your fig trees are growing in as weedfree of an environment as possible. So, here you’ll see right here I have a few I have a few weeds that have sprouted up in my containers. I want to make sure that I pull these nasty weeds out because these weeds are essentially competing with my trees for nutrients. And while you may be thinking to yourself, uh, well, that’s not a big deal. They’re just a they’re just a few little weeds. Every little bit adds up. And having your figs ripen one or two days earlier, every few days really does help. You also run the risk of having your fig trees stuck in a rainstorm and a lot of climates get rainier in the fall across the United States. So, uh, having them ripen in a dry hot period is ideally what you want because those are the conditions that they grow in in the Mediterranean. So, having any weeds or any kind of grasses growing in your pot is going to compete with your fig tree for nutrients. It is going to draw energy away from that tree and that is not what you want. This is especially important in containers because when you’re growing in containers, you already have such a finite supply of nutrients. So, you want to make darn sure that there is as little competition for your trees as possible. And these three tips that I just told you are not just relevant to potted fig trees, they’re also relevant to inground fig trees. So, right here you’ll see one of my inground fig trees. You definitely want to make sure that you’re growing them in as weed-free of an environment as possible. I have a heavy layer of mulch applied around my fig trees to keep some weeds down. I also have a few weeds that are starting to sprout up in the back there. So, I’m going to rip them out and take care of them while they’re still small and easy to manage. Uh, and my fig trees here that are in ground, I’m espaling. And if you’re curious about what that is, uh I will link to a video above which will explain how to train your fig trees uh by espalier form. These fig trees are a little bit different because I want them to grow along uh this metal wire here. So, for example, uh I’m not going to prune the tip off of this tree because I need it to keep growing up to here. So, I’m going to wait until this branch gets long enough that it reaches this upost before I pinch the tip off. However, a branch like this that I am not training, that is not structural, that can be removed right now because this is just what you would consider side growth. There’s no point in me having that branch any longer. It’s already loaded up with figs and I’m not training that at all. All this fig tree branch right here is going to be is a source of additional fruit. And then come the winter, I’m going to cut it right off at the main trunk. And then I will have cutings available to propagate this uh this fig tree and make more copies of the tree as well as hopefully have some cutings for some people that are interested in having this variety. Using those three simple tips that I outlined, you can redirect your fig trees energy into the fruing process as much as possible so you can have more ripe fruit earlier in the season. Everybody, thank you so much for watching today’s video. If you found it helpful, please hit that like button. And if you haven’t already subscribed to the channel, please subscribe for future updates and more videos like these. If you’re curious about anything that I use in my garden, everything that I use is linked in my Amazon storefront in the video description. Thank you so much for watching and I hope to see all of you again on the next

So, did you know that placing weeds in a bucket of water does something quite incredible? So, weeds are full of nutrients, take this nettle for example. Not only is it a nutritious free form of food for us humans that I much rather eat over spinach, it is also full of potassium, magnesium, calcium, and other important minerals to add to a compost bin. But as growers, we can enjoy the nutrients of weeds in other ways as well to benefit our gardens. One of those techniques is something called chop and chop. So if you follow permaculture, it is quite a popular one. This is where you gather say plant leaves or when you’re clearing things out and instead of putting them on a compost bin, you chop them up and then you put the nutrients directly back around the ground where it was growing. There is another type of chop and drop and it’s called chop move and drop. This is where you’re moving material, plant material from outside the garden. There might be a patch of nettles or dock for example, chopping them up and bringing those nutrients, transporting them into the garden to then mulch and benefit your plants. Not only are you adding nutrients and also creating a protective covering over the soil, it’s going to break down into becoming organic matter, which will both help the soil retain moisture during dry weather, but also when you have really wet weather, allow the excess water to drain nice and freely. Traditionally, when we think of nettles or dandelions or thistles, we think of them as weeds, but they’re not always weeds. The definition of a weed is a plant growing in a place where it shouldn’t be growing. In this case, nettles aren’t a weed. They’re here in nature enjoying well enjoying the space and helping to improve the soil. But in a garden bed, they’re not very welcome because I’m trying to grow annual crops. And the same applies to say you got a few tomato plants that have started sprouting up in one of your beds that shouldn’t be there. Technically, they’re a weed because they shouldn’t be growing there. And you can treat those in the same way whether you put them on the compost bin, for example, or chop and drop. But for the sake of simplicity with chop, move, and drop, you’re going to be moving plants that we traditionally would call weeds, for example, this dock into our garden to benefit it. And the other use of weeds is understanding the magic that happens when you add them into a bucket of water. And this is especially important, say if you’re starting to clear your garden and you’re pulling out weeds, uh some more nettles here, but the these have started uh creating seeds. If I put this onto the compost bin, all I’m going to end up doing when I eventually use that compost is spread nettle seeds all over the garden. I don’t want that. So, putting them in water allows you to utilize the nutrients of a weed, but in a way where you’re not spreading the seeds, and you can apply it in a different form. With weeds, when you soak them in water for a few weeks or a few months, you’re extracting all of their nutrients and goodness, you’re not going to be spreading their seeds around, but you’re also creating a form of nutrients to feed your plants a lot more rapidly in terms of nutrient access than spreading over compost because in liquid form, they can go down to their roots really quickly. There’s a couple of approaches for creating a liquid weed feed which is the magic of placing weeds in water. The first is to do single type recipes. Very simply this is my dock weed fertilizer liquid fertilizer. All I’ve done is I’ve put dock and water in here. Bit of leaf mold. I’ll come on to that after but nothing else. And I just let it soak. The reason why you might want to go around just using a single type is if you’re looking for a specific group of nutrients that you might need or your soil might be lacking. Doc’s really high in potassium, for example. So, this is creating a nice potassium liquid feed that I can use for say my tomatoes next year. The other way of going around making a liquid weed feed is to actually mix a load of different weeds together by creating more of a balanced or a multi-purpose feed. So instead of just making something say out of nettles which has yeah a lot of calcium but also a lot of nitrogen and is great for more kind of leafy growth. If you mix in things like dandelions and thistles, creeping thistle has a good amount of iron, and then you’ve got dock and everything else all mixed together, you’re going to really quickly create a nice multi-purpose plant feed. You don’t really need to know the nooks and crannies of the nutrient quantities of all of these different plants. If you just understand that there’s strength and power in diversity, the same thing applies to creating a nutrient-rich liquid feed for your plants. Mix it up, have a load of things together, and it will really benefit. Just before I show you the recipe of creating this weed feed as well as how to apply it, if you feel that your garden is a bit overrun with weeds or you’re feeling like it’s getting to that stage, I wrote a blog post that I put on my blog over at hughesgarden.com last week about how to clear a garden full of weeds completely organically and then how to maintain a weed-free garden. There’s a link down below. So to go about extracting the amazing nutrients from weeds, what you do need is a bucket or any form of similar container, which obviously needs to be leak proof. Then you need to go around and collect your chosen weeds. Whether you’re just going to put in a load of thistles or you’re going to do a nice mix for more of a multi-purpose feed. Fill up the bucket with the weeds. And then you want to actually add the water on top. just enough water where you’re covering all of the plant material and give it a bit of a stir. Now, at this stage, you could also add a handful of leaf mold from under a nice big deciduous tree. This is a jam inspired technique. So, what you’re doing is you’re grabbing the biology from under the tree and uh you’re adding it to the feed. So you’re creating a bit of a biological feed as well, but it’s also going to help break down and extract the nutrients. Then once you’ve created it, you want to put on a lid very loosely if the container comes with a lid. If not, just put over a slab or say a few planks of wood and leave it for at least 2 weeks up to kind of 2 months before you start using it. So after 2 weeks, you can start using your liquid feed. There’s a couple of ways of going about it. I’ve strained this one just out of ease to show you. You can see the the color there, for example. Now, what you can do is you can use a sie so you can keep all of the plant bits away from the actual watering because what you want to do is you want to water it and if you’re using a watering can, you don’t want to block up the rows with bits of plant material. So, if you want to start using your weed feed after 2 weeks, what you want to do is you want to dilute roughly one parts feed to 10 parts water. There’s a nice dilution ratio. We do this because if you put too strong of a of a plant fertilizer or liquid fertilizer down, it can actually burn and damage the roots. You just want to make sure that it’s suspended in a in a load of water so it’s nice and gentle on the plants. And then you water. Now, if you’ve got something that’s a lot older, maybe it’s five or six months old, anything after that, you then reduce the dilution ratio to around 1 to 50 cuz it’s going to be a lot more potent. Apply this to the plants as just a little bit cautiously. See how they respond and adjust as necessary. But it’s literally as easy as that to create your own free liquid plant feed using weeds to benefit your plants really quickly, to benefit your crops, to grow more food. That is the process. If you’ve got enough buckets, what you can do as you’re starting to extract the liquid once it’s being made is just as the year continues, continue to top up the bucket with the same rough mix of weeds or the same certain type of weed or plant material and a bit more water. So, as you’re taking out the liquid, just keep on topping it up with a little bit extra goodness. So, that means you’re never taking away any of the solids. A lot of that’s going to break down into becoming a liquid, but it means you then have that dedicated bucket that is producing that really beneficial plant feed. If you live in a particularly cold climate, you might want to consider bringing your bucket of weed feed undercover because if they’re going to stay frozen solid for 2 or 3 months, there’s not going to be any breakdown. So, nothing’s really going to be happening. And now’s a great time to harvest those nutrients to break down over winter to give you free plant feed to start using spring next year. So, my channel is full of videos on how to save money and make the most of kind of waste materials and resources. But some of you might not know that I have written three books. My latest book, for example, the vegetable growers handbook, is full of my absolute best tips for gardening. It goes into a lot more detail in terms of creating natural amendments and composting for example and how to grow basically whatever you want to grow. So like one reviewer said this book is like gold dust. You can check it out yourself over at hughgarden.com. And there were also signed copies available there as well. Also the nature of food book written by my colleague Sam using produce from this garden. The photo of a a leak grown in a bed just up there is also available now over at hughesgarden.com. We’re about to ship all of the Indiegogo crowdfunding orders, but if you’re in the UK, you should also through the website be able to get them before Christmas. It’s such a stunning book. You’re going to love it. One read that I haven’t mentioned is grass. Not really fun to have in a raised bed, but if you’ve got a lawn or pathways, grass clippings are amazing for your garden. I’ve made a whole video which you can watch here. It’s been really popular and it’s how to use grass to help you grow more food and it includes a grass-specific liquid feed recipe. So check it out and enjoy.

This plant here is called tree spinach. It is one of the fastest growing and tallest crops that you can grow in your garden. And it means it’s one of the most productive ones. And it has a different name as well, which I’ll reveal a little later on. It has a slight slight secret that you don’t know at first. But tree spinach is amazing and so that’s why I’m making this video about it. Now, as I mentioned, tree spinach is edible. And there are two main ways that you can eat it. Either raw or cooked. When you cook it, cook it down like you would for normal spinach. And it has this really nice asparagus flavor to it. So, it’s a very pleasant flavor. Um, eating it raw is also delicious. You can eat the leaves, you can eat the whole tips, add it into salads. It adds a little bit of color because, as you can see, you have these beautiful magenta tips which look stunning. Now, in terms of raw flavor compared to normal spinach, I think it tastes a little bit more mineraly and it is related to spinach. It’s within the same genus family thing, but it isn’t closely related to spinach. It is within the amaranth family. So, the amaranth family for everyone else. And I asked Chat GPT if this is more nutritionally dense than spinach because it it tastes so with that mineral-y flavor and apparently it is. So I’ll put the chart up so you can see it. And yeah, another reason why to grow it because it is nice and nutritious as well. This isn’t technically a spinach, but is it a tree? Well, obviously not, but it does have, as you can see here, this branching like habit. So the tree just kind of explains the gigantic nature of it and the way that if you do let it grow, it will continue to branch out. And it works really well as a tree, as a structure. But if you do have some open area in the garden, you might want to consider staking it because if there’s some heavy wind, sadly, it will knock it over. So if you are after the height of which it can grow to 2 and a half meters tall or eight foot tall then just consider giving it a stake and no it is not a tree but it’s kind of like a temporary tree. Now, at the start of the video, I mentioned that this plant has another name, okay? Giant spinach or tree spinach. But it is also known as the glitter spinach because if you go up closely and you peer into the top and the base of the leaves, especially when it is sunny, it it shines like it’s got lots of micro bits of glitter. So, you’ve kind of got plastic free glitter growing in your garden. and uh and it looks stunning, especially when you’ve got that sunlight and it really just makes it light up. Um yeah, glitter spinach. So, if you got kids, you could be like, “Hey kids, I want to grow some glitter spinach.” And that might be a way of trying to get them into gardening cuz I think all kids should grow their own and they might as well grow their own edible glitter. Now, those of you who are permaculture gardeners or are trying to grow resilient gardens, so you have more perennials, like here I’ve got ochre growing up around these runner beans. I’ve got ders here. Tree spinach is fantastic because unlike regular spinach, we all know what it’s like. We grow normal spinach and it gets a little bit too hot and dry and it panics and bolts and goes to seed. Well, the amazing thing about tree spinach is that it thrives even when it is really dry and hot. It doesn’t kind of bolt from under seed. It just keeps on growing. So, in terms of having a resilient plant over summer months, this is fantastic. And there’s another core benefit of glitter spinach, which is it isn’t fussy really about soil types. It will grow in the poorest quality soil, which is another major benefit because sometimes when you plant normal spinach in quite poor quality soil, it’s kind of like I’m not very happy. I want to be somewhere else. But glitter spinach, it’s just grateful to grow anywhere and it will grow anywhere. I haven’t planted a single glitter spinach this year because all this is a self-seeded glitter spinach. All of the other ones are. Um, and I will show you why it is sometimes a little bit of a problem because it is so prolific. But it means that once you grow it once, you’ll never have to buy the seeds again. And dealing with it is quite simple. It’s easy to pull out or to hoe off. But just I just noticed as I was speaking, I’ve got a weed here. And this weed looks very similar to this crop. And this weed here is known as goosefoot or lamb’s quarters. Now lamb’s quarter is very much very closely related to glitter spinach. Some botonists think that perhaps tree spinach is more of a domestication or cultivar of this gooseoot. But like goosefoot or like tree spinach both give you edible leaves. So whilst this might be a weed, it is an edible weed that you might want to consider leaving in your garden. And as you can see, it also has a bit of height, but lamb’s quarter, it will never out compete the scope and size of tree spinach. Now, one thing to be aware of, if you do grow this plant, you’re not really going to get rid of it. And that can be a great thing because I get loads of food to eat, but it can also be a bad thing because it might mean that you need to do a little bit more weeding. But here I’ve got celery or cilerak actually growing and this if I don’t deal with this tree spinach, it is going to take over. But you can just quite easily go and pull it up. Even with the size of it, it is very easy to go through and weed. And as I mentioned earlier with permaculture, what is actually a great benefit of it is that you you can weed it and then chop and drop and use it as a mulch around the other plants that are growing. If these got like really tall and I was like, “Okay, there may be a little bit of a beast and out competing the plants growing nearby.” The way I would chop and drop it is get something out some shears and start at the top and just work down so it falls down on the ground and then I will edit its placement around the other plants. So again, it’s providing another function and before this is actually the second batch of selfsewn tree spinach because before I planted the carak there was a ground cover of tree spinach. So, it’s actually protecting the ground, adding that fertility. We then cleared it, planted the cilerak, but there’s still more seeds in the seed soil bank. And uh yeah, it can take over, but I mean, it’s pretty. So, I’d rather that take over than other things. Now, if you want to sew some glitter spinach, all you need to do is find a place, throw down some seeds, break it in, and that’s it. But for all of the selfsewn seedlings like this one, it’s really easy to move about. You just dig it up with as much of the roots as possible and find the spot where you want to plant it and then you place it in. And then the next thing to do is to give it a really good water and it is going to be overly dramatic. It’s going to flop over and you’re going to think, “No, it’s not going to make it.” But then within a day or two, it will come back up and it will keep on growing. Because of this plant, during the growing season, I don’t really bother with growing spinach. I will right at the start and I’ll grow spinach to overwinter in the poly tunnel, but really glitter spinach takes over because I do like a bit of efficiency. And this just grows itself and it’s maybe time for you to consider growing it. But again, just be warned, it will spread. For some people, that’s a good thing. For other people, that’s a bad thing. And whilst you’re deciding whether it’s good or bad, watch this video.