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[THEME MUSIC]
-Last night, we had the biggest storm
I've ever known go through the plot.
I looked out the window, and the trees were bending like twigs.
So I've come down to look at how my greenhouse has fared--
hopefully better than this one.
Let's go and have a look.
Well, this has really surprised me,
because the wind was howling.
I looked out of the window about midnight,
and the trees were bending as if they were like branches.
But the greenhouse seems fine, and the shed seems fine.
And my allotment seems fine.
The cold frame outside, that's-- it's as if nothing has
happened, which is good.
Right.
Cup of tea time.
[WIND BLOWING]
[RAIN]
-Well, it looked like it was going to be a good day,
but the wind has suddenly picked up again,
and the rain has started.
So time to pop home and see what the weather turns out
like for later.
We've been lucky.
We haven't been affected by the rain that
much-- not like some gardens in the UK.
-Hi, Sean.
This is Will from East Sussex.
And as you can see, on our allotment,
we're growing a lot of rubber ducks.
And if I show you this one over here, you would not believe it,
but this plot, not mine, won the best allotment last year.
Look at that.
Covered.
That there is the path.
There, is brassicas.
-Well, what a beautiful day.
After all the rain and wind and hail,
the sun's come out and given us a glorious Sunday.
It's also nice and still, as well.
Rusty's here, looking for some food.
But one of the jobs that I have to do today
is move some compost bags.
I had some bags of compost delivered the other day,
but because the weather was so bad,
they got delivered to a friend's house.
So I need to transport them from there to my plot.
[BIRDS CHIRPING]
-If you're going to use a bag of compost
in the greenhouse for seed sowing,
it's advisable to put the compost into the greenhouse
a few days before you are going to use it,
so that the temperature off the soil
adheres to the temperature in the greenhouse.
This is the compost I'll be trying out this year.
It's traditional, all-purpose compost by J. Arthur Bower.
And I've picked this one mainly because it
was voted Best Buy in "Which?" magazine.
So we'll give this one a go this year.
[WIND BLOWING]
-Last year, I grew globe artichokes,
and they were very good at attracting bees
into the garden.
There was many minutes I spent just watching them fly in
with nectar all over their legs and flying out again.
They were here for weeks.
Well, if you want to grow some globe artichokes,
now is the time to do it.
And I'm sowing the variety Green Globe.
The good thing about doing globe artichokes,
it's the fact that you can eat them or leave them to flower,
and then they're good enough for the bees.
The bees absolutely adore them.
And they'll stay in the garden for about five years
before you need to change the plants over.
But the thing with globe artichokes
is-- if you want them for eating--
is not to take a harvest in the first year,
because you need the plant to become bigger, better,
and then you get your first crop in the second year.
But if you want them for flowers,
obviously, that's fine.
You can just leave them in and you'll
get a good crop in the first year.
So just fill your pots up with compost.
And now, let's pop the seed in.
That's the seed of the globe artichoke.
Looks a bit like a sunflower.
So it's one seed per station, because these
are quite a robust seedling.
And they will quickly fill this little space.
Now, I'm not going to do the whole pot,
because I don't want that many.
So I'll just do eight.
In fact, what I'll do is I'll do some more,
and I can give them away to other people
on the plots that have admired them over the last year.
And pop the seed back in.
And if you have too much seed of something,
then why not give it away to somebody else,
or maybe they'll have some seeds that you want.
Then just cover them with soil.
It's a nice day for doing this.
Nice and sunny.
Birds are singing.
And you can sow your globe artichokes
in February or March.
And I'll keep these in the greenhouse,
and then when the threat of frost has passed,
I'll then put them outside.
Then just give them all a brief watering.
Nothing too much at this time of year.
You don't want them to drown.
And there we go.
I'll pop them in the greenhouse.
Graham's helping out there by carrying a few bags over
to the plot.
-And this is boring.
[LAUGHS] Yeah
-So then, Vivi, what you up to today?
-I'm just rescuing the last of my beetroot.
-There's a nice crop, there.
-Actually, I've got masses still.
I did a big second sowing.
And I just couldn't keep up with eating them, so some of them
are tiddlers I'm going to worry about.
But I've got loads of a nice size.
So basically, if you follow the link on thehortchannel.com,
you'll see the recipe for borscht.
I'm going to be making lots of beetroot soup.
And the top-- if you get them really young,
you can use the tops like you would spinach
or any other leafy thing.
But these are-- they're probably going to be a bit tough-- a bit
***-- but because I'm going to basically boil them for soup,
it's not going to matter.
If you wanted to pickle them, I would say no,
because they'll be a bit tough and ***.
But for making soup, absolutely no problem.
Or if you want to just juice them,
if you're into your beetroot juice, again, fine.
You just want to-- because they'll be really, like I say,
tough and fibrous.
Juice will break it down, as will soup.
And I've just rescued some of my little cabbage hearts.
But look, some of them are nice size.
Look at those-- cricket balls.
Couple of those, couple of carrots,
couple of sticks of celery-- four portions
of soup for work for the week.
I'll make everyone else jealous that they're all
eating shop bought nastiness.
Because I do crop rotation, so I never
sow the same thing in the same bed.
I've got four beds, so that means
I've got a four year rotation.
And the idea with rotation is that you
don't let diseases establish.
So if you've got a particular-- like
if you were having your carrots, and you
got a particular disease with them,
if you keep planting them in the same place, that disease is
going to thrive and grow, and grow.
Whereas, if you keep moving things,
hopefully it will knock it out.
So because I rotate, I'm just getting
rid of the last of my winter crops, so my cabbages,
my beetroot, and my kale.
Getting ready to dig.
I put all my compost in, which has been rotting
nicely over the winter, so that in about two weeks-- maybe
three weeks time-- I can start actually planting.
-Haven't done a lot today mainly because I
was bringing these bags of compost over.
Graham helped me, as well, so that speeded things up.
So it's now starting to get cold and dark.
Just before she left Vivi gave me some of her beetroot,
so I'll have that for my tea later.
And one thing I'm going to be doing-- one of the projects
before the spring, hopefully, will
be to upgrade the pond, like I mentioned before.
And the other thing is, I've been offered a greenhouse.
So I'm going to try and work out where to put it.
It'll have to go there, but the problem
is, it's slightly bigger than this one.
And that will mean that the shed may have to move,
or I may have to go back to my original plan of putting
my shed door there.
So lots of things coming up.
But I'm going to pack up and head home.
So I'll see you next time.
Geoff was on the allotment this week.
Let's get an update from his plot.
-These are my parsnips I just dug up--
the remaining parsnips.
There are pretty good ones in there.
No good for showing, of course, but for making
soup and roasting or just boiling-- absolute delicious.
Though one tricks that some of you might like to try,
if you've not already tried it, is cooking them
in pure orange juice.
Really delicious.
-Last autumn, Geoff planted some green manure.
This is just seed that you throw on the ground
and let it grow.
And then a few weeks before you want to use the ground,
you just cut the tops off.
And then in a week's time, Geoff will come back
and he will dig the soil, turning all this material
into the soil.
I was recently invited to the official opening
of the Butterfly Enclosure at Hall Place and Gardens
in Bexley.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
-Well, I'm here with the lovely Rachel de
Thame to open Paul Allen's Butterfly Jungle Experience.
As you can see around us, we've got this lovely collection
of tropical plants as a perfect setting.
And then I think about 250 butterflies in here,
so we've come to celebrate that-- really
open up Paul's business, which I'm sure
will be very, very successful in the years to come.
I think it's a good day to be a tropical butterfly,
to be honest with you, because it's a bit wet
and windy out there.
-The butterflies are everywhere.
And I wore a red coat, because I was
hoping they might come and land on me.
I had them in my hair.
And they're just everywhere.
There are about 200 butterflies in here,
and it's lovely and warm, as well.
So beautiful plants.
And then outside, there's also a plant sales area
where all the plants are grown without any pesticides, so
chemical free.
So also really great for pollination
They've been chosen specifically to attract bees and butterflies
to your garden.
So it's a really, really good visit.
-Well, I hope it's going to be a good educational tool.
I think it'd be nice-- good thing do
get kids interested in plants, and if you can add butterflies
into the mix, as well, then I reckon
that means they're going to be a bit more interested in it.
There's a reason to be here.
And I think the whole tactile-- the whole hands-on sort
of thing is really important.
So I'm here to wish him all the best and kick this venture off.
-And now we're delighted to cut the ribbon.
-Yeah, it's brilliant.
All right.
-Go for it.
Ready?
-OK.
-Yay.
Well done.
[APPLAUSE]
[CHATTER]
-Thank you.
-We think this day is absolutely wonderful.
-No.
-It's a gorgeous day isn't it, Elsie?
-Yes.
-We've been looking at all the butterflies.
Look.
Look, talk to Sean.
-Talk to Sean.
Say hello.
-No.
[LAUGHTER]
-In a few weeks, I'm getting a brand new greenhouse,
but it's slightly larger than the one that I've got,
so I just need to turn the shed around to make some more space.
[THEME MUSIC]
Seems a bit strange to have it there,
but no doubt I'll get used to it.
Now, in the space I've created here,
this is where a new greenhouse is going.
Talking about greenhouses-- let's just pop into this one.
I've noticed that the nights have started to draw out now,
so we can have more time on the allotment
to do a bit of gardening.
I can see that these seedlings are starting to sprout up--
the tomatoes there, and the lettuce.
So everything coming on nicely.
Now, one thing I need to do before I leave today
is to put the burners on in the greenhouse, because I noticed
the other day that the temperature in the greenhouse
dipped to one degree.
And that's a bit too close to freezing for my liking,
so I'm going to put the burners on, and then head home.
[BIRDS SINGING]
Well, that's all from me and everybody else down here.
Thanks to Ky for coming over and helping me
shift the shed with her bottom.
And until next time, for me, and everybody else, bye for now.
[BIRDS SINGING]
[THEME MUSIC]