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[MUSIC PLAYING]
-Hello. Welcome back to another episode.
It's the start of February and the sun's out.
We've even got a bit of blue sky.
But the ground is still sodden and there's not
a lot I can do with it.
But the greenhouse needs a bit of cleaning.
So I'm going to get on with that.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
-My thermometer's broken, so I've bought a new one.
I'm just waiting for that to turn up in the post.
Now I need a bit more shelving space in the greenhouse,
so I've spent a bit of money.
And I've bought some shelves.
And the only place I can put them is here.
So there's two of them.
So I'll put one there, I think.
And I'll put the next one, say, about there.
Documents enclosed-- very cryptic.
Burn these instructions after reading them.
Right.
February time is still the preparation month.
Getting everything ready and in place
for when March comes along.
And the season of sowing seeds and everything
really kicks off.
But I still think we're going to get to snow in March.
There's nobody down here today.
I thought Vivi would have called
in because she, like everybody else,
hasn't been down for a while.
Right.
Just try and work this out.
So if that is there-- and a pot, let
me get a pot for an accurate measurement.
Now, if I do it there, then I'm wasting--
space on the side.
So if I go down-- I think there it is.
That's a good height.
OK.
Keep that in my mind's eye.
So that's the first one in.
And then you just attach the bracket to it
and then put your nut on the outside.
I'll do these bottom pieces, as well.
So that goes like that.
So you get this little flat-head nut there
and you just put it in the groove.
It's a bit of a fiddle sometimes.
Other times it goes straight in, There you go.
And that just slides up and down like that.
And then you put the other end on without letting
it slide down.
There you go.
And now we put the nut on.
So I'm going to do the same on the other side.
Just put that in position.
Make sure it's correct.
There we go.
And tighten it on this side.
And now for the shelf.
There we go.
And there we have it.
A shelf.
For your pots come spring time.
That's a great addition to the greenhouse, our two shelves.
Now this one, you might think is a bit too close to the roof.
But a tip that somebody gave me a few years ago,
was from Mr. Ken Nutt.
He was a fuchsia grower, loved his fuchsias.
And in the winter, he would put one of the shelves
closer to the roof.
Because that is the warmest point in the greenhouse and it
aided germination and cuttings of his fuchsias.
Now, sadly, Ken died a few years ago.
But in the months leading up to his death,
I did get the opportunity to interview him
about his fuchsias.
-Well, what I'm going to do in actual fact
is take out some of the growing tips.
Because what I'm going to be doing now is making them so
they will be bushy.
Getting early cuttings January, February time, I
grow mine in a polyethylene bag in a plant dish.
Like this.
That's where the warmth is, up in the top of the greenhouse
at that time of the year.
So three to four weeks and I've got some cuttings.
Of course, April, May time, you don't need that, really.
Off the bench, in trays.
And you can do them like that.
And that's my best tip.
But don't tell anyone.
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-So one of the things about being self-sufficient
is that you get more out of it than what you put into it.
Like, for example, melons.
Melons need an awful lot of heat in the greenhouse.
And what you get at the end of it is just one or two melons.
So you want something that is relatively cheap to do,
but you get a lot back at the harvest.
And one of those is tomatoes.
Now from just one seed, you'll have tomatoes lasting you
for months and months and plenty of the fridge for the winter.
And what I'm going to do is-- because I
haven't got a lot of space in the greenhouse,
this year I'm going to grow tomatoes outdoors in hanging
baskets.
So if you haven't got a garden, you
can put a hanging basket outside your front door
or your back door, or even outside the window
and you can grow your own tomatoes.
And this is a variety called Losetto.
And this is what I'm going to sow now.
So first of all, fill a pot with some compost.
I like to do them in these trays here.
And one of the things in gardening is all about quality.
Now I like to have a good quality compost.
It costs a little bit more money.
But if you use cheap things, then you're
not going to get a very good product out at the end.
And this isn't expensive, this bag of soil.
It's just a few pounds.
And you'll be using it for quite a few months down the line, as well.
Now if you have a greenhouse, or even in the kitchen,
bringing your bag of compost in a few days
before you're going to sow so that the temperature
of the compost adheres to the temperature of the room
that you're in.
Because you can actually give seeds
a shock if you put them into cold compost.
So just get a pot, firm it down.
And if you need to put a bit more soil in to even it out,
do that.
And now the seed.
I like to open my seed over where I'm going to sow.
So if any do fall out of the packet,
at least they will fall onto the soil.
Now I can get nine out of this compartment.
So just put your finger in.
Don't go down too deep.
Just go down to, say, the knuckle.
So you don't have too tidy about it.
And then get the seed.
Now this the seed of the tomato, there.
Those little brown things.
You will always read in gardening,
they'll say put two seeds per station.
Well, seeds actually cost a bit of money these days.
So I only put one seed per station.
And if it doesn't grow, I'll then put another one in.
But at least I'm not wasting it.
It's a nice relaxing job.
Sowing your seed.
And if you've got a greenhouse, I
would put them in the greenhouse.
If you haven't, I'd put them onto a kitchen windowsill.
Because they do need a bit of heat at this time of year.
And if you can't put them to have a bit of heat
then leave them until March, when the outdoor temperature
will rise a bit.
And then just fill the holes in.
Now this compost is already damp.
But if it wasn't, I'd give it a bit of spray with some water.
And the one thing you must not forget to do,
which I always tend to, is pop a label in.
Because I guarantee you, the things
you don't put the labels in are the things
that turn out to be the best croppers.
And at the end of the year, you'll
be kicking yourself thinking, what the hell
was that tomato called.
So, put these on the windowsill.
Now the next am going to sow is lettuce.
It's a red lettuce.
And the thing with lettuce, is you
don't want to sow hem all at the same time.
Otherwise, they'll all be ready to harvest at the same time.
So I'll do this tray here.
And I'll do another tray in three weeks.
And I'll continue doing this up until the end of July.
That means I'll have a succession of lettuce
throughout the year.
That's what the seed of the lettuce looks like.
It looks like just bits of grass.
So using my finger, just making holes.
Again, I can get 12 in this pot.
You don't have to grow them in these type of trays.
You can actually put them into these pots if you want to.
But I prefer these ones.
Now, to get one seed per station for this,
it's going to be difficult because they're so small.
So it doesn't matter if two or three fall in the holes
because we can thin them out at a later stage.
And again, these will stay indoors
because it's still a bit cold.
I'll keep these in the greenhouse.
But if you have got a greenhouse,
just keep them on the window sill.
And then just go over and cover them up.
Lettuce you can also do on a trough,
on the balcony, or anything like that.
So there we go.
And the last thing, but the important thing,
is to pop your label in.
Now this soil is a bit damp, so I'm not going to water it.
But if you have dry soil, then just
put a little squirt of water on the top of it.
Now the last thing I'm going to sow today are broad beans.
And the broad beans are very plain to see.
There they go.
Now when you open the package, look through them
and examine the beans.
And see, like that one there, that doesn't look healthy.
So I'll get rid of that one.
Just go through and check them.
Make sure they're OK.
Now, with broad beans, as you can see,
there's a bit of an eye to them.
Well that eye has to be on its side.
So when you sow, them make a hole with your finger
and put them in on the side.
And then just cover the soil.
And do the other one.
Now, I'm doing six at the moment.
I will be doing more.
Again, that's the eye.
Plant them in on its side.
Broad beads and usually one of the first vegetables
that you introduce children to, If you
want them to get into gardening.
Mainly because if their size and with how quick they grow.
In a few weeks now, these will be up and through the soil.
And I'll keep these in a frost-free environment.
So for me, it will be in the greenhouse.
But for you, it could be in the garage or on the window sill.
Put the other seeds that I haven't used back
in the packet.
And I'll use them later on.
You can sow broad beans from February to May,
so there's plenty of time.
But if you want an early crop, you can do them now.
You've never tasted potatoes until you've grown your own.
Now, we won't be planting these until next month,
but the preparation of the potatoes starts in February.
And what we need to do is something called chitting,
which means that we need to grow these little sprouts
on the potatoes, and from there will be our potato plant.
Now in olden days, when money was tight,
people used to chop them in half.
But these days, we don't tend to do that.
So in order to chit them, you just get an egg box
and you just rest the potatoes in there.
And we're using an egg box just because the potatoes
don't fall over.
So you just place them in.
And if you have a look at the potatoes,
you will see where what they call the eyes of the potatoes
are there.
And put them so that they're facing upwards.
Because if you put them down, the shoots will start to bend
and they'll be not as good as the rest of the potatoes.
So just continue to do that.
And then put them in a frost-free environment
in either the greenhouse, the shed, of the garage,
in the kitchen or spare bedroom, whatever.
And we're going to leave them there,
and then in about four weeks' time, we'll come back
and they'll be nice dumpy shoots.
You need them to create short, fat shoots.
If you put them in an environment
where there's not a lot of light,
you will find that you'll have spindly roots
and they won't really do much.
So put them in egg boxes and put them
in a light, frost-free place.
Now I've got a few more done here
that I'm going to continue.
Because I'm a little bit short on egg boxes,
I'm going to put the rest into these plant pots.
And the variety of these is called
swift, which is the first early, which
means we have nice, fresh new potatoes.
First earlies will be ready to harvest in about 12 weeks
if the weather is in our favor.
And because first earlies come to harvest quite quickly,
you can actually grow them in pots.
Well, you can grow main crop potatoes in pots,
but if you want something quick-- now,
see this potato here?
There's an eye at the top and there's one at the bottom.
Now that is the stronger one, so we're
going to rub the one off the bottom
and just wrote one on top.
If you see any potatoes and you think they're a bit diseased
or you feel them and they're a bit soft,
then don't bother to do anything with those ones.
Like I was saying, first early potatoes
will be ready to crop in 12 weeks.
You can grow them in the open ground or in bags.
I'll be doing both, so you'll be able to see me do both of them.
Hopefully by the time we get to plant them,
the temperature will have warmed up.
It's rather cold today on the plot.
And don't forget, put a label on them
Because I guarantee at the end of the year,
when you'll be going, that particular tasted wonderful,
what was it called?
You won't be able to remember.
So just pop a label in.
And these are swift, if you want to grow
the same ones that I'm doing.
Something else you can buy this month,
but we won't plant them until the warmer days of March,
are shallots.
I've got red and white.
And just go through them when you buy them.
Tip them all out and just go through them just
to check that they're all OK.
And so the air can circulate around them.
Because if you leave them in their bags,
the likelihood is they'll start to create mold and go off
by the time you need them.
Just tip them all out.
Also, don't forget to do-- I wonder if you've spotted it.
Let me just get these out.
Red and white look the same at this point.
So hold on.
Where's that one?
I've got one stuck in there somewhere.
There you go.
Now, they look the same.
So don't forget, keep them apart.
Don't forget to put the labels on top so that you remember
what they are when we come to plant them in March.
Pretty cheap, they were two pounds each.
Now that one, see it, that's got a bit of mold
in, so I'd get rid of that one.
Everything else seems OK.
Now, if you have two, like that, you can actually split them.
You'll have two more plan ts.
There's a nice fat one there.
And what about the red ones?
Red ones look fine to me.
So, yellow that side, red that side.
And just to make sure I don't forget, what I'll do
is I'll just put that in there as a temporary divider.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
-Well, with all the work that I've done in the greenhouse
today, actually starts to feel that the gardening
year has kicked off.
It's been a warm day today, 26 degrees.
And the coldest was 12.
So what I'm going to do now is just before I go home,
I'm just going to put my little burner lamp on,
in order to keep the temperature of the greenhouse frost-free.
So that the little seedlings here
will have a nice, snug, warm bed this evening
I had this idea for YouTuber, in fact,
from somebody called Torquay Allotments.
And what he was showing in his video
was that you put the heater under the shelf.
That heats the shelf up and just gives a little gentle heat
to the seedlings above, just to keep them frost-free.
I tried it last night, and it kept a greenhouse
at about four degrees.
And that's just enough just to keep them frost-free.
As the sun sets, and we come to the end
of another busy weekend on the allotment.
So then Vivi, first visit of this year.
-It's been a while.
So I'm going to try and find some parsnips.
I might start at that end, actually.
-How's it growing on this side?
-Oh, it's horrible.
Well, we'll see a little better in a minute, won't we?
See, these will be no good because I
think the soil has actually washed away.
-At least they'll be clean.
They'll come up washed.
-Ah, no good.
Absolute rubbish.
Look, that's absolutely useless.
Because I'm making soup, I don't have to look pretty.
They just have to be tasty.
Oh, I had him.
-Oh.
-Oh.
Oh.
Look at that.
Well, herein lies the lesson.
Where my rows were here and I had lovely long-- well,
not really long.
Maybe ten inches, but of a good girth.
And then I put all my little transplantings in this end.
And it just shows, doesn't it?
They're rubbish.
So you have to sow where you want to grow.
-You saved the best 'til last.
-That'd be nice, wouldn't it?
-Oh, look at that one.
That's a prize winner.
-That's all right, isn't it?
Like I said, I'm not looking for beauty.
I'm looking for taste.
Because like I said, with going in soup,
they're going to get all chopped up anyway.
Oh, look at the soil there, Sean.
It's horrid.
You know, it's the middle of February.
It's cold and wet.
But yet we've still got fresh food.
So I'm not complaining too much.
Oh.
And I'll tell you something.
I'm glad this is the last one.
Because that wind is picking up.
And I want to get home and cook.
I don't want to stay out in this.
It's not cold, particularly.
It's just wind and it's frying my brain.
-Here we are again, time for potatoes.
Let's hope there's some-- yeah, it's full.
-That's potatoes in here for Ky and me.
Have you already gotten the ground ready?
-No.
Well, it's kind of.
But I've got green manure in there that's got to be cut in
and dug in.
But everything's so soggy I'm not
quite sure when we're going to do it.
-So far today, there's not a lot going on.
We've had this storm whip up.
We had two hours of really nice sunshine this morning
and all of a sudden, the storm's just
lashing against the greenhouse here.
This is the best place to be at the moment.
I'm just checking on my seeds.
And my lettuce are starting to show.
Nothing from the tomatoes yet.
But my seeds are starting to sprout.
So in a few weeks, the first harvest will be cut.
There's a bit of blue sky all of a sudden that's appeared.
So, hopefully, in a few moments, once the storm passes,
we'll have a nice day.
Well, the rain is coming.
And the wind is picking up and it's
that biting cold weather today.
So I've come into the shed to take some shelter.
And I'm going to make a cup of tea
and then pack up and go home and see what develops.
Tomorrow is supposed to be a good day,
so I'll come back down then.
The wind is certainly picking up.
I'm not going to do anything today because I'm
expecting my order of compost to arrive later in the week.
So I'm holding off doing some more seedlings
or-- I've got some strawberries that have turned up
in the post, some white one's called pineberries.
So I'll keep them until I get my new compost on Wednesday
and they can have a good start in some decent compost.
Now you may have noticed that there's
another video on the website at the moment called
Grow Your Own Food.
Well, that's a series that I'm making
for a website called thepeoplesvoice.tv.
So if you follow Sean's Allotment Garden, what
will happen is in these videos, you'll get more of the
behind the scenes, the blog type.
So if I go out for the day like I'm doing on Thursday--
I'm going to a gardening event, I'll take the camera,
do a bit of filming there.
But you won't see that if you watch Grow Your Own Food,
because that is solely about your own food.
So you don't have to watch the two of them.
But if you wanted to watch one and wanted
to be sure that you didn't miss anything,
the best one to be watching will be Sean's Allotment Garden.
Because that's will include me going to visit Geoff and Ky.
And the other series won't include that.
Because it's just about growing your own food.
Let me go and have a look at what
the weather's like outside.
Well, it's certainly a windy day.
Geoff is down here.
He's doing some digging in of his green manure.
I'll be doing mine next week.
Rusty's had his food.
So we're all ready to go home and get into the warm
and think about what seeds we're going
to sow later in the season.
Hopefully, by the time I see next time,
my seeds will have arrived.
So until then, from me and everybody else down here,
bye for now.
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