The veg Grower podcast  0:04  
Hello, and welcome to Episode 404 of the rich girl podcast. My name is Richard, and I'm trying to grow off fruit, vegetables and Herbes in my garden and allotment. Now he is the first podcast in July which means today I have a list of tasks that we can do and a few seeds that we can. So throughout this month, there's lots to keep us very busy. But before that, as always, we have the diary with what I've been up to.

It is Saturday, the third of July 2021. And I've had a day at home today. And I think it's safe to say Today's been mostly involved making compost. Now at the moment, it seems fitting so I'm just certain my sub pod, which many of you will know is my underground composting system which doubles up as a seed and I think it's fantastic in order staple. If you want to compost in a small space or hide your compost bins, the sub pod is definitely the way to do it.

But anyway, what I've been doing today is well, my wife started weeding out the front of our house the driveway, which we have out there mostly where we park our vehicles I've got the wife's got her car and I've got my work van which Park out there on the driveway we don't really have much going on certainly no edibles out there.

When she was waiting in the front, I was weeding the vegetable beds and we for all these reasons onto the lawn. Then I got a new hedge trimmer this week and battery powered hedge trimmer Ryobi which we'll be talking about a little bit later on. And I pruned some of our brushes out the front of our house and some in our back garden as well. Now the softer, easier stuff also got thrown onto the lawn where I ran over those beds with our lawnmower. Now I used my battery low at first. I didn't think it was going to be able to cope with it but I was one he actually did cope with a quite well. He did want a battery quite quickly exelsys having to work harder. And because I've got three batteries I kept changing them out but they did run out before any of the others had the chance to charge. So that was wasn't brilliant. And after about two rounds of this, I did go get my petrol lawnmower had to go get some petrol in it fired up. And I started doing it with that and I've got to say the petrol lawnmower did shop a lot faster and a lot better. However, after a few minutes of running, it started playing around so something I'm going to have to either repair or get rid of depends but the battery lawnmower finished a job off and actually I was surprised just how well the battery powered lawnmower dig COVID chopping all this stuff up.

Now the thicker branches the woodier barges I ran through my shredder that I bought last year and that did a great job actually it's a bit noisy so i'd saved it for the woodier material.

And all this does both the shredding of running over everything with the Lomo is it chops it up all nice and small. Which means it all goes into the compost bin a lot easier because already chopped down a bit a lot more in there and it rots down into compost a lot quicker. So that's filled up most of my compost bins here at home and that will mean soon we can start turning that well. I actually turned some of the compost today that had been previously made basically got my air ater which is like a hollow tube a stick down and as I pull it up, it just moves all the compost around to allow plenty of air throughout the system. It mixes it up nicely. It really does help at making good compost to be able to do this I use a pitchfork in the past and just twist it and turn it almost support actually came with a nice little corkscrewed type error writer. And again this is all to help make some good compost

that is basically taken us all day doing all that it mainly because I'm so for the kitty and I want everything chopped up nice and small but we did spend a better time in the veggie patch like I said we pulled up a few weeds I think that some carrots and some parsnips I tied in some peas and tomatoes and basically everything in here is growing very very well.

You know a patio area I've also had a bit of a sought out are pulled out a few plants and pots that the plants had died. So I've just removed the company

From those and compost into the rest of the remainder.

And I've also cleared away some of the stones that I've used as like a mulch on top of some of my plants in the past one of those jobs that takes a while, and I'm still not sure about using stones as a mulch.

Anyway, that's neither here nor there.

So that's what I've been up to today, a busy but productive day again here in the home plot.

summit is Sunday, the Fourth of July 2021. And I'm down on the allotment today. Now, I spent a few hours down here. First thing I did was of course, go around with a streamer. This is becoming a weekly job, I'm just trying to keep on top of just walking around with a streamer and streaming the grass areas. And it's paying off because it's certainly taking less and less time in order to do that.

Now after that, I went to the beds where I had onions and shallots growing in them, which were removed, just shutting the greenhouse door, they were removed last week. Now, what I've done in these is I've placed a bag of compost over the top as a mulch, I had to buy the compost in I'm afraid, purely because I haven't been able to produce enough or have any high available to cover these beds over.

And then what I've done is I planted how to in one bed, a load of small tomato plants that I had to go in spare. Now these tomato plants are acting as a bit of an experiment, what I've done is I've planted them in close together. And this is a method I've heard James Baldwin talk about. And what we do is we let them grow until they produce one trust of flowers, and then we nip them off or cut the top above that trust off. Basically then we're only allowing each plant to produce one trust of flowers.

Now these should then go on to produce tomatoes, and they should produce pretty big tomatoes from what James Wong was telling me.

And, and this enables us to grown quite close together, you don't get a huge amount of tomatoes. But one trust is probably enough, especially if they're big. And because this bed is going to be really empty until September October, I figured I'll give it a try. And if it produces some small tomatoes, or big tomatoes and a few of them, then well i think the area has been put to use. Now any other bits of I've sown some radish and planted out few other plants Cove Abbey and various other things that basically going to be pretty quick to grow. But we can turn them around rather easily learned again, this page is going to be growing garlic and then come September October time. So I want these to be turned over quick so I can just produce some food, not waste a bed and then

come that time, plant and backup.

Now after that I fed the sweet corn with some chicken manure pellets, a sweet corn bed has established rather well made no losses. So the sweet corn itself does seem to be growing quite well. But I just figured, but a chicken manure pellets wouldn't do any harm. So scattered a couple handfuls of that over the bed and I gave it all a good watering.

And then onto the garlic beds. Now, I spoke about the garlic last week. And what I've done is I've actually harvested some of the garlic or all the garlic except for this spring sown garlic. And from what I can see the spring sown garlic is definitely a lot smaller and doesn't seem to split into hives from the one that I have harvested. But it's still a bit early. But basically I've got all these garlic out. I've

put them in a greenhouse to dry out. And then we'll give it time to see just how they are a bit later.

So that's what I've been up to today. This allotment is certainly taken a lot of work and it's not. I don't feel I'm using it to its fullest yet, but I've got the home plot using a lot more of my time at the moment so swings and roundabouts.

Right let's see if I can get down here on Monday.

It is Monday, the fifth of July 2021 and I'm back in the potting shed at a moment. Pop it on my chicken has just walked in to get out in the rain.

Rain again. Anyway, what am I up to today? Well, I'm sowing some seeds now. Last night. He sold some

Basil, and this is a red leaved basil one I quite like. And I've sown six pro inch pots of that. And these will basically go on to give us basil, obviously. But hopefully, we can have a few pots outside, some in the kitchen, some in the greenhouse,

just all over the place in order to give us plenty of basil over the next few months.

And this is what I'm thinking at the moment. Currently I'm thinking ahead in order to keep sowing seeds. In order to keep food coming in, it's very easy to forget that we need to keep sowing seeds. But actually, if we can sow some seeds now such as cabbages, and cauliflowers, which is what I'm doing today. These will provide us with cabbages and cauliflowers winter into the spring. Now we're going to be talking about this a lot more a bit later on. So I won't get into details too much on that. But in terms of what I'm actually sowing today, so that a cabbage is a Savoy January King three can so that now it will probably be harvest in January, February time. And for the cauliflower. It's a Italian red variety that I'm sewing. And I haven't got a label that tells me exactly what it is that indoors at the moment I've realised I've forgotten inside. But I sold some of these last week just last month, so he just sold some more in order to give him these are just getting my seed phrase, I often use seeds. So in compost, I've still got plenty of and now go into the tray underneath some glow lights, where they'll get plenty of light just to get them germinated and growing. We've got time and we've got some even some cacti still in here that are grown from seed at the moment. Everything seems to be moving outside quite nicely and doing well.

So that brings this diary section up to date, what have you been up to in your own allotments and gardens? please do let me know. And I'm going to run one of my commercial breaks and then I will meet you back in the potting shed. We'll be discussing what we can do throughout July, and what seeds we can so for our July.

Well, hopefully you're enjoying this podcast and so far. We'll be back with the content in just a moment. But I just want to take this opportunity to ask if you would consider becoming a member of the FedRAMP podcast supporters member's club because just five pounds a month and for the last five pounds, it enables me to keep the podcasts going and encourage more people to grow their own food. But in return, what you will get for that five pound is each month you get several packets of seeds sent directly to your front door. And these seeds can be sown in that corresponding month added to that you will get behind the scenes podcasts, videos, blog posts, a lot more content for your money. To find out more and become a member head to The veg Grower podcast COVID. UK and click on the supporting members link.

Well I mentioned during the diary Section A couple of things but the first thing I said was about a hedge trimmer that I've bought. Now this is the Ryobi Oh h t 1845 18 volt one plus cordless 45 centimetre hedge trimmer. That's a mouthful. I know I've added the link into the blog post if you are interested in this. Now, I thought what I'd do each month I tend to buy something for the garden or do a review at the beginning of month and then a review after a month's worth of use. So we've got this hedge trimmer next month and I've got to say I pulled it out of the box. I plugged my battery in I removed the sleeve that protects the blades and he was ready to go it was as easy as that straightaway could feel it was quite nice and light, very, very simple to use. And when I started using it on my hedge it cut the hedge and very very quickly so I was very, very pleased with that. It's nice small and light but yet big enough they will do the job really well for my size garden. And the batteries, the one, the two and a five amp batteries. I have all worked very well on this. And in fact, I used a one amp battery in it and it cut our hedge with plenty of juice left still in a battery. So it's not hedgetrimmer that uses a lot of juice. So very, very pleased with it. Of course we'll use it a lot more over this next month and throughout the rest of its life effectively. So we'll give you another review in a month's time now to follow this app last month of course. I bought my llama another way I be 133 centimetre lawnmower. Now after a month's worth of use. I'm very glad I bought this is so much easier to use in a petrol lawnmower, it's light packs away very small into the shed comes out the shed very easily sets up in seconds, plug the battery in and off we go and we're cutting the lawn. Now I said when I bought the doorway that I did have to buy the five amp hour battery for it to be any use Well, what I found now that my lord is at the same level all the way round, I can do it. We've even the one amp hour battery as long as I do it regularly. So I'm very, very happy with lawn mower. It's done very, very well for me over the weekend cutting down or chopping up all our hedge trimming. So I will very, very pleased with this lawnmower, and I'm so much happier using this petrol lawnmowers. Now, of course, we will probably refer back to this every now and then and see how we get up. This can be a regular feature monthly feature just talking about a product that I bought and my initial assessment and how we get on with it. So if you've got any ideas of any tools that you think need a review, then let me know. I should say I'm not sponsored by any company, no company has given me any of these tools that I will be reviewing these will walk by me out of my own fair hand out of my pocket. Okay, so what I want to get into today is something else I mentioned in the diary section and that is the sowing seeds. Now, I'm sowing seeds at the moment with the view that we're going to give us crops through the winter months and into spring. And I genuinely do believe that the key to successful growing all year round is to think ahead. Added to this, this is the first episode in July and so it's time to list a few seeds that we can so throughout July, and many of these I will be so in myself. Now I have added this list to the blog post for this episode. So if you don't remember everything or can't get a pen and paper to write everything down, don't worry, it's all listed on the blog post. And I've also added links to some of the seeds that I will be using. Now we'll start with some seeds that we can just squeeze in now if we're very quick and that is dwarf fringe brains and runner beans. Both of these beans can be very successful in order to give us a late crop and I should be certainly so in some of these myself. We can also sew another batch of carrots for an autumn crop as long as we keep a well watered when sowing they will be successful. Swiss chard is a good one too so as it gives us some nice colours and so now it's less likely to bolt beetroot is also a good one too. So now as leaves and roots can both be eaten last year I actually managed to grow beet red right into February by so in at this time of year. Now for me that's a definite one to say spring onions which can be sown right up to September when growing outside but it's one that every month I try and so in order to keep a good supply of spring onions coming in a particular variety of P known as terrain can be sown and this month to add this variety is rumoured to be the best variety for the best pay for light harvesting. cabbages, cauliflower and kale, all of which are brassicas. These can be seen throughout July and they can provide us with some really good fresh food into the winter and into the spring. So really worth doing. In fact, brassicas is possible to have food every day of the year coming in from the garden by growing our brassicas. Now I also find it's a good time to sow oriental vegetables such as Pak choy, or Chinese cabbage, which will grow absolutely fine outside but they do benefit with with some protection later on in the season. Let's not forget about salad crops, salad leaves radish, red DGI chicory, all of which can be sown this month for some great salads. And finally, of course we have hubs I always like to so hubs and I'll try and make sure that I so hubs every month this month, I'll be sowing basil, parsley and coriander, parsley and coriander are also less likely to bolt when sown at this time of year.

Another herb that we can sow is federal. Personally, I don't like federal so probably not going to be grown it myself, but it's one that I can add to this list. Now lots of seeds there to sow and certainly lots to keep us very, very busy. But what other tasks can we tackle throughout July. Now most important of course is to keep harvesting you crops. There should be plenty of food coming in now such as potatoes, strawberries, peas, and so on. So we want to harvest these, but we also want to be able to preserve them either in the freezer or canning, anything like that. This is going to be a subject I'm going to talk about in a bit more detail in a future podcast about how to preserve our homegrown goodies. Keep an eye out for blight on potatoes and tomatoes, we've how wet it's been this year. I'm surprised to haven't had any blight warnings but I'm keeping a close eye and making sure that if I see any signs of blight, I take action that's martos you might well get some side shoots which need pinching out. These branches tend to just waste the plants energy and don't produce any tomatoes. What you're looking for when it comes to these is thyca little one that comes from between the main stem and the side branch and I simply just pick those off, it's possible to replant them so you can get some more plants but I don't think you'll get away with it in the UK. I would usually be saying July can be very very dry at times so keep watering the plants however, we've had a lot of rain lately and a low showers our forecast for the next week. After that we could finally get some hot spell so keep an eye on the weather and just keep an eye on your plants with regards to watering. Any plants that need to be potted up such as peppers or chilies, pot them up especially if they are in a small pots and while I like to do is just look on the bottom of roots are starting to come out the bottom of a pot, it's time to pop them up. Keep trending in cucumbers and other climbing pants or jeans and courgettes benefit from having the tops pinched out in order to create bushy plants. Just simply nip off the top of the plants. Now keep an eye out for cabbage white eggs on your brassica plants. Check underneath leaves and squish any eggs that you might find. These caterpillars will destroy your plants overnight given half a chance. So do keep a close eye of course nets will help keep them off but I don't like mates and keep on top of the weeds of course and keep feeding your plants. And don't forget to remove any dead or dying foliage. Now this tip actually goes a long way to help keep your plants slug and snail free. Well, I think that is a lot to keep us very busy this month. So I think I need a good night's sleep in order to have the energy to go through all this. Thank you so much for joining me this week. If you want to find out more then head to The veg Grower podcast.co.uk leave a comment or you can leave a voicemail directly on our website. You can email me Richard at veg Grower podcast.co.uk or you can find me on social media just search for The veg Grower podcast. We will be back again next week. So until then, please take care

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