Weighing The First Harvests From My 6 Bed Micro Self Sufficiency Garden More Plantings

Welcome back to the Six Bed Project. Today I'm going to start off with some harvesting. I've I have some more plants to put in the ground, I've got some seeds to sow, but I'm going to start with The harvesting is first, plus some little details around the place, and it's exciting. because today is the day I can start gathering the data on how much is beginning to come out of this space. Now there's still lots of empty space, and that's because I've I’ve got a lot of brassicas coming in, and I wanted to make sure the rat problem was taken care of. and it is, and the evidence is that those things that I planted there, those brassicas have come back to life, but the first thing I'm going to do is right in front of me here go through and clear the biggest radishes first because they're starting to overwhelm the items on either side. So due to the hot weather we've had, some of the items Like the lettuce, these actually look pretty good, but they're radishes—some kind of radish. about running to seed, and since radish seeds are so cheap, I'm going to go ahead and do it I'm going to select all the radishes that haven't bolted and I'm going to weigh the roots. Now the Another thing about radishes is that they actually give you a couple of harvests. I might leave a Couple back, especially in this area, to continue growing and flowering, and give me plenty of radish seed pods. as an additional harvest. So I'm just trying to be clever about that, but since I have quite a high-value kind of perpetual chard, and spring onions—I think I'm just going to clear this whole thing, see what's edible. These leaves here could last me a good while, in terms of like just cooking them as greens, the whole point of this is almost survival food so cooking them as greens, so I can compare them to spinach or something, and I think I'll Actually get to know a nice, decent amount of food here. Now I'm just going to give you this as an example. of one that's somewhat run to seed, but I'm just going to try it anyway to see, since it's only happened very recently, whether the actual root itself is not too, you know, pithy, because if that's then I have pretty good confidence that the rest of them are of good quality, so I can Actually save a lot of the roots. Yeah, that's a perfect radish, so that gives me a lot of assurance. Now excuse me, that's actually my first radish of the season, so exciting. I also directly sowed these. quite thickly and didn't thin them out, now what I'm used to, and I think this might be because It's a lower quality seed I'm used to less leafy growth and more rooty growth, but I'm not. I'm going to complain it's a learning curve; I don't think I'm going to leave some in because it will Just look a bit scrappy, so in fact what I'm going to do is this, and I'm not going to be able to eat all of these leaves and that's okay, but I'm just going to go through and pull it out, and if there's Any kind of roots worth saving, I can pull them apart. It's that tricky thing, um, these are Actually turning into quite nice roots, have they? Not quite run to seed, but I spent My priority is trying to focus on watering the lettuce because that's going to be a higher a type of cut-and-come-again crop, so there have already been a few challenges This season, and that's fine—that's part and parcel of it—but here's what I'm going to do at the top. Here's the patch left there to grow on, and there are some nice roots here. So I'm going to let that grow on and I'm going to, I think, do the same with this row. Just because again they bolted due to that insane heatwave we're not used to So I'm going to go through and quickly sort this out, and then I'm going to work out the thing. roots and pick the best of some of the leaves to have as a salad over the next few days, so one The one thing I do want to do is build a compost bin here because I'm starting to gather compost materials. Compost is a key component, so maybe that'll be the next video, and I can set all that material aside. in a pile as compost or use it as mulch, but the first thing I'm going to do is um, I'm going to I'm sure there are better ways to do this, um, but I always find a fun way of doing it. So that's 95 zeroed; I'm going to figure out how many grams of leaves, so that's 235 grams. of salad leaves to enjoy, and then if I zero that out, the radish roots are about 272 grams so that's practically the first half kilo of food that has come out and I'm going to create a a Google Sheet to track everything and their value if you were to buy them organically because This is how we're growing it—organically—so you'd better value it at a higher price. Yeah, that's exciting. I'm going to do the courgettes next. I've got, uh, three courgettes. plants here, and since there were going to be a lot of courgettes, I'm going to try and get them so that they're nice and buttery rather than just going for size for the sake of it because I still want to enjoy them and eat them now, this one, I'd say, I don't want them Anything larger than that? But I've been away for a bit, so this one is beautiful—that's a nice courgette. And there's another one here, and I can see a smaller one in that corner as well, so courgette. wise, this is where a lot of the food is coming from—that's 962 grams. I'm obviously going to, because there's A little bit of the ends that I won't eat, let's say 900 grams of food to add. It's exciting food, so this is pretty much the first of the main harvest done here in this garden. which is very exciting, and I'm going to go home and start enjoying this, and it's so funny, it's so nostalgic for me having the scales out in the garden, measuring how much is coming out because That's exactly what I did for the self-sufficiency garden, but since we're here, I wanted to show you. You two other things that I'm actually going to harvest as a food crop because this is a thing. there are so many other things that you can enjoy and eat that you might not be aware of, so the first Here one is, I'm going to take a couple of cucumber leaves from each plant, and I'm also going to take a nice kind of zucchini leaf, like that from each plant, and similar to the way that I would cook the radish; you can cook these either by sautéing them or as a stir-fry, so actually these It would be really nice to cook them as a stir-fry, and maybe I'll grill these and mix them together. Mix them together and I've got a nice little side dish, so there you go. Another 100 grams, let's say. 103 grams of food, so the cucumbers here are coming along nicely, but they've kind of done the They need a little bit of support with some string to help make sure they're going. in the right direction rather than trying to take over where the courgettes are, and as you can see There is a significant amount of growth they are achieving, which is always very exciting to witness. So I'm going to twist that around a bit—I've damaged a leaf, but that's fine, and then I'm going to get little bits of string just to loosely tie them; I'll get another one now. Just so, just to kind of, they need a little bit of help, a little bit of guidance up the twine, so Let's see how this one turns out—just there again. I'm just going to tie it really, really loose, so it's not Choking, but it's at least holding the plant in place, and I'm going to repeat that for the rest. of the plants, so the peas and the pea sticks are now working effectively; at this stage Pinch off the tops and enjoy them as pea shoots—I could do that, and I could get an additional harvest. but I'm going to let them grow a little bit more, and I'm going to wait for the lettuce that I have probably give it another week before I start harvesting that quite nicely, and then I can Add a few pea shoots to add an extra layer of flavor; they're doing really well, I'm just going to keep them going, see how they do—I might need to string another line a little bit lower, just to keep them in to help them, then work up the structure, and then these Dwarf French beans They're growing quite vigorously, so I think there's going to be a decent amount of food. coming out of this space, so here in the brassica bed, while I do have some things that I want to plant some more kale, and I also have cabbage; that's probably what I'll end up doing. is mixing them, particularly the more productive ones, in and around some of the other beds because I do have very limited space here, but what I've got is some Chinese cabbage. that desperately wants to come out now, this has been a little bit eaten in the pots, which is fine They may not look stunning at the moment, but if they take well, these are probably Like, easily the top three most productive vegetables you can grow—the seeds are very, very cheap. You can also direct sow them if you wish, but each cabbage can weigh over a kilogram. that you can then eat and make kimchi and things like that, so what I'm going to do is actually just so there's a bit of space, I'm going to do a row quite close to the edge here, and I'm going to Probably do another row quite close to the other edge, and then I can fill in around here with something else. things like purple spartan broccoli and cabbages that grow a bit more slowly than others something like flipping over into the space that these have occupied—that's kind of the thinking there's That kind of idea— if I can cram it in and time things quite well, then I can get a lot of food out Of these, but I remember when I grew these for the self-sufficiency garden—it's um—it's one Of the most productive crops per square meter, I usually plant them out a little bit more. wider than I have, but my thinking is that actually if I stick with allowing every other one one two three four to grow on large the ones in between I can cut out when they're starting to kind of compete, but that'll still give me a lot of salad greens, so in a way, the actual cabbage It's more of a brassica, and you can cook with it or do whatever you want with it, but I'm also going to be a bit more intense with the planting, since the seeds are so cheap that I can get a nice salad crop outside of just relying on those beds over in the corner where I've had some radishes; I'm actually going to sow some more radishes, and I found this uh packet of white icicle radish seeds, so these are actually going to be deeper and bigger than the kind cherry bell radish that I just grew, so I'm actually going to be a little more intentional with this as well, because I know that this is going to most likely be a higher quality seed I'm going to be a bit more intentional with the spacing here and maybe do one every roughly One to two centimeters, so a seed every half to an inch, and see what happens. and I'm just going to do the exact same thing again here with this row and while I'm not I'm going to create a new label; I'm going to keep the old label in because it already says radish. So life hack, and then just to mark it as a guide, just so I know I'm going to sow some more. spring onions, just because they're kind of quite expensive to buy today, they also have so lots of flavor, and the thing is right, that people always complain, saying how boring leaves are and I get it, but like they're carriers for flavor in a way, like you've got like loads of lettuce, and even if you just have some spring onions and a little bit of balsamic vinegar or something then you've got a pretty decent salad and it's not about trying to to grow food here to supply a Michelin-star restaurant—it's really about growing food in a way that supplements a decent amount of what you need at home, so with These spring onions—I'm going to be quite honest, you know, in fact, since I'm here, I'm going to Actually, go for two rows of spring onions, and then I'll make sure I give them all a good watering. as well as the Chinese cabbage, just go for it because this is where so much flavor comes from kind of come from, and I think, as well, the other thing I need to do is directly sow some of the somewhat more valuable herbs, particularly things like coriander, and potentially even dill as well and the basil I have growing there looks really nice and healthy, and just because I've got the packet; I don't know, I've got some nice lettuces and stuff coming through here. I also have some mixed oriental leaves that I'm just going to use to fill the rest of this. salad bed and I'm going to be getting so much flavor out of here, like I haven't actually done it before this yet, but it's going to be my first basil leaf, gorgeous, absolutely gorgeous, I'm thinking Pizza now I'm really hungry I haven't had breakfast or lunch today apart from a protein shake Shaking—this is the most anti-garden thing I'm doing, but I'm doing an experiment, a diet. experiment, so I'm really excited to get all the things I've harvested today plus elsewhere In the garden I have tomatoes and stuff, so I'm going to enjoy all of those tonight, so I'm actually went ahead and grabbed a couple of tomatoes from my other garden and I'm just I'm going to have to do it—you wrap a tomato in a basil leaf. It's my first time this season doing it. that as well, all my days—this is why you grow your own food, so there are certain areas that I'm not happy that I haven't filled it with plants yet, so not today, but maybe later I'll do it. I want to do some more direct sowing, so I've got these beetroot that are looking good. There's been a bird around for a little while causing a bit of trouble with the carrots. but it's mostly good, so I think I'm going to add some forced carrots in, maybe a bit more beetroot, maybe some things like kohlrabi, etc., just to kind of bulk up this bed, this bed in about I'm excited because I'd say, looking at all my seedlings, the brassica seedlings in about four to In five days they'll be big enough to put these out, so this bed will feel a lot more you. Know usable, and you can see here, like, once this astro and tree cabbage has another week or so. I can then start harvesting some leaves from there, which is also exciting. the keeper's kale, the Dauberton's kale, the extra beans that I've got growing up there—I'm not sure What to do with this space here yet, because this is the whole idea—this is a perennial's. I could actually plant some perennial herbs along the border, right by the bed. maybe something like rosemary or thyme or those kinds of herbs, so I'm going to have a little bit more of a Think about it—next year, then I'll have the space and be able to grow really productive. things like, uh, mashua, for example—so mashua or Jerusalem artichokes, that kind of stuff The legume bed is looking nice again. I've got some space here, so maybe I'll fit in some um... cabbages or purple sprouting broccoli, depending on what I have on hand Leftover and available, I'm happy with this bed. This is where we've already had nearly a kilo of I mean, so far this bed has yielded a kilo of food, if I include the courgette leaves as well. and the cucumbers, but this is going to be significant, and this bed here with the salad It's already off to a good start, yes, the radish could have been better, but I made the most of it. The fact that I have some nice radish leaves to enjoy, and I'm going to let this grow and flower. and produce an abundance of beautiful radish seed pods, which are excellent for pickling and preserving and add a different crunch and texture to your salads—more has been sown; this part's looking Good, so it's getting there. I think next time I do a video, in about a week or so. I'm pretty sure I'll have figured out how to fill up this entire space