Update on the Garden, Pond and Greenhouse January 2022

Good afternoon people of earth, thought I'd just take a few minutes of your time just to kind of explain how we're going with the preparations for a potential loss of power or a potential collapse in the food chain and things like that. So I'm going to basically talk about what I've been doing with the pond and what's been going on the garden. As you can probably tell it's the middle of winter up here. In Northern England, it's really cold, nothing's really happening in the garden, but there's plenty happening in the, I will keep trying to call it a conservatory, it is effectively a conservatory, in the greenhouse. I can never remember the word for greenhouse, and I don't know why, so I'm going to show you that. Some of the results have been pretty impressive. So, the pond behind me. has been restocked with trout there's a hundred trout in there roughly that sort of size so about three quarters of a pound to a pound just nice dinner plate size trout with a there's one just risen there with a mixture of a few bigger ones probably two pound or thereabouts in weight i feed them daily and the good thing is they haven't been bothered by any predators Which is good. I mean, I work from home, so I'll be able to tell if there's any sort of commotion going on. So I'm in quite a fortunate position there. They're doing well. Happy in there. The big pump that feeds up to the filters that you've probably seen in previous videos, that's on a timer now. So it comes on and off mostly during the day when the sun's out and the solar panels are producing all the power. Therefore, it costs me next to nothing to run that big pump. And if I just spin the camera around... you'll notice a big planter here just outside of the underneath of the log cabin that sits and looks over the pond now in here last year we put potatoes and they didn't do particularly well so i've given this over to be an asparagus bed which obviously won't produce much in the first year or two but from year three onwards it should provide us with quite a lot of asparagus let me show you the size of it That's a reasonably big bed and I've put 24 asparagus crowns in there, so I can basically just forget about that and leave it and hopefully start harvesting it, maybe in a couple of years, certainly in three years. Okay, so these are the filters, if you haven't seen them in a previous video. The water feeds up through a four inch pipe, it goes into here, swirls around inside that vortex out the top, down to the bottom of the next vortex, swirls around and repeats that, so that settles out all the heavy muck. On the other side of there, notice we've got taps there, the near tap is open, that feeds down right over the bank side and it goes to my various vegetable gardens, in fact one of the feeds goes about 100 yards down that way and feeds to my lower garden, so you get all that nutritious silt and really good muck going straight into the vegetable beds which produced fantastic crops last year. So from there it goes into a big container which is approximately six foot by four foot by maybe three foot deep just full of crates of alpha grog and pumice a reasonably cheap filter media actually it's mostly alpha grog in there because the alpha grog works really well in muck and then in here we've got 30 litre containers Which I've just planted up with sedge grasses and other pond plants. They're obviously dead now but the roots come out into the water. They provide habitat for a hell of a lot of invertebrates. Those invertebrates invariably get washed down into this container. And then get taken out and spat back into the pond to feed the trout. And as you can hear there's a bit of a slurpy sound going on there. Those two outlets there are drawing a lot of air in. and that's what's producing all the bubbles down there so not only is it spitting food out constantly well when the pump is on into the pond it's also aerating the pond as well and making it move around okay so that's one of my vegetable gardens we've got some various raised beds here made with old sleepers uh we've got loads of garlic in there over wintering doing really well we've got some raspberries all these little trees here A pear and apple, and I think there might be some cherry and some other things as well. A bit of Swiss chard that's overwintering, and the rest of it is pretty much just waiting for the spring. You might be able to just see there, that's one of the taps that comes from the filters. That feeds into a trough there, so if I want to water anything with the watering can, I just dip it in there and feed it with the super nutritious water. But if I'm feeling lazy, I can just pull this. Slow that down a bit. And then we've got all that filtered, mucky, silty water coming in here to this bed. And all the beds on this side of the garden have got similar watering systems. Very handy in the summer when we need lots of water. Now down there, we've got the 12.6 kilowatt solar system. so on this top level we've got 19 panels each of 310 watts and on the bottom level we've got another 19 panels again each 310 watts and if you notice here i've made little stands and i've got mirrors there i haven't taken the protection off the mirrors yet because i want to get all of these in place but basically that is to fire the evening sun Back towards the panels to increase the output and the efficiency of them. We'll go down and take a close look at that. Now obviously these reflectors won't work for everywhere. Here we've got the higher level and there we've got the lower level. Unless I build something here, there's no way I could put one on there. So we've got another one, two, three to go on the bottom level and then that'll be it done maybe. Then on the side of the path here, I've got some where I have taken the protective film off. As you can see they function pretty well as mirrors. There's some troll-like creature being reflected in that one there and these ones will also reflect very well once I get the plastic taken off the front of them. Now each of these frames is very easy to make. I just made it with roofing lats which are two inches by one inch. Unfortunately the wood now costs about two and a half times what it would have done a couple of years ago. But I think that's going to make a real difference because you imagine the evening sun hitting that and bouncing back onto here you're going to have actual sunlight on there increasing the output of the panels later in the day and then early in the day when the sun's just coming up above the horizon which you can see reflected in the mirror there it'll hit that That's angled sufficiently to bounce the light back. against these other panels and then back onto here. So you do get more illumination early in the morning as well. Okay, leaving that area, I've started clearing an area down here which is approximately 25 metres long by 4 or 5 metres wide. That is going to be for chickens, so we're going to have a huge enclosure in here and a chicken house in here. This area here which still needs to be cleared may have some sort of big pond type thing in just for the wildlife. And then either side of this very overgrown path we've got a nation of fruit trees. So here we've got apple, apple, plum, another plum, sweet cherry. What have we got here? Oh I can't remember what they are. That's a rare one actually. What's that? Sorbus domestica. It's almost like a mountain ash but it gets like a small apple type Now when all these fruit trees get grown up they'll provide habitat for a nation of insects which should work their way into the chickens and help to you know supplement the chicken's diet. Likewise I moved a lot of these big coins of wood and just chucked them over the bank side there they'll provide a hell of a environment for insects as well. Again they'll work their way in and hopefully help to feed the chickens. Here we've got a really brutal tree it's called a Sichuan pepper gets like little red berries on which you can use in chinese cooking or you can crush the hearts of them to make like a pepper like a natural spice and there's another one there as well now everything i'm putting in the garden wants to have a purpose whether that's just something as simple as providing habitat or flowers for bees and other insects or whether Whether it's to produce some sort of fruit. Or, whether it's to produce some sort of spice, like those Sichuan pepper, or it could be something medicinal as well. And that story continues down here as well, where this bit of wasted land in front of the patio wall has been planted up with witch hazel, mulberry bushes. You can probably hardly see them, they're very small. But the idea is to get them grown up, to create like a hedge here and just train them along the wall, so you have like a wall of fruit. Uh, what is this? More mulberry, I think that's the last of the mulberry, and then we'll move on to various sorts of gooseberries. So we've got one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 different gooseberry bushes. Gooseberry bushes. Well, not different varieties, but 14 individual plants, and they'll just provide a great big thorny hedge all the way along here, and hopefully a wall of fruit in the future. Now there's our lower vegetable garden. Greenhouse is just behind it. Little tool shed. Shed where we've got all the batteries for the solar system. And up here I've actually put a small orchard in. So in here I think we've got six various apple trees, two pear and two plum. Obviously they'll flush out and fill all that area with... Fruit producing trees, I counted up how many trees I've planted in the last two years, specifically for apples, pears, plums, all that sort of thing, cherries and everything, and the current amount of trees that are fruit bearing is 52 I think, so in years to come we literally are gonna have a food forest around the place. This is what the bottom garden is looking like We've still got a few cabbages ready to harvest there. We've got some celeriac, which, again, we're in the process of harvesting, and that's actually very nice. I've never had that before this year. Everything else is more or less tidied up, just waiting for the spring. And if we go down here, we'll see how the various vines of fruits are doing. We've got different sorts of blackberries and logan berries and all sorts planted all the way along here, going up. Into this gibbet sort of thing with lines running through it and I've basically woven all the vines of that in here So hopefully we'll just have a mass of fruit cascading down almost like a waterfall a wall of fruit Next year. So into the greenhouse we go Oh god, you know, the sun's never been out today. It was minus two this morning and it's still What 13 14 degrees in here in an unheated greenhouse Although I do have bags of horse manure under there, which I think are releasing not only CO2 to help the plants, but also a bit of heat to help to heat the place. And really, if we get 10 minutes of sun, it can push the temperature up to about 25 degrees centigrade, which is absolutely insane. Just take that out, calm it down. So, I haven't got anything planted in the vertical growing systems at the moment. They are going to be lettuce, which I've got coming away. down here in a little propagator. We've got trays of onions in here which are doing really well and I'm hoping to put those into some sort of water-based growing system similar to these. We've got containers here full of nutrient-rich water and I've basically just planted the seedlings in here. These are bok choy, we've got Swiss chard starting to come away there. It's been so warm with the sun in here, these have actually started to bolt, so I've been harvesting these, this is what we've eaten this week, and they taste absolutely amazing, I mean this is in the middle of winter, up north, no heating in the greenhouse, and that's the results that we're getting, and this system is something called a Kratky method of hydroponics, where you don't have any moving water, you don't have any pumps. And you just put the plant through, the roots go into the water, and as the water evaporates, the roots get bigger and more extensive. And that's the result. You know, I mean, that's pretty good. No artificial light on that either. You know, I'm very, very impressed with that. Now, I've just said no moving water in there. Recently, I did install a pond pump for the air, and that just feeds up to a manifold. There is an air stone in each one of these, and two or three times a day. The pump comes on and for 10 minutes quarter of an hour or so just moves the water around just to keep the nutrients moving in these containers. So it is Kratky method to a point. This growing system however definitely isn't the Kratky method. This one as I've shown in a previous video is an This is an NFT system, Nutrient Film Technique, and in here we've got four 4-inch drainage pipes. With holes cut in, they're roughly two inch holes, then we've got like a foam insert which is cut from those swimming noodles that kids use when they're learning to swim. So you just put the plant in there, stick it in there, the roots come out into the moisture rich air that's above a very fine film of water that's flowing through these things and they do really really well. Let's get a one that's recently planted. So I think this one went in a couple of weeks ago and it was literally It's literally just a seedling. The roots are doing very, very well. You can see they're just dripping with water, and yet they're not, for the most part, they're not actually in water. They're in the moisture-rich air. So this system is fed by two small pumps, and the pumps themselves suck air in with the water. They would generally be used for hydroponics. I'll put the link to them in the video description. But they provide aerated water. I'm not sure if you can see the air bubbles going through that pipe there. When they feed all the way up and into the top of there the water is literally fizzing with oxygen so that just creates a really moisture rich air inside of here and as you can see the plants are doing absolutely excellent. That's a bit of Swiss chard I mean Christ you could feed a family of four just on that plant and then here we've got Chinese cabbage which is doing really well it's starting to get a heart and you know hopefully that'll be up here and really Dense in the next few weeks. Middle of winter, bear in mind. You know, north, northern hemisphere. Got perpetual spinach here. Again, that's doing really well. Got a few leaves off that the other night. I mean, they've done really well as well. If I lifted one of those out, I probably would have a problem getting the blooming roots up. Let's pick a little one. There's a small one. Look at that mat of roots, man. That's unbelievable. And they are just sucking the nutrients out of there. It's incredible how well this system has done. I mean, for anybody wanting to grow in a greenhouse or a conservatory, That's the system I would recommend. NFT, it's absolutely brilliant. We've got lights up here. So we've got two small, like, full-spectrum lights for growing. I think they're only, let me, 30, 40 watts each. And they're on a timer. They come on at 7 o'clock in the morning, go off at 6 o'clock at night. Seems to be about right for what I'm growing, because obviously you can see the results are doing really, really well. I'm exceptionally pleased with how well this system is doing, as you can tell. I think we're getting a little bit steamed up there on the lens, but it's not too bad. The nutrients that I use in the containers that feed my various Uh... Hydroponics slash NFT growing systems are from North East Hydroponics. That's a pretty big warehouse based down in Birtley, near Chesterley Street in County Durham. And I was passing there on my way to dropping my son off at the football, and I noticed they had a Hydroponics sign, so I went in there. I was very impressed with what they had. Very impressed with the guy in there as well. I'll just switch that off. I was very impressed with the guy in there as well, who I think may have been called Carl, or Kyle. I didn't actually write his name down, it was a while back. Forgotten his name, but a really nice lad, and he knew exactly what he was on about. I bought a stick to test the nutrients in the mix. I'll just show you that. One of those things there, if anybody's ever done hydroponics, they'll recognise it. Basically does the parts per million, the electrical conductivity, that sort of thing. It tells you... What? Well, I normally use that one. It's got from 100 parts per million up to 1,600 parts per million. So for these sort of things, I think it was recommended somewhere between 450 and 600. So I made it about 500 to 550. That seems to have worked absolutely perfectly. And I'll show you the nutrients that Carl or Kyle recommend us. First one is that. It's called Hydro-Gro. And that is labelled A. So that's got specific nutrients in. Let's have a look. It's got Nitrogen, Ammoniacal, Nitrate, Potassium Oxide and Calcium Oxide. Basically a whole host of nutrients and trace elements. That one goes into the water when you're mixing it up first. You just keep adding a cap full, mixing it up, then you mix the second part in, which is the same stuff but labelled B. Again, Nitrogen, nitrate, phosphorus pentoxide, potassium oxide and magnesium. So it's got pretty much everything that leafy veg needs for growth. But you do need both of them. So basically you just get a cap full of A, mix it in. A cap full of B, mix it in. Get your stick, dunk it in. See where we're at. Okay, it needs some more. Another cap full of A, another cap full of B. And you just keep building it up until you get to your required level of nutrients. That seems to have worked very well, as you can see from behind me. Very, very pleased with it. As I say, I'm very, very pleased with the advice that I got down there, Northeast Hydroponics. I'll put a link to them in the video description. I think they also sell online as well. In fact, they must sell online because the warehouse is huge. It's got absolutely everything that you could possibly need for this sort of system. I've used them and Indoor growing, although obviously because of the nature of the business, it's not really skewed towards growing vegetables indoors or in greenhouses and so on. You know what I mean. Very good place, though. No. And I can just thank Carl or Kyle. These are absolutely excellent. These were actually products that he had on the shelf that he didn't sell because they're really just for growing leafy things. And obviously, most of his customers don't want to grow leaves. They want to grow flowers and buds and so on. That stuff has worked really, really well for me, so I just want to extend my thanks. And I think the name of these is, yes, Intense Nutrients. So, Intense Nutrients Hydro Grow A and B have produced those results. Absolutely excellent. We've got some of the peppers that I grew last year overwintering in here as well. I stripped them all down and put them in fresh compost. Hopefully they'll come away early and come away strong. Not sure. Never overwintered peppers before but I thought I'd give it a go. And then in the other side of the greenhouse we've got some Saracenia... purpurea, which is a pitcher plant. I want to start growing these because apparently the extract from these is a cure for smallpox. Now, of course, we don't have smallpox out in the wild, apparently. We do have it in level four bio weapons labs. And hopefully, if and when it does manage to find its way out of there, we'll just squeeze some of this extract out and we'll be all right. Right. And then in here we've got more peppers and all that as well. I also invested in a couple of wasabi plants because I like my spices, I like my hot food and that fits the bill. I'll probably plant those out somewhere moist and shaded in the spring. Here we've got a massive propagator, which I think I'll put up onto that shelf. It's got lights to go across the top. I'm really hoping to get the plants grown very well in there before I move them into these growing systems. So it's the middle of winter, but there's still plenty happening. I want to try and... Not perfect, because you're never perfect. I want to try and improve my knowledge of growing things in the winter with minimal input as far as light and power goes. And that NFT system, honestly, that has really, really impressed me. It's excellent. And when it gets too hot in the greenhouse, I'll probably move that outside. I think I'll be able to grow lettuce in there. Which I'm really looking forward to. In fact, I'm really looking forward to the spring because I can get all the beds dug over. I can get things planted. I can get them protected and just get a succession of vegetables going. I really... Love being able to grow my own food it tastes amazing the nutrient value will be off the scale compared to what you get in the Supermarkets and it's just good for you You know and if that supply chain breaks down as part of some food chain reaction game hint hint We're pretty well catered for we've got ways to get fish for our protein and also So, uh... crayfish and all sorts in there We've got leafy greens, we've got potatoes, we've got celeriac, we've got fruit, we've got the wild trees growing around the place for more fruit. That's probably, you know, going to be three or four years before they start producing lots, but we're pretty well catered for. I can hunt, trap, shoot. We're not going to be short of rabbits, pheasants, pigeons. Bring it on. Thanks for watching. See you next time.