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Bryan's avatar

Hi from BC Canada Huw. I'm a 72 year old gardener who has followed you on youtube for about 7 years. I'm wondering if your parents would be guests on your podcast. I would think they probably had an influence on your development of the amazing gardener that you are and it would be great to hear from them.

All the best in your new podcast venture.

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Huw Richards's avatar

Very interesting suggestion thank you! I think my dad would be interested for sure, but we shall see what happens as I am trying to navigate having a good boundary between personal and work life.

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Mike Kelly's avatar

Hi Huw, I'm Mike Kelly from Ireland. I think you should invite my namesake Mick Kelly from GIY in Waterford on your show. He has been a huge inspiration to so many people here in Ireland who grow their own food and so many people have stated their own vegetable garden included myself because of him. He had you and Sam on one of his podcasts and it was brilliant. So Huw it would be nice to return the favour. Thanks.

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Huw Richards's avatar

Ahhh yes a fantastic suggestion! Thank you so much Mike!

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Marije's avatar

Garden looks beautiful in autumn! Love your experimental approach

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Huw Richards's avatar

Thank you Marije!

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JC Swanson's avatar

Love your content, thank you so much for sharing.

Do you ever use water compost, like stuffing cuttings into a barrel of water and then watering with it?

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Huw Richards's avatar

You are most welcome. No I do not! Is that like some kind of liquid feed?

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JC Swanson's avatar

Yeah! People call it compost tea or swamp water, just another way to pack nutrients back into the soil. I tried it a little this year but not enough to really tell much of a difference.

David The Good on YouTube is a pretty fun source on the subject.

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Linda Sands's avatar

Can you please invite someone from 'down under' (Australia & New Zealand)? Thanks Huw

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Huw Richards's avatar

Oh there will be many!

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Linda Sands's avatar

YAY!

We're in Spring now. A very busy time. I watch your videos while I'm preparing a meal, or eating it 😁

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Denyse Whillier's avatar

How do you make a verbena bonariensis hedge, Huw? Is it literally a single row of plants?

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Huw Richards's avatar

Yep, single row of plants spaced around 50cm apart. :)

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Denyse Whillier's avatar

Fab, as soon as it stops raining, I’m on it!

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Mike Sammons's avatar

Yes yes yes!! I took the same inspiration from your conversation with Josh. I'm experimenting with covering the chopped plant material with cardboard. Which links to an idea I've had to rename weeds. Just as no dig can become minimal soil disturbance, so plants can be either planned or unplanned vegetation. Crops are planned of course, but unplanned vegetation can be habitat, ground cover, etc. weeds can be thought of as plants in competition with crops.

I was happy to see your tree spinach. I was gifted a single plant in the spring and assumed it would need another to pollinate, but it's covered in seeds.

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Huw Richards's avatar

Oh very interesting about the unplanned vegetation Mike! Sounds like you could develop a whole gardening concept around that, and if you do please do let me know! Best wishes, Huw

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Gill's avatar

Once again, Huw., a great offering to us - ta! So 'real' and accessible, forward looking and a casual format, but packed with invaluable thoughts and info. All topped with spade loads of experimental enthusiasm! Btw - Inverness is worth the trip! Big herb nursery there that you could maybe investigate and you could carry on down a bit to film an update for us on the guys at Tap O' Noth!

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Huw Richards's avatar

Hi Gill! You are most welcome I am so glad you enjoy these! Well funnily enough I will be over at Tap o' Noth at the end of this month ;)

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Gill's avatar

Excellent! Great to know you are back to Aberdeenshire (home to me). You are influencing many many growers round here

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Mike Sammons's avatar

Having just seen your polyculture chat, I now think you are a mind reader. I spent most of the 50 minutes nodding furiously. I would perhaps add that mentioning crop rotation makes me think of plant groups. I usually plant 'by the moon ' not because I'm wedded to the idea that it's beneficial, but it helps clarify my thinking. In the spring, when dozens of seed packets demand to be planted NOW, I see it's a root day and so three quarters of the packets can wait.

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TJ's avatar

I got the same effect this year from growing squash - after years in the same spot I took the risk of moving and building new raised squash beds in a slightly more shady area. The soil quality, my own composts, manures and hugelculture filling style worked well, had zero weeds and as usual grew them all up weld mesh trellises. I harvested over 60 from 20 varieties in under 1m x 10m space that in turn partially shaded a row of brassicas for half the day - as we didn't have any sun this year the only conclusion is that I usually get more squash from the previous set-up and the slugs had more hours in the shade to nibble on the cabbages - already filled all the beds with field beans, cover crops and new mulch and can't wait to run the experiment again in a normal year!

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Nina's avatar

Yes tree spinach related to amaranth

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Hayley Fisher's avatar

I looked up on the tree spinach seeds and it says you can cook and eat them as a grain such as quinoa! 😊

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Caz W's avatar

I love what you’re doing, Huw. I was wondering whether you have any tips for setting up an allotment / Polytunnel watering system where there is no electricity and no mains water? I am disabled, and carrying a watering can is a real challenge. I have mostly raised beds for ease of access.

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Charleen's avatar

Thank you Huw and I'd be more than happy to take some foxgloves off you. 🤗

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Freedom Forest's avatar

Really enjoyed this Huw - so many ideas, inspiration AND excitment 🙌 'Roots in the ground, all year round' is the moto we're trying to follow more and more, whether that be purposeful plantings, weeds or cover crops ... in our tunnels, we've notice a HUGE difference in soil life/activity since growing more all through the winter. LOVE it and more food - YAY!

Regarding Chillies, we have found here (by accident) that certain varieties grow much stronger/fast than others... Always struggled with Cayenne and Jalapeano's are 50/50, then last year we started growing 'Vindaloo' and a mild variety called 'Portuagal' and they are mental! Ripe chillies since beginning of August 🌶️ 💚 Oh and Dan's face lit up when you started talking about ponds 😃 Thanks for a great vid ✌️🌿

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Anja Van Geert's avatar

I used to harvest the seed and leaves from Chenopodium alba, dried them, mixed them with risotto rice and sold this in bags as "wild risotto", people loved it. The seeds would be boiled with the rice, so they'd become quite creamy. As tree spinach is also a Chenopodium species, I'm quite sure the seeds would be lovely to eat as well.

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