Tropical Abundance, Don't Forget the Insects & Energy Concentration | Huw's Garden Journal #6

From sweet potatoes to the overlooked aspect of garden health, a collection of notes from the last week.

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Hello and a very warm welcome back to the journal.

Firstly, I just have to say a massive thank you to all of you who watched and commented on the first Huw’s Garden Diaries video! It feels is so good to have it back, made possible by those of you who support me on Substack!

You may have seen on YouTube that I’m taking a little break for a few weeks, however, the Diaries are continuing, and the next one will be on Saturday the 14th September, which is also the day Alma Proust open their seed shop to their newsletter subscribers. 

By the way, in case you missed it in the last journal, there is an opportunity to win a free ticket to my next 5-day Permaculture Kitchen Garden course, this info is at the end of this video. The image below is of the thumbnail photo I took for the video.

A Tropical Trip

I spent the weekend at a rather special place. I travelled down towards the South coast of England to hang out with Dan and Laurie of Freedom Forest Life, and wasn’t quite expecting to be so inspired by the trip.

Dan and Laurie are such amazing people, full of stories and ideas, and their passion for nature and experimentation shows in how they tend to their 3-acre parcel of land. I can’t forget to mention their loyal companion, Murphy, a 12-year old collie from New Zealand who sneakily pulls out carrots to munch on!

The inspiration for me was seeing a really interesting blend of tropical plants growing in a temperate climate. Dan has spent many years living with indigenous tribes around the world, and has come away with a deep passion on how to grow some of their staple crops, but in the UK. These include many tubers such as Taro, Yacon, and Sweet potatoes, and one of the videos we filmed covered 8 edible tubers they are growing outdoors.

Dan mentioned that they have had particularly good success with growing a variety of sweet potato called ‘Tainong 65’ outside, and so I will be giving that a grow next year.

Another video filmed was a detailed sit down chat with me and Dan, having an honest chat about growing native versus non-native plants, and the role non-natives play for their self-sufficiency, and how they fit into the permaculture design considerations. These videos will be out on my YouTube channel over winter, but will do early releases for paid Substackers over the next few weeks (as for the inspiring garden series). 

Thanks to my call out for places to visit and film, I am heading down to Devon in mid-September to visits a few interesting places, including Incredible Vegetables which I am particularly excited about.

Thank you once again to Dan, Laurie, and Murphy for a fantastic visit, you can check out their YouTube channel here, and the image below is part of their project area.

The Garden 

Having been away from the garden for almost a week, today I finally popped back to see what has been happening, and as per usual, the growth has been incredible, I am really enjoying the diversity of textures and colours in the kitchen garden (image below) and the pollinator activity today was noticeably high. I’ve been especially blown away by how popular the Korean Mint is with bumblebees - I think I will grow a whole border of it next year!

I did come back to a collapsed tomato plant (Black Russian - perhaps my favourite beefsteak variety) which seems to only ever happen if I’ve been away a few days, but fortunately the stem had not snapped. Most importantly, my unnetted brassicas did not succumb to any cabbage white caterpillar decimations, which is always a risk I take.

Thought of the week: Don’t forget the insects

Yesterday I visited Peni Ediker (who I visit on a monthly basis) to finish filming for an online course about composting and soil health, and whilst the camera was there, we decided to have a bit of a chat about beneficial insects. I won’t say much more as you can listen to the conversation below, but it's an important reminder that often too much emphasis is placed on soil for garden health, when in reality, a more holistic approach is needed. 

Skill of the week | Concentrate energy

This is a nice, easy one for you this week! As autumn approaches, I begin to make sure that my fruiting crops focus on what is already present rather than exerting energy on future fruits, which, at least for me in zone 8, Wales, will most likely not amount to anything to write home about. I remove any new flowers forming on tomatoes and winter squash so that the plants can concentrate on maturing the fruits that have already set. Plus, all squash flowers are edible. 

The next week or so consists of creating illustrations for a very exciting project which I cannot wait to share with you, plus I will be sowing seeds for undercover abundance, and sharing a couple of recipes this week for paid members (including my favourite way to eat beetroot).

If you too fancy doing some seed sowing, the latest weekly what-to-sow list can be found here.

Catch you again soon,

Huw

PS - If you fancy something a little different, and can make it to the incredible Knepp Estate in West Sussex on the 19th of September, I’d love to invite you to my author evening, where there is an incredible meal lined up and a really fun discussion with me, Charlie Harpur (Knepp Head Gardener), and Rosanna (Knepp Market Gardener). You can book here: https://www.sevenrooms.com/experiences/kneppwildingkitchen/author-supper-with-huw-richards-6128632900321280