Smallholding UK is a channel following me on my journey to be as self sufficient as possible in this modern world, I’ve owned my holding for 17 years but it’s only really the last couple of years through COVID that I’ve decided to quit some of my work and run the holding the way I’ve always wanted to, concentrating mainly on fruit and vegetables and growing my own firewood fuel I also keep bees and some poultry
I’m no expert and make mistakes often but I learn as I go along
So if this sounds interesting to you please subscribe and follow along with my ups and downs to a more self sufficient lifestyle
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I did a roadtrip in May 2024 in Iceland. 10 days, 10 different campsites and this tent was always perfect. Rain or wind ? no problem. This fresh & black thing is working... maybe to much ^^
Hello, thank you for your video. Did you have a follow up on this? I was thinking of doing something simiar and looking for videos if anyone has done it already and how it worked out. Thanks
I didn’t follow up no, sorry, but yes it did do quite well but not as good as some my mate grew in a pot of compost
I loved going to Christmas Common watching the Red kites, such a beautiful place. One tried to take one of my chickens here in North Shropshire.
Yeah it’s a lovely place. Was it an adult chicken ?
@SmallholdingUK Yes , the chickens were around 3 years old. Luckily, I was working in the field opposite.
Great review. Thanks!
Glad it was helpful!
Looks great! Im not sure whether to get this or the 2 seconds xl pop up tent. How tall are you, I'm 6 foot and worried that the one you have will be too small.
I’m only 5’7” but there’s a fair bit of space each end I don’t think at 6’ you would be touching each end
had the same thing happen
4:45 the bacteria and the "molds" are what you want when you're doing this kind of ferment lol wiping the outside is good cus its sticky and will attract bugs but the inside you can let be
Bacteria yes but I’m sure you don’t want fuzzy mould as it just completely takes over, it’s just something I do with all my ferments either for fertiliser or fermented vegetables for eating as I’ve found anything above the water line so to speak is much more vulnerable to mould growth, it only takes a few seconds and doesn’t hurt
I like that idea but I have a little hint for you to get you up and running quicker. Why not buy some watercress from the shop and submerge that in water and it will route quite quickly and give you a faster crop just to get you started while your seeds develop. I personally grow mine in a flood and drain system in clay pellets and the shop watercress doubles its size in about a week so it's a very fast way of growing also a bag of watercress is just over a pound a bag watercress seeds although a lot in a packet are over £3 usually
Your right I have done this last year and it’s actually way easier than growing from seed 👍
My best bit of kit for bad back is a medical back brace, you have to be refered by your Dr and go get measured up, had to pay for it, £47 ~15yrs ago, it's a bit like a cross between a wide weight lifting belt and a girdle, velcros together and really provides a lot of support, I wear it anytime I'm doing anything that involves leaning forward a lot, specially bench work, or tunring over the compost pile, I have 2 broken bones in my back causing a spondylolisthesis and 4 degenerated discs, a bad sneeze can put me in A&E, so the brace has been a life saver letting me get on with most things, highly recomended if you suffer with a bad back, I can do 4 times the work with it on compared to without it before I have to take a break.
Sounds interesting I’ll have a google 👍
Love it, looks a bit weird but if it does the job, great. I am getting bad knees so I may well buy one.
I’ve seen someone in the us testing one. But yes I was like ohhh looks interesting
Well done to your Son :)
You could use frozen strawberries for smoothies too.😊 If you happen to read this, I'm wondering how the electroculture went. I couldn't find a follow up video.
Yeah I had about 6 kgs of strawberries in the freezer it’s kept my daughter in smoothies right up until the new ones started coming in😊 I started a bit late with the electroculture last year and didn’t notice much difference to be honest, but this year I’ve done a 3 bed trial, 3 beds with 3 beds without antennas planted the same, I’ve just been very busy and not really done much videoing unfortunately but I’ll maybe do one end of season to compare the beds 👍
@@SmallholdingUK thank you! I'd love to see an update on it. No point in doing them if they don't do anything. You're video was the first I heard of it.
Lmao, the copper crown 😂😂😂
Needless to say it didn’t work 😆 I’m still only 5’ 7”
Where are all the men like you hiding?
That was corny. My comment I mean 😂, I am here to learn how to wrap the blooming copper as there are so many videos. 😂
In the back gardens outta sight!! 😂
same for me in Belgium on the 11 and 12 of June
Crazy, hope you haven’t lost to much
@@SmallholdingUK the tops of tomatoes, potatoes are burned, the courgettes and pumpkins took the heaviest hit, but there is a chance they will recover. I have a patch which was a bit more protected and that is fine albeit quite small. We'll see, lessons learned for next year to take action when I see temperature less than 5 Celsius at night
Gutted! I hope they recover ok. Mad season
It’s been a chilly June, nights anyway, I’ve had quite a few under 6c and that damage on potatoes was at 2c
What’s a great video? How many times can you say two seconds?😂 I would love to know how waterproof it is as I’m looking at getting one myself and I’d love to know where you get your pop-up awning from?
😆thanks My pop up gazebo is from gorilla gazebos
Molasses feeds bacteria mostly, if that’s what you are after, then so be it. Microbes do not all eat the same foods Fungi would rather have humic acid, or kelp. The food you use , matters. I use many inoculates to inoculate, so select bacteria and fungi, Mostly fungi dominate. And never use molasses, my bacteria counts are fine. It’s fungi that’s the problem area, and that’s pretty common for most soils. Just saying.
Yeah I think I said you can use all sorts of things to inoculate, I just chucked it in because I had it, I put anything in from worm castings to compost to chicken pellets and also any of my homemade liquid feeds that I make I don’t get to anal about it it’s all good stuff 👍
So I've been researching these ovens hoping to buy one. Because you burnt yours on top of a wet wooden decking yours is the only video that I've seen - out of about 10 - that conveys the amount of heat it kicks out. I was happy to burn it inside of my tent on top of the ground sheet thinking the legs would be high enough to keep the heat off the floor. Yep, I will be sure to buy a heat resisting mat to put it on. Thanks for sharing. I hope you have many evenings with a beer on your allotment cosied up to your stove.
It’s a great little stove, I’ve just had my 50th last week and among my presents was the water tank to fit my size stove so I’m looking forward to trying that out
@@SmallholdingUK Have a good one 👍👍
Thank you
😂😂
I have heard that magnetism proceeds in a southwest direction, I would translate as clockwise.
I missed this one. ❤
How old where they at this time?
Not sure, must of been about 5 months old I think
To hot water can kill your Scobie
Yes I brewed the tea let it cool then added the scoby, it’s gone really well I’ve done a few brews now and moved to a 5lt jar and next week I’ll be swapping to an 8lt jar, I’m loving the buch 😊
I am confused, do you wrap the wire clockwise from the side or end view?
It is confusing I’ve seen it done all different ways, I wound them clockwise up the cane from the bottom but some said I did it wrong others said it’s the right way 🤷♂️
I like your design. Only thing I would add is the end of your wire should always face North.
What so you mean I should bend the 6” over the top of the cane pointing north ?
@@SmallholdingUK yes, just something I learned online.
Beautiful, thank you for sharing
how do you keep the rats from making leaves as their nest/home ? I had set piles of leaf bags in the corner of my backyard and next thing I know is the rats chewed trough the bag and were nesting in them.
I did have a really bad problem with rats last winter and ended up having to put bait down to get on top of them, I did have some in my compost piles but that’s the first time, it’s usually rabbits digging into them
@@SmallholdingUK Yeah I am having the same problem. I never had rats in my compost pile until this year and I have been composting since past 3 years. The only difference this year is that I collected a lot of leaf bags as my carbon source and kept them in the corner of my backyard to use them in this spring. Now I see rats in my compost as well as in the corner where all the leave bags are. It is really discouraging me from having to compost
Superbeautifull place to cut, be carefull to not cut yourself, i cut myself tree weeks ago in the foot, 5 days in hospital and now walking like a duck.... I think from now on i will were some protection!
Ooo that sounds painful, I’m terrible I have chainsaw trouser and boots but I must admit I don’t always wear them
That’s gorgeous, and there not cheap.
She gave me 2 of them but I left one at our shop when we sold up
I'm new to understanding fire wood. How is firewood rated? Like how much heat can you get from this? Is there an equation of the weight and type of wood to BTU or something like that?
There is btu values online I think for different types of wood that’s been dried to a certain % I don’t know them off hand, I just try to grow the best wood I can quickly and where I am this seems to be silver birch which burns quite quick and hot then sycamore which is a bit longer burning and then various other bits like older hazel, hawthorn and of course the best is my ash trees but nearly all have dieback unfortunately
wood is about 8000 btu per pounds dry. The difference comes from the density of the wood species
Any hints on stopping the squirrels eating them. I bought 3kg last Autumn and planted them out as they germinared in a bag of compost. Squirrels ate 99% in a night.
I keep them off the floor to stop mice and I put chicken mesh over to stop squirrels It has worked so far
This will be my first year trying too! I like in a suburb with an average back yard but am still excited! I only gave 2 seeds tho!
Good luck!
I plant my main crop spuds around the 15th-20th of April but I buy the cheap dust sheets from homebargain as a fleece with straw on top of the containers as this will stop any late frost damage, I have copper pipes under the buckets to deter slugs and seems to reduce them eating foilage. Those number of buckets look impressive all lined up and well done.
Thank you 🙏
Hiya, I'm definitely going to have a go germinating hazels with the method you used. Do you think it would be okay to mix in other seeds like acorns/conkers/beech nuts in the same container? Many thanks
I don’t see why not, I’ve not had much luck with beech nuts when I tried a few years ago Good luck with it 👍
Thank you :) , oh really the beech nuts didn't germinate in leaf mould?
Not a single one but it was a very dry year so possibly they were unviable I’m not sure
I love some ducks
Another great video! I've gone with Pink Fir Apple and Sarpo Mira this year in a similar set up to yours.... Don't think i'll get 350kg though!
I’ve not tried pink fir apple but sarpo mira are a good one I’ve done before 👍
thanks for the update,what else are you aiming to be self sufficient with ?
This year fully with potatoes as there a staple, but I’m increasing my parsnips also, love a roast parsnip, more carrots this year and beans green beans and borlotti and czar for drying then strawberries and raspberries also I grow loads enough to freeze for winter use
I do mine in a very similar manor, I found woodchip or grass clippings round the bottom encourages roots to extend into the soil, higher yeild than when I had them on concrete, birds n moles get stuck into it so it must be full of life, I trialed different home made composts last yr some with BF&B some without, no difference in yeild surprised me. I start mine in the GH planted St paddys day, brought them out this week, poor light levels made them stretch a bit so I also used the builders bag pins and string to stop the flop, works well, they've just started flowering. I've not got a watering system tho, it does get a bit tedious in hot weather, maybe a project for next yr, this yr's project is a chicken plucker from a washing machine, just gathered all the parts!
Yeah I’m pretty new to container growing so I’m hoping they will do well this year Good luck with the chicken plucker 👍
Lovely what a bit of sunshine can do for us gardeners.
😎 👍
Nice detailed video this one mate really enjoyed it. Don’t forget with feeding the squash plants you can use vermicompost and make worm tea/ compost tea and feed them that. If you have the ability in vermicompost.
Yes I will definitely be doing that and adding a scoop or two at planting time it’s fantastic stuff 👍
there’s a guy on here name will survives trying to figure out his gardening situation as he builds a homestead in the middle of the mountains and could probably use your insight on gardening as his last video was about potatoes and plants dying and it’s all to prepare for food to eat in the winter
If you aren't gonna turn the pile to aerate, you can probably wet the leaf mulch down with nonchlorinated water and throw a tarp over it. You will get a faster breakdown due to saving the moisture and keeping the sun off the outside of the pile. That has been my experience, anyways. I am in a slightly warmer climate than UK.
My big piles I turn after one year and fluff up with my tiller then I use from second year The 2 year not touched pile was just to see how it looked and to be honest it was just as well broken down All my water down here is rain water I have no mains I have put a tarp on my second year pile now more to keep the rain off as it was very wet this winter but I’ll leave it on I think as like you say keeps it moist now we’re getting warmer days 👍
You’ll probably find chokes coming up in that bed year after year because they regrow from the tiniest tuber. I grow mine in pots for that reason and they do well.
Yep 😆 I’ve got loads coming up now, it’s easy to miss little bits, there coming up in the Woodchip path around the bed aswell
Yes, the slugs are a real pain. I picked about 20 slugs off my sweet peas yesterday evening in the rain. Went out tonight and picked another 5 off. Hopefully that has reduced the population in the area enough to let the sweet peas grow now.
I'm growing Uchiki Kuri for the first time this year too. Crown Prince I've grown for the last 4 years and they are excellent to eat. They also store exceptionally well. I just finished my last one from last year which was just sitting on my kitchen windowsill for 6+ months. Only issue I have with Crown Prince is the large size. 3 of mine were over 5kg last year which I just find too big as only two of us at our house will eat them. OK if you have a big family who love squash though. That's why I'm trying the Uchiki Kuri this year to get a few smaller sized squash that can be eaten in one or two meals. I might try planting a couple of Crown Prince Squash right next to each other and not feed them to try and limit the size of them although not sure if that will work. Fruit that are too big is not a terrible problem to have I suppose.
Yeah I like to try different squash, 2 good smaller ones are jack be little and my favourite honey boat, really nice that one
@@SmallholdingUK Not tried honey boat. They look nice though. Might try next year. I actually have some jack be little seeds and I'm planning on sowing some this week.
👍
Nice one, With your Spag squash you roast them, Cut in half get rid of the seed and roast them cut side down for 20-30 mins take out of the oven and scrap out the flesh with a fork put a bit of butter on and some salt and pepper Yum. thanks for the video.
Cheers, I’ll try that 👍