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I'm Alys Fowler. I'm a gardener and a writer. | 0:00:04 | 0:00:08 | |
I grew up in the countryside, but now my husband and I live in the city. | 0:00:11 | 0:00:16 | |
I get pleasure from simple things. | 0:00:18 | 0:00:21 | |
Home-baked bread... | 0:00:21 | 0:00:23 | |
..home-grown vegetables, | 0:00:25 | 0:00:27 | |
and making things from what I find around me. | 0:00:27 | 0:00:29 | |
'This is my garden, a small Victorian terrace backyard, 20 foot by 60.' | 0:00:32 | 0:00:38 | |
Isabel, don't pee there! Isabel... | 0:00:38 | 0:00:42 | |
'This year, I'm experimenting. | 0:00:42 | 0:00:45 | |
'I'm trying to avoid shop-bought fruit and veg and live off my own home-grown produce. | 0:00:45 | 0:00:50 | |
'But this won't be easy because I want my garden to be both productive and beautiful.' | 0:00:50 | 0:00:55 | |
Heaven. Heaven is a home-grown cucumber. | 0:00:57 | 0:01:00 | |
'Each week, I'll focus on different foods. | 0:01:03 | 0:01:06 | |
'From salads to peas, courgettes to tomatoes, even edible flowers, | 0:01:06 | 0:01:11 | |
'and show how anyone can grow, cook and eat from their own garden, even if you live in a city.' | 0:01:11 | 0:01:17 | |
It's the end of April and it's predictably raining. | 0:01:24 | 0:01:28 | |
And this is the beginning of my summer of making the garden both as | 0:01:28 | 0:01:35 | |
productive as it possibly can be and as pretty as it possibly can be. | 0:01:35 | 0:01:40 | |
And, to do that, there are plants in the garden that need to come out and lots of veg that need to go in. | 0:01:40 | 0:01:48 | |
In order to get as much food in here as possible, I need to get rid of | 0:01:48 | 0:01:52 | |
some things which just aren't really helping my cause. This cistus | 0:01:52 | 0:01:57 | |
not only is half-dead, | 0:01:57 | 0:01:58 | |
I can't eat it and I don't think it's that pretty, so it has to go because this is a good spot. | 0:01:58 | 0:02:04 | |
I don't want my garden to look like an allotment. I want my garden to look like a garden. | 0:02:08 | 0:02:13 | |
So I'm going to grow my vegetables in groups | 0:02:16 | 0:02:19 | |
that will look pretty together and grow happily side-by-side. | 0:02:19 | 0:02:22 | |
In my new and beautiful garden, this bit will have some chickens. | 0:02:25 | 0:02:30 | |
This is my compost heap, my huge, ginormous compost heap. | 0:02:30 | 0:02:34 | |
This bit over here is, | 0:02:34 | 0:02:37 | |
sort of, raspberries, rhubarb, strawberries, apple. | 0:02:37 | 0:02:41 | |
And then, coming up through here is potato, garlic, | 0:02:41 | 0:02:47 | |
wilder salad things. | 0:02:47 | 0:02:50 | |
There's a big sweep of garlic here. | 0:02:50 | 0:02:53 | |
There's going to be more kales, more Swiss chard and... | 0:02:53 | 0:02:57 | |
Jerusalem artichokes there. | 0:02:57 | 0:03:00 | |
More lettuce. | 0:03:00 | 0:03:02 | |
Peas growing up all the way through the rose. More lettuce through here. | 0:03:02 | 0:03:08 | |
I think I'm going to have a broad bean moment over there. | 0:03:08 | 0:03:11 | |
Lots of lettuce, can't have too much lettuce. And then some courgettes, | 0:03:11 | 0:03:17 | |
probably where these geraniums are. | 0:03:17 | 0:03:19 | |
So, at the very bottom, down by the shed, I'm going to grow some squash. | 0:03:19 | 0:03:24 | |
And I'm hoping that my neighbours might not mind if I let the squash go up and onto their roof | 0:03:24 | 0:03:29 | |
because it's really sunny up there, and I'll give them half the squash. | 0:03:29 | 0:03:34 | |
And, if there's any space left, I'll put some flowers in it. | 0:03:34 | 0:03:38 | |
People always think of flowers as the pretty bit of the garden, | 0:03:40 | 0:03:43 | |
but there are just as many beautiful vegetables. | 0:03:43 | 0:03:45 | |
And a great place to start is with one particular family known for its | 0:03:45 | 0:03:49 | |
charming flowers and, of course, its wonderfully nutritious pods. | 0:03:49 | 0:03:53 | |
French beans, runner beans, broad beans and mange tout all taste best when picked fresh. | 0:04:01 | 0:04:07 | |
And there is nothing fresher than your own garden. | 0:04:10 | 0:04:12 | |
You can even make cocktails out of some of them. | 0:04:15 | 0:04:17 | |
This year, I'm going to let go of more traditional growing methods | 0:04:19 | 0:04:23 | |
and plant my vegetables amongst my flowers and shrubs. | 0:04:23 | 0:04:25 | |
I'll need to put them where they'll get the best conditions, but I also | 0:04:25 | 0:04:30 | |
want to enjoy the beauty they're going to bring to the garden. | 0:04:30 | 0:04:34 | |
It's April, and first to be planted out are my broad beans which I sowed | 0:04:41 | 0:04:45 | |
back in February in trays filled with shop-bought compost. | 0:04:45 | 0:04:50 | |
I'm growing | 0:04:50 | 0:04:52 | |
most of my plants in modules. | 0:04:52 | 0:04:56 | |
I find it such an efficient way to grow because you raise almost perfect plants away from the slugs. | 0:04:56 | 0:05:03 | |
There's no problem with the seed rotting off in the soil. | 0:05:03 | 0:05:06 | |
But also, as space becomes available, you can just drop it in. | 0:05:06 | 0:05:11 | |
So it's going to be a constant kind of... | 0:05:11 | 0:05:14 | |
constantly tending | 0:05:14 | 0:05:18 | |
because I don't want one plant to overcrowd or compete too much for light with the other one. | 0:05:18 | 0:05:24 | |
I don't think you should ever feel that plants are overwhelming you. | 0:05:24 | 0:05:28 | |
You don't think much of this gardening lark, do you, Iz? No. | 0:05:31 | 0:05:36 | |
Coming? | 0:05:36 | 0:05:38 | |
One thing is for sure. | 0:05:40 | 0:05:42 | |
All my plants need a healthy home in which to flourish, | 0:05:42 | 0:05:45 | |
and that means feeding the poor soil that I've inherited. | 0:05:45 | 0:05:48 | |
I've had to dig in bags of compost. | 0:05:48 | 0:05:52 | |
Now I'm beginning to reap the benefits. | 0:05:52 | 0:05:55 | |
But I need to address some of my planting scheme. | 0:05:55 | 0:05:59 | |
Part of the issue with this kind of gardening is that you've constantly got to nip | 0:05:59 | 0:06:04 | |
other plants out and give space and light so that the one crop | 0:06:04 | 0:06:09 | |
you do want can get going, and then they can all muddle together. | 0:06:09 | 0:06:13 | |
So, in this garden, I decide how big a plant's going to get, not the plant. | 0:06:13 | 0:06:16 | |
Which means I have to be brave | 0:06:16 | 0:06:19 | |
and pull at things. | 0:06:19 | 0:06:21 | |
My peas and beans are going to need supports to grow up, | 0:06:24 | 0:06:28 | |
and I have this idea in my head that I want to add a kind of sculptural, slightly crazy, hippie, makeshift... | 0:06:28 | 0:06:35 | |
I just don't want tripods all over the place. | 0:06:35 | 0:06:37 | |
So I have a friend over who's an incredible weaver | 0:06:37 | 0:06:41 | |
and maker of beautiful things out of willow and whatnot, just to give a whole new element to the garden. | 0:06:41 | 0:06:47 | |
At least that's the idea in my head. | 0:06:47 | 0:06:49 | |
My local park has a woodland area that they coppice, | 0:06:53 | 0:06:56 | |
and I've got permission for Sally and I to collect what we need. | 0:06:56 | 0:07:00 | |
What kinds of material are we looking for? | 0:07:00 | 0:07:05 | |
I mean, willow's an obvious one. But can you get away with, say, using a bit of oak? | 0:07:05 | 0:07:10 | |
Yeah. If it will bend, then you can weave it. | 0:07:10 | 0:07:13 | |
It doesn't matter if it's oak or ash or hazel. | 0:07:13 | 0:07:16 | |
-Anything that you've cut down. -Why is willow so good, I suppose? | 0:07:16 | 0:07:19 | |
Lots and lots of reasons. | 0:07:19 | 0:07:21 | |
I mean, it's traditionally been used to make baskets | 0:07:21 | 0:07:24 | |
and weaving for centuries, so there's a reason why it was chosen. | 0:07:24 | 0:07:27 | |
And it grows very fast. | 0:07:27 | 0:07:29 | |
So these will be last year's growth, and you've got nearly 10 foot. | 0:07:29 | 0:07:35 | |
-You can see why, it just is so flexible, isn't it? -It's gorgeous. | 0:07:35 | 0:07:39 | |
You get all the shapes. | 0:07:39 | 0:07:41 | |
-You can really use your imagination. -There's some stuff that's | 0:07:41 | 0:07:44 | |
been cut because the park just cut it and then leave it as a habitat, rotting-down patch. | 0:07:44 | 0:07:51 | |
So what you want to do, Alys, is just pull out a bundle. | 0:07:51 | 0:07:55 | |
So if we can make up a bundle of some thick bits and some thin bits. | 0:07:55 | 0:07:58 | |
-And as long as it's... -Nice and bendy, yeah. | 0:07:58 | 0:08:01 | |
Right, I can see some thin bits down at the bottom here. | 0:08:01 | 0:08:05 | |
I've been lucky enough to collect my own willow locally, but it's easy to | 0:08:08 | 0:08:12 | |
buy over the internet, with many suppliers being happy to deliver. | 0:08:12 | 0:08:17 | |
I feel like a proper kind of harvester now. | 0:08:17 | 0:08:20 | |
Before my plants start flopping all over the place, | 0:08:33 | 0:08:35 | |
Sally is going to teach me how to make a beautiful plant support. | 0:08:35 | 0:08:39 | |
Right, OK, let's go with those. | 0:08:39 | 0:08:43 | |
To just help it to bend, you just put it | 0:08:43 | 0:08:45 | |
on your knee, you don't have to press too hard, | 0:08:45 | 0:08:47 | |
-pull it across the knee. -It's just amazing how much it starts working with you. -Yeah. | 0:08:47 | 0:08:54 | |
It starts to suggest to the fibres inside that that's what they want to do. And that gives you your bend. | 0:08:54 | 0:09:01 | |
'You don't need string to hold it all together, you can use another plant.' | 0:09:01 | 0:09:05 | |
Sue, can I have some of your phormium leaves? | 0:09:05 | 0:09:10 | |
-Is that enough? -Plenty. | 0:09:10 | 0:09:13 | |
'Fortunately, my neighbour, Sue, has a large phormium. | 0:09:13 | 0:09:17 | |
'Sally wants to use the strong fibrous leaves to tie our frame together.' | 0:09:17 | 0:09:21 | |
'Plant supports can be expensive to buy. | 0:09:32 | 0:09:34 | |
'But my lobster pots have cost nothing but a few hours of my time and, once the plants have died back, | 0:09:34 | 0:09:41 | |
'they'll still give some shape to the border.' | 0:09:41 | 0:09:43 | |
There we go. | 0:09:49 | 0:09:51 | |
Well, I don't think it's... | 0:09:51 | 0:09:54 | |
a piece of art. | 0:09:54 | 0:09:55 | |
But I said I wanted organic. | 0:09:58 | 0:10:00 | |
But from up here, it looks nice and natural, it really blends in with the garden. | 0:10:00 | 0:10:04 | |
This will be perfect | 0:10:06 | 0:10:11 | |
for the peas. | 0:10:11 | 0:10:13 | |
One of the sources of my inspiration for growing flowers and vegetables together is permaculture. | 0:10:16 | 0:10:21 | |
This simply means observing how nature works | 0:10:21 | 0:10:25 | |
and then trying to do the same thing in your own garden. | 0:10:25 | 0:10:29 | |
Living proof of its success is the Harland family, | 0:10:32 | 0:10:36 | |
who have been gardening this way for over 20 years. | 0:10:36 | 0:10:38 | |
You could say this whole landscape is quite wild, but actually we see it as | 0:10:38 | 0:10:44 | |
a nature reserve that grows food for us as a family. | 0:10:44 | 0:10:48 | |
Their daughters, Hayley and Gail, have grown up with Mum and Dad's passion for permaculture. | 0:10:48 | 0:10:54 | |
Their garden is also their other baby. | 0:10:54 | 0:10:58 | |
They spend more time in the garden than with us! | 0:10:58 | 0:11:01 | |
When they started, many people thought it | 0:11:01 | 0:11:04 | |
a hippie approach to gardening and that it wouldn't really work. | 0:11:04 | 0:11:07 | |
The way we garden is using permaculture principles. | 0:11:09 | 0:11:13 | |
We create a garden that invites lots of wildlife into it, | 0:11:13 | 0:11:18 | |
invites lots of predators for pests, so that all that you see | 0:11:18 | 0:11:23 | |
is completely unsprayed, it's a completely organic system. | 0:11:23 | 0:11:27 | |
We designed it with zoning. | 0:11:30 | 0:11:32 | |
Zoning is a permaculture design idea whereby you | 0:11:32 | 0:11:37 | |
put the things closest to the house that need the most attention. | 0:11:37 | 0:11:43 | |
So you'd have your most delicate salad plants, your tender flowers. | 0:11:43 | 0:11:48 | |
As you move outward, away from the home, you then site the fruit trees | 0:11:48 | 0:11:54 | |
and then the larger nut trees, the wilder hedgerows that need very little attention. | 0:11:54 | 0:12:01 | |
And it's a nice way to make a garden. | 0:12:01 | 0:12:05 | |
We don't fuss around the edges, as I think you can possibly see, | 0:12:05 | 0:12:08 | |
but the food's there. That's what matters. | 0:12:08 | 0:12:11 | |
But the principles behind it can | 0:12:11 | 0:12:14 | |
be taken and shrunken down to any scale. Even if you've got a patio, you can apply the same principles. | 0:12:14 | 0:12:20 | |
What have you got? | 0:12:22 | 0:12:24 | |
Gooseberries, loganberries, Worcester berries. | 0:12:24 | 0:12:29 | |
Everything I could find, really. | 0:12:30 | 0:12:33 | |
I love it because it's given me the opportunity to be a bit more healthy. | 0:12:33 | 0:12:37 | |
It's nice because it's, like, you think that you can get more | 0:12:39 | 0:12:42 | |
in the supermarkets and stuff, but actually you've got so much that you can get in a garden. | 0:12:42 | 0:12:47 | |
And also, you don't get Worcester berries and stuff from everywhere. | 0:12:47 | 0:12:50 | |
So you get seasonal things. | 0:12:50 | 0:12:53 | |
Sometimes we'll be having blackberry and apple crumbles and stuff, and then other times we'll be making... | 0:12:53 | 0:12:58 | |
-Every berry. -Every berry. -Every berry coulis. | 0:12:58 | 0:13:02 | |
This garden is very much about not purchasing a lot of commercial | 0:13:02 | 0:13:08 | |
materials for the garden, but to try and set up a reasonably self-sustaining system. | 0:13:08 | 0:13:15 | |
We don't all have to totally change the world overnight, but we do all need to play our part. | 0:13:15 | 0:13:23 | |
And if we do that collectively, we can make a huge difference. | 0:13:23 | 0:13:26 | |
It's May, and the weather has turned unseasonably warm. | 0:13:37 | 0:13:40 | |
Now that it's getting hot, it's really important to start mulching around the vegetables | 0:13:40 | 0:13:46 | |
because this not only keeps the weeds down, but it locks in and conserves the moisture. | 0:13:46 | 0:13:53 | |
And this is just blended | 0:13:53 | 0:13:57 | |
farmyard manure and compost | 0:13:57 | 0:13:59 | |
which I've clearly bought from a shop because I don't have | 0:13:59 | 0:14:03 | |
quite enough of my own compost at this point. | 0:14:03 | 0:14:05 | |
When I water, I'm not losing it | 0:14:05 | 0:14:10 | |
straight to the air. | 0:14:10 | 0:14:13 | |
And beans have a critical period when they start to flower and they're beginning to set fruit | 0:14:15 | 0:14:22 | |
and turn into long pods, and they need a lot of water at this point. | 0:14:22 | 0:14:26 | |
And if they get in any way checked | 0:14:26 | 0:14:30 | |
by the lack of moisture, then you don't get good beans. | 0:14:30 | 0:14:34 | |
Every day, I come out into this garden and I just am amazed by it. | 0:14:41 | 0:14:46 | |
I want to look at it constantly, I want to be in it and I want to just see how it evolves. | 0:14:46 | 0:14:51 | |
And this seems so much more gentle, this approach. It doesn't seem to be | 0:14:51 | 0:14:56 | |
bogged down in these strict things that you must do this at this point, | 0:14:56 | 0:15:01 | |
and you must water it at this point. | 0:15:01 | 0:15:04 | |
It just seems to be more free... | 0:15:04 | 0:15:08 | |
and fluid. | 0:15:08 | 0:15:10 | |
And nature seems more responsive off it. | 0:15:10 | 0:15:15 | |
And now I do sound like a crazy hippie! | 0:15:15 | 0:15:20 | |
Oh, well. | 0:15:20 | 0:15:21 | |
As a child, my mum kept chickens | 0:15:21 | 0:15:26 | |
and I loved them, so it's something I want to do, too. | 0:15:26 | 0:15:30 | |
Today, the chickens arrive, which is one step closer to me | 0:15:30 | 0:15:34 | |
becoming a little bit more self-sufficient-ish, at least. | 0:15:34 | 0:15:37 | |
Because the chickens will close a loop within the garden. | 0:15:37 | 0:15:41 | |
I'll be able to recycle a lot more of my kitchen waste through them. | 0:15:41 | 0:15:45 | |
I'll get eggs. And then they'll give me chicken manure, which will make the whole garden grow richer. | 0:15:45 | 0:15:52 | |
'So, it's a nice little cycle. | 0:15:52 | 0:15:55 | |
'I suppose. | 0:15:56 | 0:15:58 | |
'There are rules on where you can keep chickens, so it's worth checking | 0:16:02 | 0:16:06 | |
'with your local authority planning office before you take the plunge.' | 0:16:06 | 0:16:10 | |
Move this out the way... | 0:16:10 | 0:16:11 | |
All right? | 0:16:13 | 0:16:14 | |
Ah. | 0:16:17 | 0:16:19 | |
Can we go get the chickens? | 0:16:19 | 0:16:21 | |
We can go get the chickens, yes. | 0:16:21 | 0:16:23 | |
No problem at all. | 0:16:23 | 0:16:25 | |
The exciting bit. | 0:16:27 | 0:16:29 | |
-All ready for you. -Hello, girls. | 0:16:31 | 0:16:34 | |
That's it. And if you stroke her and talk to her... | 0:16:37 | 0:16:41 | |
-Hello. -..you've got a friend for life. | 0:16:41 | 0:16:43 | |
'I've chosen 18-week-old chickens called point of lay because they're almost ready to start laying. | 0:16:43 | 0:16:49 | |
'And, at this age, they cost about £15.' | 0:16:49 | 0:16:51 | |
That one's feisty. | 0:16:51 | 0:16:53 | |
A speckledy. | 0:16:54 | 0:16:56 | |
Lay you some nice dark brown eggs. | 0:16:56 | 0:17:00 | |
'I've got a bluebell and a speckled hen | 0:17:00 | 0:17:03 | |
'who I'm naming after Gertrude Stein and Alice B Toklas.' | 0:17:03 | 0:17:07 | |
Chickens are basically easy to look after, but you do have to clip their wings to stop them from flying away. | 0:17:07 | 0:17:13 | |
That's one bit I'm not looking forward to. | 0:17:13 | 0:17:15 | |
What we've got to do, they are the flight feathers. | 0:17:15 | 0:17:18 | |
You feel for the end of the wing, so that we don't make... We make sure we don't cut the wing. | 0:17:18 | 0:17:24 | |
And we take off... | 0:17:24 | 0:17:28 | |
The flight feathers. It's only like you | 0:17:28 | 0:17:31 | |
cutting your toenails, no problem at all. | 0:17:31 | 0:17:35 | |
Done properly, you can't actually see she's been done. | 0:17:35 | 0:17:38 | |
-And how often do I have to do that? -Once every six months or so, whenever she has been in moult. | 0:17:38 | 0:17:43 | |
And when she starts to grow new feathers, otherwise she will replace them. | 0:17:43 | 0:17:49 | |
Just pop them in, Alys. That's it. | 0:17:49 | 0:17:52 | |
-Bye-bye. -OK. | 0:17:56 | 0:17:59 | |
They'll find their own way out. | 0:18:00 | 0:18:02 | |
I'm completely in love with my chickens. | 0:18:09 | 0:18:11 | |
They are perfect. | 0:18:11 | 0:18:14 | |
They look so pretty together. | 0:18:14 | 0:18:17 | |
Hi, Isabel, are you coming to say hello to them? | 0:18:18 | 0:18:21 | |
It's June and, as I hoped, nature seems to be doing most of the work for me. | 0:18:29 | 0:18:35 | |
All I'm doing is watering a lot. My runner beans are looking absolutely beautiful. | 0:18:35 | 0:18:40 | |
And the French beans, mange touts and broad beans are coming along, too. | 0:18:40 | 0:18:44 | |
I'm very proud of my broad beans. | 0:18:49 | 0:18:51 | |
It was a bit of a gamble whether they could hold their own. | 0:18:51 | 0:18:54 | |
I thought they might flop all over the place but they've grown up fantastically strong and straight. | 0:18:54 | 0:19:00 | |
And now that they are in flower and are just beginning to finish flower, it's time to pinch out the tops. | 0:19:00 | 0:19:06 | |
This concentrates all the energy into producing the beans, | 0:19:06 | 0:19:09 | |
but it can also help to just keep the blackfly, which are the nemesis of a broad bean. | 0:19:09 | 0:19:14 | |
And, very shortly, I shall be picking beans. | 0:19:14 | 0:19:17 | |
Only a couple of weeks later, and my first broad beans and mange tout peas are ready. | 0:19:33 | 0:19:37 | |
But the real problem with any of the peas is being able to not eat all the peas on the plant | 0:19:39 | 0:19:45 | |
at that moment and actually getting them to the kitchen. | 0:19:45 | 0:19:49 | |
That seems to me to be a monumentous task that I never quite manage. | 0:19:49 | 0:19:55 | |
This variety is called red epicure, they're like little babies wrapped up in cotton wool. | 0:20:23 | 0:20:31 | |
Broad beans make great falafel. | 0:20:46 | 0:20:49 | |
All I have to do is boil up the beans, then add some chickpeas, | 0:20:49 | 0:20:53 | |
garlic, cumin and lots of fresh herbs. | 0:20:53 | 0:20:57 | |
Parsley, mint and coriander. | 0:20:57 | 0:21:01 | |
And then mash it together. The only ingredients that aren't from my garden are cumin and chickpeas. | 0:21:01 | 0:21:08 | |
And the uncooked mixture freezes brilliantly. | 0:21:08 | 0:21:12 | |
And actually, very quick to make for something that | 0:21:12 | 0:21:15 | |
looks like it would be quite a lot of faff. | 0:21:15 | 0:21:18 | |
But there's no faff in this falafel! | 0:21:19 | 0:21:23 | |
That's really bad! | 0:21:23 | 0:21:24 | |
This way. That way, come on. | 0:21:33 | 0:21:35 | |
-Ahh... No. -CLUCKING | 0:21:35 | 0:21:38 | |
Not... | 0:21:38 | 0:21:41 | |
Gertrude. | 0:21:41 | 0:21:43 | |
Yes. | 0:21:43 | 0:21:45 | |
'The chickens have settled in now and they're easy to look after...' | 0:21:45 | 0:21:49 | |
Oi, oi, oi. | 0:21:49 | 0:21:50 | |
'..except for those moments when they escape. | 0:21:50 | 0:21:53 | |
'I feed them my weeds, kitchen peelings and the chicken poo goes | 0:21:53 | 0:21:56 | |
'on the compost as an activator which speeds up the process of composting.' | 0:21:56 | 0:22:00 | |
You can't escape, go on, back you go. Ooh. Oi. | 0:22:02 | 0:22:05 | |
Oi. | 0:22:05 | 0:22:07 | |
Oh, Gertrude. | 0:22:07 | 0:22:09 | |
Stay. | 0:22:12 | 0:22:14 | |
Bad chicken. | 0:22:17 | 0:22:18 | |
When you buy young chickens, they don't lay eggs right away. | 0:22:18 | 0:22:23 | |
But my two have now matured and are doing their bit for my home-grown diet. | 0:22:23 | 0:22:28 | |
Thank you very much for the eggs, girls. | 0:22:28 | 0:22:31 | |
So both Alice and Gertrude are laying every day without fail. | 0:22:31 | 0:22:36 | |
And then, every other day, Gertrude gives me this extra big, | 0:22:37 | 0:22:41 | |
extra-special double-yolker, which is just ginormous. | 0:22:41 | 0:22:46 | |
It makes her star hen, really. | 0:22:46 | 0:22:49 | |
That's an Alice egg. | 0:22:49 | 0:22:51 | |
That's a normal Gertrude. | 0:22:51 | 0:22:53 | |
And that's an extra-special Gertrude. | 0:22:53 | 0:22:56 | |
That must be really painful. | 0:22:56 | 0:23:00 | |
This is a good twist on the traditional omelette. | 0:23:11 | 0:23:14 | |
Two happy hens and a handful of herbs. | 0:23:14 | 0:23:17 | |
It's mid summer and the garden is in full swing, | 0:23:24 | 0:23:27 | |
I'm harvesting every day but, to keep my supplies up, | 0:23:27 | 0:23:31 | |
I am continuously sowing and planting out. | 0:23:31 | 0:23:34 | |
But if you don't have a garden to grow in, you can do it just as easily in a container. | 0:23:34 | 0:23:39 | |
You are such a lazy dog. | 0:23:39 | 0:23:41 | |
Even if you just have a window ledge, you can still grow yourself some peas. | 0:23:41 | 0:23:46 | |
But you're not harvesting the pea pods, you're harvesting the shoots. | 0:23:46 | 0:23:49 | |
Pea shoots are the tender tips of the garden pea plant. | 0:23:49 | 0:23:54 | |
These shoots are three weeks old and ready for their first pickings. | 0:23:54 | 0:23:57 | |
They make a delicious salad leaf. | 0:23:57 | 0:24:00 | |
I have to admit, the reason why I have | 0:24:00 | 0:24:03 | |
dried peas is because I thought the package was stylish and nothing to do with liking to eat dried peas. | 0:24:03 | 0:24:10 | |
But then I thought, "I wonder if they're any good?" | 0:24:10 | 0:24:14 | |
And they're so cheap, much cheaper than garden centre peas, | 0:24:14 | 0:24:18 | |
so I tried them out, and they germinate really well. | 0:24:18 | 0:24:21 | |
So these are now my official | 0:24:21 | 0:24:26 | |
favourite pea shoot peas. | 0:24:26 | 0:24:30 | |
And, just to prove exactly how good they are, this packet was purchased in 2007, | 0:24:34 | 0:24:41 | |
and they all germinate like clockwork. | 0:24:41 | 0:24:45 | |
So, all you do is | 0:24:45 | 0:24:46 | |
cram it full because you're not growing them to full size. | 0:24:46 | 0:24:52 | |
Squish them in, give them a good water, put them somewhere warm, on a window ledge, | 0:24:52 | 0:24:58 | |
on a nice balcony, somewhere in the sun. | 0:24:58 | 0:25:01 | |
And, within a couple of weeks, | 0:25:01 | 0:25:04 | |
you have pea shoots to start harvesting. | 0:25:04 | 0:25:07 | |
By August, the garden is at its most productive, and I'm pleased that it's looking so pretty. | 0:25:22 | 0:25:27 | |
At this time of year, it's easy to end up with a glut, | 0:25:27 | 0:25:30 | |
which is a good thing because it means plenty for later in the year. | 0:25:30 | 0:25:34 | |
The minute you stop picking runner beans, they stop producing. | 0:25:34 | 0:25:39 | |
So, you need to keep picking if you want lots of runner beans. | 0:25:39 | 0:25:43 | |
At this point, I'm just actually being very traditional and freezing a lot because... | 0:25:43 | 0:25:48 | |
..now they seem... | 0:25:50 | 0:25:52 | |
Frozen beans don't seem that exciting. Actually, come January, | 0:25:52 | 0:25:58 | |
to add to curries and soups, | 0:25:58 | 0:26:02 | |
they're brilliant. | 0:26:02 | 0:26:05 | |
Surprisingly, this is just | 0:26:06 | 0:26:09 | |
four plants, | 0:26:09 | 0:26:11 | |
and they've really been more | 0:26:11 | 0:26:13 | |
than I can handle. | 0:26:13 | 0:26:16 | |
This is a very beautiful dark purple French bean called Nectar Queen. | 0:26:18 | 0:26:25 | |
And it's just the most intense purple colour. | 0:26:25 | 0:26:29 | |
But, unfortunately, the minute you put it into boiling water, it goes bright green. | 0:26:29 | 0:26:33 | |
So, all of that colour is lost when you come to eat it. | 0:26:34 | 0:26:38 | |
But all is forgiven for the way it looks on the bush. | 0:26:40 | 0:26:44 | |
Isabel, don't pee there. Isabel... | 0:26:49 | 0:26:51 | |
I'm overrun with pea shoots, which is a good excuse to do a bit of experimenting. | 0:27:08 | 0:27:12 | |
I'm going to make a "peatini", which is a pea-based martini using a recipe from chef Mark Hix. | 0:27:12 | 0:27:19 | |
All I have to do is blend the pea shoots into a puree with a bit of water. | 0:27:22 | 0:27:26 | |
Then add some gin, sugar syrup and a squeeze of lemon. | 0:27:30 | 0:27:33 | |
Then invite some friends over to try them! | 0:27:34 | 0:27:39 | |
And, because the garden has been so productive, I can serve up | 0:27:50 | 0:27:53 | |
more of my tasty home-grown falafels and a big bowl of salad. | 0:27:53 | 0:27:56 | |
My little garden really rocks. I haven't had to buy | 0:27:59 | 0:28:02 | |
any peas or beans this summer and I even have frozen runner beans to take me into the winter. | 0:28:02 | 0:28:08 | |
The next stage of my grow-your-own adventure is all about salad crops. | 0:28:15 | 0:28:18 | |
Tomatoes and cucumbers. | 0:28:18 | 0:28:21 | |
And lettuce leaves, one of the fastest and easiest things to grow. | 0:28:21 | 0:28:25 |