What about any coffee grains or seeds or eggshells or anything else you know that can possibly help nourish the plants?

All of those go in the compost heap. I put coffee in the compost but I wouldn't put it on the ground. It's not so good for the ground really. There's one or two plants that quite like it, but mostly in the compost and I have different composting systems. So I have some which are all garden waste, kitchen waste, that kind of thing, particular peelings, cardboard, whatever, so kind of normal composting systems. And then I have two ones called hot bins which you can put food waste in as well, and they are a very thick, insulated, plasticky stuff which the rats don't smell it. So rats, I'm in the countryside, we get rats. They don't smell the rotting food and it composts at a really high temperature. So you can get quite a lot of compost in about three months and put anything you like in there cheese, fish heads, cooked pasta, whatever can get composted. So in a normal time there's anything. All food-based things in my house can go in one or the other of the composting systems so we can compost everything, which is great.

I also have bakashi which ferments food waste and then that goes in the normal composters. And I have a wormery and certain things go in the wormery for worm compost. I mean, I'm a garden writer, which is why I've got all of these different things. Normal people wouldn't quite want all of them, I think, but I need to try everything out so I can advise and recommend.

Oh, absolutely. I think this is great stuff, so the listeners can certainly at least follow one or the other, and obviously they can go to your book and that's almost like the bible of the gardening world. And what about common garden problems like over watering, under watering and things like that?

yes, it's not good to do either. I mean, usually you can tell if a plant's underwater because it starts drooping and looking really sorrowful. And over watering can be just as bad, particularly if it's in a tray and the roots get waterlogged. So it's just trying to work out for the plant, depending on where it's growing, how much water it actually needs. Usually the compost mulch helps conserve moisture, so most of the time, once things have been planted in the garden and watered in, then quite often they don't need watering much at all, unless we have a period of very dry weather. So nature just takes care of it for you.

My polytunnel, obviously, is an artificial environment, so in the winter probably only water every three or four weeks. In the summer it can be two or three times a week, depending on how hot it is and how much sunshine we're having. So it's really just a question of observing the plants and seeing how they're coping. One thing that's a bit of a myth is we're often told don't water plants on a sunny day because it will frazzle them. And it doesn't, it's absolutely fine. So it's better to water in the morning if you can, just because it's you're going to lose less to the atmosphere and it's better not to water in the evening because it makes a damp environment and the slugs can come along. But it's better, if your plant's looking droopy water it. You know there's no hard, no fixed rules.

Okay, it's almost like how we need hydration during a hot summer day.

Yeah.

That's interesting and that makes total sense. So what about seed saving? What can be saved and what shouldn't be saved?

I save what I can. With seed saving it's very based on how much space you've got. Some plants, like tomatoes, if you are very easy to save seed from, and other ones are more complicated, like beetroot, where you have to have a certain number of plants to cross pollinate with each other to have healthy genetic strain. So and that takes quite a bit of space. So it very much depends how much space you've got. So, for example, I would I saved all the seeds of the tomato, of the tomatoes that are not f1 hybrids, so you only would save seeds from heritage varieties, nothing that is an F1 hybrid, because F1 hybrids don't come true. So it makes sense to save seeds from things that aren't. I would not save seeds from carrots here, because we have quite a lot of native wild carrot varieties and some of them are very poisonous and there's a small risk that with wind pollination they cross-pollinate and you'd get some horrible mutant thing with your seeds.

I don't save the seeds from squash or courgettes, zucchini, because they cross-pollinate like mad and all of the these, this type of plant, this family of plants. They have a latent gene which is bitter and toxic and so most of the time if you save the seed from a squash, you might get something that looks like the parent. You might get something that looks weird and tastes awful, but it'll just be bleh. But you have a very small but real risk of getting something that's poisonous, and you'll know it's poisonous because it will be bitter and sadly, people can get very ill and occasionally die of this. So, so too much I'd rather know, and squash takes so much space, so I want to know that what I'm growing is exactly the flavour and the size and the type of squash that I want.

So I always buy those new every year. I buy them from heritage seed companies. But other things like peas and beans are easy to save seed from and if the beans are cross-pollinated you'll just get something curious. It won't be harmful. I save a lot of my edible flower seeds, my marigolds, calendula borage, that kind of thing. They're very easy to save seed from. There's some really good seed saving books as well. So if it's something you want to do a lot of, it's worthwhile getting some of those to just see which ones are good to save in your area.

Okay, and so again, probably you know getting the seeds from and following a proper cleansing and drying process.

all of that can be learned from some good books, okay so I mean, there's how to save tomato seeds is on my blog and some things. It's just literally waiting for them to dry on the plant and then, once they're completely dry and rustly, pop them in an envelope and there you are. That's it and other things.

Yes, for sure they're a little bit more complicated and also make sure where you source your seeds from, and that way you know that you're always buying the good quality.

Yes, it's nice to support small companies if you can.

I mean, it's not always possible and how do you store your produce after harvest. You know how can you preserve them and also how can you prepare your garden for future seasons. If you can just touch upon these, please.

Okay. So preserving some things like squash you put them on the windowsill after harvest for a couple of weeks to cure. They just make sure it's thoroughly dry and I store those on a shelf in the kitchen and they're there all through till May. Just take them when I eat them. Other things like potatoes I put in sacks. I store carrots and beetroot in the ground through the winter because the climate here is okay for that. I cover them with protective covering just to keep the worst of the climate here is okay for that. I cover them with protective covering just to keep the worst of the weather off. Onions, garlic, they just hang in bunches. They're quite easy.

I also things. I've got a dehydrator so I dehydrate a lot of vegetables and herbs and fruit. So you know we've got jars of dehydrated pears and apples and things. I've got a water bath canner so I do a lot of preserving and different jars. Mine's a German one and it wecks. So I've got these nice jars where I store different kinds of preserves in those, anything from tomato sauces to pickles to chutneys. And I dream of having a pressure canner. I really want one, but they're really not so easy to get hold of in the UK and they're more expensive. And I see American homesteaders and they've got pressure canners and I'm bring one to me. That's my dream.

Oh, I'll get you one if.

I get to come see you if that is what I want, so yeah, so that I do that. And things like beans. I grow beans for drying and they dry on the plant, or sometimes I have to dry them on racks and then, when they're totally dry, they just go in jars on the shelf.

Very soon, and what kind of beans are you referring to?

Steph Right, my favorites are zar bean, which is a kind of white runner bean and that can be used like a butter bean, and gigantis, which is a Greek version of bit bigger than that and that. So that's quite a big white bean, not as productive, but the flavor is so good. And bolotti beans, which are italian. They're really good. So that's a nice speckledy brown bean, some different flavor, and I like to grow some cannellini beans as well. So you get the little white beans which are good for different things.

I have loads, loads of different sorts. I've got one which is like a really mad blue colour which I'm quite excited about. I grow, you know, speckledy black and white ones just because they look good as well, because it's fun, yeah. So there's lots to choose from, and it's nice that it's becoming more well known about growing beans for drying, so that the seed companies have more choice, and they do have some which are bush beans. So you don't need lots of space. You can grow a few in pots, yeah. So there's lots of different varieties and it's choosing one that kind of gives you pleasure really.

Oh, absolutely, and I won't keep you long. So how is it that one can be a homesteader with a green thumb? Is it natural, or is it something that can be cultivated?

Oh, definitely, definitely you can learn to do it, definitely. You come across people that either have not grown a thing until they're sort of 63 and then suddenly start growing a garden until they're sort of 63 and then suddenly start growing a garden, and also, so it's definitely something you can learn and also, I think it's, you can definitely do it in any space there's. You don't have to have chickens and geese and ducks, you can just have a window box and that is still your own little homestead, I think it's. You can also do that kind of home preserving thing by going to your farmer's market or your supermarket and buy things from there and preserve them yourself, because it's not. That's fine too. You know we all do what we can where we are. So when I move, for example, I'm not going to have any homegrown vegetables. I'm going to have to go to the farmer's market to get those to make my food. So I think, yeah, whatever size, and you definitely can learn it.

Absolutely. Thank you so much and it's been such a pleasure having you on the show and I think the listeners would thoroughly appreciate your insights, and I'm sure everyone would be super excited to start their own garden.