The Veg Grower Podcast Richard

Join Richard in this week's podcast as he embarks on an ambitious quest: to produce enough compost to meet the demands of his allotment year-round. Additionally, Richard visits the stunning West Dean Gardens, a remarkable vegetable garden near Chichester, West Sussex, and announces the winner of the Belfast Sink competition.







Allotment Update: The Compost Challenge







This week, Richard has been diligently spreading compost on his allotment beds, particularly around his potato plants. This task sparked a thought-provoking question: can he produce enough compost to have it readily available whenever he needs it?







Typically, compost is spread during the winter when beds are vacant. However, Richard aims to grow food all year round and needs compost at various times throughout the year. For instance, his garlic bed will soon be empty, and he plans to plant beans in its place. Before planting, he wants to enrich the soil with fresh compost.







In this episode, Richard explores various strategies to achieve continuous compost production. One practical tip he shares is using a compost thermometer to monitor the composting process. You can purchase a compost thermometer here.







Garden Tour: A Visit to West Dean Gardens







Richard loves exploring public gardens, especially those with vegetable plots. This week, he takes listeners on a virtual tour of the walled gardens at West Dean, near Chichester. Having visited these gardens regularly in the past, Richard reflects on the changes over the years and seeks inspiration for his own garden.







Vegetable Garden Update: Winner of the Belfast Sink Competition







The Belfast Sink competition has concluded, and the winner is Veronica, with her brilliant idea of creating an edible flower garden in the sink. Taking advantage of the bank holiday, Richard has transformed the sink into a vibrant garden, planting:









Marigolds







Nasturtiums







Dahlias







Cornflowers







Hibiscus







Pansies









What would you plant in an edible flower garden?







Support and Subscribe







If you enjoyed this podcast, please rate and review it on your preferred podcast platform. To support the show, consider joining our supporters club by clicking the button below. Don't forget to use our exclusive discount codes:









Premier Seeds Direct: Use code VEGPOD10 for 10% off.







AutoPot: Use code AUTO10RVG for 10% off their self-watering systems.









Thank you for listening, and happy gardening!

Join Richard in this weeks podcasts where the on going battle with slugs and snails continues but Richard thinks he has found out why. Richard has also been sowing some flower plants and is joined by Lee Connolly for national children's gardening week.







Where are all these slugs and snails coming from?







In most years Richard never has a problem with slugs and snails. This year however Richard has noticed a huge increase in the amount of slugs and snails at home. The wet winter and spring has of course made the slugs and snail population worse but Richard noticed that the allotment isn't suffering.







So what's changed?







In this segment Richard shares with you what action he has now taken.







Sowing flowers.







You probably thinking Richard doesn't grow flowers! And you would be correct. However Richard does grow edibles and some flowers can be edible and some can be beneficial to his edible crops.







This week Richard has been growing some flowers that full into this category such as









Nasturtiams







Sunflower's







Marigolds







Dahlias









There's many more that can also be sown too.







Chef Scott Recipe Of The Week.







This week chef Scott shares a delicious Pasta with broad bean, pancetta and parmesan. Which sounds delicious but also uses broad beans that have just came into season.







National Children's Gardening Week.







And finally Richard is joined by Lee Connolly of the Skinny Jean Gardener where we are talking about National children's gardening week.







Lee has offered a discount code for his book from his website using discount code veggrower







If you have enjoyed this podcast then please rate and review on your podcast provider. If you would like to help support this podcast then please consider becoming a supporting member by clicking the button below to find out more.

Join Richard in this weeks podcast where Richard shares why he is not doing No Mow May. A couple of methods of easy irrigation and its time to sow some winter veg.







Allotment update: NO No Mow May.







Down on the allotment Richard has had to make a repair to his lawnmower. A belt change was all that was needed after his lawnmower seemed to not work very well.







This has lead Richard to share his thoughts on why he is not doing No Mow May this year. No Mow May is a month where gardeners don't mow their grass areas in order to encourage wild flowers to grow and help our wildlife.







In The Vegetable Garden: Easy Irrigation







Irrigation is a time consuming part of growing your own food, but its a necessary task that helps our plants thrive.







Because of this Richard has started to experiment with 2 methods that might help with irrigation







Method one is an autopot system. The system is the 2 pot system which uses gravity to keep pots well irrigated and should lead to plenty of good growth and good veg.







If you are interested in this autopot system then Richard has got a discount code for you use the code AUTO10RVG when buying from Autopot.co.uk







Method two is an ancient method using a terracotta pot called an olla. This olla is submerged in the ground and slowly trickles water to the soil. It should be interesting to see how well this system works.







In The Shed: Sowing Winter Veg.







Winter might seem a long time away, but if we want to eat in winter there's some veg we need to sow now. These seeds include, winter squash, many brassicas and of course Parsnips







This week Richard has been sowing lots of these seeds in order to keep growing and eating in the winter months.







Chef Scott's Recipe Of The Week: Sweetcorn, Feta And Bean Salad.







This week Chef Scott shares with us this delicious Sweetcorn, feta and black bean salad. Which not only sounds delicious but also is on the back of this months seed of the month.







The seed of the month is in collaboration with Premier seeds direct. A fantastic supplier for plants seeds but also have given us a discount code VEGPOD10







And finally.







We hope you have enjoyed this podcast. If you have then please rate and review on your podcast provider.







If you want to support this podcast then please consider becoming a member of our supporters club. Fond out more on the button below.

Join Richard in this weeks podcast where Richard has taken a trip to BBC gardeners world spring fair. An annual event at Beulieu motor museum in the new forest. Richard also shares the seed of the month a sweetcorn variety from premier seeds and he has been planting seed on the allotment.







Gardeners world spring fair 2024.







On Friday Richard headed to Beulieu motor museum, house and gardens for the annual BBC gardeners world spring fair. We have been attending this event for a few years and we always enjoy the show.







Richard takes us through the kitchen garden at Beulieu as well as visits a couple of show gardens and finishes off with a bit of shopping.







Always a thoroughly enjoyable event but if you went let us know your experience.







Seed of the month: Sweetcorn Rising Sun.







Each month we have a seed of the month in collaboration with Premier seeds direct. Premier seeds direct are a fantastic supplier of all your garden seed needs.







This month we have a sweetcorn variety Rising Sun which is an early sweet variety of sweetcorn. Easy to grow and Richard considers sweetcorn to be a staple in any kitchen garden or allotment.







Don't forget to use discount code vegpod10 for a further discount on already low prices at Premier seeds direct.







Down the allotment.







Down on the allotment Richard has been getting lots of plants in the ground. This year has been a tricky year and there's been a lot of worry about it being too cold or wet to get plants in the ground. Richard decided to get a few in the ground now and see how it works out but it seems to have worked well.







Listen to the podcast to find out more.







Support this podcast.







If you have enjoyed this podcast, then please leave a rating and review on your podcast provider, but if you would like to support this podcast and keep the website running then please consider becoming a supporting member. Details on the button below.

This week on the veg grower podcast, Richard has been busy potting on young plants, sowing parsnips and tending to his Rhubarb.







Potting on







We start this week in the greenhouse, where Richard is potting on lots of young plants into bigger and bigger pots. Richard like to wait for the compost to have plenty of roots before potting up. That way the root ball comes out easily and the compost doesn't get wasted.







Potting up is essential for encouraging growth in our young plants. Given the roots more space to stretch out and search for moisture and nutrients.







Richard usually uses a large collection of plastic pots which get re used over and over again. However he is also using some biodegradable pots including some from wool pots.







Support this podcast.















Sowing parsnips.







This week Richard has sown some parsnips. Parsnips of course being a fantastic tasty winter veg.







But getting parsnips seeds to germinate can be tricky!!!







Richard believes this to be due to the soil temperature. Parsnip seed germinates in soil above 12c. There's an old wives tail about how to test if the soil is warm enough but the best way to test is with a soil thermometer.







Chef Scott's recipe of the week.







This week chef Scott has a delicious Asparagus hummus recipe for you to try. A great way to make a healthy tasty dip from your asparagus harvests.







Rhubarb check up.







Inspired by the asparagus recipe Richard heads over to his asparagus and rhubarb to make a few pickings. Rhubarb is in plentiful supply currently but flower spikes have appeared.







Flower spikes on Rhubarb is usually a sign of stress. Given the weather its not surprising and its easy to rectify.