Garden Checklist: 10 Tasks to Give Your Garden a Head Start in Winter

Thank you, thank you, thank you. Your channel found me yesterday and I love you already. "Ditch the dawdling". "pH Picky Plants". Love your descriptions.

Not trying to throw shade because I loved this video, but as a tool snob, the cleaning of the Felco 2s was painful to watch.

Great video!

You could have a fourth D for branches going wild. Delinquent,
Dead
Diseased
Damaged
& Delinquent

Oh to be in England in January. As it is I’d have to brush off a foot of snow and use a jackhammer to break up the soil. Lovely video to dream by though :)

Ben absolutely love your videos and how practical you are. Quick question- if you order main crop potatoes now, do you start chitting them straightaway? If. It how do you store them so they don’t grow those ugly leggy stems? Thx

Hello! I've just found your channel and look forward to watching more. I wondered if you had any advice. I'm in a rented property that doesn't have a lawn or any soil, just stones and paving; but I really want to get into gardening and feel like this is a bit of a barrier. I fear produce getting waterlogged. Do you have any advice/recommendations - on where to begin, what kind of plants (especially produce) to plant in just pots? I was considering trying to grow chillies from the fruit to start off but I'm really not confident

The pleasing plump wonderful winter warmer, rhubarb! 😁

You're such a good teacher! Thank you

Hello there, what is more or less the temperature right now where you are? I want to start my own gardening, but I live in Portugal (up north) where it sometimes snows and also nigh frost for the coldest months. I'm trying to figure out what I can plant in here. Can you give me a hand please?

Which Country??? Different countries, different season times

Your videos are awesome., Thank You! Can you tell me what size your green house is?

Thank you Harry Enfield. ;D +1Sub. :D

❤❤❤❤❤

You made us laugh “overloaded with fruit” not here.

Well done Ben! Your video-making and editing skills have gotten so much better than when you first started, you've rly improved! Keep up the inspiring work!

Helo❤❤

I have a garden bed near an evergreen tree that has developed moldly soil that looks like white strands. Growing mushrooms. How do I correct to grow vegetables please?

What is the hardiness zone this garden is in? Not much use following advice for zone 8 when my garden is in zone 3.

Happy New Year, I love your optimism, and great alliteration, pleasingly plump...thanks Ben.

I'm trying to avoid ordering potatoes or buying them. I'd rather interested how to save a part from my harvest for the next year seed. I made my first experiment on it last autumn and waiting now to see how they did..

I just got my greenhouse together three days ago barely in time to drag peppers and tomato cuttings in before frost. Struggling with a shortening candle to drive off condensation...

15 degrees Fahrenheit and high winds in Pennsylvania… my only solace is binge watching your channel and making lots of notes! Hi Rosie❤

As a total newcomer to gardening I'm finding your videos super-useful, so big thanks for that. Also helps prep me ahead of time (as I tend to procrastinate, so it's good to have a "must do by Jan 31st" or whatever deadline to work to) so thanks for that too. One tiny point that some may not be aware of but which stood out to me after years of amateurish twiddling of spanners: it wasn't clear what you sprayed on your garden cutters/secateurs? It looked like an aerosol, in which case I'd just like to mention that WD40 isn't a good lubricant - it runs off too easily and is actually designated as a penetrating oil or "release agent" for un-sticking corroded or stuck nuts, bolts, etc. For lubrication you're best off with a few drops of "3-in-1" oil or similar ("other lubricating oils are available") and I find the old school dropper bottles/cans last miles longer than the aerosols, which I find tend to fling a load of oil around, only a little of which actually ends up where you want it. That way your tools will stay corrosion-free, hopefully all season long, with the bonus that you won't drip potentially harmful substances all over your lovely fresh veg plants.

Thanks again for a really excellent gardening channel ... this will be my very first year of trying to grow my own veg and although we're behind on making the raised beds (I'm disabled due to spinal injuries so I have to take things very steady) we're hoping to get some crops in later, and I find your videos really, really useful in helping me focus on what I need to think about next, plus you always seem to have the best way of doing a given thing, so many thanks and all the best to you.

You look like mike mew lol

Very beautiful video. You have grown a lot of vegetables. Thank you very much for sharing this video, it was nice to see you.❤

I try to grow a few potatoes in builders buckets but they have done very badly the last couple of years. They have lots of manure and are earthed up as they grow but hardly produce any.
Can’t work out what I’m doing wrong.

Hedgehogs are already out and about even on these cold nights. Please leave food for them where possible and keep gaps under fences

I don't think that he has forced rhubarb before as he is going to get crown rot doing that. I hope that the black plastic bin doesn't get any direct sunlight.... Corregated Cardboard might have been a better choice especially if there is some sunshine.

Clean and sharpen tools..always forget that one!

I just found your channel. I usually watch a lot of horrific true crime stories, police videos or interrogation footage of murders lol. I'm trying to watch more positive stuff and your videos really help 😄 I love gardening, but I live on the 3rd floor. Can't wait to get my balcony garden going soon❤

Had to laugh at "luxuriating in the extra 10 minutes"--because I am too! 😂🎉

Hello Ben. Do you have any tips for growing in a small terraced back yard please. It’s a South facing yard.

What do you recommend as the best pH tester for soil? Thanks in advance!!!

Felco pruners are the best out there

nice
thanks for sharing
9likes

Can I use the contents of my gutter clearing on the garden as mulchoron the compost heap or stored in a black sack to rot down?

Great video, thank you for the reminders!

I want to wow sweet pease but it says on the packet sow in May. I don't have all the space for a runner beans now.

The way you cut that fruit tree i thought you were going to take a load off but you pulled off one branch made me laugh lol ❤

I never grow rhubarb, i did grow swiss chards, i wasn't enamored by the taste so i grow collards and mustard greens instead. Your forcing rhubarb technique is the same i use on some garlic chives. Chinese called them golden chives and it is expensive i heard. I'm not Chinese and never seen them sold in my local market so i do it myself. I planned to use it on other chives, dragon beard chives (Allium hookeri) and rakkyo.

That thumbnail!! 🤣 Ben, you always make me smile. Love your sense of humour, your ample alliterations and the gardening advice is not bad either 😉 Looking forward to gardening together in 2024!!

Cheers Ben, appreciate it, love from Ireland

I think this may be the first time I've ever seen a gardening video where someone discussed and demonstrated cleaning and sharpening pruning shears. Such useful information. I' definitely going to be doing this!

No sound?

Everyone seems to have it all figured out and know exactly what to do. But I actually feel so overwhelmed about starting a garden. I'm in Sweden (moved here a year ago from The Netherlands), it's been more cold than usual, -28 °C at night and there's still a thick layer of snow on the ground. This does mean that I still have time for planning and ordering or buying seeds and materials. I have been trying to plan things out for the coming year. I have some seeds already, mainly for flowers and wild plants that I would like to have growing on my property, and I have put on my calender when to sow them indoors or directly in the ground so that I won't forget. I also want to start growing food, but I have terrible decision paralysis about it, like where on my property is the best location to put a vegetable garden, in the ground or in raised beds (that I would still have to build), how big to make the garden for just me and my husband, what to grow, where to get materials like fencing against deer, and where to get seeds, and what kind of seeds to get, where to get compost. And I don't know if I can even do it, there's just so much to learn about all the different plants, when to sow the seeds, how to sow them, the planning of where, what and when. I did try your garden planner, but I just stared at it for a good couple of minutes, and didn't know where to start and then didn't do anything with it afterwards. I feel very lost and I would love for someone to just tell me what to do. I know and have been telling myself that I should just start, and that I will learn by doing, and that making mistakes is okay, and that I will learn from those... But it's difficult. I have spent an entire year observing my property since I moved here, which was usefull. I have also compiled a 22 page word document of information regarding permaculture, because I'm also planning on growing a food forest. We got our neigbour to help dig a swale on our property last autumn. Despite all the research and observing, I still don't have concrete plans of where to put what in the food forest. And I'm also going to need a LOT of woodchips. We have a wood chipper, that we've used last year to make woodchips for a path, that worked great, but it takes SO much to cover a small area, I need so much more than I can make myself, but I don't know where to get them. I know there's a lot of forestry here in Sweden so I would think there are ways of getting free woodchips, but I don't know if that's true, or if I can only buy them somewhere, and where?
I don't expect any help from people on here, but I just had to get this off my chest, and I can't be the only one that's overwhelmed and confused, so I thought it might be good to represent that in the comment section as well.

Don't forget, not only raise the pH, but, many plants prefer acidic soil: Berries for one, Hydrangae, too. AND tomato prefer slightly acidic soil.

Best wishes for 2024! Thank you for sharing your ideas- I am looking forward to another season of gardening with your advice😊

I suspect someday we will find out he blew all of his family's money supporting his tobogganing habbit. It will take a while being a very affordable activity.

But potatoes aren't vegetables...
Are they?