Vegetable Garden 2016



2016.06.16 :
Link to the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4rfSuoemqY
First video of the year for my vegetable garden, sorry that I took so long. Everything is going fantastically well, the diversity is increasing non-stop. :-)

Something I forgot to explicitly explain in the video is that all the plants are from my own previous seeds as much as possible. This year the cabbages and kales are from new seeds since I never had any in the previous years (except kohlrabi and violet broccolis), the salads are new because I didn’t have yet enough seeds last year, some squashes are new to increase diversity, but peas are always new because I don’t want to change them, I want them to cross pollinate with the “vesce des haies”, I want that plant to start mutating into producing peas (I still do collect some peas that I keep as seeds for probably next year or some other time). The eggplants, peppers, cantaloupes and cress are also new additions. It’s a small vegetable garden, I try to increase the diversity as much as I can, but letting plants go to seed takes space!
And I made a mistake with the date, it was the 16th of june ;-)


2016.07.10 :
Link to the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIOfabKEsgo

Small update, I didn’t do anything since 3 weeks, I let the plants in peace to discover their own natural harmony by themselves in the company of the ‘weeds’.
It’s a very good year for the plants to learn to live with slugs and gastropods since it rained quite a lot. That way they can learn to let some part of themselves to be eaten by slugs without being completely devoured, the weeds know very well how to do that!
I have to repeat it, slugs are only there to finish organic decomposition quickly, if a plant is eaten entirely by them, it means that that plant was never healthy and/or never had the opportunity to learn to cohabit with them!


2016.08.12 :
Link to the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNysh_2jX8E

This video is a bit longer than usual so that I can explain you some ideas more in details.
What I intend to do, and that seems useful to share with you, to have no more plants go to seed and take all the space by lying on the ground, since they occupy the garden for much of the season, if the garden is small, when they lie down they take much more space than where they have their base. In the end, this year I had 2-3 bins covered (and therefore unusable) by radish seeds, carrots, parsnips, broccoli. They take up a lot of space, the next year I will ensure they stay upright and do not fall sideways! That way it will also leave the field free for cats below, otherwise they can not even hunt, there is no space!
Apart from that, I explain some transition stages over several years to adapt tomatoes to Lorraine summers!
For the 3 sisters method (corn, climbing beans, squash), in Lorraine (and in similar areas), we can probably use artichokes instead of corn, corn does not grow fast enough in these areas.
The variety of vegetables that resow themselves increases slowly and surely :-)
Good viewing :-)


2016.09.23 :
Link to the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FudcyqT9Fmw
All is going on well, it’s a project over many years as you should have already noticed from all the past videos :) Hence, harvests, harvest (of seeds) for the time being, it’s not yet time for big productions, I always let the vegetables live with the concurrence of the natural weeds, which most people usually remove often :) And I let vegetables grow like weeds, so it’s not that easy for them, but they’re improving slowly and surely with some little bit of help :)


2016.10.12 :
Link to the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c710qILLcGo
Like in the large vegetable garden, but less dire, it was cold and rainy for about 2 weeks, but no frost here yet :) So squashes are doing well, the tomatoes that had the hardest life through tall grass etc. reached their end but left some beautiful tomatoes offspring :)

Otherwise, as you can see, it’s fantastic as I had hoped, the first rains of autumn allowed lots of dormant seeds in the soil to germinate as they wished, carrots, parsnips, onions, I’m hoping for salads maybe? Beets, broccoli violet also maybe.
And other plants are doing well, I’m eagerly waiting for cabbages/kales to go to seed, but I think it will be for next year!

In short, fantastic, wild vegetables a becoming reality slowly and surely!


2016.11.27 :
Link to the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ls2f1wggvMY
Just a small review for the end of this year, will have to wait for next year to reach some new insights about what’s happening now. :)
One thing is sure, carrots should not be sown in august (at least commercial varieties), as you can see in the video, they should remain on the old carrot and fall off later on, probably during winter to sprout in the beginning of spring. I have saved many seeds, so I will sow them on the fly at approximately the same time I see those on the last carrots standing falling off.