It's THAT Time Of Year AGAIN! | Clearing The Beds, Planting Cabbages, Garlic And MORE!

It's time to pack the allotment garden up for the winter. In October i'm clearing the no-dig beds of finished crops, and harvesting the last of the vegetables. I'm also planting our garlic to overwinter.. I'll show you how I plant my garlic. And I'm transplanting the Cabbages, Purple Sprouting Broccoli, Cauliflower, and Kale into the polytunnel! We sowed these brassicas in July to overwinter and give us a crop early next year! We are still growing lots of crops even in the winter months.
There's still plenty going on at the allotment plot in October, with loads to do. And the winter will be filled with many exciting DIY garden projects too! More on that in the video! I'm excited to share these winter projects with you all!
If you've got any feedback, suggestions, or questions, drop them in the comments below! I reply to everyone's comments and love a good gardening chat, as well as hearing your thoughts and opinions!
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I'd like to say a huge thank you to those who have supported my gardening channel so far!
Jim 🧑🏻‍🌾
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[@ClaireRousseau]

Your brassicas look awesome!! For the horse manure, you can test it for aminopyralids by soaking some of the manure in water and then using that to water some sacrificial test seedlings, esp. bean starts as they grow so fast, it's easy to see if they have that damage. I think I saw this advice on Next Level Gardening a while ago?

[@downtoearthwithjim]

Thanks! I'm hoping they survive through the winter 🙏🏻 that's a great tip with the horse manure. I've heard of people planting a sacrificial plant directly into the pile of horse manure to test for contamination but I never even thought about just creating a solution to water with. I am definitely going to try this. The only time I'll be using manure I think is to line the bottoms of my raised beds which is a huge project for winter. I may have to make a solution at the plot and test some bean plants at home under grow lights during the winter

[@rrichards1210]

Love the background music. Really set a tone of adventure and wonder. Your plots look great for autumn. And your seedlings look fantastic. It is spring here with very changeable weather (from 2-22 C in the same day). Some of my seedlings have just stopped. Would love to have them looking like yours by November to plant out.

[@JenniMBE]

You've had a great harvest. Your plot is looking fab after the clean up.

[@downtoearthwithjim]

Thanks! Yes you're very right. I'm going to be adding some brown material to it and some of that will be some of my wood chip paths too. I just had to quickly throw all of the green material somewhere 😂

[@FloralSmith-u7k]

All my crops were late as well. Keep up the good work.

[@BumblebeeAdventure]

🐝thanks for the great video🌻

[@ThatBritishHomestead]

Never throw soil alway! Ever!your brassicas look so nice

[@downtoearthwithjim]

Absolutely not! Every bit of compost goes back into the plot. Often back into the raised beds or into the compost pile

[@myrustygarden]

Looking great Jim, my garlic did the same so if and I do say if I do garlic I’ll have to buy some. Make sure you keep good rat defences in the poly, I grew brassicas in my poly last winter and rat 🐀 boy moved in and ate almost all of them 😢😢. I’m making a few changes and hopefully better changes for next season. Have a spectacular week Jim and family, Ali 🌞🇨🇦

[@downtoearthwithjim]

Haha rat boy 😂 🐀 there are small holes in the soil in those buckets already from the rats digging so already moved in! There's a small pile of nibbled potatoes behind the raised bed too which they've stored.. I may have to set some sort of trap up because they are a problem. One ran out the poly when I opened the door the other day and it was the size of a squirrel!

[@myrustygarden]

@@downtoearthwithjim oh yikes 😳 I don’t like them at all but as we live right next to huge farm land they are inevitably going to come to the BnB 🤦‍♀️

[@moirad6579]

I'm working my way through garden clean up too so thanks for the tips. Red Russian garlic is my favourite variety because it is easier to peel than any other garlic I have come across....and I'm not a fan of peeling garlic 🧄 LOL

[@susancolley168]

I planted my garlic into raised beds 3 weeks ago. I hope not too early. They have all come up 🤞

[@downtoearthwithjim]

That should be okay 😊 they'll go dormant soon with temperatures dropping. They need a period of cold to form good bulbs. I think the key is to not start too early so they don't try and form a bulb before the winter... but you'd probably have to start them right in the middle of summer for that to happen😂

[@miracudrag]

Great music ❤

[@downtoearthwithjim]

The music is by Helmut Schenker, licenced under epidemic sound. He has some wonderful classical tracks 🎶

[@mattlovejoy5536]

I wish my purple sprouting and kale plants would look as nice as yours. I grew mine in the poly tunnel and the caterpillars have hammered them, hopefully they'll do better under fly netting outside. Love the videos, they're great 👍

[@downtoearthwithjim]

I also had a good few caterpillars on my young brassica plants through August/September. I had to go hunting for them and picked them all off, they were very small but caused some damage. It's a good idea to inspect them for eggs/young caterpillars every other day. Thank you! I'm glad you enjoy my content 😊 happy gardening!

[@Stephen474]

Hi James Im clearing the beds now and adding well rotted manure, those cabbages look great what's the variety? great video you will have to give me a few tips when I start my channel, on your beds with clay soil before you make them no dig try a green manure, a one like broad bean plants will put nitrogen in the ground and when dug in its great for clay soil. , had a great day Saturday at Rach and Erics (Our Allotment Plot) I hope there's still an invite to your plot? great video take care Steve

[@downtoearthwithjim]

I've just seen the video! Good to see you have a little community in the north east of England 😊 the variety of winter cabbage is winter green. If you're asking about the cabbage in my harvest this year it's greyhound I think. Have a good week!

[@laurathomason8693]

Hey Jim where did you get the weed membrane from? You have achieved so much in such a short time with clearing the plot, covering it and building compost bays.. your doing a belting job and should be proud of yourself As for the slugs on your sunflowers, could you possibly put a collar around the base of the plant like you can do on the broccoli plants?

[@downtoearthwithjim]

Thank you Laura! Your kind words mean a lot! We decided to just go for it in August and whilst it was hard work, we got most of the work out the way and hopefully it'll be an easy winter slowly getting the beds done on top. I tried copper tape round the base, this year but tried wool last year and that seemed to work better so perhaps I'll do that again and use wool next year

[@laurathomason8693]

@@downtoearthwithjim ah Yee I heard that the slugs don't like feeling the wool on their underside I may try that one thanks

[@bewoodford2807]

Lovea the music you chose when clearing crops. It sounds so much like what yyou were doing- a transition from Summer into Autumn- great to listen to and watch! I do like your module trays- they look nice and strong. (the 12 cell ones) Can you tell me where you get them from please? Maybe try growing your sunflowers in the slug guard pots? I find they work very well. Thank you.

[@downtoearthwithjim]

The artist is called Helmut Schenker. I use a few of his tracks in my videos, I feel it matches my vibe and fits with the video I try and create. The module trays are just cheap ones from a local garden centre. Nothing special but they are pretty strong! I recommend Oakland Gardens website for some pretty good strong module trays. Tony O'Neill parked his van on top of them 😂 Thanks for the tips!

[@bewoodford2807]

@@downtoearthwithjim lol!🤣

[@louisea3478]

Great vids. It was sad to see you put membrane down on your new allotment. In my experience it really isn't needed for raised beds. I lined my new allotment with cardboard under the compost and it was good enough to smother most of the bindweed and horsetail. I still have to pluck new growth but it's not a big job at all. That membrane breaks down into shreds and is plastic. Good luck.