Speaker 1: Welcome to Gardening with Ben. You'll go to podcast for
all things green and growing in twenty twenty five. Whether
you're a seasoned gardener, a budding enthusiast, or just curious
about cultivating your own slice of nature, you're in the
right place. Join me Ben as we explore practical tips,
inspiring stories, and the latest trends in gardening to make
your outdoor space bloom with life, from a lotment adventures
to wildlife friendly gardening. I'm here to help you grow
your passion and read the rewards. So grab your gloves,
roll up your sleeves, and let's get started on this
year's gardening journey. Hey everyone, and welcome to Tuesday's episode
of Gardening with Ben. I hope you're all well, and
I hope that you're enjoying that the weather is starting
to warm up and hopefully get rid of the last
bit of snow and ice out there, and then we
can get back backing those gardens, get them sorted and
get ready for the springtime. Hopefully we won't get any
more snow and ice before then, but you never know,
you can still get it up into February and March time.
So fingers crossed we won't get another downpour of snow
this year, but if it does, it does. And this
is one of the important reasons why I like to
get my a lotment cleared and tidied at the end
of October for any bad weather like this, because then
at least you don't have to worry about doing stuff.
It's all tidy, it's all ready, and it's ready for
growing next year. So yeah, that's why I tend to
get it all cleared and tidy, and then I can
concentrate on doing any jobs like any building or any
maintenance in my shed and the polytunnel throughout the winter
period in these cold and awful times. So that's why
I love to crack on as soon as the gardening
season's finished. So today we're going to talk about planting
onions in anuay. They and when I'm talking about planting onions,
I'm not talking about planting the little bulb onions that
come in these like little net bags. I'm talking about
which are often called sets onion sets. We're talking about
sewing onion seeds. Now I have to recommend growing onions
from seed. I did an experiment a bit back where
I grew onions from seed, and I grew them from set,
and I grew them at the side of each other,
so they were like in the same soil and everything,
and they got the same attention with watering, et cetera,
the same amount of sunlight. And I have to say
onions from seed grew better than the ones that grew
from set. So I have to recommend growing onions from seed.
And I have sewn all my onion seeds. I stood
them at the end of December in my shed. I've
planted them all in the seed trays, and then I
brought them home to germinate at home because it'll need
a lot warmer weather from to germinate. So I've got
on my windows where there's plenty of light so they
won't grow like a And I put what I do
when I saw my onions seed, well, for any seeds, really,
I tend to use a seed tray that's quite deep
and put a few seeds in each one. Are you
one of these people that I will just saw every
seed in the packet, because I am. I'm not one
that I'll just sew like a certain amount of seeds
so that it's enough for me. I just end up
sewing the whole packet. But then once I've sown, and
what I do is I obviously cover them with compost
and then I cover them with clean film after I've
watered them. Now, the reason why I cover all my
seeds with cling film is that I don't use a
propagator lid, because that's the extra ity IMP to buy
to propagate a lid to go on top. What I
do is I use the cling film after I put
the water them and that will keep them warm, it
will keep them moist. You don't have to keep them
watered until they germany and then when they start to
pop through, that's when you can take the cling film
off just let them grow. And that's what I do
with all my seeds. That's what I've always done when
growing seeds, use cling film to add the warmth and
keep the moisturing. And it does it so well and
so fantastic. So if you're wanting to sow any seeds
at the moment, if you're itching to sow them, the
only seeds I would recommend is growing onions at this
time of year, And you can go into any shop
or online and have a look for onion seeds. You'll
be able to see them. And obviously shops like the
Range or being Q the Range have wool courst seeds
in there now, So if you're used to buy wilcours
seeds and miss them, go in the Range. They have
all the world cost seeds in there. Now they've the
branding and you will see the onion seeds. I can't
remember the name of the seeds, but you'll see which
ones they are. And you can sew them now and
sew them on a window salt where it's warm. You
don't want them in a cold greenhouse or cold polytunnel.
You need them somewhere warm, and they'll start growing pretty fast. Man,
have all come through now, they're all growing well on
my window sill, and I will be planting these outside
when you'd be planting your sets outside, so around the
end of March beginning of April. So obviously starting them
off now you can get them to grow bigger and
better and then plant them outside come March April time. Now,
obviously I've got growing all in the seed trays. The
people that grow them for competitions, what they do is
obviously grow them at the same time they grow start
them off like end of December. What they will do
is then split them all out of the seed tray
and plant them in individual pots and grow them bigger
that way, and then they'll get them big growing in
a pot before planting out. So that is why you
see people get these giant onions. They really do take
care of them. So obviously, now mne have all grown
through in the seed tray, this is when you separate
them all and put them all into individual pots and
nurture them and grow them and give them food and
pump them full of stuff to get them to grow big.
But what I will do is I'll just leave them
in the seed tray and let them grow because obviously,
if I'm separating them into separate pots like the people
that grown for exhibitions, you're disturbing the roots and stuff
like that, so you have more chance of damaging them.
So come March April time, that is when I will
go outside and I'll get the bed rdy and I'll
plant them all individual into holes and get them growing
that way. I am going to grow some from set
again this year, So I'm going to do a comparison
for your all to follow along and watch, because I
wasn't sharing much content back then when I used to
do that, so I will do it again this year.
I'll grow seed and i'll grow set to show you
which ones grow better, and I'll plant them outside about
the same time that you'll be planting potatoes as well.
I usually plant my potatoes around the end of March
beginning of April time. I always plant my potatoes on
Good Friday, even though Good Friday moves every year. I
plant them out on Good Friday, so we'll be planting
them out again around that time. So that is when
I'll be planting my onions out on Good Friday, around
Good Friday. So yeah, I'm excited to get them out
in the ground. They'll be one of the first things
that go outside, on my potatoes and my onions. But
my potatoes are growing boxes now, so I keep them
in polytunnel until it gets a bit warm, and then
I move the boxes outside to give them that kickstart
in growing. So they're the first things that go outside. Really,
I don't really plant much stuff else outside and until
the chance of follow has gone, which is usually around
May time depending on the weather. But obviously keeping an
eye on the forecast because that's where the little phrase
comes from. Never cast a clout until May is out,
because you can get frost right the way until at
the end of May. So you have to be careful
with planted stuff outside. Never be too eager to plant
stuff outside. It's usually okay down south. It's a lot
warmer down south, but up north where I am, you
have to wait until the chance of frost has definitely
passed before planted stuff outside. So yeah, we're excited to
get growing, and I'm looking forward to the onions growing.
Hopefully we'll get some good, big onions. I don't always
do well with my onions. Sometimes they're really good, sometimes
they're really bad. But I think this year I need
to improve the bed of where I'm going to be
planting them and add some nutrition and some compost, just
give some extra food into the bed this year. So
I'm going to really dig in some nutrition this year
and hopefully we'll get some decent sized onions. Because now
that I'm living in my new flat, I can actually
do proper cooking and stuff like that, and I want
to try and make some recipes and stuff like that.
I'm desperate to buying a soup maker. I want to
buy soupmaker for this year, and the reason behind it
is because obviously with the produce what I grow, I
can make some nice soups. So I could make like
a French onion soup from the onions, or if I've
got potatoes and leaks growing, I can grow do a
potato and a leak salad. I'll be able to do
tomato not salad soup. I'll be able to do tomato
soup or a corse Jet soup. I've tried Corsejet soup
before and I absolutely love that. So yeah, I want
to get myself a soup maker. So if anybody on
here has got a soup maker, send me a message
of the soupmaker that you've got. I know that you
can do be like cookers and then you end up
having to use a potato masher to mash it all
up and make it smooth, but the potato the actual
soup makers are a lot better because it does it
all for you. So that is on my bucket list
this year, a soupmaker. So yeah, I'm looking forward to
this year. It's going to be an exciting year of
growing and hopefully doing plenty of cooking this year because
that's what I've not done in the past. A lot
of the stuff I end up giving it away and
letting people use it, whereas I don't get a chance
to cook it. But this year, I want to do
a lot of cooking this year and try cooking my
own stuff, and I may even make my own rubob
crumbles this year. I usually give my rubib to my
mum and she cooks me crumbles and then gives them
me back. So yeah, I'm looking forward to that. So
that has been just talking about growing onions from seed.
So if you're desperate to get out there and get
growing something good as shops and get a packet of
onion seed and give them a try. But remember to
put them on a light window sill where they'll get
plenty of light. And obviously they need to be in
warmth from to germinate as well. So let me know
if you're going to be growing some onions from seed
and let me know how you get on. So until
the next time, everyone, remember keep smiling, keep shining, and
keep gardening with Ben. Everyone. Thanks for tuning in to
today's episode of Gardening with Ben. I hope you've enjoyed
our chat and picked up some tips to help your
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