I got rid of the lawn in place of raised beds and pots and troughs. So no mowing and now beds full of veg, flowers, herbs, wild flowers, and a garden with shrubs, fruit and nut trees, fruit bushes, my own compost, and therefore plenty of wildlife and insect life. Priceless on so many levels. 😊

Half the reasons I garden is to get outdoors, get a little exercise, interact with nature, add a little beauty to my day, learn and have fun. I don't always produce useable harvests, but I never regret a single second of time or money I spend gardening. Its the journey, not the destination for me.

"True wealth is a garden full of food"💚

every time i go out into my garden i say "i am so rich." i may not have anything impressive in my bank account, but just being able to go out and grab a bowlful of raspberries whenever i want to makes me feel like a king.

Gardening is therapeutic and grounding, and it's always worth it.

The world needs more people like Huw, you have my absolute respect.

I love that you're taking about this important topic. One of the ways of controlling people is by controlling access to food. Nurturing your own food supply is giving you a little bit of autonomy. And you're right; trust in supermarkets is shaky & deservedly so. Have a great week Huw & thank you 👍

This was a brilliant video Huw. Even if the world goes completely mad (we're close) .. Nature can always bring us back. Getting rid of your TV helps too!!

Watching from Denmark zone 8a. I love what you said in the beginning. I am on my first serious homestead year. New house, new part of the country, left family and friends behind, no farmers in our families, born and raised in the suburbs of Copenhagen. My life's challenge. The best ever despite every obstacle. Nature's abundance is emotionally overwhelming ❤️

I am an old man at 73. Pottering in my garden, polytunnel & greenhouse is the best way to spend time. It's calming, useful and wonderful to eat our own produce. Thank you for your book, I will never be too old to learn.

You are 100% right! I am gardening since 30 years now, and even so, I was so proud, when serving my lunch today: Kohlrabi-Schnitzel with potatoes and salad - all fresh from my garden. I never lose this feeling of eating something very valuable, when I eat my own food! Many greetings from Bavaria ❤

Me and my partner started our allotment this year and we’ve had so much food from it already. Many failed crops, all our carrots got eaten, but we replanted and now getting some out the ground already! Thanks for all your tips and tricks!

For the sake of convenience over the last 50 years or so we we’ve lost an awful lot, we are being served edible “stuff” that lacks nutritional value with the addition of pesticides that are probably the main cause of many health issues, the lack of nutrient dense food that nature provides to our diets is something that people sometimes ignore Well done Huw your spot on thank you for bringing this up for the attention of your viewers

Ive taken it up this year for first time. I got a cheap greenhouse and noe have lovely tomatoes. Ive already had 2 corgettes of mu plants, a big handful of blueberries, some strawberries and squash growing. So glad i went for it. I have more growing too! Your videos are very helpful too. Thank you

2 peaches, 5 Victoria plums, 7 cherries, lots of apricots, blackberries, loganberries, a few blackcurrants, raspberries etc, etc. Hardly self sufficient but, one day, I might be

The connection with the garden is so real! I find wonderful peace when I'm out there! It's so therapeutic if I'm stressed out. And other times, it just makes me happy!

"What you get, is a whole category of flavors that money can't buy. " & so much more. Truly, whoever can grow any plants...especially edible ones...is exponentially rewarded. 💚

I have planted green beans three or four times and the local rabbits are well fed. We have hit the HOT and STEAMY days of summer. So far my garden has given me peas, onions, garlic, potatoes, cucumbers, tomatoes and cantaloupe. Forty jars of pickles, food in the freezer and more to come. No green beans, but the garden is still giving me so much. God bless y'all and keep growing.

I have never seen you have any kind of a rant, this video is glorious.

First year gardener here, very encouraging to hear that I'm doing well, despite many failures this year 😌 ... I'm honestly just so happy that I have a garden now

I'm not giving up, even though I have been challenged. We must stop depending on Supermarkets for everything. Supporting our local farm shop and growing what I can, gives me so much joy and appreciation. You are a leading light Huw. Thank you for your inspiration. 🙏❤️

Gardeners are eternally optimistic. My mom is 80 and was helping me cook supper….she was pealing potatoes and said these potatoes peelings have huge sprouts, I’m going to plant them in one of your raised beds. I said go ahead. I just harvested 6 beautiful little red potatoes out from under one plant. I know most people plant whole potatoes but we’ve always cut ours and have amazing results. But I didn’t really expect the peelings to work lol!

Thanks Huw. I live in Vermont. The last two days we've had horrible flooding which has destroyed a lot of farms of market gardeners, for the second year in a row. Same date! Growing our own food is such an important backup to help ensure the whole community is fed. It takes us all being a part of this

I absolutely love your encouragement and agree with everything you spoke about. Thank you 🙏

Fabulous, slightly revolutionary message. Well done.

You have beautiful harvest for such a tough year! My garden has become such a sanctuary for me. It is about as far away from the news media a person can get. Not only am I getting healthy food, the exercise and fresh air do wonders for one's mental health. The birds are singing, the insects buzzing, my doe munches on her apples--who can put a price tag on the therapy of a garden. Thanks for such a great video!

You are an inspiration

I’ve done home gardening most of my adult life and eventually you adapt and learn enough there are really no “bad” years but different years and you have the skill sets to adapt. I garden as much for my sanity as for food but we now eat about 80% or more of our produce from home.

This is probably your boldest and most revolutionary video I've seen so far. Brilliant 💚👨‍🌾🌿

I just love your approach to this topic. Your passion is evident, but it's delivered in a light hearted way. Thank you for being real!

Say it louder for the people in the back of the room!!!!!!! Woohooo!!🎉

Huw, thanks for the pep talk about gardening this year. We moved in January and started everything from scratch and so it has been an up-hill climb to say the least...but it is worth it. It's been a very different growing season and I keep telling my wife that we're on a learning curve that will ultimately help us be better at what we're doing. We're still harvesting veg this year even though it's a different growing season. Thanks for helping us stay focused! (Kentucky, USA)

Your videos always do my heart good

Its been a long year, started late Feb., and harvested baby carrots, onions, loads of peas, broccoli, and grown loads of flowers, able to gift to others. I've lots more harvests to come, even though the weather stinks. Invested in nematodes, and started a compost bin. There's been lots of good even though there's been lots of losses. I take it as a challenge, its absolutely smashed through my mental health, I'm feeling connected daily with hands in the soil, you can't lose.

We've had the opposite problem in Cyprus... nearly a constant 40C plus for 2 months now, with terrible humidity! But such a mild winter meant slugs and snails were also a terrible problem all throughout spring! It's a battle to keep things alive... nearly 2 acres of gardens/vegetable growing needs almost constant watering throughout the day!

I love your channel ❤ I've been gardening for 30 years and have a smaller youtube channel .This is my first season that I'm not gardening due to have moved.. I miss it this season no matter what the challenges may be like the weather this season. It has been around 110 degrees here in Pennsylvania very difficult but so worthi gardening. Everyone should be concerned about what is being put in our food.. Agree with you on this whole topic 💯 Love and hugs Sincerly Melody

Everything coming up just slowly, my spinach and radish seeded 😂

Grow your own food, and supplement with locally produced food!

Thank you for all your work and help to us backyard gardeners, like myself. Your video's and books have been a big help for me this year. I had a mild winter, then a wet/cold spring, and now a very hot summer. Your tips have helped me greatly and now I am, despite the trouble growing this year, enjoying my garden greatly for the first time. It's not just a choir anymore, it's a joy. My family knows if you want to find Mom go to the garden, not just the kitchen.

This video got me teary-eyed. The produce we grow ourselves absolutely tastes better! We live in the suburbs of California. We planted out our landscape with lawns and a small area for a garden. After one season of gardening, we want to rip out the lawns and make more raised beds! The thing I love about having a garden is that we are not only feeding our children fresh produce, but they are learning to grow food themselves, from planting seeds, protecting the seedlings, watering, and learning when food is ready.

I live in West Virginia and it’s been 3 years that o took up gardening..I just pulled up 100lbs of potatoes this week…I’m well impressed…I’ve taken DOWN my sweetcorn and planted another succession of that…btw…I live in town..

Well said Huw

I took up gardening this year, one tomato plant which is coming in beautifully and is growing like crazy, one chili and several lettuces. I can't eat the amount of lettuce I'm getting out of my garden bed, so the massive amounts of slugs have a field day. I'm just picking out what I need. I'll soon start another bed and some growing bags, but am unsure of what I can plant this "late" into the year. Gotta have to read up on crops again. But it's fun, and so far, relatively low-maintenance.

I love all your videos! ❤ but I love this one a lot! Really! Your positive approach...super! ❤️

Access to land, you hit the nail on the head! For more and more people in the western world owning land or having access to land is becoming unattainable. It will get even harder when politicians with certain political ideologies limit transportation by raising taxes and soon prohibiting petrol cars.

I've had a vegetable, herb and flower patch growing on our balcony for the last 25 years or so. It makes such a difference during the summer and fall - we're part of the pollinators path through the downtown in summer, and in winter the sparrows scatter some seeds about for volunteers for the next season. Being able to go out onto my balcony to pick herbs and veg for meals is a luxury. I even have a compost container to grow soil and deal with old leaves and scraps from the garden. This year I'm growing morning glories, pansies, marigolds, three types of tomatoes, summer squash, cantaloupe, peas, beans, cucumber, over a dozen herbs, lettuce and a local wildflower mix. I'm also lucky enough this year to share a garden plot at the local community garden with a longtime neighbour of ours. So double everything listed above, with the addition of a pepper and basil and Swiss chard patch... the best medicine money can't buy. - Cathy (&, accidently, Steve), Ottawa/Bytown/Pimisi

Thank you so much for your videos! My father does gardening and growing food for our family, and your videos are super helpful! Keep up the amazing content!

Proudest moment for me was seeing my slug ravished cauliflower that was left with half a leaf survive and is now thriving!! First growing season for me. I’ve learned a lot about resilience, both in the garden and myself. And the joy of that first mouthful of early potatoes made it all worthwhile. And the frogs that have taken up home in my little sunken bucket pond.

Oh Huw-you so hit the nail on the head. It’s a challenge growing here in New Mexico. I grew up in North Wales and it seemed easier. Instead of slugs I battle for water and mice. But the connection to my food is so Zen. Everyday before work I go out there to see what has developed overnight. It’s heart warming. Never gets old. My parents did the same.❤

Middle of Winter here in South Australia, have tomatoes and three kinds of brassicas growing extremely well, big harvest expected in Spring!! Lots of rain so no watering required either except for weekly compost water feeds, instant food for plants.

Good timing and motivational, many at the point of giving up! Great video👍

I,am still going on and some things are doing very well I,am not complain And I love to see you Gardner 😊 here in Holland is also a challenge.

"...I wasn't being fully genuine..." I can tell you, without a doubt, that's not the case. People just love to hold on to their personal biases, and react negatively to someone or something that casts doubt on those beliefs. Keep doing what you're doing, I for one find it monumentally helpful, and appreciate how you deliver your info.

Watching from Louisiana Zone 8b-we thrive financially and maintain our health because of our garden. I agree with your words of encouragement. We depend on our produce to consume fresh, preserve, and we feel blessed to also share with others. Thank you Huw

Huw you are amazing and give everyone positive truthful guidance and your garden is fabulous !!! Thank you from Ottawa, Ontario Canada where we have also had a wet and weird weather summer, one minute we are 30-38 degrees Celsius and then in the low to mid 20’s ! 🙏✨🦋

You're awesome, man! I never miss an episode... Keep up the great work!

Thank you so much for posting this morning! I threw my hands up yesterday and yelled; WHY AM I DOING THIS?! The groundhog wiped out my brussel sprouts and egg plant and this morning my carrots are gone due to deer. Toss in chipmunks and squirrels and I’m looking for a bridge! Yes, pests are out of control this year. Netted everything and had slugs move in, I have never had slugs before 🤦‍♀️. Toss in the drought this year and I’m on the Olympic hose dragging team 🏅 I turned 70 this year and just finished moving 30 cubic yards of wood chips and compost. Still better than the gym and I am enjoying celery, tomatoes, beets and broccoli. Wild temperature swings have stressed out so many plants this year, no cauliflower, we sautéed the leaves. Bumper crop of garlic, not so good on onions. We must adjust to climate change. I have over 40 years of records and it’s shocking! Keep records. Again, thank you and moving forward.

Thank you Huw... always great information and appreciated encouragement! Blessings on you and your growing season Kiddo!🌻🐛🌿💚🙏💕

Love this Huw :) It totally resonates with me! :) Sharing on fb :) 💚

We had peas come strong this week

I just shared on my Facebook page. I am comforted to know it’s not just me that is “failing” this year. I’m still hopeful and sowing for over winter growing.. but like this Irish summer

I enjoy watching what you do. You are a very wise man. Continue your work. All the best!

When I sit down to a meal consisting mainly of food I have grown myself, I feel such a greater sense of appreciation and enjoyment. It really makes it all worthwhile. I have just been making fruit crumbles to give to my family, with blackcurrants, redcurrants and gooseberries from my allotment. I love having that peaceful place in which to garden, and I have made lots of friends.

One of your best videos yet. Thanks for this and I'm right there with you.

Thanks Huw, indeed, and to eat vegs without the poisons is a great important reason. Even 'organic' from shops might lack earth based growing (lacking minerals) plus they do have been sprayed (with admissible "" stuff) (because no slug damage is an indicator :) etc. They even spray grapes. Best to grow your own and to preserve for winter. (Cans cause aluminium toxins also)

It does feel like autumn now! I have a primrose that thinks we've already been through another year already. Totally agree, it makes the small harvests even more wonderful 👩🏼‍🌾 & having the garden community is so wonderful.

Watching from the American Midwest, zone 5b. Just starting to get into gardening. I'm trying to learn because the world is so uncertain. I want to learn now when i have plenty of food at a store to rely on; if something changes and food becomes scarce or supply chains break down, it's too late to learn.

Well done Huw,back to appreciating why we grow our food even under difficult conditions.

Every morning about 6am I spend a bit of time in my little veg garden -picking off snails...- and just wandering around seeing whats growing. It really gives me so much joy :-)

Huw, thank you so much for this very personal testament of how gardening can restore hope and courage and give joy. After a few years of personal loss and anxiety over world events, I realized that the only thing I could do to improve the quality of my life was to tend my garden. Not throw it all in at once, harvest half of it, and stress continually over it. But tend it, enjoy its beauty, and let hope and courage grow to meet life’s challenges.

This is the most thought provoking gardening video I’ve ever watched. Thank you Huw for sharing your thoughts and examples of why. As I sit watching your video while I eat a bowl of home grown lettuce in my unusually warm winter garden in Perth, Western Australia I feel grateful

I wholeheartedly agree with everything you've said in this video! Gardening is such a joy! I just started this year and I live in Portugal. It's been a much wetter year than usual, so some of the fruits, like plums and peaches are a little slow. But it was great for saving water and many crops came nonetheless! I thoroughly enjoyed the two zucchinis I harvested, as well as the salad we now have daily. Planting your own food also automatically makes you eat a lot healthier. Your garden is so so beautiful and one of the many reasons I like to watch your videos. Keep up the great work!

I love your point of view Huw, nothing is more important than growing our own food and nourishing our families

Huw. I have been watching you for years. I love the way you have grown up. I love how you talk.

This is your most awesome video ever! Cheers from the Andes in Peru... Gardening at 3,000 masl.

‘Sneezed on a keyboard ‘ and ‘chemical vegetables’ says it all! Best reason to grow food🥰

Excellent video Huw! I keep saying all these things to the people I come into contact with at work as a kitchen gardener. So great that you can get the message out to a wider audience. The whole world needs to hear it! Keep up the good work buddy 👍

Oh my goodness, Huw! What a timely and positive video. I'm a gardener living in the US, growing mostly perennials. This year I've leaned into vegetable gardening, thanks in part to your inspiring videos. I'm very grateful to you and your passion for growing!!

I'm glad you are not caving to the negativity, I've been watching you for years and I love the channel. Like a Corgi puppy wrapped in a marshmallow under a rainbow.🤗

I just got your latest book for my birthday. I am so happy to get it because 1) I love to garden and admire what you do, and 2) I wanted to see what I could learn from your experiences. I think gardening and growing your own food is so worth it. More now than ever. Thanks for your wonderful videos. ❤

It's been my first growing season and I've been delighted. Only because I planted things and they grew! Because I have no previous years to compare with I'm just pleased to have been able to grow enough to be self sufficient.

Love, love, LOVE this video, Huw. Even though it's not a practical how-to on a plant level, it's a how-to in a while other level. Such an encouraging message that brings me hope. Thank you for doing what you do and for being who you are. Keep on please! 💚

I started growing this year! Love watching you, Gary, Charles, Alexander etc All inspiring and developing our knowledge and skill sets. Thank you! :)

Our Great Grandparents all had their own vegie gardens. They had chooks, and buried all their food waste either in the vegie patch or tossed it to the chooks. Newspapers were composted as was cardboard. Glass was recycled as jam jars. The streets and parks used to be filled with fruit and nut trees. Everyone swapped there excess with their neighbours. We need to get back to this and fast. Sharing is so good for the soul.

I started growing this year mainly to help cope with a bereavement. It’s been great for my heart and soul and there is no better feeling than harvesting and eating my own food. I look forward to going out every morning to see how my garden is. Your videos have been incredibly helpful in my journey, thank you.

I have a container garden in my back yard. Everything is very green and lush this year with all the rain. My tomatoes and courgettes are way behind. I love all the greenery though!

I got rid of my TV many years ago and only have my laptop to keep me in touch with video`s like these and the odd happening in the world. I nurse in a huge hospital here in Port Elizabeth South Africa and spend 90% of my free time in my back garden. So good for my body and soul in so many ways. I have discovered using spent coffee grounds to repel slugs and snails in my beds and have huge harvests. Huw, i love your video`s and have learnt so much from them, even though i am in the southern hemisphere. Keep up posting your lovely video`s 🌿🐌🐝🐞🕷🌸🌿

I grow all my food i thank my dad for bringing me up around his allotments and he's 80 and still growing his food too ❤ and bring back gardening in schools because that's what lessons i had had and bee keeping the good old day's ❤

I totally agree! It's a difficult gardening year here in Germany, too. But this year I started to write down what and how much I harvest and despite the difficult conditions the list keeps getting longer and longer, filling me with deep gratefulness and awe of creation.

Your choice of language is beautiful, thanks for spreading the word

Oh Huw, thank you for promoting gardening. Yeah, all the noise you hear day to day can really pull you down and I think some studies prove that just getting out to your garden in the fresh air has a positive effect on your body (that and sunshine). Well done!😊❤

you are absolutely right,growing your own food is worth all the effort and time.i would never had thought it would make me so happy doing it. been living in Manchester and Germany for 12 years, now I'm back.home in the basque country and a plot of land that was my father's I have been growing vegetables for two seasons and I think it is the best thing I have ever done.there is this connection with nature ,with the plants then the freshness and favour of them,I am looking forward for my tomatoes to ripe guess will still take a few days to a eating them but it does not matter I know that since I am growing food and spending lots of hours in nature I think I have zero stress and anxaiety and having for dinner as for example today a simple salad with lettuce ,green onion and tuna with olive oil ,vinegar and salt and a courgette soup with potatoes (can't be a simpler dinner)I know I'm gonna sleep like a kid ,it's just priceless

I think your garden looks amazing. It’s so green and there’s so much growing. I live in the desert, so seeing so much green always blows my mind.

You are so right! Whilst i was saddened that yet more courgettes had to be thrown away this morning ,due to blossom end rot, i still went home with some beautiful tomatoes, string beans and peas Yummy It has been such a tricky year so far for growing but it makes me want to try harder! Great video x

The pride I feel when everything on our plates I’ve grown is priceless

I restarted gardening this year after a 10-12 year hiatus. Here in the Eastern US, record high temps and a serious drought have made this the most difficult year to take this up again. I have way more pests than I remember, and I've had to water every day just to keep things alive. But - I got a few peas even in the heat, I've got tomatoes and cukes coming and the flowers are beautiful. Add to that, I had a Monarch butterfly feasting on the common milkweed I've allowed to grow in my garden pathways. Lots of work, but that one butterfly makes it all worth it. Your channel and your books have taught me so much I didn't know. Thank you!

It’s not over yet- there’s still time for some good growing. and every year there seems to be a number of crops that do well while others disappoint.

This is just the inspiration I needed today after the frustration of slug eating my baby bean plants, rabbits devoring my echinacea and the disappointing weather. You put it all into perspective. Thank you.

It is so worth it- at whatever level you can grow your food.My mouth was watering looking at your harvest!

The weather took out my kale, which is usually beautiful and 3 ft tall now. I started more seeds. I am a true gardener and do not give up. It’s so worth harvesting fresh vegetables everyday, rather than food with chemicals. Even the organic vegetables are allowed to have 25 different pesticides, so it’s best to grow our own. It’s hard work with a huge reward. Your garden looks beautiful. I have your book. It was really well done. Thank you.