Thank you so much to Vera for showing us all about polycultures! What themed polyculture are you inspired to try? Check out Vera's book, Edible Paradise: shop.permaculture.co.uk/edible-paradise.html 🌿

I've been into polyculture for some time now... or as I like to call it... "just plant it anywhere it fits" culture :)

Nice one Huw. Advertising other people’s book and not just your own, good man.

I always enjoy watching Vera's channel and have learned much. My polycutures are not really planned, I just tuck things in where there is space, so have all kinds of veg and herbs and self-seeded flowers growing together, and it actually works rather well.

I love the way the gardening community supports each other! Thank you Huw for promoting other channels and books! I would plant an Italian themed garden for spaghetti!

You should do a podcast with Mark from Self Sufficient Me, I reckon you two could vibe well and produce awesome conversation and ideas around the garden.

Living in Tuscany I learn weekly from your videos, even if the weather is hardly different from the Welsh. One week ago your books came in and gave me new ideas for our paradise of weed, wine and olives. Thanks for sharing Vera's channel.

First year with intentional polyculture in the veg garden. I have made a salad, radish, green onion quick garden interplanted with beets, bulb onions and beans slow garden. I even planted radishes in a heart shape as a little love surprise for my hubby.

In Texas, I planted a "Salsa" garden, with tomatoes, tomatillos, cilantro, and several chiles and peppers. There were other Mexican herbs scattered about: epazote: _Dysphania_ (formerly _Chenopodium) ambrosioides;_ and Mexican marigold mint/Mexican tarragon: _Tagetes lucida._ There was also a "Spaghetti sauce" garden with more tomatoes, oregano, marjoram, fennel, onions, bell peppers, thyme. Here in Washington, one of the first gardens I planted was an "Herbes de Provence" with tarragon, winter and summer savory, lavender, thyme, rosemary, marjoram, oregano, and basil, though the bay is across the yard. I also planted a self-sowing Asian brassica garden with Pak choy, tatsoi, gai choy but also arugula, chicory and borage. It's mostly gone to arugula and needs to be reworked. There are two areas of food forests, as well.

Love watching her, she is my gardening twin I think

I've been trying to do a whole bed for making salsa: tomato, jalepenos, onions, garlic and cilantro. The hardest part is timing so I can harvest them at the same time.

Nice collaboration! Two great channels. Greetings from Canada! Mayfield Manor.

Yesssss! I saw a video of hers a while back and couldn’t remember her name and had forgotten to subscribe. Thank you!

I've just started gardening veg this year. I have a wildlife sanctuary specifically for squirrels. My polyculture garden is centered around feeding the orphaned baby squirrels as they are weaning off of formula. Therefore, most of the plants are those which the squirrels enjoy eating. I have planted courgettes, yellow squash, acorn squash, butternut squash, cantaloupe, 4 types of tomatoes, sugar snap peas, shelling peas, stringless bush beans, 3 types of potatoes, carrots, radishes, broccoli, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, kohlrabi, red cabbage, collard greens, peanuts and swiss chard. I will also be planting 3 types of sweet potatoes as soon as they arrive. I have thoroughly enjoyed watching your videos and learning from you. Thank you for sharing your knowledge!

I love Vera and have been following her for about a year now. I think it’s wonderful that you’re showcasing her on your channel. Lots of love from Washington State.

What a great collaboration from you both! Good stuff I've enjoyed watching both your channels grow

This was wonderful, Huw. Thank you for sharing Vera’s video. It’s given me some ideas for planning a fall salad garden. I tend to end up with a bit of a polyculture style in my garden beds rather accidentally, but going forward I will be more intentional about it. Thanks again!

Thanks for this video. I look forward to trying Vera's great ideas.

Thank you Huw for showing Vera's polyculture. I just started mix planting my veggies because of lack of space had no idea it was called polyculture.soooo pleased.

Thank you for this video. I just subscribed to Vera's Channel. I bought your book this week and I'm just amazed by the quality of the content. Thank you very much. Greetings from Belgium

Thanks Huw! I really appreciate this video. I've become very interested in polyculture when I saw my friends garden. It blew me away, absolutely beautiful with numerous veg and flowers all in one small area. She had brassicas, various herbs, annual flowers, berry bushes, onions, artichokes, mint, catmint, various spring bulbs, strawberries, and others I probably cannot think of right now. There was so much interest and layers! I definitely want to learn more about this and be able to implement it into my own gardening.

That was very helpful so thank you. What I found particularly interesting is what one can plant around brassicas to discourage the destructive insects.

Vera's fab! I've been experimenting with a polyculture bed this past year. It's still running 1yr on and I'm planting new things into it from modules as old crops come close to the end, but always with the soil covered and the supporting plants ticking over. Growing plants together like this is such an appealing idea if we can figure it out. Still feeling my way through how to do All The Things in a different way, but most enjoyable.

this is so great, and what it's all about! Seeing gardeners you found through links appear on this channel. Another proof that Huw's the real deal, and all about teaching and sharing a true passion. Inspirational in and out of the garden. Loving this!

You seriously have the best guests.

Great ideas for theme gardens!

I love this style.

Great video, thank you! I'm very much into polyculture but never considered having themed beds aside from the classic squash/pumpkin/corn/bean combination. My other beds are basically a happy mix of whatever plants play nice together in one bed and benefit one another. For example there are leeks, spring onions and kohlrabi scattered all over my strawberry beds, or cabbages, basil, celery, celeriac and tomatoes planted together, and so on. I don't even always do beds in that sense, but tend to scatter plants like tomatoes all over the garden, which I've found to be a great way to prevent blight or at least keep it from spreading if the plants are widely separated (only one of my tomato plants had it last year, the rest succumbed to the first frost, completely blight-free).

Thank you Huw, that was awesome.

Excellent video. I will need to try polyculture because it will be taking more advantage of the space I have in my allotment/garden.

Wow, two of my favourite channels in one video - love it! ❤️❤️❤️

Very interesting, I’ve been scratching the surface of this idea with Basil and Marigolds planted with the tomatoes in the greenhouse.

Great video and so many great ideas from Vera! We have 3 raised beds at home in addition to a community garden plot down the street from us. I will definitely be using polyculture garden themes next summer. I think a fascination garden for children would be fun, lemon cucumbers and other odd shaped or fun colored plants. I personally love winter gardens so my home raised beds at home are planned around lettuces, kale, chard, collards that can be harvested all winter. A summer cocktail snack garden would be fun as well.

Wow!! The Mexican polyculture was absolutely beautiful in your bounty basket!! I will check out your channel. Thanks for introducing us to her channel, Huw!

Hi Huw. Thanks for having Vera in your video. I follow her too, and read her book (in Dutch). I am trying her salad polyculture. But in this part of my garden (which I turned into garden last year, there was a shed on that spot before) the lettuce doesn't want to grow at all. I hope next year...

Very inspiring. I will definitely giving a shot at polyculture this year.

Thank you, very inspiring

Brilliant! I love the concept. Thank you, Huw, for introducing me to Vera & her channel. My first trial of her idea will be a winter veg bed, as we are heading into autumn/winter now ... central Victoria, Australia. 👋🌈

Two of my fav gardeners! Have your books and watch both of you regularly. I am doing polyculture this year for first time after following Vera. Thank you both for such informative and helpful videos!

Thankyou Huw! Great idea, been growing veggies like this for many years. Theme ends up with what is ready to be harvested for this week. Lol. I'm flexible! Just ordered my Mason Bees and Leaf Cutter bees for this season and next. I miss not having my hives of Ital Honey bees..too many agricultural chems used by comerical agricultural farms and yes mono cult planting. Always go for the blessings in each alotment harvest! God bless.

Great video, thanks for the good variety of topics like this you cover. I often just polyculture by opportunity, keeping something started all the time and popping it in when holes open up. But I live in a climate that only receives 4-8" of rain annually on average, so I am building a desert food polyculture in the back part of my garden. I have foods that take little to no water while growing back there, amaranth, nopal cactus, banana yucca and tepary beans are my planned foods for that spot this year. Because perennials take less water than annuals usually, the goal is to be mostly perennial. I might add a jujube tree too. Here we do the opposite of planting tall stuff to not shade, we plant them on the sunny side to provide shade for more tender plants since our sun is pretty brutal.

We always do polyculture planting to reduce the pests/diseases and attract beneficial insects. Tomatoes, carrots, greens, aromatic herbs, and various flowers. Keeps the horn worms (corrected from " horrors", lol, could have left it) from going straight from one plant to the next in a monoculture. Peppers grow in the rainforest and tend to like humidity, so planting them among some taller plants that will keep the pepper level humid is very helpful.

Like the idea of the winter one...

Excellent explanation, thanks for sharing.

So excited to learn about poly culture...

I guess I have always done polyculture grardening. For example, when I have a bed of tomatoes in cages, there will be radishes or leaf lettuce growing all around them to fill the open spaces. The bed of peppers has an understory of Crimson Clover to provide both living mulch, and to provide nitrogen to the peppers. The brassicas have celery plants growing among them, the celery appreciates the shade and the smell of the celery discourages the cabbage moth. Leaf lettuce grows to the north side of the trellis of climbing cucumber to keep their cool.

Just got your book in the mail today. I’m looking forward to reading it.

Thanks for introducing us to Vera, Huw. For others who were wondering, I had a quick look on her channel and Vera is based in the Netherlands so a not massively dissimilar climate to the UK. I love the way she says 'caterpillar'!

Oh no! Another book for the wish list. Great video. Laura

Not sure it qualifies as polyculture, but I plant chives, onions, and marigolds in between my tomatoes and okra to help with bugs. Oh and I planted a collection of beans together (a patch of pole beans and a patch of bush beans). But that’s mostly an experiment to see how they cross pollinate over the years from their original bean.

Excellent vlog

Thanks Huw. Im a grt fan of yours. In India, Planning to plant termeric& ginger/ some greens like spinach on top of it. And tomatoes & cucumbers to use vertical space & papaya trees 15 ft apart at the end of beds. Thanks Vera for marigold plants idea.

That was interesting. I had extra broccoli plants and tomato plants this year. The ones I couldn’t give away I literally just dotted them around my sweet corn patch about 25 meters away from the main crop. I didn’t look after them or even put in support for the tomatoes and they were hardly ever watered. Considering the lack of attention there was a reasonable crop of tomatoes ( support and side shooting would have helped for sure). The broccoli are amazing ! Some fell over then went up again but the plants look great. The one big exciting result is that there are no white fly whereas my main brassica bed is inundated with white fly. I think I just learnt a huge lesson.

Wonderful video! Would love to try a salsa garden.

im new to polyculture, but a friend told me to plant together if it tastes good together. his example was basil, tomatoes, garlic and zucchini and to attract pollinators put borage somewhere close. it sounded like it would work

Morning huw! Yes, while ago I got her book too ☺

I never knew i always did poly planting in my garden.i just go with no rules.i have 5 raised beds now and in few years planting gave me some experience with seedling indoor and outdoor and i know now how planting works. I plant veggies that mostly feed my chickens and quails .i’m setting up for more 11 raised beds for 2021 and it’s gonna be amazing full of colors.

great video

Thank you for this. Very helpful. Regards Eric Cotton _Johannesburg South Africa

I'm starting small but it's tomatoes and basil for me this year, then parsley and bell peppers neaby. In a shady spot I'm trying to grow carrots despite the blazing climate here, and I'm letting wild violets grow wherever they pop up. The violets love my backyard for some reason and are lush with HUGE leaves.

Your videos are so good👍

We are growing a medditeranian one aubergines Bell Pepper and thyme :) may add tomatoes and bay leaf too

One of the Best Gardening channel!

What a beautiful garden! It has certainly given me ideas for the 2023 season. I always thought you can’t grow sunflowers amongst the veggies because they give off a toxin(?).

I love this idea but on a plot based allotment without raised beds, I would find the poly culture method a bit confusing and messy in my mind as everything is everywhere. Maybe you could do a video with tips on this? Thanks 👍😊

Well! I have been polycultivating instinctively because i have limited space. It all make sense now Thank you soo much for all the tips ❤️ your videos One tip from me: do you know how to cure leaves curling? Well, if you have ground ivy growing in your garden collect a good bunch and mulch the base of your tree with it, water it regularly and try and pick all the curled leaves as much as you possibility can. After few weeks your tree will recover. Try it💗 Ground ivy is rich in copper so a natural way to help your trees

I would do a salsa poly culture! Growing up in south Texas close to Mexico, that would be my favorite.

I like this idea. Is there a guide to plants you should put together?

Got your book from local dobbies great info and better understanding worth the price

Thank you.

Hey Huw, thanks for the inspiration, Im gardening in a communal garden, i hope i can persuade them to use polyculture! Can polyculture and crop rotation be combined??

Thanks Xxx

So that's what my broccoli's supposed to look like...haha Why are my brassicas struggling so much?! Has it just been too hot in the UK? All my beds are polycultures, the most recent one being beets and kale..thinking of putting some sorta herb around the edge. I've got a healthy looking borage between my tomatoes and squash growing up a trellis behind :) Haven't got the space right now to experiment with themed beds, but I like the idea for the future!

Thanks for the info! Are there any plants we should be careful *not* to plant together?

Nice

Any ideas of what to use instead of landscaping cloth? Something preferably cheaper?

What are these cups in which the seeds are grown before they are planted in the raised beds? They're practically identical on different channels. Where can I buy them?

Hi..i m your new sub...enjoy your vid's content...

I have a very small garden so can only grow polyculture. I can't afford to plant everything at once so grow from seed, buy in our local market and swap seedlings with friends. Plants get bunged in where there's a space. I've even found space for a yacon as recommended by Liz Zorab

Yes, my beds end up being polycultures by default. The beds are too large, so in the unreachable middles I put long-maturing "patches" (onions, squash, dry beans, that kind of thing), and the next consideration is light and heat - things go where they'll get the right amounts. Big bushy things like tomatoes get spread out to prevent diseases, tall plants go north or west, depending on where the pathway is. I can't imagine having neutral beds with no defining limitations!

Such a small world, I happened upon Growntocook only last night. I enjoyed the ethic, and presentation, and immediately knew it was 'my kind of channel', and subscribed. I had already planned to mix up my beds, now I know it has a name! One will definitely be a Mediterranean theme, Roma type tomatoes, various herbs, and onions. I'm feeling a renewed enthusiasm 👍😊

Great video as usual. Perhaps you could do a Native American polyculture. Thanks, and keep up the good work.

My most successful has been an accident. I couldn’t get out to get seedlings or get seeds during lockdown during our most active season (subtropical Queensland Australia where summer is too hot so we grow during winter) so in desperation I collected all my out of date seeds and just threw the lot as a cover crop into a raised bed rescued from a brush turkey (think roosters on steroids that build ground nests like giant compost piles 4 m in diameter). Way more came up than I expected so are way too dense but I’ve finished the radishes (red so were easy to spot in the prolific growth), harvesting masses of pac Choi now, and still have beetroot and carrots to grow later with daikon that I might need to harvest early before they take over. In other beds that needed cover crops I raided the pantry for packets of borlotti beans, chick peas, Lima beans and I even went through the soup mix and picked out all the kidney beans! I was desperate but they were way way cheaper than ‘proper’ seeds ($1.50 for 500 gram compared to $3.45 for a seed packet) and have germinated better than anything else I’ve planted in years!

I really like the idea of planting in this way. Do you find that you have to carefully choose which crops to plant, keeping in mind companion planting? I'm on the understanding that there are some veggies that do no do well growing near certain others, or is that not applicable when it comes to polyculture?

OK need to plant tomatoes and calendula near them ☺

I'd like to plant a italian garden. My children love pasta sauce

Does it means to grow in one space? .like I am growing coriander and fenugreek in one pot. With two tomato plants I have put mint inn one put .... lettuce and mustard And was thinking I should move them!!!!!

Fideo Ffantastig Huw 😁👍

Huw, do you think you can combine polyculture with no-till mulching methods?

I would try interplanting medicinal herbs with veg.

I do the same, mix aromatic plants with my tomatoes and brassicas. I was wondering if that concept work for my squash plants, to avoid squash bugs or squash vine borer. Any suggestions from this community is appreciated. RJ in Virginia zone 7b

Show how to do it, gomto the point please,TY

I'm growing two types of tamatoes In my poly tunnel how do I stop them cross pollinating?

Ok so is there or is there not certain plants that should definitely not be grown together? I’m noticing this more and more that there’s no avoidances. I have a Small area so I grow where I can and take my chances. In one bed I have onions, parsley, basil & romaine. I was concerned with the basil onion combo but so far so good. I asked Charles Dowding about this and all he said was “give it a go and see what happens”. Basil is a little slow growing but no negatives yet.

Doesn't the tall sunflower shade the garden behind it?

Is the book "Edible Paradise" applicable in UK/Ireland? (climat-wise)Thank you

Noah’s ark poly culture - 2 of every plant I have in one bed! That would be awesome!

Such great info. I can't help but comment: Mexico is North American. Central America includes all of the countries south of Mexico and north of Columbia.

Polyculture is a fantastic way to grow a feast for the plate as well as for the mind. Wouldn't it be brilliant to grow together the herbs that heal along with special plants that are pleasant to feel and are visually beautiful. For example borage. A beautiful bee friendly plant. The flowers can be used to enhance the ice cubes which you may like to add to a summertime drink. I grow Nasturtium flowers with cabbages. The nasturtiums will attract the cabbage white butterfly which lay eggs onto the leaves of the nasturtiums rather than the cabbage leaves. The cabbages should be safe and grow well.

How do you protect the broccoli from caterpillars?