Veg in One Bed

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I came across Huw’s videos on YouTube as they come up naturally in my recommendations lists, having now watched more gardening videos than I can count.

In one specific video, which I will link to below, he was explaining why we wrote his latest book “Why I Wrote Veg in One Bed”. I liked the sound of creating a plan and I’m also a huge fan of maximising the space you have and growing large amount of crops in a small area.

I wanted to thank him for his guidance, learn more and support him, so I purchased his book: Why I Wrote Veg in One Bed

I really like Huw’s style of writing buy more importantly the clever way that he has broken the chapters of the book into months and described in detail what you should be looking out for and actioning in each month. If you’re new to gardening and growing your own crops, this book is an excellent place to start.

There is no doubt that he put a lot of time into writing and editing this book (the images are very useful and the illustrations of how your bed should look each month are adorable) and where I think he put in the most effort was creating the year planner towards the front of the book (tweaked versions are also included for different gardening styles or temperature differences). In this he divides his bed into a number of plots and each plot is dedicated to one or two types of vegetable for the year. An example being, plot 1 contains potatoes and leeks (they are timed nicely to use the same bed for all year round growing).

What is also genius is that instead of needing to remember what is where in your bed, you only need to remember where each plot is. We did this at home with painted stones. This method can then double up as a way to rotate your crops each year, if you feel this is important. Instead of moving the crops around and remembering what was there last year… simply move the plot number instead and forget about the detail.

The one drawback for me was that I don’t like to grow many of the vegetables that he uses as his template. For example, I never bother with:

• Broad beans
• Lettice
• Beetroot
• Runner beans
• Radish
• Pea
• Dwarf french beans

… for me, they are not the tastiest or most interesting of vegetables and I have not had much luck with some of them in the past (or they are more effort than the reward). This meant that the year planner, though incredibly useful and a great starting point for my own chart, it only provided half of the guidance I needed.

This should in no way reflect onto Huw or his book for he has written this in a specific way and, for those who would enjoy growing and eating those vegetables, he is spot on with his organisation and guidance. Plus, he would have been writing this book forever if he were trying to accomodate all types of vegetables. What he has gone for is ease of picking up the book, flipping to the month you’re on and quicking getting an overview of your tasks.

The video can be found here: Why I Wrote Veg in One Bed

If you’re looking for a guide on growing a large amount of veg in one plot, hand-holding through the year and method for creating your own year planners then this book will steer you well.

Article written on Apr 16, 2020
Updated Apr 20, 2020