Aerial Roots

In this episode, we take you along with us as we get our growing site ready and plant out seedlings. We also share how we’re working through a few ups and downs at the plot. Original music from Aerial Roots crew. Produced, recorded and edited by Antonia Canal & Balraj Samrai.

In this episode, join us in the backyard as we sow seeds and share our tips on caring for seedlings. Original music from Aerial Roots crew. Produced, recorded and edited by Antonia Canal & Balraj Samrai.

We’re back with season two! Spring is around the corner and in this episode we share our top tips for getting organised, from choosing seeds to creating your plot plan. A step-by-step guide to get you growing this year. Original music from Aerial Roots crew. Produced, recorded and edited by Antonia Canal & Balraj Samrai.

In our last episode of season one, we update on what we’ve been up to during November including some final winter prep. We also share one final plot to plate recipe! Original music from Aerial Roots crew. Produced, recorded and edited by Antonia Canal & Balraj Samrai.

In the penultimate episode of season one we share an Autumn plot update, a few ideas on prepping beds for Winter and a surprise find from a crop we thought was out of the game. Original music from Aerial Roots crew. Produced, recorded and edited by Antonia Canal & Balraj Samrai. Show transcript: Balraj: Hey everyone. Thanks again for joining us at Aerial Roots. Antonia: I'm Antonia. Balraj: And I'm Balraj. Antonia: Last episode, we shared reflections on getting started at the plot, some harvest updates and an extra special breakdown of Balraj's famous kale crisps. Balraj: This episode includes an update on how our crops are doing, preparing  beds for the winter and an unexpected discovery at the plot. Antonia: So let's head down to the plot, starting with a windy evening with autumn in the air. Antonia: Right? So here we are, 25th of September 2020. Down at the plot. Balraj: Yes and the autumn equinox has come in three days ago Antonia: And Manchester, on form, it's like autumn equinox, boom, temperature drop, 15 degrees! I mean, we got that nice blast of sun, which I think the plants have been really liking. I feel like there's a ghost over there! But it's just Anita's makeshift, um, greenhouse situation. Shout out Anita! Balraj: Shout out our Equiknoxx crew as well. Antonia: Shout out our Equiknoxx family! Woop woop! Balraj: Northern hemisphere, Caribbean crew, shout out Gavsborg! Antonia: Just cause, just cause we love you! Balraj: Shanique, Bobby, Kemmy, Jordan, full crew. But yeah, what we up to here? So we've been out on a dusky evening. Antonia: Yeah, it's been a bit of a stealthy sesh, hasn't it? Like by almost cover of darkness. Balraj: Yeah, but you can still hear an ice cream van. Why not? Why not? It's South Manchester, you know, it feels like winter's coming, but... Antonia: But there's still room for an ice cream! Anyway, allotment. Um, well we've done some harvesting. Still enjoying the harvest season aren't we? What have we got? What's our loot today? Balraj: Well, you've just picked one of, um, a certain something, a certain root vegetable.. Antonia: Root vegetable, ummm, we've got a turnip! It's quite...it's quite petite, but you know, I'm very pleased to meet it and to later eat it. It's quite pretty, actually, because I think you can get like a world of turnips in the UK. And it's got this lovely purple colour actually. Balraj: Yeah I think we put it straight into the ground, didn't we? But maybe we're thinking perhaps we could try to do them in pots first. Antonia: And I feel like it's interesting with the root veg  because the turnip feels a bit like the beetroot, which we grew earlier in the season. And, with the beetroot, they did a similar thing, where like they had loads of lovely leaves above ground and then they'd started to like, the actual root itself was popping up, but they were a bit skinny. And with the beetroot, we like, we just sort of buried them again in the soil and they did swell up. But when we did harvest them, there was a part of me that was like, oh, maybe if we'd harvested them earlier, they would have had a slightly sweeter taste? No, no hate on the beetroot, they were still yummy. So I kind of thought, well, this time, why don't we harvest this lone turnip? It's been, it's been asking to be harvested, hasn't it? You know, you did the Instagram posts, there was the dancing turnip or whatever the hell it was doing! Balraj: It was like, go turnip go! We're rooting for you! Antonia: So, um, yeah we'll probably scran that tonight, I reckon. Balraj: Yeah, that will make a nice little side. And we've also got some beds that we've covered with some compost. Um, and we've tried to put some green manure down, which is a new thing. Antonia: Yes, so tell us, tell us Balraj, what is green manure and why are we using it? Balraj: Yeah, so green manure, still learning about this as well, but our plot WhatsApp group, Bethnal Drive WhatsApp group  say that no soil should be just completely exposed over the winter. So I think by putting down green manure, it enriches the soil and it can fix nitrogen. I think it just can make it a lot more kind of full of nutrients for when you're growing in the next year. There's a few different types you can get. We've got another variety that we've not put down yet that we're going to try. Cause I think it needs to be done by the end of the month, really? By the end of September. Antonia: Yeah before it gets cold. Balraj: I think technically the clover should have maybe been all done by the end of August. It's still starting to come through and yeah, I think you dig that over. So later in the year, you'll cut it back. So we're going to just experiment and see kinda what we can do . Antonia: It will grow and then we'll cut it and leave the cuttings on the bed won't we? They'll decompose. And it's more, more yumminess in the mix. Balraj: Yeah, it's good vibes. And I guess it saves us messing with the bed too much. Kind of means that there's plants doing the work for us . Antonia: We squeeze...not that we squeeze, we make time to come to the allotment, but you know, we're not here all the time. We have other stuff that we want to put our time into, we're passionate about this, but we're into the solutions, which mean we don't have to spend hours and hours, and green manure feels like that doesn't it? Balraj: Yeah and I think another thing is we planted some marigolds earlier in the year and they've been really amazing at  kind of blocking some weeds on the edge of the bed, so stopping some bindweed, like in a bindweed battle, it seems like. So I think that's another thing that saves time. Antonia: Bindweed battle! Balraj: Yeah, so  shout those out. We've also put in some Japanese lettuce of some sort? Antonia: Oh yes. I was, uh, I was trying to tell someone about this the other week. It's um, it begins with a K...we're going to find out the name of this [Komatsuna]. It's like a Japanese green, like an 'Oriental green'. I mean, this is, it's one of those things, isn't it, with the  gardening world, some of the terminology feels like, yeah, come on guys, this is the 21st century, name where you're talking about! Balraj: Yeah we want to know the specifics of the location. Antonia: It will be a lovely, green, leafy, lettuce, type. That we can eat. Balraj: And we've also put in some rocket, a variety of rocket into one of the beds that, you know, is an autumn variety too. We have planted a few of the flowers that are meant to come in autumn also. And yeah, so we're just trying to kind of keep a few things going, you know, over this part of the year. Cause obviously things are starting to wind down a little bit, but there's still things that you can be growing. Um, and there's some radishes as well. Antonia: Yeah coming up a storm! Balraj: Yeah. So they seem to grow really, really, um, speedily as well. And I think you can kind of keep growing them quickly, actually, like they come up within sort of a short amount of time, like three or four weeks sometimes even. So yeah, radishes, they don't need a lot, really. I don't think they need much water or sun really. They just grow. Antonia: And you've, you've heard about this star crop quite a bit, but the courgettes are still out here, still going. And we harvested some today. We got four / five courgettes. So that's been really nice, they're dreamy! I can't talk about courgettes enough, if you want to try growing something next season, even if you've just got a little bit of outdoor space, whether it's a balcony  or a little yard space, or even just on your street, I think you can stick a courgette in there. Balraj: We've got one in our garden, in a pot, actually, in our little yard and it's doing really well. It's given us a couple of courgettes already and we didn't think it was going to make it through and it's kind of just kept going really.  So I'd say yeah, definitely in a pot. Um, sadly last time you heard about the potatoes, I was really excited about them, but it turns out slugs really love potatoes and a few times I’ve come down and there’s been slugs kind of on them in the evening. Caught them in the act! But they seem to have just completely devoured the potato plant this time of year. So. I'm going to need to try something else.  One of the plot neighbors nearby suggested maybe doing them in a bucket? Antonia: And like Anita, our plot neighbor was like, she does them in a box. I mean, I'm like, I'm Irish, I'm Irish crew as well. So I feel like we need to up our potato game! Balraj: Yeah but it's learning, isn't it? It's just trying stuff out and it's, you know, at the end of the day I chucked them in quick, I didn't spend too much time on them. So it's a, it's a bit sad, but. You know, you live and you learn and that's what it's about innit really? Antonia: It's like you said, I feel like I'm going to quote you from another episode, but there's collateral out here, you know, this is nature and this is how it goes sometimes. Balraj: For sure. But I can hear that ice cream van.. is it, should we try and go get ice cream? Antonia: Let's get an ice cream! Balraj: Plot spoiler. We didn't end up getting the ice cream. But that's where we thought we were up to with the plot and we thought maybe that'd be all we'd have to share this time round. But, we made an unexpected discovery a few days later. Let's find out what it is. Antonia: Okay. So, we have some big, big allotment news, massive news. You may have recently heard us talking about our beans, which we had much hope for. You know, there was various projects associated with the beans. The structure, the trellis, the trellis not being finished, the structure falling down, the structure falling down several times, Raj finding a way to prop it up, using various branches. We get to, we get to mid-September and we  think, you know, the bean plant is doing its thing, but we're not going to get any beans. We kind of like ,we'd accepted that hadn't we? Balraj: Yeah we thought that might be the case. Antonia: And yet today, this momentous day... I can just see like loads of bats, can you see those two bats? I'm getting distracted. Um, today what happened today Raj, tell the people. Balraj: Well we needed some veg, cause we were running a little bit low and we had the idea that maybe we could go to the plot and harvest some bits and pieces maybe from here, some radishes and some courgette and kale. See what we could find and lo and behold. Antonia: BEANS! Beans baby! We got beans! Balraj: Beans! All types, all sizes, shapes! Antonia: Some huge beans. Some small beans. Various slugs, having a good old munch, the slugs have known for time! Balraj: Yeah, they must have known about it, but they've been hidden in there. I don't know. You were just tasting them weren't you, straight off? Antonia: I was just eating them. I was very excited. Not the slugs! Balraj: But the beans, and how did they taste? Antonia: They tasted good. They tasted sweet. Nice crunch. Ah, I'm thrilled man, I'm so pleased! Balraj: So another crop’s come good really. Beans. Antonia: Beans. And we will be munching them tonight. Balraj: That was a pleasant and tasty surprise. Goes to show that you can't really predict or fully know what's going to happen with your green ventures. So as always as well, if you've got any questions, please feel free to message us, comment on the insta  @aerialrootsmcr. Thanks for everyone following so far. Or drop us a line at aerialrootsmcr@gmail.com. Antonia: We've got one more episode of the season to come. And, we're going to share another plot to plate moment, so make sure you tune in. Balraj: And we'll see you next time.