Milly
A passionate organic gardener from the UK. She started growing her own vegetables four years ago as she wanted to live more sustainably to help save the planet. Her favourite vegetable to grow is the tomato because there’s so many different types, colours and sizes!
Transcripts
EPISODE 022: GROW YOUR GREENS COMPETITION RESULTS
[0.01] {Background Music}
[0.08] Siyona: Hello! I’m sure you could tell from my voice that I’m very excited today. Welcome to my podcast ‘Little Mind Chats’. Minds are little, not our thoughts. I’m your host Siyona.
[0.20] The month-long work of all the kids who took the effort to grow some lovely greens will be judged today. The main intention of this competition was to help kids know their potential of growing their own food. It’s not as difficult as it seems. During the past one month, I’ve been able to grow some Coriander, Fenugreek, garlic, sprouts up an Avocado seed and Even, our Guest’s favourite: tomatoes
[0.50] Guest? Oh Yes, today, our guest is our judge Milly, a passionate organic gardener from the UK. She started growing her own vegetables four years ago as she wanted to live more sustainably to help save the planet. Her favourite vegetable to grow is the tomato because there’s so many different types, colours and sizes!
[1.16] She can be found on Instagram at the account: @rootingforCooking.
[1.21] Siyona: Hi Milly. How are you doing today? Welcome to my podcast?
[1.28] Milly: Oh, hi. Thank you very much for having me on. I’m doing great today. Thank you very much for asking. How are you doing?
[1.35] Siyona: I’m doing great. Thank you. I have a few questions for you before we could listen to the results. Can I ask please?
[1.46] Milly: Yes of course you can, ask away!
[1.50] Siyona: “How does growing your own food help the planet?”
[1.54] Milly: So, growing your own plants is what is called very sustainable. And back here in the UK, sometimes all the food you eat is all imported from different countries, and all the packaging from the farm. So, when these foods come over what happens is that, it’s transported on big aircrafts and ships and as a result, all these vehicles make lots of emissions and gases which are very bad for the planet. So, I started growing to cut all that out and make sure that I ate seasonally, to make sure that the planet was doing better and the food I was eating was healthier.
[2.32] Siyona: That’s a very inspiring reply. “Is there a way to use home vegetable wastes as manure for our plants?”
[2.42] Siyona: Oh, that you can do it but sometimes it can get quite smelly if you don’t like things have a smelly. What we use is full compost and it’s a type of that’s rise up. So, what we make it out of is watching plants and vegetables which is why it can be a bit smelly sometimes. And what happens is all these things decompose and that broken down and lots of things called bacteria which is what makes stuff smell. And as long as you don’t add things like meat in it, it won’t attract anything like rats. And what happens is, if you put them in lots of different layers and turn it after a few days, and in a few months, it turns into soil. And sometimes as you can get these horrible little creatures that I don’t like to touch. But often people lock them in them are called as worms and they eat away all these vegetables, that are decomposing and moulding and they help break them down quickly.
[3.42] Siyona: Oh, ok. So that’s why they say you shouldn’t add in raw meat. Instead you should add uncooked vegetable wastes. Otherwise, it would get very smelly. Eewwwww.
[3.59] Milly: (laughs) very smelly.
[4.02] Siyona: “Cities have such less space for growing. How can people still grow something?”
[4.08] Milly: Oh. This is a very good question. I think, as I have seen in the competition as well, what people can do is, make the use that of little space by growing smaller vegetables and greens like coriander that you were growing yourself and they don’t take much. Just little pots and anything as soon as you have soil. So here in London, I found that I didn’t have much space to grow. So, I moved away from my vegetable patch and on my balcony, I had little pots, and from there I started growing things like tomatoes and the best one if you only have a tiny space and things like radish and obviously in your halls. It only requires little amount of soil and you can grow them on the window itself and make sure everything grows perfectly. How ever in London, on a bigger scale they have a new thing called ‘urban gardening’. And underground so when you walk around an apartment, beneath your feet they now have little farms. They don’t have soil and they just use big UV lights and LED lights that act as so that the sun. Even though there is no sun because there is no sun in the ground. And the minutes the sun’s activity and makes them all bloom and is good hydroponics which is very exciting.
[5.32] Siyona: That’s an interesting concept to learn about. “What’s your advice for all kids who would like to grow their own food?”
[5.43] Milly: Well, I would definitely say my biggest desire is to have some patience. Because it takes quite a while for when you have the little seed in order to start seeing a little bit of greens. Sometimes I get a little bit impatient at times because I love to see things grow, but it’s so important to keep trying and I would say my new next bit of advice, it’s definitely to make sure you keep looking after it and it will grow really big. If you keep watering it and giving it lots of food and I would also say that they that even if it doesn’t go well as you’ve all did it too much or there’s been too much sunshine. You can just keep trying and keep learning because I have made so many mistakes growing vegetables and I’ve had things like naughty animals that eat them and by steal my bearings And lots of different creatures and you have to learn to go about it, especially when you’re growing organically. You can’t use any pesticides which is basically horrible chemicals. You’ve got to make sure it’s all clean. So, use lots of netting and that’s what I would say. You need to make sure that you keep everything protected and don’t give up when all the little creatures try and take where your food and when everything goes badly like it doesn’t have water just keep trying and you’ll eventually get that.
[7.08] Siyona: Yeah, we’ve planted so many things there in the UK, but since we didn’t take too much care of it, it all dried up or it’s either like just perished.
[7.21] Milly: Yeah. But then you can learn the next time. So, what you did the first time around if it dried up it probably needs more water. So, the next time you can give it extra water and then it will be a bit better. Hopefully and you can just improve every time.
[7.36] Siyona: yeah. This time I’m going a better batch of vegetables and greens.
[7.43] Siyona: And now, for the most anticipated part of today’s episode, the results. Milly. I can’t wait anymore. Please, can you now reveal the winners?
[7.55] Milly: So, I was doing a lot of deliberations and I thought they were all incredible. I’ve heard lots about everyone and how much work everyone’s put into grey. I did want to say that but unfortunately, some people given the current circumstances weren’t able to fulfil all their growing. So, I want you to give a big shout-out to “Judy”, who did an amazing effort to try and I hope you keep doing all the best and there is always next year and other things to grow throughout the season and I look forward to hearing how he’s doing. What I will say is that has been also so many pictures and sent through which look gorgeous. I absolutely love the progress and all the happy smiles. It reminded me of how happy I feel when I grow and I will say that I have picked a top-three, although it was very difficult because they were all so amazing and if you would be happy if I said breathing. Well?
[8.58] Siyona: Yes, please.
[9.01] Milly: I would love to. So, I do apologize if I get the pronunciation of names is slightly wrong. But I’m sure you can correct me. So, I wanted to give that place to share about. I thought Shreya’s outdoor growing space was amazing and she just seems so happy with things she had grown and I thought they were wonderful.
[9.26] Siyona: Congratulations Shreya. Milly is right. I loved your pictures too.
[9.32] Milly: And then in second place I’m going to give it to Shefali. Her balcony has been transformed into a green space and so many herbs and things were popping up and I also love how she was posing with popped products as well. They look absolutely gorgeous.
[9.52] Siyona: Yay, congratulations Shefali. You’ve done a great job.
[9.57] Milly: And so, I wanted to give first place to Vaishnavi who has the best variety and there were so many green things growing and I can’t keep count. I didn’t know where to look and I thought they’re absolutely beautiful.
[10.13] Siyona: Congratulations Vaishnavi. Well done. (claps) Even I thought you did a great job!
[10.21] Milly: You just made me very excited to see how happy everyone was with them and I can’t wait to see them if you keep growing in the future again.
[10.30] Siyona: Yeah, I hope everybody will start growing their own things in their own little spaces.
[10.39] Milly: I hope so too.
[10.42] Siyona: Congratulations, you winners. Your prizes and certificates are zooming up to you as we speak. Rest of the participants, please watch out for your certificates too. Before we could end this episode, I would like to thank Jaidev, who tried his best to be part of this month’s competition, but could not send in because of some personal issues. Jaidev, we love all the effort you put in for me. You’re a winner too. Thanks a lot for being on my show Milly. Your Instagram account is truly inspiring to kids like me to grow our own food.
[11.23] Milly: Well, thank you very much for having me and I’ve had a wonderful time and I cannot wait to see how you’re doing with your future growing and more importantly your future podcasts. When you’re going to be learning so much more about other things that inspire you and I want to say that you are such a big inspiration and so intelligent for your age. You should be really proud of yourself for what you’re doing. Thank you.
[11.48] Siyona: Now friends, do you follow Milly @rootingforcooking. Hhmm. Looks like we missed out the news this week, isn’t it? No, it’s coming up this Wednesday. Also, what are your plans for this year’s teacher’s day? Let me know. You never know, there might be another special episode next Saturday. Keep watching this space. Please do get in touch with me on siyona@littlemindchats.com. Visit my website littlemindchats.com and give us your feedback. Until next week, keep sharing it. Take good care of yourself. Thanks again for listening. Bye!
