Gardeners told how 'old trousers' could protect vegetables against winter frosts

Winter is a difficult time for gardeners, with the constant menace of frost killing off precious seedlings. But gardener Jack Furst has learned how to keep his vegetable patch productive all year round, with the help of some ancient methods that have been half forgotten in the modern era.

On the Gardener’s World Winter Special Jack explains that the secret too his success is, unexpectedly, old trousers. Jack has created a “hotbed,” using decaying organic matter that keeps his veg frost-free even on the coldest days.

“The secret is looking at how things were done in the past,” he explains. “Looking through history, I've been able to pick up a lot of tips that I find useful today.”

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Jack, who has been a vegetarian for around 46 years, grows as much of his own food as possible. The hotbed is a key to sustaining his vegetable garden through December and January – “There is no doubt that I've, gained another season,” Jack says.

“For instance,” he adds, "I am producing some some crops in the spring. My aim is to produce potatoes just as people are planting their potatoes.”

The secret to creating a hotbed, Jack explains, is having a keen eye for anything that re-using organic waste that might otherwise go to landfill. Alongside more obvious compost such as vegetable peelings, Jack picks out old cardboard packaging and even cotton: “That was a pair of trousers,” he says, proudly.

Jack demonstrates how his hotbed keeps the plants frost-free: “It’s a damp day, it's raining and it's round about 13 degrees. If we look at the soil thermometer that's registering 16°C.” That particular hotbed had been working hard through the six months coldest months of the year, he points out.

Jack’s raised hotbeds have helped him grow a healthy crops of veg in very difficult conditions: “There are mountains all around us. It is challenging because we've got a lot of wind here, a lot of cold air. The other thing is there is no soil as such...it’s stone.

“In fact,” he jokes, “the moles here, they go along the ground, not under the ground.”

Some of Jack’s methods date all the way back to the days of the Roman Empire, he says: “Just because there's a new method of growing doesn't mean it's better than the old ones. I think a lot of the old methods are better than the new ones.”