No Dig Tour, winter's legacy and looking forward
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 ก.ค. 2024
- We have had more frosts than usual, and this is a chance to see the effects. Together with a few signs of spring.
I take you on the same path as two months ago, when we last visited my garden with its 1/3 acre / 1300m2 of no dig beds and paths. • Winter Tour of Ground ...
At least and thanks to no dig, there are a few weeds. All beds are ready for new sowings and plantings. We applied mulches last autumn and early winter, enough for the whole year.
00:00 Invitation to subscribe, and join this channel as a member / @charlesdowding1nodig
01:01 Woodchip is of such variable quality, I advise on options you may find
01:39 There are no pH worries, if the woodchip is coniferous
01:55 Sieving 4 year old woodchip, nice results from 12mm / half inch holes
03:00 Broad beans wiped out by December -9C frost, had been sown October
03:28 Broad beans which survived frost from December sowing, then transplanted January with fleece on top and no hoops! Is good in cold.
04:24 Rye for grain, was transplanted before winter, is being grazed!
05:05 Mustard for green manure / cover crop, killed by frost is good, no need to dig it in!
05:42 Classic no dig with few weeds
05:49 Lilia spring onions are not winter hardy!
06:08 New no dig - 5cm woody compost and black plastic on top, for May planting of squash, trialling less compost
07:12 Broccoli Claret F1 50% killed by frost
07:58 No dig bed prep, a light raking, no more
08:52 Shop bought garlic planted October, not looking good compared to homesaved
09:24 New no dig on weedy pasture, with cardboard then 10cm compost, a little woodchip on card & path around, soil was frozen when we covered it, and that is fine
10:15 18 month old bed, clean edge and Winter Giant spinach, Wintergreen cabbage
11:07 In the shed, big beetroot and carrots good to eat; also for planting to grow seeds
11:58 Worm casts / compost in sacks, for potting and containers
12:32 Brussels sprouts' leaves eaten by pigeons but still cropping nicely
13:03 Swede / rutabaga massacred by frost
13:30 Spinach decimated by CMV cucumber mosaic virus, spring onions just ok!
14:20 Once a year no dig mulching 2-3cm new compost on beds
14:28 Same depth of woodchip on paths, makes nice soil for feeding plants in the beds
15:09 Spring cabbages mostly killed by the sever frost, are Durham Early
15:19 Garlic planted among mustard which is now dead, garlic may suffer rust
16:07 Winter compost heap has 45-50C warmth thanks to mowing old meadow stems
17:23 Mature 9 month old compost is ready, needs no sieving
18:00 Cauliflowers Aalsmeer for spring have not survived winter
18:35 Greenhouse propagation, seedlings were germinated in my conservatory, for nigh warmth
19:30 Multisown onion seedlings
19:44 Rosada F1 tomatoes, seed no longer available so I grow from suckers
20:59 Salad plants under cover all winter
21:20 Wild rocket overwintered from September sowing, to plant out next week
21:50 Hotbed space, making it 20th February
22:17 Small Garden and my 2023 Plan - no dig, no rotation is easier.
24:17 Polytunnel winter salad plants, picked 7 times already with 20kg harvest yesterday
24:54 Is frosty inside, same as outside
25:21 How we pick lettuce of outer leaves, this is Grenoble Red
25:56 First sowings now for transplanting in a month, see you then!
See this half-price offer on my Winter Gardening and Covers short course charlesdowding.co.uk/product/....
Filmed 17th February at Homeacres, Somerset UK by Nicola Smith.
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It takes a real humble person to give a tour of a "catalogue of disasters." Charles you are my mentor and a true inspiration to all gardeners. Kudos sir!
Agreed.
Go Gracefully. Charles said many more frost and unusual. I told him he is getting all my frosty weather from East Coast USA.
It helps to inspire others as nothing is ever perfect and this has been a tricky winter with plant losses.
Zone 6 Kentucky last year and it was a disaster. Many neighbors said the same thing. Fruit trees were very disappointing too.
Praying for a better year this year.
I just love how you waste nothing.... you even stuff a tiny Brussel Sprout in your pocket for later. You are a true gardener. 😇
🏆 good luck
haha thanks!
"a catalogue of disaster" - winter tour! I love this video and how a master gardener humbly admits to his lessons :)
So helpful to see your garden when it's not at it's peak. It does really give us newbies some hope, haha. I also really appreciate your laid back attitude towards growing vegetables. I often get myself too worked up worrying about not having an exact plan or getting behind on things. Watching your videos helps me recalibrate and relax a little!
So nice to see this Jason!
@@CharlesDowding1nodig btw regarding the spinach. Idk if you already tried it, but the New Zealander Spinach is a phenomenal plant. It produces a huge amount of tasty leaves. I really can recommend it.
I'm so glad I'm not the only one to have lost things like Purple Sprouting Broccoli, Cauliflowers & Celeriac due to the hard frosts - if the Great "CD" loses crops then there's still hope for the likes of me 😉
Charles, you should get your local farmer with his tractor mower and cut the rest of that field off and build a mound in the field and then when it regrows think of all that extra compost you can make.
😀
I love the way that you give confidence to growers to 'give things a try'! It is such a supportive statement. Additionally by underlining how little effort 'no dig' is, you highlight that 'giving things a try' is really not the big investment in time and energy that so many gardening 'experts' make it out to be. My thanks.
Nice to hear 💚
Indeed!
This man is such a kind and caring person, thank you Charles for sharing. Ps my better half brought me your recent book , I’m part way through and it’s brilliant. 🎉
How nice thanks 💚
13:11
high pitch voice: "THAT'S A SWEEED!!" 🤣😂😅
😂
WE’RE REALLY INTO CLASSIC NO DIG !!!!!!!! WAY MORE THAN POP-ROCK NO DIG OR JAZZ FUSION NO DIG !!!!!!!!!
🎶 yay!
Thank you so much for showing some discouraging beds. It really does give us hope when we are miles behind you on this no dig gardening. We need not give up because there are less than stellar attempts.
`Yes keep going! 🌱
Those disasters are so refreshing to see in times where people only share successes, that puts enormous pressure on those on the other side that are not familiar with reality. 2023 is the first season for me and the other day I realized how instead of joy that is was supposed to be i felt nothing more than anxiety from overwhelming expectations starting from setting beds, getting compost, planning plans, reading books about the topic in time, growing healthy things, keeping them alive when you are away, and even eating them all before it goes to waste. Unrealistic, I know and I now started working on my expectations :)) Thank you for sharing these fails!
Thank you for sharing that. I also start every spring with low expectations!
And don't believe everything you hear / read, some failures is normal.
70 year old gardener here and still learning. Plus we learn from our mistakes.
In started 2022 and had the same pressure! This year, I’m keeping expectations low and surprise myself with the results ❤ Still feeling some pressure though - my perfectionist brain just can’t help itself. But I have to say: it’s much better than at this time last year. Good luck for your gardening 😊👍
I have had a bad summer in Central Australia, more rain than usual meant an explosion of every pest and I was so unprepared for them as I had never faced them in such numbers. But as you say, I learned a lot from it. I learn more from my failures than my successes. Thanks for another great video.
Sorry to hear that, hope you all have enough to eat. I feel sure it's engineered weather, happening a lot to you :( and I hope autumn goes better
My weekly treat! Never long enough.
I'm presently feasting on the last of my Tasmanian broad beans which regrew and gave another small harvest after I cut them off, and several varieties of no dig potatoes rummaged yesterday. I've lifted 3 x 20 litre buckets so far, only about 25 percent of my crop. The frequent frosts and predation of bad goats reduced uniformity and size somewhat, but plenty have thrived to feed me through the rest of the year.
I preserved many jars of broad beans in my pressure canner, and if anyone is interested, this process turns them from green to kidney bean red!
All sounds impressive Ruby, nice you are coping so well with the weather
It's not just a colder winter, it's been a wet and damp one and that's what fungus and molds love, i've lost a lot of plants this winter....
Here David, that's actually not the case. The first half of December was bone dry and since mid January it's been dry, with only 16 mm rain in the that whole 7.5 week time. Compared to 190 mm between mid-December and mid-January.
It’s because it’s been more humid Charles, tonnes of rainfall before the frosts causing expansion in the cells and extreme frost damage.
Strange enough, it is encouraging that you also have failures and not everything goes to plan. Because we 'simple homegardeners' know now that failure is not necessarily our fault and can even happen to Sir Charles. It helps us to not give up and carry on experimenting. This is nature! Each year another crop thrives or fails and yet there is always something to harvest.
💚
I am willing to bet that they have a very similar chipper. One keeps his blades sharp and the other doesn’t bother too much. Hence the difference!
That is so interesting. The guy making big chips has many employees, the small chip guy is a one man band!
Thank you Charles, as always. Third time I’ve watched this one. So much useful information for a self taught novice like me, in my 3rd year as an allotmenteer. I’m enjoying reading your new book No Dig, so useful. Please don’t stop your free TH-cam vids. I learn a lot from reading but nothing beats being shown visually how to do things and what they should look like. Always so comprehensive. Thank you Charles. Kind Regards Pat Joyce
Lovely comment, Pat! Thanks for your appreciation, it helps to keep me motivated!
Your frost losses are interesting. I lost 3 established shrubs including my 3ft rosemary after the 6" snowfall that soon dispersed. I'm inclined to think the sky geoengineering that can often be observed is a contributor. What ever it is they use to force ice nucleation must be landing on the leaves & soil & reacting in non-natural ways when the temperature drops below 0. My veg plot has cleared itself of all plants through something other than animal or bird pest as it is completely enclosed in netting. The garlic outside it is OK tho!
Yes all weird, I'm inclined to agree
I've ordered logs from the same company for a few years now. This year the bark burns extremely fast & hot with a lot of black smoke before they settle down. They are grown in Scandinavia. I was wondering the same sort of thing. It's like there is a 'coating' on the bark.
Nice to see a bit of humility
One of the best YT-channels, and you should have millions of subscribers imo 💚
Thankyou!
My Welsh Onions are still producing nicely even through the cold snaps, I live in a rural area just outside Glasgow
Thank you so much from Arizona, USA.
I had a rough Winter with my garden, too. In Texas we had a Hard freeze that wiped out my beets and onions in December. And then we had an ice storm that lasted several days which wiped out the rest of my plants that I had put out for re planting In Early February. I set up my seed trays this weekend so hopefully I'll have something for the Spring. Today it hit 80ﾟF So hopefully the worst weather is behind us.
Sounds vv difficult! These fluctuations are hard for plants and I hope you are right!
Looks like we have more cold on the way here, after all
Thank you so much for sharing your failures as well as successes. It encourages me.
For us, I think it's been the widely fluctuating temperatures. We went from 60 F to -2 F in the space of about 24 hours in December, and it was murder on the plants. It's been a pretty mild winter and I think the plants get soft in the warmer times and are less able to stand the cold then.
Yes, that is crazy fluctuation!
Yes, just this past Friday it was 60 degrees F at 6am. By 6pm it was a mere 30 degree F and 20knt gusts
Listening to Charles talk about his weather conditions is always entertaining. I enjoy the videos and there are some great ideas, but I often wonder how he would handle a more severe continental climate like the one I "enjoy" in the central U.S.
My garden looks really sad too. But hopefully spring will start and make it better
Yay!
Very nice indeed Charles! Even the failures are success. My dad always said nothing ventured nothing gained. I have celery and onion seeds started now. I love growing plants. You have converted me to no dig also :). I have 3 gardens and two of them are now no dig. You da man!
That is so nice, thanks
Truly year round gardening! After having mulched with leaves in the fall six beds are covered here in Michigan USA. New to no till, no dig. Hoping to remove the mulched leaves and be able to rake bed even and take off. Of course weeding .... opening up the beds will be exciting. Thank you for the direction to a new method.
Sounds great Wayne
@@CharlesDowding1nodig Thank you Charles!
Love this. I've been gardening for 20 years and something new fails every year. So many variables but it's all part of the fun. 😀
Cup half full!!! x
I like to say always overflowing 😁
We chip wood on the farm with pto driven machine. It will take up to 8" material, but my point to make is that the coarseness of the chip is less about the size of the chipper unit, but more on how fast the material is run through the chipper and how sharp the blades are. The commercial tree people need to make the most of time, so they are likely to run the chipper @ a faster rate, which makes for larger coarser pieces.
Thank you for commenting Dave, and that's really helpful to know. It would never have occurred to me!
Got 3000 seed out to the greenhouse today and needed this after a hard but joyous day :) cheers! Hi from Sweden Charles
Wonderful job Damien
I have noticed over the years, that extra mineral support.. be it seaweed or azomite... really helps plants survive the extra hard cold spells.
It's a good point, but I feel increasingly now that we have new issues to cope with such as whatever falls out of the trails, which are suddenly so common in the skies
Just chucking ideas about Charles. I took off the poly and covered the frame of my poly tunnel doors with green windbreak mesh so the doors can be used normally for access but are are closed otherwise but well ventilated. Saves heaving frames around. I could half cover the doors with poly but haven’t found that necessary. Keeps out critters and larger insects and butterflies I am sure you have good reason to use the method that you showed. I wish I had the space to have a poly tunnel as large as yours-bliss!
Yes I am lucky and thanks for sharing that
Watching a few other allotments on you tube the devastation has been heartbreaking in the UK, i didn’t expect to see home acre to be the same. I am sure this has been as beneficial to others as videos on how to grow and prepare soil. Thank you for sharing the affect the unusual weather has had on even a very experienced grower.
Sorry to hear that! It's about more than the weather unfortunately. Hope all is well in your world
We have had temps down to single digits Farenheit and our kholrabi was left in the snow. We've harvested half since then and have half still growing!
Amazing!
Loved this tour, little bit of everything 👍👍 thanks for showing us round!
It’s because it’s not just the temp but the length of time at the colder temp. You can have a cold night drop down but the plants can withstand a couple of hours at that cold. It’s when it starts to get into longer lengths of time below freezing that the plants can’t really handle it.
I live in E TN and we got down to -11F with windchill (-11/12C) and that happened for a couple of days straight. It was -11F during the day. I almost lost all my plants. Even the dinosaur kale died. My strawberries, oregano, wild bergamot, thyme, garlic, and mint survived.
I think everything else I had died that I was hoping to overwinter. I lost all the onion, some garlic, chives, parsley, kale, cilantro, poppies, rosemary, lavender, sage.
It was just way too cold for way too long. I’m just glad some plants survived. I moved the container strawberries right next to the house to keep warm using the radiant heat and that seemed to help a lot. Wish I had done that with more of my plants.
I'm very sorry to read this, that you had such deep cold NTN. I'm praying that these episodes do not become more frequent!
My direct sown broadbeans have suffered as well. Combo of much rain, with frost in between. My onions are fine: planted Stuttgarter Giants as set in early november for use as springonions/early onions.
Garlic looks great. Oddly though my supermarket bought hardnecks, generally look better than my seedstore bought softnecks.
Still have stored pumpkins
500 onion sprouts waiting to go in in 2-3 weeks.
All my 'new' (pre-winter) no dig beds look great, there is only one that has dandelions coming through, the rest virtually weed free
You are on it Ed!
@@CharlesDowding1nodig mainly thanks to you
Thanks for sharing this great tour Charles especially the things that didn't go to plan. I've been subscribed for years and work from your books and am still learning every time I watch and listen to you on one of your videos. ❤
Awesome and nice to hear
Advice about Hostas....don't buy the kind people exchange amongst eachother, get new and unique ones.
Always a pleasure to learn and be entertained with your updates. We have had to start again from scratch with some parts of our grounds, as our last polytunnel took flight in high winds in early winter down here in Cornwall.
So we have replaced, and made larger our polytunnel, with more emphasis with no dig on our outside space ( all through your simple no fuss advise)
This year will be the start of being able to sow, grow and harvest a year through plan to keep the natural soil growing cycle to produce amazing Vegetables.
Thanks again for your insightful updates.
Wonderful, grow well!
Take the good with the bad. We done
Charles my theory on why we have had so much frost damage is that we had that unseasonal and brutally long cold spell in December and the plants hadn't a chance to build up a tolerance to colder nights. I'm only 6 miles from you but higher up and we literally went went from temperatures of around 18c to -10 or so over the course of a week.
Good point Andrew. We were 5-8C by day for the week before the first -6 frosts.There is more to it I feel
Another brilliant video. So many great ideas. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks so much! 😊
Hey Charles, loving your CD 60s, thank you
Glad you like them Michelle!
Here in BC, we had the same overwintering experience. For some reason, crops that are normally tough didn't do too well. I suspect lower than normal sugar levels.
The only time of the year my small plot looks anything like Charles'!
😂😂🌱
😆
We remember the rye!
🍞!
The size of a man's chipper can be quite person, Our Charles...
Hello Charles, I am so excited,I am broke and will be for the next few years and desperately want to get back to growing veg. I cant afford a tunnel and wood for raised beds and all the other things that I thought that I needed. Thank you for all the informative videos, that have shown me that I can do it for free with a little help from my friends. So I am going to go out and "not dig my garden". Wish me luck. I did find a few euro to buy a few of your CD60 trays, they arrive today.... you are an inspiration to us all, thank you so much, Pete.
Hi Pete, what a great story, except of course that you are broke! I love that you have an optimism in this, and thanks for being grateful.
Thank you so much. I learn something with every video.
Nice to hear
I managed to grow beautiful purple sprouting broccolis this year , they grew tall with lush leaves … I was sooo looking forward to eating the sprouts… and then the frosts arrived … 1 frost wouldn’t have killed them but 3 , 4 , finished them off , they turned mushy … such a shame ! I think that’s why you have lost your cauliflowers too . Constant frost has done it . Thanks for showing us around . Hot bed in the making here too . 😊
Good luck with that Sandrine. It's bad about the weather :(
I always enjoy your garden tours, some how the fails still feel like a success, a learned success. This yr I'm doing my veg garden in blocks, trapped off the entire area. Also doing an area with potatoes in straw, I've forgotten her name, the gardener I believe was in Vermont. I watch a girl in Italy who had a pretty nice harvest, she mentioned her too.
Good luck! Here that can result in slugs. Glad you see the successes!
Thank you Charles for showing all the mishaps you've had this winter,, it's good to see I'm not the only one having issues with the weather,,
I'm amazed with how you find the time to answer the couple of questions I asked last week with all the jobs you have to do each and every week, thanks again!
I always get so much from you, Charles, and what struck me among many other things this time was your never-ending curiosity. That and your enthusiasm are infectious and inspiring. I truly appreciate your knowledge and skills, along with experience and a willingness to keep experimenting and learning. We're right there with you. Here's to seeing the back of winter soon...there and here in the northeastern U.S..
That is so nice Karen! Appreciate knowing this 💚
I hope you are not suffering the cold which is plaguing W US.
@@CharlesDowding1nodig Thanks, Charles. Others certainly have it worse and increasing daylight helps. As does seeing your garden spaces. Gives me hope...as gardening always does.
17:06 osmosis, the wood chips will pull the water from other things and make them dryer.
Helpful thanks
Mr Charles, have you considered having some of the odd dead plants tested for chemical poisoning or anything like that... Chemtrails or residues from plants/trees that have been poisoned...?
Hope these problems are temporary ... I’ve had similar problems with plants I’ve never had problems with before... 😐
Thank You for sharing your wisdom with us 💝
Food for thought thanks
❤ Everything is always wonderful! My deepest Thank You, Charles and his Team Working Together. All your work that we can see, all your courses, all your videos, explanations, tables, calendars, books are marvellous! One of the greatest pleasures I've felt and still have the opportunity to feel in my life. Feel completely grateful to Charles and his Team for this unique experience.
Thank you so much Miguel 💚
Once again thank for the video.
Last year I did a trial on breaking down wood chips. I took a 24 foot bed 4 foot wide. Put down cardboard on top of weeding ground. Put down a 2 inch layer of wood chips big wood chips. Then a layer of straw and some wine cap mushroom spawn. I then topped it with 2 feet of wood chips. By fall the wood chip were mostly gone and the bed was only 3 inches tall . The mushrooms were very delicious. This year I plan on trying to put some spawn on a larger pile. To see if I can break down an entire truck load
Thanks
Sounds amazing. I imagine the chips were very fresh and therefor had no other fungal spores?
@@CharlesDowding1nodig
No they were about a year old stropharia rugosoannulata is from my reading a more dominant species. My main goal was to see if they would compost wood chips quicker. I adopted this crazy gardening method. I learned is from this man in the uk . It’s the greatest thing ever. If you want to grow amazing vegetables u put compost on the ground plant in to it a next thing you know the best vegetables appear. So I need a lot of compost. I can get wood chips but compost is a bit difficult. I can only produce so much. So if wood chips can be composted in a season or two with a edible mushroom it’s a double win for me thanks again I love no dig
Amazing to hear this!
Thanks Charles for showing the good and the bad, I nearly chopped my purple sprouting broccoli it had got quite tall and no sign of cropping but two weeks on the purple shoot are starting to form the florets, it’s your , let’s see what happens approach that I find so inspiring and it has worked on many things in the past
😂 that is so good ‼️ Enjoy
Your actions speak volumes in the garden walk abouts!! These visits to the garden are the best!! Thank you!!
Thanks Nancy 💚
Hi there, most of my cauliflower, Aalsmeer and 'All the year round' Cauli sown late summer has also really suffered from the cold and I've lost most of them. The Leamington cauli, however, sown in June, is looking really good, not lost a single one. Not cropped yet but looking promising, was very good last year too.
A nice tip, thanks David
Here in the US (Virginia) we had a very cold spell just before Christmas, and we lost all our winter greens that were in a greenhouse, some even covered by fleece and plastic row covers. Even our "winter" varieties of lettuce, bok choi's kale etc. It was very disheartening. It got down to zero Fahrenheit for a few nights. Even with our best efforts, things can go awry! Thank you for sharing.
Sorry to hear this and that is man made I'm beginning to think, so abnormal. Fingers crossed for spring...
@@CharlesDowding1nodig yes, I'm thinking the same thing. It was unnatural.
Good morning Charles, I want to tell you briefly about my successes in cultivation that I have made following your instructions. I've been able to harvest spinach and lettuce from my greenhouse since mid-February and it's a real pleasure to have plants ready to harvest at this time of year. I've never had that before! In the fall I sowed winter lettuce (Wintermarie and Rouge grenobloise) and spinach and only threw a fleece over them during severe frosts. Unfortunately, snow and frost are still to come, but we will survive that with fleece. The chickens get what is no longer nice, but only the outer leaves. I have a lot less work now and I can harvest a lot of lettuce and vegetables. Thank you again for your valuable advice! Ursula
Congratulations Ursula, and I'm delighted to read this. Keep up the great work and enjoy the healthy food, not that I need to say that!
Hi Charles, I finally got my first thousand subscribers so I can only imagine ever getting to 600 K👍
I hope you get to that goal soon🎉
We are expecting 80's to 90° this week and lots of 🌞
Happy Gardening, My Friend 💚🥦💚
Thanks Peggy! Sounds good temp and congratulations 💚
Wish I could subscribe 1,000 more times. Love the content, Charles!
Thanks so much 💚
I don't feel so bad about losing my broad beans to the frost now I've seen even yours succumbed 😁
Thankyou so much for donating to our community garden in Kerry last year. The money went towards putting in a herb bed and laying woodchip on a pathway by a wild life pond.
Lovely to hear Bernadette!
I live not too far from you Charles with an allotment in Street & had the exact same issues with my brassicas - I think it’s because it was warm and wet then freezing then warm and wet then freezing; rather than one or the other which is more typical. I think they can cope with a steady amount of weather of either freezing or wet/warmer but this winter has been all over the place in very short time spans! Hoping spring is a bit more steady so my seedlings don’t suffer too much🤞
Cheers Sarah - yes the fluctuations :(
Yes Sarah I agree.Its the fluctuating temperatures. I'm nearby also, a little closer to Bridgwater.
Great tour. Thank you.
Think normally after a frost we have nice sunny morning with the temperatures above zero so the plants recover but we have had a week or more with extreme night time temperatures and zero degrees during the day so the plants can’t recover
It's a good time to do some fencing, too. I put the first posts in the ground. Dear deer, no munching on cale here!
Although they are playing and they eat all they want outside the fence.
It got down to about -12 on my Smallholding, I’ve lost almost everything I had including kale Brussels and most my spinage, I always thought Brussels were bulletproof
Only thing that came through untouched was the garlic, here’s looking forward to a good growing year this year, happy growing everyone
Yes indeed and thanks
I had a couple of swede do that each year - they rot which smells awful! I've also had mice chew tunnels through them or hollow them out completely!
Harvested a huge swede last week and noticed a few baby slugs had very recently created a hidey-hole. When I was preparing, the few small areas around the slugs’ homes were definitely beginning to deteriorate. I cut them out and had plenty to utilise. However I reckon the whole root might not have held up in a week or two’s time. Not checked the other swedes yet as the remaining aren’t very big and probably won’t be harvested for food anyway. Perhaps slugs hatch during milder winter days….. My unharvested beetroots disintegrated weeks ago. 😂Combination of too lazy to harvest, the frost, and most definitely chomping critters I conceded defeat to years ago 😩 !We have lots of odd looking little amber or black coloured mice/voles. Some with short stubby tails, some long tails. Field mice? We’ve even spotted a multicoloured! Too tiny for rats. Not moles either cos we have them too. Creating sink holes under transplants! 🤦🏼♀️ Can’t ID them.
Thank you for the honesty of the tour. I need to cardboard and compost pretty quickly.
Glad it was helpful, go go!!
gosh, i wish i could get beet roots that big!
‼️ this year!
Probably a good example of climate change in action, the stress of the dry summer followed by the stress of a cold winter has likely had detrimental effect on the microbial flora within the soil. We really need to focus on developing methods to grow under these unfolding extreme conditions.
Great point and I think it's not 'climate change' 💦
Thank you Charles! finally at 41 years I have my lifelong dream of my own garden, and last summer was the first time in my life I have grown some of my own food. Almost all of it thanks to you and your videos! your Veg Journal book is a useful companion. I'm obviously not a master yet, so these kinds of videos are very encouraging.
Great job Rebecca, I'm happy to imagine your successes
Wonderful to see. Thank you for sharing 🙏🏼
really enjoyed that charles
Thank you Charles for the update tour video, really reassures everyone when watching, that someone like your yourself also having failure's and not just seeing perfect veg. Love also what i would call the imperfect "PERFECT" compost. Have a great week!!!
I appreciate that Neil
Thank you Charles. This was so useful and inspiring!
Quite relieved in a way to see the problems you've had with some of your crops over the winter. I've lost about half of my PSB, I assume because of the cold nights. The stalks went brown and rotted. Many of my cabbages have struggled. A huge proportion of my broad beans and a fair number of field beans (planted as ground cover as much as anything) also failed to make it despite being under fleece. Even the fleece froze solid.
Two years ago I had fantastic garlic outdoors. Last year all of it suffered badly from rust and even removing the affected leaves didn't stop it spreading very fast. For this year I've planted all of it in the polytunnel and greenhouse to try to keep it under control.
I was aware that tomatoes could be propagated from shoots and tried it for the first time two years ago without success, but following your short covering it I decided to have another go, growing eight new plants from each of the five varieties I grew last year -- not all F1, but as much for the practice and learning as having the plants available this year. They've done quite well indoors in a cool bay window though they are now quite leggy. Once you've over-wintered the plants do you use them directly for that year's crop, or do you take off shoots once again and grow those on into your cropping plants?
Winter brassicas have been tragic!
Yes you can either use original plants if not too tall, or take more shoots now to root again. A versatile method!
Food for thought, thank you Mr Dowding 😁🌱☀️
Fabulous as always, and an encouragement to us all Charles. Colder longer than normal here, but Spring is still on the way. Blessings from Oregon .
🌱 thanks
Hi neighbor. (Mid-Willamette Valley) I just discovered Mr. Dowding and really enjoy his style.
O I so enjoy walking with you through your garden.
Always enthusiastic.
Thank you Charles.
Respect from Africa 🇿🇦
Wonderful video as always. Loved the planning bit. 😊
This man is a great asset
Your small garden is so encouraging
I agree with the comment about the weather Charles. Here in Essex we got down to about minus six. It did seem to be a "different" and far more damaging cold this year than the temperature suggested. Interesting.
More than ‼️ Needs this www.daniellebryant.co.uk/2019/12/30/710/
Simply the best
😀
Thank you!
Hey Charles since we know you're into copper tools, have you ever looked into making a copper sieve? You can find copper hardware cloth online - technology companies use to create Faraday cages to block out EMF's.
Wow, had not! Think that investment might not be worth it compared to tools in soil, intriguing thought
@@CharlesDowding1nodig Yeah good point we haven't bit the bullet on something like that yet, just after all the research on copper in soil i have a hard time using any sort of steel in the soil, but also one doesn't necessarily ever need to sieve soil if its broken down enough.
Well done**
Thanks, I needed to see that it's not just my garden that has struggled with the cold this year and a few weird issues cropping up, and looking generally sad. Yes fingers crossed for some better weather, thanks again
Wild rocket looks lovely 👍🏼
Love the no dig book thank you
Thankyou, I am happy to hear that
15:58 I'd suggest using charcoal (biochar) to deal with garlic fungus issues. Charcoal is known to help with this better than compost. I already planted my garlic this way, waiting for my first harvest in July. You should do an experiment - do a very small plot with 20% biochar deep enough and plant garlic in it.
That’s really interesting, do you have an idea why biochar helps combat fungus? I use mine as an add on in compost…
@@soniasarina I imagine superior biodiversity, because in short compost is food + microbes while biochar is homes + microbes, and not just any homes, ones that will stay forever, whose walls adsorb various foods and water and are deep enough to hide in them.
Afaik garlic doesn't like excessive N in the soil and biochar takes care of that too. Though biochar is known to help specifically against Rust fungus, the old timers reported that in times of Rust decease where old charcoal pits were burned the wheat never gets infected by it.