NO DIG BEDS USING ZERO CARDBOARD! | vegetable grower UK | vlog #46
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 24 ก.พ. 2021
- Welcome to my channel - I’m Alex a uk vegetable grower and this is my organic vegetable farm...
Follow my exciting journey as I move from allotment holder to commercial veg farming! My new organic vegetable farm on the outskirts of Chelmsford will provide local people, with an organic locally grown alternative to supermarket vegetables through farmers markets and a CSA veg box service.
Located 10 minutes from Chelmsford City centre, The Essex Allotment Farm is a four-season market garden producing high quality produce, through intensive small scale farming.
The vision is to see organic, local, sustainable produce readily available to everyone in and around Essex.
Alex ✌️
www.theessexallotment.com
Insta - @the_essex_allotment
Facebook - The Essex Allotment
I'm just in the process of doing this myself. Thank you for the confirmation that it works, happy growing...😊
Brilliant. Thanks for watching 👍
That is turning really good, Blessings in the 2021 growing season.
Appreciate information given in this video thanks Alex👍
That was really interesting, you've done a great job!
Very well explained. Thanks from a new 66 year old allotmenteer!
Thanks Pat!
Nice work. Really cool
thinking like a market gardener now Alex ;-) : All the best - Steve
That looks really good - way to go Alex!
Thanks! Appreciate it 👍
Fully agree and use exactly same method to manage perennial weeds and also improve worm population and soil structure - great update thanks
Brilliant well done hard work I'd say thank you
Thank you,, inspiring, had to subscribe🙏
Took then same approach but used cardboard from the local shop 😁 Then again my plot is 10m x 10m so a fraction of what you had to cover. Great to see the results. We've got bindweed and thistle so they're pretty persistent and resilient and it doesn't help having severely neglected plots around us spreading the seeds but it's a vast improvement to the way it was. It's still much easier to weed them out as we see them pop up. Great video. Thanks for sharing 😊👍
thanks great information
A great informative video, keep them coming Alex.
Thank you. 👍
@@TheEssexAllotment your welcome
Good on you Brother,🥦🥒🌽👏
Great idea … so if you use quality pond liner then when you finish you can dig out a pond & line with your liner and fill with rainbow trout. For organic fish protein yum!
How much land you work ? is that your only source of revenue ? Thanks for your time.
I put tarpaulin over a few areas of my plot and will move around as weeds pop up 😃
Ooops…hello Alex…I thought it was anew vlog…but it’s from 3 years ago😀😀😀Happy Easter, Jinxy
Haha new one out tomorrow 😃
Thanks, great video, new subscriber here. I’m interested in why you use manure and compost? From most of the videos I’ve watched the most logical idea is to compost the manure to destroy and non-digested seeds. However, would I be right in assessing that it’s quicker to add manure plus compost, and does the compost act as a sun blocking layer to stop indigested seeds from growing? I hope that made sense!
How much time to wait between laying down the manure, then then the compost, and then planting? Or all at same time? Thanks for vid!
Hi Alex, where did you get such a large tarpaulin/plastic sheet? Was it very expensive?
✌️😎
Hi Alex, great advice, didn’t realise you had to let the pesky weeds germinate first 🤦🏼♀️ I notice your land looked like mine when you began (heavy clay) but you still had great results. I began in lockdown last March and had terrible trouble getting a full sized harvest, other than manure, blood/fish/bone and compost do you have any suggestions on land prep?
You may have seen I’m using a Broadfork to get air into the soil, other than that, it’s a slow process of organic material on top and deep rooted plants to break up the soil.
The good thing about clay soil (generalisation) is that it’s packed full of nutrients so when it does start to break up it will become good soil. Unlike really Sandy soil that holds little or no nutritional value. ✌️
Thanks Alex, that’s a great help. I really struggled last year, all my plants seemed to be about 6wks behind in growth/harvest and being an absolute beginner I had no idea why. In the end I got so disheartened I decided to start again, being in wet Cornwall I decided to dig 12” down to loosen it, add a bit of perlite plus all the goodies and top with compost so hopefully things will be better. Thanks for telling me it’s not a quick fix so my hopes won’t be completely dashed this season but good to know hopefully I’m on the up 🤞🏼
Worms love to eat cardboard, cardboard attracts worms, worm poop is great for the plants, as are worm tunnels.
Plastic degrades into microplastics, needs picked up and stored then off to the landfill when its too degraded to use.
Im aware - Where do you suggest I find enough cardboard to cover 3 acres?
Idealistic at best
- it’s thick, reusable plastic and when it’s no longer of use it’ll be disposed of correctly.
@@TheEssexAllotment I don't use anything under my beds, no cardboard or plastic. I just lay good topsoil and compost on top and I plant where no soil is showing, something like arugula or other greens and then thin out later. It suppresses the weeds. It is easier and cheaper and no plastic. Great video! Thanks for sharing.
Really intriguing and helpful. That's a huge area of plastic tarp so how did you stop the wind getting under it and lifting it (a problem I've had with much, MUCH smaller areas). Also, do you leave the plastic tarps down beneath the soil (if yes, how do you get a decent growing depth, because you're putting the plastic on to the surface).Many thanks.
No the plastic is removed - compost and manure on the bare, weed free ground.
The bigger the tarp, the harder it is for the wind to lift. Held down with a few pegs and some bags of compost. 👍
@@TheEssexAllotment Hi Alex, many thanks for replying and being so helpful. Subbed 😀👍.
No worries! Thank you! 👍
Great videos. What do u do about watering? Can't imagine the size of beds!!
I have a mains water supply - will be irrigation eventually. But hose and sprinklers at the mo 👍
Would it make any difference if I put new a good 6" of mulching compost on the top of the weeds before then putting the plastic over the top and then poking a few holes in the plastic to get some plants going straight away?
Nope - would work great
Great video Alex. How would you deal with a badly rotavated very uneven allotment? How would you level it? Rotavate it again?
Great video, so if I understand things right you want to let weeds sprout in the summer but you don't want them to go to seed right? So you cover them sometime before the period of going to seed
Correct. 👍
@@TheEssexAllotment is there a calendar with the approximate dates or periods (months) with this depending on geographical region or hardiness area?
11:50 - stupid question, but how do you know if the weeds have germinated or not?
You can see them when you check on it… periodically I’d lift areas of the plastic to check. And you’d see green leggy weed shoots dying and drying out
@@TheEssexAllotment 👍 thank you!
No worries. Thanks for watching 😁
Where can I get cow manure please ?
I contacted my local farmers - they dropped me a load off