This video could easily be two, three or four times longer and I would gladly watch and learn at such a lovely pace. So please Mr. Dowding, don’t feel like you are being long-winded about these things, we are equally passionate about it, just not as experienced as you are 🥰
I really like the relaxed pace and style of Charle's videos. Other straight to the point, short videos have their place on TH-cam but Charle's content works well when longer.
I'm personally very happy to watch longer videos from you, Charles. A bloody abundance of information which keeps me glued to your videos. My first year of solo gardening this year, which started quite late in the year. I'll be using your methods all year in 2021 and look forward to having winter crops next year. I'm still working my way through your online course as well, which will be great to review over this coming winter.
Hello Charles, I live in Paris, am a writer, and have a balcony, what we call a 'terrasse,' and I started gardening on it in 2017. Growing vegetables and flowers helped me come back to life after a terrible decade, which ended with the passing of my dearest mother (who would have loved your videos by the way!). My balcony has only 3-4 hours of direct sunlight in the summer and only about 9 sqm. of usable space (light-wise), but thanks to your videos, I have learned to sow, prick out, plant out and above all, to learn by fearless experimentation (including with composting). You have taught me that nature has its rhythms and therefore, to respect seasons, understand light, heat and pests, and not sow too early for instance. You are an inspiration and a delight to watch and in two obsessive years, largely thanks to you, I have grown salads, herbs, tomatoes, potatoes, spring onions, carrots, broccoli, peas, peppers, chard, kale and now cabbage, spinach and broad beans. All with a city girl's fear of bugs, insufficient sunlight and in containers (which I know you don't do), but with very decent success. I come from a classical Indian music tradition where we respect our 'Gurus' and are taught to express our respect and gratitude, and I have wanted to express my gratitude and admiration to you without excessive gushing for a while now. But since I CLEARLY don't know how to do that, I offer you this small tome here, in an effort to say (as discreetly as possible) thank you!
Amita I am so touched 🌺and love your feedback. It makes me happy to imagine your gardening in that unlikely situation, and thanks for writing so nicely.
I’ve missed many of your videos in the past 7 months due to an internet blockade here in Kashmir. But glad internet is back in time for spring propagation. Lots to learn and sow! This year my garden will be all no-dig.
Charles, we survived extended curfew, communications blockade et al from August. But that didn’t stop things from growing! In fact, having a near bumper crop of tomatoes, bottle gourd, cucumbers and chillies meant that we could share them with others at a crucial time when everything was shut. Blessings of a bountiful garden!
Dear Charles, reading on French and Italian news (the ones I read) that UK is somehow rationing fresh vegetables in some shops. Wish the largest audience can be reached by your message and keep growing their own healthy food, and without making it travel thousands of miles. Vegetable gardening is indeed a form of pleasure, but also freedom and independence. Thank you!
Charles, you're a gentleman and a scholar. Good sir, thank you for the delightful and entertaining video, which gives me a lot of ideas, and what I like about this video is there's no BS.... excuse me, redact that there's plenty!😅 I am going to implement some of your great composting strategies. Thanks again.🪷🌿
Pięknie masz. Cudowna natura w przyrodzie z Twoją pracą. Gratuluję i pozdrawiam z życzeniami dalszych cudownych chwil w tym co robisz. Miło Ciebie oglądać. Dziękuję.
Thank you Charles! My twilight career was in sales and the term ABC (ALWAYS BE SELLING) was golden rule. Now that I am a farmer, i changed it to ABP (ALWAYS BE PLANTING)! Just finished my fall seed sets an hour ago. Cheers!
Just got my hotbed finished 10 days ago, sowed seeds indoors, put them on hotbed 6 days ago, now have lettuce, spinach, radish, calabrese and beetroot all germinated. It's a great feeling.
Thank you, teacher! You are changing the world with this channel. You are helping begginers like me that have a dream to build a garden and maybe someday make a permaculture garden away from the city. You are motivating everyone and filling them with good information. More farmers, more trees and vegatbles, more health, more O2, and global warming is slowed down 😊💗 You are amazi g
Rei I am heartened to read this, happy to help and hope there are enough new gardeners/farmers to make the difference we need. Access to land is an issue.
I'm sitting out here in my garden watching your newest video seeing the explosive growth of my own plants. After watching your videos over the last year it has greatly assisted in my efforts to have my own kitchen Garden. I was also touched by your off handed comment about how not everyone has Heat in their house to support plant growth. It is a subtle reminder have your care and concern for those who are at an economic disadvantage. Thank you for sharing your knowledge.
Just had the same experience sitting at the kitchen table drinking my coffee and a cloud moved and the sun hit me. Man it felt good, gonna finish this coffee then head out it's been a long winter.
Aaron Smith. It certainly has seemed like a long winter. Not long now until the swifts and swallows return, our gardens, veg patches and allotments are green, growing strong and we can sit on the bench and enjoy 👍🏻
I love it when a new Charles Dowding video is out, especially this time of year when i'm mentally struggling what to start off. Thanks again for the inspiration :)
I have learned a lot from you at 66 yrs old. I did what you say to do with beets and really just tossed a bunch of seeds in a row no culling and got a nice bunch of beets. I appreciate you for sharing your extensive knowledge.
What another fantastic video from Charles what we do to warm the polytunnel is get two candles one each end of the polytunnel two earthenware pots put candle 🕯 in each and light at night put one pot on top of the other it doesn't heat the polytunnel but does keep frost away from the seeds
I've seen a video where they place a candle underneath a wide ribbon of copper that has the ends buried in a bucket of sand. The idea being that you can run it 24/7 and the heat is held latently within the sand such that it isn't a waste of energy during the day, but at night it radiates the built up heat. Worth a try?
Hello Charles, I live in Bariloche, Argentinean Patagonia, it is very cold down here right now. I want to tell you how much I enjoy your videos and advice. As I am in the southern hemisphere I just can't wait for the spring to start and put into practice everything I have learned with you these past months. Thank you so much!
I love your Chanel am a professional Gardner and florist and I used to work with special needs in a garden centre and it was organic grown I’ve put seed in and brought my seeds in and put them in a plastic greenhouse inside I’ve put them in on Thursday and they’re all showing colour I like how you grown you plants and we use to put Horse menu are under the plants xx it’s amazing the heat you get of it Wendy xx
Last year I done a few tomatos in my wee greenhouse and made one 2 x 3m raised bed. Last week I found your channel, and bought The Veg Course, Veg Journal and Starting a New Veg Garden. You've given me and my fiance the confidence to take the dive and order a tonne of compost, bought a polytunnel and built another 2 raised beds. We multisowed 160+ modules last night with your guidance, using your methods. I got 60L of the Dalefoot Wool compost for sowing Amazing work Charles, thank you for the inspiration!
There’s something very reassuring seeing all the baby plants in spring, a feeling of hope and renewal, lifts the spirit in these dark times! Your vids always inspire, my goal is to add a small greenhouse, I only use coldframes now. Great edit!
We're going into winter here in South Africa, it's early autumn and my broad beans sprouted today! Sowed them a week ago. "Aquadulce" variety . I'm USDA zone 11. loved the video thank you ! I learn so much from your channel always
I am watching in subtropical region in Australia and I am preparing to plant most of these vegetables in early autumn here where we have mild winters. Have been getting some hints from you on growing from seeds rather than buying seedlings. Very helpful thank you.
You have to be one of the best and inovative gardeners that I have come across. Wish I could be taken under your wing "so to speak" Too bad there is this world wide travel ban thing due to this virus emergency. If I was half as smart as you I could feed my family here in Wisconsin USA. Should have listened to my Mom. Thanks for the online education!!
I have just found you last week an am watching every video. I love your voice, your teaching style, and your passion for what you do. I’m absorbing as much as I can, and am thankful I can always come back.
I am sitting in your class and hearing you speak and demonstrate while observing and listening to each word intently. I have watched in all 34 videos so far and am past half way in your invaluable book 'Organic Farming'. Meanwhile the farm is changing quite rapidly, I am implementing the teachings, one by one, so should score well and will have a good looking report card to show others of your marvellous methods. My staff are calling me Charles, but I had to explain the western concept of me being Charles Jr in time to come.
Yes in Bangalore, my farm is in the Green Belt, just 25 kms from my city home. To give you an idea Bangalore has a radius of about 44 kms. My staff on the farm & home are all organic farmers from Nepal various relatives from one family since the past 27 years.
I'm new to your page, and wanting to get into growing my own, I'm so grateful for your simple explanations and all of the information you provide. I grew potatoes, strawberries, cherries and carrots this year. I've ordered your calendar. Very grateful for your wealth of knowledge and simple techniques.
I have my leeks and onions multi sown! I'll do beets today. I'm so excited to try this. Thank you, Charles. Your knowledge is always welcome. I keep recommending your videos to my followers and fellow garden lovers.
Charles, I love you for your practical generosity. Goodness, you have got me changing my ways in Nelson NZ. Thank you from my heart. If you want to visit my home is awaiting!
Another great video Charles. I do what you do now, I keep seed trays in my flat until they germinate, then straight down the allotment into my Polytunnel or Greenhouse. You get a lot more success rate from doing this two fold. My Spinach, Broad beans, Lettuce, Bolthardy Beetroot and Radish are looking really good to name but a few. I also have multi sown the Beetroot, Spinach and Radish following your lead, it's also working well. All the best. I look forward to watching and learning more from your videos.
@@alannabonita8209 multi sowing means he sows several seeds per cell in a tray, and when he plants the Radish, Beetroot etc, he plants them in a clump and does not separate them. He will only take one or two out, if there are way too many seedlings together. So planting Beetroot, for example, 4 in the same spot, then harvest one at a time etc. This works well for several vegetables as Charles shows, but obviously not all.
@@alannabonita8209 Sow 2-4 seeds per cell or module, to plant as clumps without thinning. Seedlings love it, see here for details charlesdowding.co.uk/multisowing/
This man is such an inspiration. Just good practical advice. I've multi sown beet, onions, and spring onions. Excellent germination, ready for my no dig bed. I've been gardening for over 65 years, never planted no dig before but I'm looking forward to adopting Charles's methods. Thanks Charles, Diolch!
@@Just-Nikki Thank you! Just checked tonight and I have some germination of peas and tomatoes! Very exciting! Just need the storms to stop so that I can get my greenhouse built! 😂
Awesome Charles. I love guys who can give advice based on what they've learned and not what they read somewhere else. You're the real deal. I also love how you always are smiling. :)
@@CharlesDowding1nodig I have your latest book, and maybe you address this question, but when your multi-sow and then put the whole plug in without thinning how do you not get smaller crops? ie., you mention that you don't thin the beets. I seem to get small carrots if I don't thin and my beds are raised, no dig, heavy organic matter, and about 5 years old.
I'm so thankful to have discovered you! I binge watch your videos on my back deck every night after I put our little kids to bed. Putting in my first garden from my own seedlings in an entirely different climate than I grew up in. I wish I had known about you before I killed most of my first set of seedlings! Lol. But am having better success my second time around. Thanks for your informative videos.
Hi Charles, I want to thank you for sharing your knowledge in gardening. I’ve learned a lot. I have to say you also have such a well kept garden. So neat and tidy. I’m impressed. Thanks for sharing. (Old guy from Arkansas)🇺🇸
I've got peas, onions, beetroot, spinach, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, all sprouted and growing. Just started tomatoes and basil. I'm right with ya Charles, great video.
After a lifetime of traditional gardening, I am going to try the no till method. I have purchased a small hoop greenhouse and gathered up all I think I need to start my own seeds...also a first for me. I am a little nervous about it, but I am getting aged horse manure, chicken manure, rabbit manure and composted leaves to begin the process. We have been collecting and cleaning all our Amazon boxes all winter! I am ready to get started the middle of March and plan to watch many of your videos as well as the ones on permaculture! We are also having a friend who is a bee keeper put a couple of his boxes on the property! It's a whole new approach to gardening and I look forward to the challenge. Thanks for all your advice!
How exciting Carrie and good luck. Do check the later part of my most recent video problems 4, about weedkiller in horse manure, and how you can check for it using Broad beans. Also at bottom here charlesdowding.co.uk/start-here/
I’m a complete vegetable growing rookie but you’ve given me enough confidence to start and I may just have saved my lettuce seedlings from the brink. Thank you for your videos. I try and watch BEFORE I do smg, but enthusiasm runs away with me and then I have to undo my mistakes!!! I’m trying to enjoy it and not be stressed. You’re the perfect teacher! 💐💐💐
I did not think beets or any root crop would transplant well , i use a seed tape for carrotts and beets and direct plant outside with descent results, Great video Charles .
Hello from Oakland California Charles! As someone just starting to learn about raising plants, your videos have been a huge resource. Thank you for sharing your knowledge!
It stopped raining long enough this weekend that I got to demolish a shed, weed the big garden and transfer all of my tools up to my new growing area. It's got to the stage where I only go into the greenhouse when it rains. Normally I garden all year round but yikes this rain is driving me insane. Even the dog has to be dragged out, he takes a sniff and if it's raining goes back to his bed. Lovely double rainbow this afternoon after a downpour.
Hi Charles, “growth success” in planting seedlings is what I learned from you today. Thank you so much! Eggplant seeds, beans are on the trays right now for my small garden! I’m hopeful to grow them!
An excellent video, full of good advice. I live slightly further south in the U.K. than Charles and have managed to get lettuce out under fleece this week. Plus a January 15 sowing of peas, grown in a double glazed cold frame, with no additional heat, is now cropping for shoots. Plus buckets of potatoes, started under glass, are now outside with a permanent fleece cover.
I am a life long gardener and learning so may of the "rules" I was taught are wrong! Multisowing in addition to starting peas, beans and corn etc. ahead in cells are a new concept for me. Thank you for the wealth of knowledge! Also, you are not a bit long winded! I am always disappointed when a video ends.
When I was a kid there was a plant and tree nursery not far away. That is all gone and a Burger King is there. I see the propagation, sure need to develop some skills. Spring onions are my starter!
Really enjoying this channel. On lockdown at the moment so used my mini as a little greenhouse and started tomatoes and basil. It gets really hot in the car even on a chilly day and it got them started really well. Good luck with your gardens everybody.
due to watching this vid yesterday today I planted all my peas in modules in the greenhouse, so much easier (and much drier) very excited to see the difference...thanks charles
Your lettuce trays are crazy. Think I'll give it a go! Very short of space here too. Thank you for taking the time to show us what we could be doing this week.
Inspired by your hot bed, I have germinated my carrots on top of my dalek bin full of chicken manure! It worked really well. Love all your advice and teaching.
Australia. It’s a beautiful sunny day in early Autumn and I’m sitting in my garden with a cup of tea and my-just-arrived ‘Charles Dowding’s Vegetable Garden Diary’. Is it relevant for Australia with opposite seasons? I think yes and a great value of information and advice. I’m thrilled. All I have to do is get my head around the UK months-seasons compared to Australia. I’ve already made a list while watching these awesome vids. Maybe I will find some pretty ‘month’ stickers to place next to the UK ones in the diary. Love it when you use terms like ‘mid autumn’ and ‘late spring’. Makes it easier for my calculating. 😊 Love your diary - I shall cherish it! 💛
Tanya meant to say also, yes it's relevant, with the six month flip, but dates need adjusting according to your climate. You can mostly sow earlier in spring and later in autumn. Tasmania may be equivalent.
Charles Dowding yes thanks for that... I’m in Lower south east South Australia, so can get very cold in winter and generally milder summers. My challenges are keeping seedlings moist. Potting mix dries very fast. I’m playing with covering them with Perspex till germination to keep moisture in. But once they germinate I probably need to just mist them three times a day. Getting direct sown parsnips to germinate so far has been 0%. Not sure why... following the directions on pack... onions too, maybe I tried too early, but I see them at the nursery 🥴. I gave your hot bed a go and had great success with brassicas and mesclun. Lettuce of other varieties are 0... I think I drowned them... it’s a fine line. I just love the beautiful speckled variety in the diary... I shall persevere.
Hot Bed in a greenhouse. Very quickly said, but the effort to construct it each year must be fairly time consuming, with barrows and doors to get through and bits of wood to cut and perhaps some nails and trying not to break the glass and so on and so on, long before you get to the compost itself and how to temper that to heat up as required.. Great video Charles, and I take my hat off to the hot bed constructor.
I have been growing peas for many years but never tried to raise them as starts until I watched your videos this year. They are now in the ground and are far more advanced than they would otherwise be. Here in the Pacific NW, the advice is to direct sow but not bother with transplanting.... not sure why.... mine look fabulous. Hopefully I'll be able to keep up with my kids' voracious appetite for peas this year! Thanks a bunch for all your advice.
Gosh, I look at Charles' thronging greenhouse, stuffed with baby plants and realise just how far behind I am. I've not even started my peas yet. No excuses, I've got to pull my finger out.
As always, great content and a joy to watch. Thanks to you Charles, this is my first year I am growing everything from seed. I followed your advice on no dig and my garden prospered. With little or no weeding, I also doubled my growing space. In zone 6a, our last frost date its usually the end of April. In the past I always direct seeded cool weather crops but this year I am ahead of mother nature. I listened to Charles Dowding and invested in row covers to be able to plant out early. Have quite a few plants ready including multi sown onion and beetroot for the first time. Thank you for all you do!
Love this video, beautiful footage as well as excellent information, as always. I also find it encouraging to see the odd collection of different trays of varying degrees of sturdiness, looks a lot like my trays! I planted out little plugs of peas and spring onions today in my sheltered London garden😉
I am in zone five in the states, though leaning towards zone six with the climate warming up. I am guessing that I am about two weeks behind you and this is helping me to gauge what I should be doing and setting my pace. Thanks to you I am watching the sequence of how I sow and have started doing the large seedings in tiny containers and so am getting the most from my one propagation mat. You have been such a huge help at streamlining my process. thank you so much!
Thank you for this helpful video! Here in Florida our cool season crops are almost finished, I’ve got squash and zucchini planted in place, and my other warm season seedlings are nearly ready to transplant. I hadn’t heard anyone give me permission to put tiny little transplants directly from smaller cells straight into the garden beds without repotting first, so I’m going to try that out this time. :)
My back started hurting when you said 3 - 4000 seeds. I just moved all my seed sowing to my little greenhouse. Really like seeing what you're growing now and why. Always check first to see if you have a new video up.
Thanks for all the invaluable information, presently putting all I've learned from your presentations into practice. Including the composting! My Alderman peas calabrese, cabages beets lettuce are well on their way, in modular trays in a small greenhouse. Outside Purple brock and broad beans survived a couple of frosts too.
Cheers Andy, and perhaps your manure was too fresh. I only ever use it when at least nine months old and well decomposed, by which time there are few if any flies.
So, I used fresh for the hotbed to make sure it would heat up (and it did), but got the plague of flies too. If I used well rotted manure would that heat up? Thanks again for all your excellent videos.
Ooh nice video. I had excellent results from multisowing beetroot direct (in early summer) this past season. I got so many beautiful beets (now bottled), that I honestly don’t need to grow them for a year. I will definitely try the hotbed technique - I doubt you could do this without one (or heatmats). Have a great season Charles.
This video could easily be two, three or four times longer and I would gladly watch and learn at such a lovely pace. So please Mr. Dowding, don’t feel like you are being long-winded about these things, we are equally passionate about it, just not as experienced as you are 🥰
Gosh thankyou, it seemed long to me when checking!
Well said! I second your comment, Pros in Spain.
I really like the relaxed pace and style of Charle's videos.
Other straight to the point, short videos have their place on TH-cam but Charle's content works well when longer.
I'm personally very happy to watch longer videos from you, Charles. A bloody abundance of information which keeps me glued to your videos. My first year of solo gardening this year, which started quite late in the year. I'll be using your methods all year in 2021 and look forward to having winter crops next year. I'm still working my way through your online course as well, which will be great to review over this coming winter.
why you are not a regular on gardeners world is beyond me. I've learnt more from you than anyone else.
Cheers Al
I 100% agree to both!
I agree also and I live in subtropical QLD and I still manage to use the info. Its a great channel.
Hello Charles, I live in Paris, am a writer, and have a balcony, what we call a 'terrasse,' and I started gardening on it in 2017. Growing vegetables and flowers helped me come back to life after a terrible decade, which ended with the passing of my dearest mother (who would have loved your videos by the way!). My balcony has only 3-4 hours of direct sunlight in the summer and only about 9 sqm. of usable space (light-wise), but thanks to your videos, I have learned to sow, prick out, plant out and above all, to learn by fearless experimentation (including with composting). You have taught me that nature has its rhythms and therefore, to respect seasons, understand light, heat and pests, and not sow too early for instance. You are an inspiration and a delight to watch and in two obsessive years, largely thanks to you, I have grown salads, herbs, tomatoes, potatoes, spring onions, carrots, broccoli, peas, peppers, chard, kale and now cabbage, spinach and broad beans. All with a city girl's fear of bugs, insufficient sunlight and in containers (which I know you don't do), but with very decent success. I come from a classical Indian music tradition where we respect our 'Gurus' and are taught to express our respect and gratitude, and I have wanted to express my gratitude and admiration to you without excessive gushing for a while now. But since I CLEARLY don't know how to do that, I offer you this small tome here, in an effort to say (as discreetly as possible) thank you!
Amita I am so touched 🌺and love your feedback. It makes me happy to imagine your gardening in that unlikely situation, and thanks for writing so nicely.
Amita Mukerjee this was so beautiful to read. I respect so much that you took a chance and went for it. I wish you an abundant year.
I sent Charles a Namaste and explained to him that it isn't a casual hi or bye, but coming from the deepest respect.
@@Just-Nikki Thank you! 🌷
Such a loving feedback! I couldn't express it better! ❤️
I’ve missed many of your videos in the past 7 months due to an internet blockade here in Kashmir. But glad internet is back in time for spring propagation. Lots to learn and sow! This year my garden will be all no-dig.
Gosh Fozia that sounds dramatic, hope everyone is ok and great you are all no dig this year.
Charles, we survived extended curfew, communications blockade et al from August. But that didn’t stop things from growing! In fact, having a near bumper crop of tomatoes, bottle gourd, cucumbers and chillies meant that we could share them with others at a crucial time when everything was shut. Blessings of a bountiful garden!
@@FoziaSQazi Thanks for sharing this Fozia, lovely result
Dear Charles, reading on French and Italian news (the ones I read) that UK is somehow rationing fresh vegetables in some shops. Wish the largest audience can be reached by your message and keep growing their own healthy food, and without making it travel thousands of miles. Vegetable gardening is indeed a form of pleasure, but also freedom and independence. Thank you!
Thank you! The only rationing now is tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers. Not much I can do about that, or anyone in Britain at the moment!
Charles, you're a gentleman and a scholar. Good sir, thank you for the delightful and entertaining video, which gives me a lot of ideas, and what I like about this video is there's no BS.... excuse me, redact that there's plenty!😅 I am going to implement some of your great composting strategies. Thanks again.🪷🌿
So nice of you to say Timothy, I hope your seedlings grow nicely
Pięknie masz. Cudowna natura w przyrodzie z Twoją pracą. Gratuluję i pozdrawiam z życzeniami dalszych cudownych chwil w tym co robisz. Miło Ciebie oglądać. Dziękuję.
Dziękuję 🧅
Thank you Charles! My twilight career was in sales and the term ABC (ALWAYS BE SELLING) was golden rule. Now that I am a farmer, i changed it to ABP (ALWAYS BE PLANTING)! Just finished my fall seed sets an hour ago. Cheers!
Just got my hotbed finished 10 days ago, sowed seeds indoors, put them on hotbed 6 days ago, now have lettuce, spinach, radish, calabrese and beetroot all germinated. It's a great feeling.
Nice one Clare
Astonishing how the production quality has sky rocketed since, in such few years. Wow. And not only on this channel.
Cheers Henrik!
Thank you, teacher! You are changing the world with this channel. You are helping begginers like me that have a dream to build a garden and maybe someday make a permaculture garden away from the city. You are motivating everyone and filling them with good information. More farmers, more trees and vegatbles, more health, more O2, and global warming is slowed down 😊💗 You are amazi g
Rei I am heartened to read this, happy to help and hope there are enough new gardeners/farmers to make the difference we need. Access to land is an issue.
@@CharlesDowding1nodig do you mean access because there are no roads or because the lands are not for sale/expensive? 😊💗
Yes too expensive, even not available
I'm sitting out here in my garden watching your newest video seeing the explosive growth of my own plants. After watching your videos over the last year it has greatly assisted in my efforts to have my own kitchen Garden. I was also touched by your off handed comment about how not everyone has Heat in their house to support plant growth. It is a subtle reminder have your care and concern for those who are at an economic disadvantage. Thank you for sharing your knowledge.
Ah thanks, nice to hear you are growing well :)
I know it’s spring when I start itching to get my hands dirty and watch Charles’ videos at the same time! 🌱
A Roe Yes, inspiring us all. My tomatoes are now sown 👍🏼
Perfect video for my Sunday morning. The suns just come out, think I’ll watch this then get out into the garden.
Just had the same experience sitting at the kitchen table drinking my coffee and a cloud moved and the sun hit me. Man it felt good, gonna finish this coffee then head out it's been a long winter.
Aaron Smith.
It certainly has seemed like a long winter. Not long now until the swifts and swallows return, our gardens, veg patches and allotments are green, growing strong and we can sit on the bench and enjoy 👍🏻
I love it when a new Charles Dowding video is out, especially this time of year when i'm mentally struggling what to start off. Thanks again for the inspiration :)
Charles, you are by far the best of gardening here on youtube. Thanks for all your help and for sharing all your knowledge. You are an inspiration!
Thanks Sue 🌺
"They're with their mates, everything swings along nicely."👍
Thank you Charles. I love to re watch your videos so I keep on learning.
I have learned a lot from you at 66 yrs old. I did what you say to do with beets and really just tossed a bunch of seeds in a row no culling and got a nice bunch of beets. I appreciate you for sharing your extensive knowledge.
Lovely to hear thanks
What another fantastic video from Charles what we do to warm the polytunnel is get two candles one each end of the polytunnel two earthenware pots put candle 🕯 in each and light at night put one pot on top of the other it doesn't heat the polytunnel but does keep frost away from the seeds
ROBERT O MAHON Y what a great idea. I might try that, thank you.
I've seen a video where they place a candle underneath a wide ribbon of copper that has the ends buried in a bucket of sand. The idea being that you can run it 24/7 and the heat is held latently within the sand such that it isn't a waste of energy during the day, but at night it radiates the built up heat. Worth a try?
Hello Charles, I live in Bariloche, Argentinean Patagonia, it is very cold down here right now. I want to tell you how much I enjoy your videos and advice. As I am in the southern hemisphere I just can't wait for the spring to start and put into practice everything I have learned with you these past months. Thank you so much!
Thanks for sharing this Patricia, and I wish you success and joy in growing
I love your Chanel am a professional Gardner and florist and I used to work with special needs in a garden centre and it was organic grown I’ve put seed in and brought my seeds in and put them in a plastic greenhouse inside I’ve put them in on Thursday and they’re all showing colour I like how you grown you plants and we use to put Horse menu are under the plants xx it’s amazing the heat you get of it Wendy xx
Cheers Wendy 🌺
Last year I done a few tomatos in my wee greenhouse and made one 2 x 3m raised bed.
Last week I found your channel, and bought The Veg Course, Veg Journal and Starting a New Veg Garden.
You've given me and my fiance the confidence to take the dive and order a tonne of compost, bought a polytunnel and built another 2 raised beds. We multisowed 160+ modules last night with your guidance, using your methods. I got 60L of the Dalefoot Wool compost for sowing
Amazing work Charles, thank you for the inspiration!
Cheers Chris I m excited to hear you are using the videos like this, from a standing start, and wish you lovely harvests
There’s something very reassuring seeing all the baby plants in spring, a feeling of hope and renewal, lifts the spirit in these dark times! Your vids always inspire, my goal is to add a small greenhouse, I only use coldframes now. Great edit!
Thanks Thad and good luck
We're going into winter here in South Africa, it's early autumn and my broad beans sprouted today! Sowed them a week ago. "Aquadulce" variety . I'm USDA zone 11. loved the video thank you ! I learn so much from your channel always
Cheers Robert
I am watching in subtropical region in Australia and I am preparing to plant most of these vegetables in early autumn here where we have mild winters. Have been getting some hints from you on growing from seeds rather than buying seedlings. Very helpful thank you.
Sounds great Joan!
You have to be one of the best and inovative gardeners that I have come across. Wish I could be taken under your wing "so to speak" Too bad there is this world wide travel ban thing due to this virus emergency. If I was half as smart as you I could feed my family here in Wisconsin USA. Should have listened to my Mom. Thanks for the online education!!
Many thanks and you can do it, follow these tips, pay attention to details, engage with your seedlings and plants :) and your family will be grateful
I have just found you last week an am watching every video. I love your voice, your teaching style, and your passion for what you do. I’m absorbing as much as I can, and am thankful I can always come back.
I am sitting in your class and hearing you speak and demonstrate while observing and listening to each word intently. I have watched in all 34 videos so far and am past half way in your invaluable book 'Organic Farming'. Meanwhile the farm is changing quite rapidly, I am implementing the teachings, one by one, so should score well and will have a good looking report card to show others of your marvellous methods. My staff are calling me Charles, but I had to explain the western concept of me being Charles Jr in time to come.
Funny! And I wonder where you are Anil, Bangalore?
Yes in Bangalore, my farm is in the Green Belt, just 25 kms from my city home. To give you an idea Bangalore has a radius of about 44 kms. My staff on the farm & home are all organic farmers from Nepal various relatives from one family since the past 27 years.
I'm new to your page, and wanting to get into growing my own, I'm so grateful for your simple explanations and all of the information you provide. I grew potatoes, strawberries, cherries and carrots this year. I've ordered your calendar. Very grateful for your wealth of knowledge and simple techniques.
Hi Claire, great to hear and thanks for buying the calendar.
I have my leeks and onions multi sown! I'll do beets today. I'm so excited to try this. Thank you, Charles. Your knowledge is always welcome. I keep recommending your videos to my followers and fellow garden lovers.
Great and many thanks
Thanks as always for your teaching and pragmatism Charles
Charles, I love you for your practical generosity. Goodness, you have got me changing my ways in Nelson NZ. Thank you from my heart. If you want to visit my home is awaiting!
Nice to read this, I was in Nelson 1988 and loved the air and climate and sea, never say never to return :) but unlikely, thanks
Another great video Charles. I do what you do now, I keep seed trays in my flat until they germinate, then straight down the allotment into my Polytunnel or Greenhouse. You get a lot more success rate from doing this two fold. My Spinach, Broad beans, Lettuce, Bolthardy Beetroot and Radish are looking really good to name but a few. I also have multi sown the Beetroot, Spinach and Radish following your lead, it's also working well. All the best. I look forward to watching and learning more from your videos.
Nice to see this John
What does multi seeding mean?
@@alannabonita8209 multi sowing means he sows several seeds per cell in a tray, and when he plants the Radish, Beetroot etc, he plants them in a clump and does not separate them. He will only take one or two out, if there are way too many seedlings together. So planting Beetroot, for example, 4 in the same spot, then harvest one at a time etc. This works well for several vegetables as Charles shows, but obviously not all.
@@alannabonita8209 Sow 2-4 seeds per cell or module, to plant as clumps without thinning.
Seedlings love it, see here for details charlesdowding.co.uk/multisowing/
I definitely need to cack on and get some seeds sown. I'm way behind where I want to be. Thanks Charles, you really are an inspiration.
Go to Paul :)
I do hope that cack is a typo :)
@@wobblybobengland yes, Crack not cack...
Yesssss Charles gimme that sweet sweet gardening content. All my seeds are started, and multi-sewn beet root modules are my jam.
You’re still my number one TH-cam channel Charles, thank you for taking the time and sharing your knowledge/findings. Best regards from NYC🙏🏼
This man is such an inspiration. Just good practical advice. I've multi sown beet, onions, and spring
onions. Excellent germination, ready for my no dig bed. I've been gardening for over 65 years, never planted no dig before but I'm looking forward to adopting Charles's methods. Thanks Charles, Diolch!
Cool I am touched when someone of long experience is up for a change 😀
Just recently came across your videos and really enjoy them. Thanks for posting.
Perfect timing. Thank you, Charles. I am a first time gardener and hope to do my very first seeds today!
You are in good hands here, good luck
@@What..a..shambles Sowed aubergine, chilli, peppers, tomatoes, beetroot and peas! 🤞🤞🤞
Great, don't let the 1st 4 on the list go too cold, charlesdowding.co.uk/sowing-timeline-for-vegetables/, happy growing 🍀
GuybrushThreepwood79 how exciting! Happy planting 🌱
@@Just-Nikki Thank you! Just checked tonight and I have some germination of peas and tomatoes! Very exciting! Just need the storms to stop so that I can get my greenhouse built! 😂
Awesome Charles. I love guys who can give advice based on what they've learned and not what they read somewhere else. You're the real deal. I also love how you always are smiling. :)
Cool thanks Bret. Experience matters 😀
@@CharlesDowding1nodig I have your latest book, and maybe you address this question, but when your multi-sow and then put the whole plug in without thinning how do you not get smaller crops? ie., you mention that you don't thin the beets. I seem to get small carrots if I don't thin and my beds are raised, no dig, heavy organic matter, and about 5 years old.
Smaller is relative, yes they are less enormous! I have beets of tennis ball size, four per clump at 12in/30cm spacing. Yes I thin carrots.
I'm so thankful to have discovered you! I binge watch your videos on my back deck every night after I put our little kids to bed. Putting in my first garden from my own seedlings in an entirely different climate than I grew up in. I wish I had known about you before I killed most of my first set of seedlings! Lol. But am having better success my second time around. Thanks for your informative videos.
Hi Angie, I wish you success and am happy to help 🥬
I AM Blown a way by your multi sown trays with all those seeds in them wow.
Charles helped me realize how multi sowing can have huge benefits!
Hi Charles, I want to thank you for sharing your knowledge in gardening. I’ve learned a lot. I have to say you also have such a well kept garden. So neat and tidy. I’m impressed. Thanks for sharing. (Old guy from Arkansas)🇺🇸
How nice to hear, thanks Steven
I've got peas, onions, beetroot, spinach, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, all sprouted and growing. Just started tomatoes and basil. I'm right with ya Charles, great video.
After a lifetime of traditional gardening, I am going to try the no till method. I have purchased a small hoop greenhouse and gathered up all I think I need to start my own seeds...also a first for me. I am a little nervous about it, but I am getting aged horse manure, chicken manure, rabbit manure and composted leaves to begin the process. We have been collecting and cleaning all our Amazon boxes all winter! I am ready to get started the middle of March and plan to watch many of your videos as well as the ones on permaculture! We are also having a friend who is a bee keeper put a couple of his boxes on the property! It's a whole new approach to gardening and I look forward to the challenge. Thanks for all your advice!
How exciting Carrie and good luck. Do check the later part of my most recent video problems 4, about weedkiller in horse manure, and how you can check for it using Broad beans.
Also at bottom here charlesdowding.co.uk/start-here/
I’m a complete vegetable growing rookie but you’ve given me enough confidence to start and I may just have saved my lettuce seedlings from the brink.
Thank you for your videos. I try and watch BEFORE I do smg, but enthusiasm runs away with me and then I have to undo my mistakes!!! I’m trying to enjoy it and not be stressed. You’re the perfect teacher! 💐💐💐
Ah good and enjoyment is key, then you transmit enthusiasm to plants 🌷
I did not think beets or any root crop would transplant well , i use a seed tape for carrotts and beets and direct plant outside with descent results, Great video Charles .
Hello from Oakland California Charles! As someone just starting to learn about raising plants, your videos have been a huge resource. Thank you for sharing your knowledge!
Nice to hear, thanks Alexander and grow well
It stopped raining long enough this weekend that I got to demolish a shed, weed the big garden and transfer all of my tools up to my new growing area. It's got to the stage where I only go into the greenhouse when it rains. Normally I garden all year round but yikes this rain is driving me insane. Even the dog has to be dragged out, he takes a sniff and if it's raining goes back to his bed. Lovely double rainbow this afternoon after a downpour.
It sounds bad up your way and well done :)
Beautifully mystical music to open your excellent video, encouraging those little seeds to stir. Thank you.
David's choice and a good one :) thanks
Wealth of Information. I was always concerned about planting leggy plants too deep. Not any more. Thanks!
Happy to help Billy
Hi Charles, “growth success” in planting seedlings is what I learned from you today. Thank you so much! Eggplant seeds, beans are on the trays right now for my small garden! I’m hopeful to grow them!
Wonderful!
Thank you Charles for your consistent high value content - you have changed the way I garden for the good. You are much appreciated and respected. 😊
Many thanks Tiffiny 😀
Best videos on veg gardening .....EVER
First time gardener, I am learning so much from you. Your videos are so relaxing to watch and very knowledgeable. Thank you Charles
An excellent video, full of good advice.
I live slightly further south in the U.K. than Charles and have managed to get lettuce out under fleece this week. Plus a January 15 sowing of peas, grown in a double glazed cold frame, with no additional heat, is now cropping for shoots. Plus buckets of potatoes, started under glass, are now outside with a permanent fleece cover.
Impressive!
Thank you Charles, a propagation system to aspire to! Your efficiency continues to bewilder me lol. Much appreciated.
I am a life long gardener and learning so may of the "rules" I was taught are wrong! Multisowing in addition to starting peas, beans and corn etc. ahead in cells are a new concept for me. Thank you for the wealth of knowledge! Also, you are not a bit long winded! I am always disappointed when a video ends.
Thanks Amber, I hope your harvests are lovely :)
When I was a kid there was a plant and tree nursery not far away. That is all gone and a Burger King is there. I see the propagation, sure need to develop some skills. Spring onions are my starter!
Thank you Charles for the wonderful advice you give in all your videos. It’s invaluable for beginners like me.
Glad to hear that!
Really enjoying this channel. On lockdown at the moment so used my mini as a little greenhouse and started tomatoes and basil. It gets really hot in the car even on a chilly day and it got them started really well. Good luck with your gardens everybody.
Sounds great Ann
Ann Badby Spavin- using your car as a greenhouse is brilliant! Very nice example of thinking creatively.
due to watching this vid yesterday today I planted all my peas in modules in the greenhouse, so much easier (and much drier) very excited to see the difference...thanks charles
Ah cool, and be careful of mice!
Your lettuce trays are crazy. Think I'll give it a go! Very short of space here too. Thank you for taking the time to show us what we could be doing this week.
Great to see the propagation system with some compost underneath. I'm personally going to start inside the house with grow lights.
Inspired by your hot bed, I have germinated my carrots on top of my dalek bin full of chicken manure! It worked really well. Love all your advice and teaching.
That is cool 😀
Thanks for the video.. it's a pleasure to look and listen.. have a good day...
Hi Charles🌞 You are my favorite gardening mentor...thanks so much for your fantastic videos and books💜🐝👍
Australia. It’s a beautiful sunny day in early Autumn and I’m sitting in my garden with a cup of tea and my-just-arrived ‘Charles Dowding’s Vegetable Garden Diary’.
Is it relevant for Australia with opposite seasons? I think yes and a great value of information and advice. I’m thrilled. All I have to do is get my head around the UK months-seasons compared to Australia. I’ve already made a list while watching these awesome vids.
Maybe I will find some pretty ‘month’ stickers to place next to the UK ones in the diary.
Love it when you use terms like ‘mid autumn’ and ‘late spring’. Makes it easier for my calculating. 😊
Love your diary - I shall cherish it! 💛
Thanks Tanya, nice to hear.
Month stickers, what a good idea!
Tanya meant to say also, yes it's relevant, with the six month flip, but dates need adjusting according to your climate. You can mostly sow earlier in spring and later in autumn. Tasmania may be equivalent.
Charles Dowding yes thanks for that... I’m in Lower south east South Australia, so can get very cold in winter and generally milder summers. My challenges are keeping seedlings moist. Potting mix dries very fast. I’m playing with covering them with Perspex till germination to keep moisture in. But once they germinate I probably need to just mist them three times a day. Getting direct sown parsnips to germinate so far has been 0%. Not sure why... following the directions on pack... onions too, maybe I tried too early, but I see them at the nursery 🥴. I gave your hot bed a go and had great success with brassicas and mesclun. Lettuce of other varieties are 0... I think I drowned them... it’s a fine line. I just love the beautiful speckled variety in the diary... I shall persevere.
Can see the heat coming up from the heat bed in your greenhouse at 2mins 20secs 😁🌱☀️
😀
Hot Bed in a greenhouse. Very quickly said, but the effort to construct it each year must be fairly time consuming, with barrows and doors to get through and bits of wood to cut and perhaps some nails and trying not to break the glass and so on and so on, long before you get to the compost itself and how to temper that to heat up as required..
Great video Charles, and I take my hat off to the hot bed constructor.
You are so right, it takes two of us four hours each, so barely economic, but fascinating 😀
thanks for the tip about how to transplant leggy seedlings👍
Now I see the value of the hot bed, Victorian style.
You have excellent camera presence Charles almost tranquil tone of voice. Thanks for the tips
Cheers David
Hi, Charles. Thanks for making another timely and informative video. Always a pleasure to watch 👍
Happy Springtime! Love your gardening info. 🌱 thank you Charles !
Haha thanks!
I have been growing peas for many years but never tried to raise them as starts until I watched your videos this year. They are now in the ground and are far more advanced than they would otherwise be. Here in the Pacific NW, the advice is to direct sow but not bother with transplanting.... not sure why.... mine look fabulous. Hopefully I'll be able to keep up with my kids' voracious appetite for peas this year! Thanks a bunch for all your advice.
Happy to hear this Amy and it is odd about all the wrong advice out there :)
Superb tutorial as ever Charles. You have revoltutionised my entire gardening exploits. Many a thank you 'Father Earth'. :~} cheers
Ah cool and I love your name Richard 😀
Gosh, I look at Charles' thronging greenhouse, stuffed with baby plants and realise just how far behind I am. I've not even started my peas yet.
No excuses, I've got to pull my finger out.
I'm sure you're not the only one. Better late than never.
OMG I'm in the same boat as you??
I only just got my seeds in today 😞
Chas is zone 8
Haven’t started..
As always, great content and a joy to watch. Thanks to you Charles, this is my first year I am growing everything from seed. I followed your advice on no dig and my garden prospered. With little or no weeding, I also doubled my growing space. In zone 6a, our last frost date its usually the end of April. In the past I always direct seeded cool weather crops but this year I am ahead of mother nature. I listened to Charles Dowding and invested in row covers to be able to plant out early. Have quite a few plants ready including multi sown onion and beetroot for the first time. Thank you for all you do!
I am delighted to read this Anne, lovely result!
Good morning Charles
I like your lifestyle
I always follow your TH-cam
Very good organic vegetable
Thankyou :)
all looks great well done charles
Great idea with using the hotbed to start seedlings. Will be getting my greenhouse soon, so I'll be trying that next year.
Go James :)
You are my gardener Angel I do all what you say and it’s work so well Thank You ☺️
Merci Chantal 😀
Another excellent video Charles, I always learn so much from you. Now I'm off to fill my CD60 trays with seeds :-)
Charles, your gardens are beautiful and absolutely amazing!! Thank you so much for sharing them and your knowledge! You're awesome!
Wow! Another great video I’m so inspired and enthusiastic to start preparing for planting my seeds! Thank you! ☘️☘️☘️☘️☘️
Wonderful, I like enthusiasm and see my new video on 23rd December for a module tray idea, one I designed :)
Excellent video. It came at the right time. I could see where I had been going wrong.
Love this video, beautiful footage as well as excellent information, as always. I also find it encouraging to see the odd collection of different trays of varying degrees of sturdiness, looks a lot like my trays! I planted out little plugs of peas and spring onions today in my sheltered London garden😉
Thankyou LaVikinga, the homely look :)
I love those sturdy trays UK gardeners seem to have- I never see anything like that in the US.
I am in zone five in the states, though leaning towards zone six with the climate warming up. I am guessing that I am about two weeks behind you and this is helping me to gauge what I should be doing and setting my pace. Thanks to you I am watching the sequence of how I sow and have started doing the large seedings in tiny containers and so am getting the most from my one propagation mat. You have been such a huge help at streamlining my process. thank you so much!
Ah this is good to read and maybe just one week, then the same from early April because you warm faster in spring!
Going into my second year of balcony gardening! Thank you for the content! I also got myself one of your books, which is very helpful.
Great and thanks
Thank you for this helpful video! Here in Florida our cool season crops are almost finished, I’ve got squash and zucchini planted in place, and my other warm season seedlings are nearly ready to transplant. I hadn’t heard anyone give me permission to put tiny little transplants directly from smaller cells straight into the garden beds without repotting first, so I’m going to try that out this time. :)
Thanks Melanie and the seedlings will be happy I'm sure :)
Dear Charles, good day. Appreciate that I love this wonderful video. Love your garden 🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱.......
Ah thanks
My back started hurting when you said 3 - 4000 seeds. I just moved all my seed sowing to my little greenhouse. Really like seeing what you're growing now and why. Always check first to see if you have a new video up.
As always words struggle to convey the greatness of CDs videos. Ta.
Thanks for all the invaluable information, presently putting all I've learned from your presentations into practice. Including the composting! My Alderman peas calabrese, cabages beets lettuce are well on their way, in modular trays in a small greenhouse. Outside Purple brock and broad beans survived a couple of frosts too.
Hi Carles,
Fantastic video as ever.
One thing I'm not clear on is why you don't have the plague of manure flies that I've got in my greenhouse.
Cheers Andy, and perhaps your manure was too fresh. I only ever use it when at least nine months old and well decomposed, by which time there are few if any flies.
So, I used fresh for the hotbed to make sure it would heat up (and it did), but got the plague of flies too. If I used well rotted manure would that heat up? Thanks again for all your excellent videos.
Great video Charles, you are always so reassuring and inspiring, thank you. Take care, Bethan 😊
Bethan 🌺
Ooh nice video. I had excellent results from multisowing beetroot direct (in early summer) this past season. I got so many beautiful beets (now bottled), that I honestly don’t need to grow them for a year. I will definitely try the hotbed technique - I doubt you could do this without one (or heatmats). Have a great season Charles.
FlowerGrower Smith Interested to see how you get on with your hotbed 👍🏼