Soil doesn't need to rest, keep growing food
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 10 ก.ค. 2024
- An example of close succession plantings on one bed, through one year and filmed in October.
I maintain fertility with one application of compost every December, nothing else. Already by mid-October, this bed of 1.5 x 5m (5x16ft) has given 82kg / 180lb harvests this year.
Healthy no dig soil helps you to succeed with new plantings all through the summer and into autumn. Every space is growing new leaves and food all the time. For example, the leeks you see here followed an early summer harvest of 13kg potatoes.
00:00 Introduction
01:01 Why no dig enables close planting of vegetables, and succession planting
01:50 Watering
02:19 I explain how I’ve set up the beds, and then talk you through each planting with dates
02:26 Parsnip, celery, endive, rocket, 3 rows of lettuce
03:00 I harvest a celery
03:49 I harvest parsnips, and explain reason for the slightly disappointing result
04:37 I harvest an endive, Scarole…
05:29 …which followed beetroot, carrots and fennel
05:39 Reason for no rotation
05:49 Salad rocket, and how to harvest for continuing rapid growth
06:18 Chervil
06:34 Kale, interplanted between multisown onions, and how to harvest
07:46 Peas
07:55 Growing options for autumn
08:00 I harvest a chicory, 506TT
09:30 I harvest a bulb fennel, interplanted between cucumbers
11:30 I harvest a carrot from a speculative sowing!
12:02 Amos, Indian mustard, and more examples of plants that grow better in autumn than spring
12:46 Celeriac, interplanted between potatoes and spinach, and the results of growing celeriac in no dig soil
13:48 Multisown leeks planted after potatoes, and how to harvest
14:24 Something to bear in mind when succession planting
14:36 Conclusion - I explain that soil does not need to rest, and why
For more on succession planting, see this £5 'taster' module of my online course, Skills for Growing: charlesdowding.co.uk/product/...
And this playlist, Succession Planting and Rotation: • Succession Planting, a...
Filmed at Homeacres 17th October by Alessandro Vitale @SpicyMoustache
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I can't believe how misinformed I was when I started watching your videos. I considered the soil as a dead substance, only good to hold the roots in place. I know I repeat myself but I learned so much from you Charles thank you ! Not only you have great knowledge, you are a great communicator, but you also answer all the questions people have. Its a lot of work.
Ah thanks, nice to hear! And yes :)
I couldn't agree with you more. @Charles Dowding is fantastic at communicating concepts and knowledge in a way that is very easy to understand. I have had the privilege of a 1-2-1 in person learning experience with Charles.
I love no dig and I try to get everyone I know doing it. My soil is so much better than when I first came here and started growing veg. Just today I was putting some onions in and the ground was full of worms and fungi. It was alive with crawling insects. I learn something new from each vlog. Thanks Charles!
Thanks for your heartwarming feedback Jenny!
Sir Charles, I must call you by this name! Following your advise I am in trouble each year now! My harvest has gone up by more than 6 times since I use no dig. And honestly, it is hard to find enough people to share/give away for free😊 and by far too much to eat for the 2 of us. I fear I must reduce space or better plant more flowers instead. What a success! Many thanks for your sharing your wisdom.
😂 I love your comment, thanks
Ohhhhh don't cut back! There are so many hungry people who are financially challenged. Donate your extra harvest to Schools, Churches, and Soup Kitchens that feed the homeless. Contact Churches and they will inform where to bring the harvest. I belong to the Catholic Church and there are always soup kitchens for the homeless. There are also Food Banks that offer free groceries for the hungry. I pray this gives you ideas of how to share your garden harvest. God Bless!!!
@@maryelizabethcalais9180 yes! So many of the so called pantry places do not have enough vegetables. As a matter of fact so much junck, voided of any nutrition....very sad! A few years back I actually were in that situation and going there was more depressing than not having money. Praise God, He came to the rescue and we just rely heavily on cooking from scratch and reinventing and repurposing everything we could. I almost forgot that! It's an experience that I don't want to go through again but was good that we had it! Thank you for the remainder, it's something that I will have to make a point not to forget. I need to be more thankful! God bless you!
There's a very good gardener in my neighborhood and he puts extra vegetables and veg starts out beside his house with a big "free, help yourself" sign. In the summer he even has the greens in an ice chest - on that he had to put a sign saying "please don't take my ice chest!". Anyway, I've been SO grateful for the fresh produce! I think the food bank suggestion is a good one, but this works in case your area doesn't have one or doesn't want your stuff. So impressed with your mad skills! I'm trying but I keep growing miniature bell peppers and tomatoes no matter how hard I try. And now, all my brassicas look like they've been shot with a shotgun. Ha ha ha
@@composthog4332 good idea! Keep trying, every year there are different plants that succeed or not, that is often due to weather conditions and not necessarily your fault! We all experience it.
Oh Charles. I work in a Lowes garden center in Texas. Trying to convince people that mushrooms are not bad, or damaging, is sooooo difficult.
Love your garden, farm. Thanks for sharing everything you do.
Wow such a pity. God created mushrooms!!
Charles I think it's safe to say, it doesn't matter how accomplished a gardener you think you are, there's still more to learn.
Which is so good Wende, keeps us respectful of nature's wonder 😀
@@CharlesDowding1nodig
Nature really is something. I saw flowers along my road for the first time, after being under asphalt for years.
@Spaceman Spiff
Wasn't easy 😂
I’m starting my second year of no dig right now, it’s been an eye opener how easy it is. I’ve started small and doubling my area for 2023 getting more ambitious. I’m really thrilled. 👍
Congratulations on starting small!
Hehe, same, starting second year and doubleing up, so my veggie patch will go from teeeny to tiny 😂💚🌱
Awesome Addie! How have you dealt with annual grass seeds that blow in through the wind?
Mine started really tiny but every year I seem to be adding another little patch! Congratulations!
Hi Charles. Likewise, I was talking about this, Keep the soil covered, Keep the soil planted, biodiversity for soil health, in my No Dig talk last week. Lots of questions and an engaged audience. We are developing an allotment 'No Dig' group to help start and support those interested, and very fortunate to have a free input of green waste compost from a local community composting facility. 💚
That's impressive Kay and you are in a really good situation there.
Well done for encouraging debate and interest, it is all fascinating!
Before I started watching your videos I always thought gardens were getting empty after October. Now I am still planting in November. Totally changed my outlook on gardening. I actually just sowed parsnip (late), but they already broke surface.carrots, sown 2 weeks ago, do well. As does my lettuce, pakchoi, onions, and leek. All sown since mid October
Wonderful!
Wow that gives me hope!
I cover my ground year round. The worms and microbes work it all year, even during the coldest winter. I’ve pulled back the cover to find the ground unfrozen and critters moving.
I actually just plant my garlic for next year’s harvest.
This is a great channel. I’ve learned a lot. Thanks.
Live, growing roots are also important Mike.
@@alisonburgess345 100%
Cheers Mike, sounds good
I actually attempted succession planting for the first time ever this season. I had some sugar snaps that had run their course and I planted some more in their place simply to get some shoots since the season was waning. It was wonderful to get something out of what was essentially empty space. If not for you I wouldn't even think to try. :D
Great job Liz!
tip on celery, the greens make an excellent dried herb. - the bulb is good in soup (also for beef bouillion), or in stir fries. Or precooked slices (the water can be used for soups) dipped into flour, egg wash, bread crumbs and then deep fry. Of course Waldorf salad, or roasted oven vegetables. - Many people throw away the greens. They can be easily dried, ground up in a small old fashioned electic coffee grinder (an electric one) and used as hearty spice. (The flavour is somewhat comparable to lovage. Unfortunately if you buy it, they usually only offer the bulbs without the greens).
In my country (Eastern EU) fresh celeriac greens are also used as part of green mix for cooking meat or vegetable stocks. Grocery stores sell only bulbs, but on farmers markets there is a choice of celeriac as a complete plant, just a bulb or just leaves.
Thanks so much, yes here we don't value and use the greens enough
You are always showing other sides of the main principle and how it is applied. I never tire of watching. Thank you!
I appreciate that!
Thanks to you Charles we have had, and are still having an abundance of food from our garden. Your skill set should be taught to children, self supplementation on whatever size scale is the way forward in these troubled times.
Wonderful to hear that John.
I am working on it and have written a gardening book for children which appears in January. I mention it actually in a video we shall publish in just two days time, about all the books I have written!
I admire you Mr. Dowding. You're my gardening hero.
That's nice thanks 🌱
Thank you Charles from Florida USA
Welcome Dave 🌱
I've learned so much from you about no-dig and transplanting, not to forget- planting more tight. An old neighbor rolled his eyes and felt sorry for my misunderstanding of how to grow and when...but I proved him wrong. Old ways have to improve. We now need to grow more food as times are as they are. Thankyou so much for all good tips and tricks...you are amazing!!!🤪👍🌻 Greetings from Sweden🇸🇪
Fantastic to see this, well doe! Yes old ways need some improvement, not all though
My neighbor thinks the same about me:)
Wonderful Charles, I had begun to think my little beds would be barren through winter, now I'm struggling to find room to plant everything lol, thank you so much for sharing your precious knowledge, you've been an absolute blessing to me
Great to hear!
Your method has completely changed my way of gardening, more permaculture inter grated all round😊. There was one year I’d weighed and recorded everything I’d harvested from 55m3 growing space by using no dig with adding compost method, it’s over 300kg, I never thought it’s possible in this climate. Thank you for opening my eyes😊
Wonderful! Interestingly, that's about the same area as my three strip trial, and we harvest about the same amount from there, yes so much food!
The wonderful thing about your growing updates is that you show both "disappointments" and glorious "successes". I've tried many things this year having made too few choices last year & been stymied by the foraging creatures (winged, multi-legged, legless & caravaning types). I might only have 3 kale plants, 2 fennel, 1 brussels sprouts, min lettuce, 2 parsnip, 3 beetroot, 5 cabbage in various stages of lace garb, but I see great steps in my learning. What a joy to see my little efforts mirroring in a tiny weeny way your very productive growing. I'm pleased as punch to see lots of tops come up on the garlic I decided to plant out instead of eating. You have been the best inspiration for any learning that I ever recall, ever!🏆
That's so nice! May your small populations bring worthwhile food!
*squeeeeeee* The earliest I've caught a vid, and the perfect addition to my coffee and recliner chilly gray NorCal morning!😍😍
Morning Michelle!
I've followed your advice for a couple of years now and it works great. I discovered Dr Elaine Ingham the other day and watched a 2 hour lecture. Fascinating to see why no dig works from a scientific point of view. Keep up the good work.
Cheers Scott, yes she is an amazing scientist, one of a few independents
We finally start using our first batch of compost made (9 months) from our vegetables /green waste. And it's beautiful, perfect for seed raising mixed with vermiculite. The weather is warm and wet, we finally get slug and snails control by using small stacks of bricks or timber. The vegetables just explode. We anticipated the need to freeze and pot the vegetables, but till no! (18 months) we've ate fresh from the garden every day. We decided today to stop using horse manure as I learned that farmers use long-lasting broadleaf herbicide and that remains active in the manure. We have chickens, so we collect the chicken sawdust and mix it with leaf mulch to mature. We'll start using that to mix through the compost brewing. With the help of yourNo Dig books, youtube videos, and Mr Smiths garden tutorials we get as good a produce as your garden. Super proud of what we've achieved, thus far. Thank you Mr Dowding
Wonderful to read this, I am happy for you and pleased to help 💚
Totally amazing!
Great information, thanks Charles.
👍
I always enjoy your videos, enthusiasm and message.
This was very inspiring! Thank you! 💚
😀
Always learning here Charles. I like the idea that interplanting confuses the bugs. You are an inspiration. No dig. Learned it here. We are in central Connecticut USA.
Cut the swiss chard and covered the garden with finished compost, covered that with chopped brown Maple and Oak leaves. The swiss chard is growing up through the leaves. Put in garlic for the first time last week. Hopefully I get enough garlic to make an insecticide if we need it. Thank you and your son for a job well done.
Thanks 👍, bet of luck with the garlic, I shall pass that to Edward, and Ruth Stout was from CT!
God said soil does need to rest x 🧡💛🧡🙏😇🇦🇺🧡💛🧡🌼🕊️
In what context though? Like, pastures and forests don't stop growing every seventh year.
Surely he meant a rest from soil being tilled and ploughed. And no dig is a rest all the time 😀🌱
Soil might not need a rest but I do, as I’m new to veg growing and still have a lot of work to do on my plot, I’m using winter to mulch the half of the plot I haven’t used yet, I’ll still have plenty growing in the other half. I have loads of weeds and as compost is expensive at least until next year when I should have my own, I’m using cardboard and some free woodchips I finally managed to get them some free manure then covering to keep it even darker and give heat to the manure. In spring I’ll top with compost and be ready to go 😊 x
Nice summary :)
Always informative and a great inspiration 😁👍❤️
Thanks so much!
You are amazing Charles 👍
I needed to be reminded about trim down to the roots BUT leave the roots.
We are prepping for Hurricane Nicole hitting Central Florida tonight and tomorrow 🤯 This is just a Category 1so I'm not expecting as much damage as Ian.
Happy No Dig Day! I hope it was a success 👍
Good luck with that Peggy!!
Wow Peggy, 'just a 1", I wish you well
Yes the day was a huge success thanks. So much interest, see this page
charlesdowding.co.uk/childrens-no-dig-day-competition-create-your-dream-veg-garden/
@@huttonsvalleypermaculture Hello Huttons Valley. Thanks for your concern. I just uploaded a pre-hurricane video. I'm hoping the post video doesn't look too different 🤞🙏🤞
Best wishes Peggy
@@RalfyCustoms how kind of you. Thank you for caring. We prepare for the worst and pray for the best. 💓
Thanks once again Charles! I'm going to try planting my young pepper plants in between my onions that aren't too far off harvesting and see how they go!!
Excellent plan, best of luck
Inspirational
So nice being able to watch your continuous growing.
We are now at -10* Celcius and several inches of snow.
Already planning for next spring🤗
Oh wow! I can't imagine that, it's quite full on here, we harvested 30kg salad leaves yesterday!
I've always wanted to have some crops over the winter, over the years there are increasing in varieties thanks to your no dig method. Meanwile three thirds of my garden has round the year planting and crops , although your plants are definitely bigger than mine . I also do a lot of permaculture and let some sow themselves, including 4 varieties of salads, parsley, celery , leeks.
Thank you for sharing!
Sounds great! May your winter be tasty
Thank you for this, Mr Dowding and the wider community. I've been investigating permaculture and the techniques being shared for a more practical approach to my gardening skills. I need to work on my pond management techniques, but as always, land management is a work in progress! :D
You are very welcome and yes, so much to learn! It's good you realise that :)
hello charles I love how you take care of the soil as it is you don't have to chop return what is from the land thank you very much for sharing the video greetings and many blessings
You are very welcome Bertha, thanks
Super video thank you. Concise, re;stable usable information.
Glad it was helpful!
I hurt my wrists and back few years ago by doing intense gardening of 5 acres. Then, I was trying to modify my way of gardening and ran into Charles No Dig method, got many of his books while recovering my body.
Now my gardening style is evolving dramatically. I went “No Dig” to “Natural Way of farming” (Fukuoka method) Thus year I even went further, which is Doho style (tie up vegetables and trees, vertical planting to stimulate plant hormones.) Results were great! No pesticides and fertilizers, only weed mulch and twines to tie plants up.
My experiment field was satisfactory so I’m planning to expand next year!
Thank you very much for “eye opening” experiences.
Sounds intriguing Chika, glad you are finding solutions
I've never added anything to my soil and re used the same compost in pots for spuds for about four years now, never a problem 👍🏻
Nice work, thanks for sharing
Your garden looks amazing and so much bounty! Absolutely beautiful! Thank you for all your teachings and examples! You are a great teacher Charles! Cheers!🤗❤
That's nice Cami thanks 💚
@@CharlesDowding1nodig 💚
Thank you Charles, very clear and helpful as ever. Lots of interplanting has worked well for me this year - lettuce between slow-growing celeriac a brilliant example. One I won't do again is carrots between purple sprouter. Although the carrots are fine, broccoli plants are so big and clumsy (like me) and have that tendency to lie down, and it's so easy to tread on things. Thanks for the Indian mustard tip.
Cheers Alan and I love your description of broccoli lying down. It's a great way to reduce blowing in the wind!
Always inspiring 😊
So glad!
Good to know Charles, as there is so much information out there about letting soil rest in between planting. For my three types of beans that I planted out after sowing in modules (thanks to your channel), I used the “no dig method” with just cardboard on the grass with soil on top. We are trying the same method for the two types of sweetcorn too. I followed your advice on potato growing, and my word, they have grown so fast. We should be able to harvest potatoes way before Christmas I think. The other multi-sown seedlings are also doing pretty good (another trick I learned from you). Gardening has been made simpler thanks to all your videos.
This is really good to read! Interesting isn't it that this idea of giving soil a rest has become so common. Sheer force of repetition can turn ideas based on fantasy into so-called reality!
@@CharlesDowding1nodig Very true Charles. Some folk don’t have that many beds to rotate crops or give the soil a rest. We didn’t in our last place. Your video where you plant a range of vegetables in one small bed, and doing succession planting is proof that it works. I’m glad I discovered your videos just in time.
Charles has added months to my growing season and pounds to my harvests. Compared to what the packet says you can get so much more. I am 5b/6a and by multisowing in modules before last frost, l add 3 weeks. Adding fleece in spring l push that back 2-3 more. Fleece in fall, 2 more. Intercropping, 2-3 more. I get multiple harvests instead of one with less work by not digging and even more crop by multisowing and changing how l harvest and treat my soil. 100% grateful. I have always been a gardener but this is a fundamental change in how l garden.
Thank you for sharing these lovely results, Edward, and it makes me very happy to know that I've helped you achieve that!
Amazing Edward! How have you managed with annual grass seeds that fly in? Do you hoe them or some other method?
I just start last april 2020 and i love how no dig change the game keep it up
I am happy to hear this 💚
@@CharlesDowding1nodig the pleasure is all mine sir i been a huge fan of yours
So informative because of you I started to compost now it’s been over a year and I do it in a plastic toy chest but it works❤
So good to hear that!
I look at this wonderful garden and wish mine would look like that... - I have a rivulet some 15 m beside my beds. From spring to the end of summer I counted some 20.000 snails. The only thing they didn't / couldn't eat fast enough were the potatoes, the old beans I luckily forgot to plant outside on time and the herbs in the raised bed. They even went into the greenhouse and ate the tomatoes ere I carried those out of their reach up the balcony...
That sounds extremely difficult. I hope you can find a way to deal with them somehow, I can't think of one at the moment.
Fantastic thanks, you’ve been tremendous in retraining my brain. Charles, I’ve learned that Sulfur is the solution to Septoria.
Thanks Jack!
Bonjour Charles,félicitations pour vos vidéos, le travail de votre jardin , de belles explications top top, merci à bientôt 🙏🙏🙏🌻🌻🌻
Merci bien
We were taught all wrong! Everything!
I left the city moved to Algarve, Portugal starting now my country life 🤠. For starters I'm feeding on spontaneous herbs, quite delicious
I just sowed plenty of fava beans 😋 the way you teach. Card boards and mulching! We have plenty here. Also the neighbours contribute! 😁
Yr videos are absolutely precious!!
Thank you 🙏 😊 💕 💖
PS: after working a bit my nails come to look like yours 🤣😝
Very good! I wish you success in the new life, healthy and exciting.
@@CharlesDowding1nodig yes!! One of the dogs is quite excited too with this sowing thing 🐶... When I finished the favas he came right after and started digging taking them out and eating them! 😖😤🤬 Now I have to drag all the dry branches cutted from trees and circle the entire plot!
I'm vegan so most of the compost I put on the pile they eat! 😕
😂
It seems the only thing we dig is in the compost pile to load the cart to put it on the soil, and as we have learned very well from you, we feed the soil and it does the rest, AKA- raises lovely food for us!!!! Thank You!!!
Nice summate Mia!
Love it
🙂
I am growing very similar things in central Italy. One thing that does well in the Autumn is the cardoon. It seems to be a forgotten vegetable in the UK. In Italy it is often grown as an annual with transplanting in August..
Thanks for the info Phil, shall look it up
Last year I tried to clear some land for no dig ,I used black polythene but the weed's grew underneath, I think it wasn't dark enough but I'm trying again with thicker plastic (builders plastic) and so far it's working better but very expensive to buy .
Sorry to hear that. The silver lining is how you can use that black plastic many many times.
FASCINANTE!!! ADMIRO EL ORDEN DE LOS CULTIVOS!! -YO SIGO INTENTANDO NO PICAR LA TIERRA...-
Gracias Lidia
Just another outstanding, relaxing video full of information and inspiration! 🤩🌱About to order a calendar because I need all the help I can get. 😄😐 Im always too late and unprepared and the plants tell me so.
I'm in Nevada City California and a zone 8b/9a. 2000' elevation and we get down into the low 20s (F) and up into the 90s yearly. ( I believe either here or Grass Valley [same area] is a sister city to somewhere in Cornwall...Bodmin maybe...?) VERY little summer rains now so I have to water a few times a week. Im on a well that is not a great producer so I go jug-fetch fabulously perfect water from a local long-time community spring. My main problem is the amount of garden sunlight in winter. Even summer allows only about 5 direct hours and 3+ dappled hours a day but it's been enough to do good things, even when I struggle.
I started with straw bale gardening, but everything put in the ground always did so much better there's only one clear method choice now - no dig! Outlined a new spot and got as far as putting down cardboard and buying compost before it got stormy. Getting a break soon so will be bed building hopefully shortly...have to line with gopher mesh because they are going crazy, so will likely have to keep the sides on forever, but we dont have hardly a slug or snail here so I think it will be okay. Just once yearly I put out Sluggo + for the earwigs.
Started my seed garlic the day after No-Dig day, and have kale and pak choy in large pots because the garden areas are going to be changed up to garden this way. The kale is doing great and we've had an outer-leaf harvest already, but the choy is struggling for some reason...not gaining much size and has yellowing leaves. It's in compost, but maybe because it was in bags and a couple years old it isnt as fertile. The kale didnt have any issue though! Today is a local hunt for lettuce starts because I recently saw the winter greens in trays video and was thrilled with how much is possible from so little space and cold tempuratures. Even a couple of salads a week would be so welcomed!
Anyhow, totally bramble rambling at this point, but just thanks for all the goodness! People like you are the ones that truly change lives for the better! 🌱❤🌾🍀🧄🧅🥦🥬🥒🫑🌶🍅🍅🍆🥔🥔🥕🌽🌽
Thanks Michelle, nice to read this, except for gophers!
I appreciate your kind words. Your winter sounds alright!
I only started a no dig garden(well what little garden i have)but with great results with Peas,Corn,Spring onions,herbs but can i ask why do you leave the roots of plants in the soil after cultivating them?Love your show💚
Sounds great!
Two reasons, for a reduced disturbance of soil structure and life, and because they provide food in decomposing to all those organisms in the soil
Put a dollar (or pound) value on all this delicious veg Charles... The skills of the veggie gardener are possibly about to be extremely important economically, not just a nice lifestyle activity.😅
Good point Alison, it's a reason I want to help more people
Brilliant!
Love your work mate!
Also, could you just break off celery canes as required rather than harvesting the whole plant?
Yes Abid, that works, they are amazing plants
@@CharlesDowding1nodig Amazing! Thank you Charles.
🙅♂️♠️ (No dig in emoji - as in "no" and "spade" which is used for digging haha it's late and I should sleep 😂)
🚫 or 😫♠ maybe!
@@CharlesDowding1nodig 🚫♠️ it is!
Thank you for the common sense information. I've done no-dig for 2 years (going on 3, just spreading compost in Zone 5a), and am amazed at the soil health and yields we get. We multi-sow and companion plant, and are getting a much better harvest than we do from the conventional methods. If you look at what nature does, and follow it, you can't go wrong. Thanks again!
Lovely to see this Kitt and yes, it's simple when following natural process 😀
Great Kitt! How have you managed with annual grass seeds that fly in? Do you hoe them or some other method?
@@jez770 I try to catch them when they're small and use a scuffle hoe (stirrup hoe) to chop them off.
I am truly amazed by your channel and all the knowledge you have on growing vegetables, compost making , too much to name here! I am a small home gardener and also started no dig gardening that i love. The one thing i have difficulty with, is trying to determine what to sow/plant when as i live in the southern hemisphere (South Africa). When you talk of eg planting something in May, November, etc, i can not figure out what season it is in the UK, as i make notes when you talk. It would be great if you could perhaps also mention the season you do something in your part of the world. I have been watching your channel for years, but only recently subscribed. I just love your channel. Fond greetings from Port Elizabeth, South Africa.
Nice to hear Moira and we have made for you a southern hemisphere sowing guide, you can download it here in PDF form, so it is a starting point to give you the framework.
I hope that spring is good for you, charlesdowding.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Southern-Hemisphere-Sowing-Guide-2022.pdf
@@CharlesDowding1nodig Have had a great Spring so far, thank you. Oh wow, the sowing guide will be a huge help in planning the rest of my sowing season!, much appreciated Charles
Nice garden สวนผักของคุณสวยมากๆค่ะ ฉันอยากได้สวนผักแบบนี้บ้างจังค่ะ
ฉันหวังว่าคุณจะสร้างมันขึ้นมา!
Hello!! thanks for the information you are giving. I am in my first year of no-dig vegetable gardening, and I am very satisfied! Still I cannot believe in compost giving all the nutrients, so I still gave some pelletted manure... Perhaps I should enrich my compost by some manure, instead of putting is in the soil... Next year, well'see. Continue please!!
Good to hear Marco.
Compost itself does not give a huge amount of nutrients. It's more that it can help roots access food they could not before thanks to working with the extra soil life, which happens with no dig
Love your videos! I know you say that you don't need to rotate with no dig, but what about root veggies like alliums and carrots which are known to often harbor disease if grown in the same place in back to back years? Beginner gardener here zone 5 Maine, USA who went no dig at a community garden and had everyone shake their heads at me when they thought I wasn't looking. Late spring/early summer was rough because my 'soil' (no actual soil except what the seedlings came with, just hay and seaweed) didn't heat up forever but I still have celery, chard, chives, onions (walking and cabernet), parsley, and some centauri and pansy when everyone else has given up (early November). Also, I'm super happy to see mushrooms everywhere.
Best of luck Patrick.
Alliums and carrots and and every other plants do not 'harbour disease' when soil is no dig, with extra healthy microbial life
Hola Charles,encantador el colorido de tu jardín ,yo hago con mis acelgas le quitó unas 6 hojas y dejo crecer las nuevas hojitas que piensas,un saludo desde Santiago de Chile 🌷🌷🌷
Gracias Ximena y sí, es una gran manera de recoger acelgas, las hojas exteriores y durante muchos meses.
No shortage of food there!
I think you forgot to link to your new new video at the end. "Check out new video"
Cheers!
Ah sorry! And thanks
Excellent Charles! I know you're in a warmer climate than me and can keep things going during the winter months but do you ever plant cover crops in the off season in your empty beds or just add compost and wait for spring? I do both and trying to figure out which is better.
Yes I do both, see timings here th-cam.com/users/shortsEPREC6s6K28
it is possible to have certain (regular !) crops (no special seeds or varieties necessary) till minus 10 or even minus 15 degrees Celsius. Salads that do not have a closed head, lambs quarters, spinach, brassicas, radishes, green onions, Asia salads, maybe chives. Carrots, potatoes and beets (and I think also pumpkins to a degree) can be left in the soil (or in the field) for later harvesting (the soil insulates them to a degree. Frozen potatoes will taste differently though, that can work in the UK but might not work in Austria. This is practical if people only have a warm basement or simply no space. Critters getting them in the beds do not seem to be a major problem.
Wolfgang Palme heads test farms for the Austrian ministry of agriculture. They work for the Austrian vegetable growers (which are not huge companies) and market growers. They had test runs and measureda lot of parameters (even leaf temperature ), at one farm the outside (air) temperature went down till minus 12 degrees and the plants were fine and fit to be sold.
And as growing (or at least harvesting freshly) in winter is Palme's passion he also founded a non-profit for regular folks and especially for field trips for school classes (year round growing, but again a lot of people do not know that you can closse the winter gap, so that catches the attention of the public).
The limiting factor is light, the humidity of winter. It takes much longer to dry, and there is more precipitation to begin with: be it rain, snow or constantly condensed water in form of fog or dew) - if you can help your plants with that, they will be surprsingly able to cope with very low temps. At least for a short time. 1 or 2 weeks of -15 degrees might kill them off but winters have gotten milder and one could do some minimum heating with the candles used in graveyards. a friend wisened up and built a construction with foil in case his peach tree is threatened by late frosts. He used such a candle holder to heat the space around the protected tree this May - and this was enough to get it through one frosty night (- 6 degrees Celsius, they are a little higher up). It has to be a lantern or something like that, that will not topple over and can hold the liquid wax as the candle burns down.
In Middle Europe if it gets - 15 degrees, it is also sunny during day, so the plants can thaw in an unheated greenhouse or in a foil tunnel and may be even able to do some photosynthesis after thawing. It is just crucial that they are not moved as long as they are frozen, and look limp. Many plants can protect the cells (the inside) with sugars, proteins, fats which act as anti-freezant. The ice crystalls form between the cells. If plants are moved in that stage (and that could be by wind, too - hence the proctection by some foil or structure is recommended) the ice crystalls will pierce the cell walls and then they die. But if they have time to thaw without being bothered, they will spring back to normal texture and good looks, and if harvested then they are crisp, taste and look as they should.
Great video Charles. As I commented in some of your previous videos, I am trying to emulate your teachings here in Thailand, but gardening here is so juxtaposed to that of the UK. A challenge but I love it and I am overcoming a lot of climate issues and successfully growing stuff I was told I couldn't, like peas, carrots, swiss Chard, cauliflower and beetroot :)
How interesting! Keep it up :)
I live on southern Vancouver Island, so a similar gardening zone. I harvest collard greens, chard, leeks, green onions, celery, Brussels sprouts, carrots, fennel and various herbs in the autumn and winter. All in a relatively small, no dig raised bed (maybe 120 ft.²). We top dressed among the plants with compost, leaf mould and worm castings already. From the sounds of it in this video, we did that a bit early? I have to rewind your video several times because I’m making notes! Thanks so much.
~ Sandra
Sounds great Sandra and not early at all, any time in autumn is good, it's partly about where you can find space for the new compost!
@@CharlesDowding1nodig Thank you! Our soil is thriving, so our garden is too!
Great video Charles! thank you so much! I listened a couple of times but didn't hear about the following - "late May celeriac planted" -were they transplanted or planted as seeds? And the leeks I heard "transplanted after potatoes"...about what date would that be? I really look forward to doing this next year. thanks so much!
You're very welcome Trish and both were transplants, leeks right at the end of June
Charles, your leeks look lovely. I’m in my first year of no dig on a new allotment site. Mine however have had both rust (expected) and allium leaf miner (not come across this before) on them. I’ve removed the leaves with rust and the outer leaves that don’t look heathy. They grew well to start with and were watered well in the very hot weather. The variety I’ve grown is Musselburgh. What would you advise for this?
The other ‘pest’ I have are moles and don’t quite know where their access is at the moment. But they’ve come through the cardboard below the newly set up bed - any advice would be appreciated thank you.
hi Paula, I'm sorry to hear about those problems and especially the leaf miner. Clearly I do not have it here and actually I do not know a way to prevent it causing much damage. Your Musselburgh should survive winter and grow again in March to April when there may be a chance that they can get big before the leaf miner returns in May and June, in other words after the leeks have finished.
For moles, I use a trap in the ground because I find they are quite disruptive. On the other hand, some people live with them and I have done that in the past, by not disturbing their run too much, so they don't keep pushing new soil upwards.
Dear Charles, I really love your videos! They are really educating and so needed for many people. I still have a question: How do you plan your propagation for the succession plantings? Thanks!
Thanks, and good question Giuanna.
Answer is I sow the seeds of what I want to grow at the correct time of year, throughout summer and early autumn, and then I find space! I don't have a precise plan, although I know what can follow what and roughly how much space that will make available. I always have too many plants, and I prefer that to having too few plants!
Have a go and see what you can fit in.
We are offering this module of my Skills course for just £5 and it has a lot of ideas for succession planting charlesdowding.co.uk/product/skills-for-growing-online-course-introduction-and-module-1-skills-and-knowledge-for-a-full-garden-all-year/
I've done the 3 full courses from Charles. They are a must, for those that really want a deep and extensive shortcut to understand No Dig. I really recommend them! No doubt about that! And we can always go back to each page of the courses to rethink and observe again and again. Just doing them we will understand how much they are a wonderful investment! It's an investment for all my life!
Good to know we’re not the only ones with tiny parsnips this year 😅
Interestingly, the ones closest to the sides of the raised beds were way bigger. Probably because of a warmer soil temp?
Or more access to moisture, rooting under sides and into paths
Oddly i had big ones. Interestingly i have no idea when i had sown them, can't even remember that i sowed them. They just popped up, likely from an earlier one that had gone to seed
Oh boy, I love parsnips and have been waiting patiently for most of the year, fantasising about a struggle to extract massive roots...by the way, when do you know they're ready? I had assumed they would be like carrots in that one sees the top of the root peeking through the soil, but I haven't seen anything yet, just leaves.
@@danyoutube7491 Not sure about your climate but here, since we have a very short growing season, we usually harvest parsnips after the first frost. In my area, that's usually mid to end of September. Whatever size you get by then, that's it 😄
@@ourcozygarden Thanks for the reply- in recent years winters have been rather mild in my neck of the woods, and I don't think we've actually had a frost yet (it's been pretty nippy some mornings though).
Great video, but I have a question that's not meant to be provocative in any way but if you have roots in the ground all year round do you need to add compost? Surely the roots and the microorganisms, bacteria, fungi in the soil will do all the good work that the compost does? Is it that simple?
Good question, and it depends what you want, how much food. I'm looking for the highest amount of harvest per square metre, and in my experience, you harvest less when you apply less or no compost. The soil is still growing plants for sure.
With vegetables, we are removing quite a lot of organic matter with our harvests, much more than happens inside a forest, and we are generally not replacing it with our own manure.
Great video as always! My cucumber sometimes will be bitter, usually when it is really hot and dry (I'm in South Carolina). Have you had this and any thoughts on reasons and solutions? Thanks
Cheers Dave, and I notice that cucumbers struggle in high heat, and need extra water, even twice a day to really flourish, and I suspect that's why the fruits are less sweet. Here it's rare that we reach the eighties F!
Hi Charles. Do you have a sowing table of what to sow when throughout the year?
Yes! on my website charlesdowding.co.uk/sowing-timeline-for-vegetables/
Great video, as usual! I have one question: what's the variety of the cabbage you were peeling at the begining of the video?
Thanks and it's a chicory called Variegate do Lusia, sown mid July, for autumn harvests
Hi Charles, as always, very informative, thank you. One question though - your leeks look fantastic. Mine always get rust. Is there any way of preventing that disease? I am a no dig follower but never achieve such results as yours.
Cheers Geof and it ould be that I water more, leeks love moisture, and also every 10 days or so I remove lower leaves as they start to yellow and show rust.
Plus it's breezy here. I see more rust in the relatively sheltered small garden.
Another amazing video! I have a question about root depth, the soil where I live is mostly clay. Top 10-15cm is actually good soil. There is no way I can dig out a large trench to take all of that clay out and make "underground bed" but what I am planning to do is unfortunately your not so loved raised beds and filling them with soil and compost. I actually built one frame already that is around 45cm that could accommodate larger/deeper root plants. But as I am about to build another one, it got me thinking whether I need to have them all that relatively high or can and should i make some smaller because it will be enough. Im sure i dont need 45cm bed for salads, and maybe if I dont need to rotate crops - smaller could be good too. So instead of 2x45 beds I could have 45, 30, 15 - but I have little knowledge on root systems of various plants that I am trying to research.
Thanks!
Plants root deeply, even salads when they are in the ground for enough time. I know this because of how they can survive and continue to grow even in very dry weather when the soil is so dry near the surface. Your vegetables can root into the clay below, no problem! That clay is kept open by the action of soil organisms. If growth was only in the surface compost, it would be not amazing, compared to what we see.
I don't think you need deep beds or beds of variable depth, keep it simple 😀
Here we are succeeding with 7 cm compost for new beds, on top of heavy silty, soil.
I let my soil rest, i feed it and let the mycelium and other little creatures do their thing. Its no big deal. I king of like how much my plants really like fresh rested soil. IMO
Your gardens are lovely too.
That's nice!
I think I got my succession plantings in a little too late this year to really get any harvest before winter. Got some cauliflower, collard greens and carrots in but they're mostly just tiny plants. I have picked some off of the collards. Hopefully they can at least survive the winter and mature in the spring? Maybe.
Oh no! Maybe nothing until mid spring, best of luck
It’s took 2 years for me to go 100% no dig on my allotment. Now I’ve come up against the cost of manure and it’s a problem.
Where do you live? Are there options of going to someone that has livestock and getting some for the cost of digging and hauling it yourself? Where I am there are online sales sites that include gardening and farm and free sections...almost always see someone offering up poopies!
Well done, .
I hope you find some free, other wastes if not manure
Dear Sir, would you compost those celery leaves with septoria? I’m on a new plot and first garden ever here. Septoria was rampant, I treated with amyoflories (sp?) bacteria , it wiped it out perfectly, but I would love to compost everything instead of destroying it with fire. Thoughts? Love your practical and natural approach! Cheers!
I have not heard of that treatment for Septoria, thanks for sharing. We compost everything including leaves with all diseases including Septoria. I don't notice it anymore of a problem from doing that. For example in my first year here on virgin soil has been pasture for 30 years, there was loads of it!
I've been having a go at no dig since lockdown 2020 when I had a feeling we would all need to be a bit more self-sufficient. I love it and can't understand why everybody doesn't do it. It's a slow process at least for me though. I have a question: can I sow Durham Early cabbage now for spring? Maybe a little late. I live in west Wales. Anybody?
I have exactly the same thought Christina, why this method is not more widely adopted. At least we are benefiting.
You are right that it's too late really to sow those cabbage now, although if you can keep them alive as seedlings in your greenhouse through the winter, you could sow now and transplant early March with fleece over, for an earlier harvest than from cabbage sown in February.
I'm always struggling with getting enough compost. There are always spots in my garden that I'm certain receives too little. My yields also vary a lot, but I'm not sure that is because soil fertility is lacking.
So I was thinking... You have your dig and no-dig experimental beds, but what about a "no-amendment" patch? Wouldn't that be an interesting experiment as well? The goal would be to see what happens when you're *not* adding compost each year, and how quickly things change and what crops are affected the most by that. How would the soil texture and composition change? Would some specialist plants even benefit due to changes in the soil balance?
Thanks for a wonderful channel! :)
Yes it's an interesting idea and I tried it in 2013. One year of that was quite enough. If I were a research station and had time to look after soil getting worse and worse, that might be different! And I can't be that mean to soil life, .
I’m curious how much you eat from your garden in your diet (rough percent) ? I’m on a plant based diet so I’m messing around with a homestead attitude. Some mixed challenges from my side
Hi Damien, around 2/3 of my diet
@@CharlesDowding1nodig impressive! Something to aim for
Hello, my Dear Charles.
As always, everything looks a paradise in your garden!
One question I put myself whenever I see your videos is about that beautiful grass we see in uncultivated areas. I wonder if it's grass or weeds cut with the lawn mower.
I suppose it's grass (it seems like). In that case, if I am correct, would you mind, Charles, to tell what specie of grass is the one that we see? Would you mind to give us a link with the scientific name or some kind of identification to that kind of grass?
My deepest gratitude for that and for everything we can see in You, in your courses, books, calendar, tables, videos.
A big hug to You all.
My best wishes to You, Your Team and Family.
Thank you Miguel, I'm glad to give you help and pleasure.
The grass is actually nothing special and has many other plants among it including dandelions, buttercups and white clover. It is simply the growth of what ever was there before we started to mow it. Regular mowing results in a lower and greener 'carpet'.
@Charles Dowding Thank you very much, my Dear Charles.
A big and strong hug to You all.
Hello Charles, loving your videos. I’m new to your channel. I have some questions about composting that you’ve probably covered previously. Can you use rose prunings in compost and would Lucerne hay be considered a green or brown addition. Have just started a 3 bin set up after watching your videos. Thank you for all the information.
Hey there, I'm not as graciously gifted in the garden as Charles, but mind if I give it a gander? You can compost rose cuttings as long as they're small enough. I'm not familiar with Lucerne hay, but most hay are considered brown after they've dried out enough.
An important thing to ask your self is, "are these cuttings pests and disease free? Do they have lots of seeds in or on them that might wake up while composting?"
@@chmchn thank you. I’ll give it a go then.
Yes I do in small pieces, and it's more green (high nitrogen) than brown.
Enjoy that!!
@@CharlesDowding1nodig Thank you. I appreciate the reply.
Hi Charles could you recommend a good gardening knife please. Yours looks so sharp. Thank you.
My brother gifted me one called like Morakniv (or something close) and it's been outstanding. Curious as to what we're seeing used here too!
Opinel no.8 (7 is a little smaller) - I sharpen it esp after cutting soil, eg leek roots, and it holds sharpness
I garden in a community greenhouse in Alberta, Canada. We have raised wooden beds that are filled with soil but are built on legs, so they're completely disconnected from the ground. I'm converting now to No Dig thanks to your superb channel ☺so I added 4 cm of compost as mulch before the greenhouse closed for winter (it's not heated) in mid October. Do you advise covering the raised beds with anything else, such as cardboard or straw mulch, till we reopen for gardening at the start of May next year?
I'm in Kamloops where it's now below zero with snow cover. I added my compost before the cold snap and then I place a thick 12 inch bed of leaves on top of all my beds. By spring it is compressed down, rotting and full of worms that are adding castings to the soil. Head to your local compost facility and bag up leaves. Much better than cardboard for the beds.
I'm delighted to read this, and congratulations on making those improvements. As Simon suggests in his comment, covering with tree leaves would be amazing and give you a flying start next year. At that point, in spring, I would rake off surface leaves if they are still not decomposed, for new sowings, but you could plant through them if it's larger plants like tomatoes.
@@CharlesDowding1nodig The craziest thing I found was that when you rake up all those leaves off the beds in spring, you're gathering up a ton of worms with it all and if the leaves are placed in a pallet bay for the summer and kept from drying out you'll end up with nearly 80-90% worm castings. I was absolutely blown away when I discovered what it had turned into. I have a ridiculous stockpile of castings now.
Thanks for the work you do. It does a lot of good in the world.
@@CharlesDowding1nodig @Simon Hergott Thanks so much for your advice! I was concerned nothing would decompose over winter due to complete lack of water in the closed greenhouse, but I'll try adding leaves now and see how things look in Spring. Nothing to loose!
@@TheEmdubbleu You definitely need to add moisture to the leaves. They won't decompose or offer the worms a suitable food source when they're dry. I'd pile some snow on your leaf covered beds and that should do the trick. It will melt and freeze throughout the winter and then rot properly in the early spring enough for the worms to dig in. If not, the layer of compost you spread on your soil will be just fine.
that succession planting is great. There is a law in the bible that land must have a sabbath. Apparently, it is very important.
In my view and experience, that statement comes from an assumption that soil is being hacked about and regularly damaged by cultivation and tools, therefore it needs a rest from that bad treatment.
With the methods I recommend here, soil has a sabbath every day!
Newbie gardener in FLORIDA/USA. I am missing a bit of information. I harvested turnip/collard greens to the soil level. I want to plant other vegetables in that space. How long do I have to wait to plant other vegetables in the same space? Do I plant around the previous crops?
You don't need to wait at all, and can even pop in new transplants while existing plants are finishing. Just as long as there is sufficient space and moisture, this can need some extra watering to make sure the new transplants establish
You mention powdery mildew, how do you handle it? Do you need to discard all the plants, or do you compost them? My pepper plants started getting powdery mildew towards the end of the season, and being the stubborn person I am, I kept aggressively trimming the infected leaves and spraying the plants with a diluted milk solution to slow down the spread. Not sure how much it helped, but I just harvested my last batch of peppers at the beginning of november, so I'd like to think it made a difference? But perhaps just scrapping the infected plants straight away and planting an autumn crop would be the better option?
I see powdery mildew as a normal end of season event, as summer plantings gradually fade. From shorter days and lower temperatures, or just old age. I put all of the leaves on my compost heaps. You did well, it's your call really, and if you prefer peppers to whatever you might plant next, that's a nice result.
Do you leave your leeks open (not netted) in this bed? Have they had any insect problems? A lot of people on social media at the moment are saying that leeks in the UK now need to be netted all the time.
Hi Janet and that is too much of a generalisation. The problem they refer to is something called allium leaf miner which eats into the heart/stem/bulb of many alliums and causes a lot of damage. It's most common in central and eastern areas and at the moment it's not much in the Southwest, which is my region. Nobody around here covers leeks except sometimes in summer against a different pest called leek moth. Lately we have not seen that one.
@@CharlesDowding1nodig I'm in the very western tip of Cornwall, and I hadn't heard of anything being a problem for leeks round here, so maybe I'll continue to 'take the risk' and not net my leeks, and see how it goes!
Then you are fine. Best not believe all you hear!
My tomatoes don't do well so I'm not adding brassica to those beds for another year or so.
What is the best variety of carrot to keep for the winter?
Ox hella / Oxheart types
Absolutely beautiful bed Charles!! What is the secret to virtually no bug damage on your leafy greens in that bed ?
Thanks, and we spray Bacillus thuringiensis on brassicas in summer months, other than that it's soil quality, intent too = green thumb
@@CharlesDowding1nodig my plants are phenomenal, lush and green but it's seems so much leaf damage.... especially during any dry spells
Maybe water a little more
Hi Charles, here in Italy we have very hot and dry summer and we nerd to save water. What do you think about use of shading tree in the vegetable garden as agroforesting?
I m absolutely not an expert but trees take water too
I so agree with KC, trees need water too and are not the solution for shade, I would use cloth or some kind of netting/mesh
A bit of a shortcut question. When do leeks stop growing (daylight amount.. for example less than eight hours and such or sun angle )?
I've see strong new growth in January! They don't stop
@@CharlesDowding1nodig wonderful. Just have to get them through the harsh Swedish winter :)