April 24th at Homeacres no dig garden. See the vegetables I have stored through winter, the current harvests, and plants which will crop in the next two months.
The garden has always been no dig, and my first job was to mulch the heavy weed burden with cardboard, compost and some polythene in 2013. This killed the many perennial weeds and now you see how few weeds grow in the undisturbed soil.
Since 2014 I mulch beds once a year with 4-5cm/1.7-2in compost, half my own and half bought in..This provides food for soil organisms which then mobilise nutrients for plants. I use no fertilisers and there are few pests, see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nbf7D80j5os
See this video for how to clear weeds without digging https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mmv2zGfhG8w
I mulch paths with a thin layer of small wood chips or shavings,
Few weeds grow and this frees time to grow vegetables through the growing season. It’s a temperate, oceanic climate with light frosts (down to -7 or -8C/18F in midwinter) from late October to mid April.
I raise most plants in the greenhouse, see what was happening there two months earlier https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=veevYVUBakA
I sell produce to local shops and restaurants, around £20,000 per year.
More information about no dig gardening on my website https://www.charlesdowding.co.uk
I have two online courses which include hundreds of photos and exclusive video content, for more information go to https://charlesdowding.co.uk/product-category/online-courses/
Filming and editing by David Adams, who also made my first video No Dig Abundance https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HATC3rG6NbQ
How do you control pest like slugs, my garden is overrun by slugs that nearly decimates my greens, I have about 12 bear traps around my greens and they do catch a lot of slugs.
The first time I put out the beer trap I caught about 59 slugs and then the next day there was 179 in the traps.
Is there an easier and productive way to repel these pests?
At 4:35 is that miners lettuce? It grows all on our mountain tops
I have very high raised beds using hugelkulture(???)…technique. And no dig. This year i'l be planting without rotation adding compost or/and worm castings. thanks so much for all your videos! PS I live in France, zone 8a.
What does it mean "no dig"?
aha a three pronged fork, a resident of any good compost heap
I love this, but I wonder if it might be possible to tidy up the auto-generated captions in English. We start off with a 'no dick' garden and it turns out the white stuff in the compost is 'funky in the soul". 🙂
Just discovered your videos and it's transformed my life. New garden, new composters cooking away, new vegetable patch….all in the COVID days. So grateful to be outside sharing the joys of no dig gardening. Thank you SO much. I watch and learn a little bit each day!
Hello Charles, one thing I want to add about making your own compost. I have heard people including myself, through the years that making compost is to much work, but continue to either turn the garden over with a spade or use a gas powered tiller. Since I’ve been following you for about 3-4 years, I’ve been making my own compost and following your advice, and I really think that you and your gardening wisdom have added at least 5 or more years to this 75 y/o gardeners back, and enjoying my garden more. Thank you
How have you managed to keep your broad beans free from flea beetle and sparrow damage? Mine are doing OK, but had to net them to protect from sparrows eating the flowers. And the flea beetle seems very hungry/unstoppable.
How long do you pick your pea shouts?
Hai sir another time when your replanting. another time also wether your putting compost. And after putting composte your planting
Charles your passion and enthusiasm for gardening and in particular no dig etc is very clear and infectious. Your videos are great to watch because I am learning all kinds of things that years of gardening from books and TV shows or magazines never taught me. Thank you for sharing your skills, knowledge and experience.
Favourite salad dressing?
I learn a lot, THANK YOU! ..Patricia from Uruguay.
Hello there, anyone else getting a strange skipping in the audio at 1:49? I replayed the video and replicated it several times, so it's not a one-off. I'm just trying to work out if it's the video or my computer, thank you.
How do you water the plants under fleece and mesh covers? Love your videos btw.
Charles, I am surrounded by coffee shops, and already collect grounds from one shop twice weekly to add to our 400L compost bin along with our 2 (plant-based diet) person kitchen scraps, and garden waste (grass clippings & small branch shreddings) from an about 90 sqm allotment .
My question is – what would be the maximum amount of coffee grounds that we could add to our compost bin? It takes us minimum 3 months or more to fill up our bin at the current rate. We could collect the grounds daily if we wanted, or from multiple outlets I am sure, if it was fine to put in as much as we could collect. I understand that we have to balance out the green with the brown. Thank you in advance for any insights.
Sooooo inspiring . Do you water your compost pile?
You are inspiring
I love the amazing enthusiasm of Charles. I will follow his methods and thinking when I start building my home garden next year in Climate Zone 6b. Thanks a lot for your herculean effort and for making it easy for mere mortals like me.
Hi charles so what you saying you never get winter make us in canada look stupid dealing with winter 12 months around?planting in november?seeding in feb?
yes we are stupid gardeners thanks for info.spent my life here for nothing.what a joke,Lol
Hello Charles
Can I bother you with another question?
When you direct sowed the carrots & radish, how did you mix the seeds of the two of them?
Did you do alternate rows? Or mix the seeds in your hand? Does my question make sense?
Thanks in advance
Denise