You are a legend and an inspiration! 3 friends let me put some plants in their yards and one even let me make a compost! You have the system nailed down hoping for a yard of my own one day. Cheers and thanks!
Charles, one aspect of your genius that I don't know that we've heard much from you about is selling. I imagine it is a full-time job to constantly find buyers given the nature of your uneven and variable supply. However, given this channel is intended to primarily help home growers, I don't expect we would hear much of that. The drainage of No Dig is absolutely, unarguably, patently better than dig. As someone who for years dug in amendments and more recently switched to No Dig, this is abundantly clear. I suspect that No Dig beds also do better at overwintering and cold weather growing in general than dig, because No Dig has more living things in it, and living things generate heat.
Overwintered spinach tastes way better than spring sown. Both are good but the sugars the spinach uses to survive freezing temps make it taste incredible.
Ironically, we have harsher winters in SW Missouri, US than you have several hundred miles North of because we don’t have the Ocean stabilizing the weather. Spinach will survive lows well below 0 Fahrenheit and highs in the 20’s. Amazing plants.
@@smas3256 Late summer through early fall. Last week of August through October. They’ll slow down when it gets real cold, but any days in the 50’s and notice some growth. I use Bloomsdale Longstanding because they don’t bolt as quickly. Also in zone 6b here. I would imagine any spinach will handle the cold. The spinach I’m growing is from seed I’ve saved over the last few years. So it’s adapted to the microclimate of my garden.
Thanks Charles, thought provoking, challenging and inspiring as always ! We lost all our over-wintering broad beans again this year (sown last week of October) despite looking great in early December, thank goodness for chard !
@@CharlesDowding1nodig Thanks Charles, that's what we planted, only had the problem the last couple of years, I think I'll try a different location this year. Not ready to give up on Autumn sowing yet, it's one of our few overwintering crops and we are plagued with blackly if we sow in the spring !
Really inspiring Charles, thanks for taking the time to make yet another great video! I have been overwintering some veg on your advice for the past few years and it's always worth it for those early harvests. Makes sense as you say to use the empty space in Winter that would otherwise have not a lot going on, this also helps to reduce CO2 emissions as bare soil erodes. Keep the videos coming!
Having our longest growing season I can remember in my almost 40 years. Today is the last day for frost, normally its about the middle of June, getting almost an additional month of growing. Cheers Mate.
It would be so beautiful to have your wedding on your land that way no one can ever take that memory from you and every moment you live there you know that one of the most important parts of your life’s is with you right on your land!!!
Thank you for the introduction to broad beans! Zone 7a southern US, I put them in the ground (direct sow) in early Dec. They came up shortly after a low of 6 degrees (rare here)! I was literally stunned. Been harvesting at green bean size since early April. I'm still amazed that i can be munching on a green bean before you can even consider putting summer beans in the ground. You are so very appreciated sir, thank you. 😊
Here in zone 9/10 (CA), overwintering fava is easy. The biggest problem is that early heat can kill pollination. It's a race to get them to flower before the heat sets in. Same with Runner beans. I have some growing from last years beans (they are perennial if temps are mild) that are flowering now (May 26) and I already have a small bean or two, but when the heat comes, they wont pollinate.
You have been an inspiration to me. I've been following you on YT for years. Thank you for your advise. Over the past few years I've heard you say that garlic rust is becoming a problem in your garden. I never had it in my garden until three years ago. I realized that I did not dust my beds with wood ash that year. For the last two years I wanted to test my results before I contacted you. Last year and this year, in addition of covering my beds with compost, I covered my beds with wood ash from my fireplace. The results were the same, no sign of garlic rust in my garden. My thought is that my compost is nitrogen rich (mostly horse manure) but low in potassium.
It baffles me how many allotment holders continue to dig. SO many say they like digging. I couldn't think of anything worse then turning over heavy clay and slowly breaking it up into a little pieces, yet they still plough on, even though most are pushing 70 on my site. Truly mind boggling.
I don't understand it either, and I must say, it feels selfish to me because much as they like it, the soil life they kill every year, does not! It's an introverted level of self-amusement 😮
At my allotment some people use rotavators at the start of every season. I've noticed how the clay soil quickly re-compacts after a few rain showers and they end up with a flat hard pan which is ripe for weeds like Bristly Oxtongue which are a pain to get rid of. I don't really do much digging any more although I will occasionally use a fork to gently tease up some areas which have some compaction. I never turn the soil over though.
@@jaspercaelan4998 my grandad grows his tomatoes in buckets to concentrate watering. The idea of mulching seemed like a very abstract and bizarre idea to him.
I am heartened to see this comment, but somebody else from Norway was saying how much more difficult it is for you and I wish you well, you probably need more covers than I am using
@@CharlesDowding1nodig Thank you Charles, you are so present ❤️ Yes, I might have to consider making some frames and consider using thicker but cheap fleece blankets. Last winter was incredibly hard, and so long this year. Surprisingly enough my kale almost made it through 2 rounds of -30, until a deer ended it. UK gardening videoes truly are it's own kind of torture for me. Once that winning lottery ticket comes through I'll get a house in Wales 🤭
@@SiljeMeum I think you would enjoy the channel "Simple Living Alaska". This young couple moved to the snowy wilderness of Alaska, and they show methods they use to grow a magnificent garden during their very short season. They then moved several hours further north where it's even colder, and are just now starting a new garden from the beginning again. I hope you can learn something from them!
@@rubygray7749 Thank you so much! That does sound relevant 👌🏼🌱 I get so frustrated seeing the English green winters 😂 I lived in the UK for a couple of years and was so excited to have my first green winter, and lo and behold: greater London had its first snow fall in 8 years 😵💫😂 I'll check them out, thank you. This year I'm trying perennial broccoli and siberian kale. I really need to get a green house and do some heavier measures before winter. We never know if we're having a wet mild winter or siberian cold!
We had success with corn salad underneath the currants....nice winter greens, great swathe of flowers for pollinators and low effort self-seeding. Left some lettuce to seed and now have a lovely succession of lettuce pop up for spring pickings....can alternatively just sling around packets of old seed and see what happens. Easy to transplant them or leave in situ if not interfering with other crops.
Just got my allotment this year so spending the time building it up in spring summer makes me hopeful i can still plant things later in the year that i can harvest early next year
That sounds promising, and you can still sow + plant a lot for harvest this summer and autumn, see my timeline of possible dates www.charlesdowding.co.uk/resources/sowing-timeline
I think I may have corn salad which has come from somewhere. It looks similar to what you have shown and I haven't planted it. Filed beans have been leaf after acting as a cover crop through winter and are now flowering. The beans will give an early harvest and I'm also using some of the tops as greens.
El efecto de la lluvias en tu zona de cultivo es muy positivo para mantener húmedo el compost.Por aquí hemos tenido semanas de calor y nada de lluvias,aunque los tres días últimos llueve algo y se va notando en las nuevas plantaciones.Saludos desde Tenerife !! 👏🏻🤙🏻🥦🐝🐞🥒🌹🌷😃☔️☔️
Here in the south of Danmark, 54.9 degrees north, oceanic climate, a lot of late sowings work well. My guess is, that the compostbeds take the warmth and the soil life of the long sommerdays easily further into autumn. These beds are in so many ways a great benefit! I did some overwintering salads last year with success. This year I I am looking forward to trying the sprouting broccoli. Thank you so much for putting that much afford in promoting your NoDig approach!
I live in Copenhagen and have tried getting sprouting broccoli outside through the winter a couple of times, but without success. There always seem to be 2 or 3 weeks which are just too cold and kills them off, together with autumn broad beans and chard. Kale can make it through though. What i have done is to dig up sprouting broccoli in November and put it in buckets in the greenhouse. That method works and i get a crop in spring, although perhaps limited a bit by the confined growing space in the buckets.
@@user-op4fb4kj7o Interesting! May be the mild local temperatures on my island Fejø, situated in a bay, around a to hours drive away to the south. I noticed the differece in this winters cold spell of minus 10-20 degrees Celsius in Copenhagen, compared to 3-7 degrees frost at my place. I am looking forward to trying the broccoli. Well, hoping, that we go free of the flooding this year.
I would recommend trying broad beans (hestebønner) if you haven’t already. They seem to not be so common in Denmark, but give a good and very early crop. I start mine in the greenhouse in February to get going extra early, for a crop in June which allows something else to be grown afterwards. Agree on the flooding front - less rain in DK this winter please!
Morning Charles, well got my garden fully in and for the last two months I’ve had a church class meet over here in which we’ve talk much about gardening and different tips I’ve learned from you. Thanks for all your videos and advice. Much thanks. (Old guy from Arkansas)🇺🇸
Hey Charles! I think the best thing I ever did was to maintain a garden journal. I can look back and see what worked and I think it would be an added value to anyone who would want to purchase my house and garden. Cheers!
I didn't think it was possible for us in zone 6b until this spring when beet greens and chard came up. I cut chard to the ground last winter and it few grew back. Had stunted turnips last fall. Did not cover through winter. They are over 4 feet. Flowers for pollinators. Small tender leaves makes wonderful salads. Now I'll be sewing beets and chard in late fall. We heavily mulch w. 3x's chopped brown leaves in late fall. Thank you Charles for teaching outside the box and sharing the possibilities.
Turnips are biennial. Save the seeds from this batch. I like to plant turnips in mid-summer. Then they’re ready to harvest in November, or let overwinter and they’ll make seed the following summer. The bees love turnip flowers (all brassicas for that matter).
You have so mild winters there. Here in south of Norway or worse if you live in North of Norway you cant do what you do. I was lucky to sow some garlic in Desember when we have tempeture over 0+. This winter we did have -5/10c in average and many weeks with -25/30, its very little you can sow to do what you do, would like for you to try what you do there, here in our conditintions.
Really appreciate your support thru your videos! I'm fortunate to have a great library system because I have your Skills book on loan. Thank you Charles
I always learn something new here, even after watching for years now, there is always something new. I like that about you, Charles. I like your conversational type videos. And now...where can I get that book? :)
Thanks for the video! Have you ever considered putting in drip irrigation? I know no dig requires less frequent watering, and with you climate maybe not necessary, but wonder if that would save time in the long run. Thanks
Yes I have, tried it 1983-86 in the tunnels. Then decided overhead was better under cover. Never used it outside because I don't like how it leaves much of the soil dry, with microbes dormant. In some situations, however I can see that it's worthwhile. It's good to be aware of the pros and cons, then you can work it out.
I’ve been harvesting overwintered Cauliflowers, Chard and Pak-Choi recently, which has utterly delighted me. I’m in the process of transitioning the garden from Winter into Spring/Summer, and there’s obviously a lot of work to be done. How do you and your team cope physically with the manual labour? My modest garden produces more food than I can eat, but after long shifts in the heat of the past weekend I was exhausted, hence the interest in hearing how you all deal with the work.
I’m in zone 5 as well. I’ve had cabbage, leeks, carrots last through the winter without any cover. It may depend on the winter, of course. I did find that the leeks & carrots were great until they started sending up flower stalks. Then they got a tough core in the middle and weren’t nice to eat anymore. But I left them to flower & get seeds. I plan to try spinach this winter by using hoops with fleece like Charles does.
Charles, as you know im keen on veg gardening and no dig is helping enormously (although i still rely on some agchem interventions) An area im not making as much progress on as i want are crops to follow early potatoes, always Duke of York, peas and onions. I grow leeks and beetroot in the greenhouse to then have decent sized plants to fill in witg ltd success. Anything else i can try? Not leaves as we have chard and spinach in abundance.😊
Ah no, it's lambs lettuce or corn salad, flowering with its pale blue flowers, on its way to setting seed, which I shall harvest in about three weeks. We have been harvesting leaves from those plants since November.
@@CharlesDowding1nodig ah I see, hadn’t seen it in flower before so wasn’t aware of how different the leaves look when it begins to flower. But I can now see it after googling pics of it in flower. Thanks!
It looks to me as if your purple sprouting broccoli is at a much closer spacing than the seed packets recommend. Clearly, it works for you! Can you confirm this observation?
Between plants, it's about 50 cm or 20 inches which can look a little close, but they have a lot of space and root run to either side, because the bed is 1.2 m/4 feet. And there's some path space on each side as well.
I'm finding direct sowing things now gets less slug damage, they always go for the transplants, got me thinking about vibrations and distress signals of plants, but it's also been a very wet spring
You mention cauliflower, this year I sowed on around 1st Jan, pricked out into pots and then kept them in the pots until late March when I was reasonably sure there would be no more frosts below -10 C. By then they are pretty sturdy plants, did great in the (no-dig) ground under fleece (which I have since removed) and will probably start heading up nicely towards the end of May. This approach isn't for everyone as it takes up a fair bit of indoor space but it circumvents the frost risk, and 8-10-week-old brassica plants are much less susceptible to being nibbled to death at that stage. I should add that I have to time it this way as we have very hot summers and I can't still have brassicas in the garden beyond June so it's a tight window.
@@CharlesDowding1nodig Thanks, I wish! Just bumbling through and trying to adapt no-dig principles to our very different climate (and to do it extremely hands-off, too, as I have very little time for gardening at this stage in life!)
Charles; I just had a thought - between your dig and no-dig beds, have you noticed that some types of veg show a marked difference while some other types of veg show little difference? Hypothetically, one might expect that the difference is due to mycorrhiza, and some plants may depend on these more than others. What do you think?
I have wondered that. However, there are so many factors at play and it's often less straightforward than isolating one factor. Adam and Taryn are looking at mycorrhizal behaviour with and in brassica roots, which are supposed not to use them or associate with them. Yet they are! - I hope to make a video about this eventually.
@@CharlesDowding1nodig Thanks for replying. This discussion reminded me just now of a book, I think its this one: "The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate--Discoveries from a Secret World", which describes how plants use fungi not only as root extensions, but as conduits through which they can exchange nutrients with other plants and even to communicate with each other. Life is amazing. Thanks to evolution, pretty much anything that is physically possible (and useful to the organism) is likely to occur, sooner or later.
I’ve done this for years ..mainly to give the chickens something extra.. in my polytunnel….nobody else does it on the other plots but I like to use my polytunnel to extend to a full year….this year was chard/savoy cabbage/beetroot which sadly went to seed..but the chickens are nearly through the lot…they have been getting extra since start of year..
Gracias. Debería poder elegir entre esos diferentes idiomas y, si desea español, simplemente haga clic en español. Estoy usando un servicio de traducción diferente y tal vez algo haya cambiado en la configuración, pero todos los idiomas deberían estar ahí para ti.
You sow seeds whenever is the right time for the particular vegetal;e, and then they overwinter as plants to give harvests either through winter or in spring
Charles - I told you in late autumn about my speculative sowing of Fava Beans, transplanting modules in early November, which we both agreed was a bit risky. As things turned out, the three areas I transplanted them into all grew beautifully, and I harvested them for composting in late April/early May (basically when I wanted to plant something else out). The last harvest, the plants were 5ft tall when I harvested them - it's a very easy cover crop to create and keeps beds well covered, particularly through spring as the plants grow significantly. One thing I've also noticed this spring is that the onions and shallots from seed have been better than ever. I can't decide whether it's just my allotment no-dig beds are getting better and better, or whether the rain we had this spring (much more than normal in NW London) was something that young alliums like. I transplanted early April after a mid March sowing. Finally, the Aquadulce Claudia seeds I harvested from a few plants that survived 2 weeks of -7C in winter 22/23 have survived a week of -6C much better this year (60% really strong plants vs 3-5% the previous year), so hopefully the seeds from this year's crop will be more uniformly deep frost resistant. I must say that radish harvests have been much later this year than in previous years - the cool April may not have helped. Lots of foliage, but only in early May were the roots ready from an early March transplant. Keeps us all humble by teaching us that our predictions of harvest dates are variable to say the least. Slugs this year are worse than for many years - first time in years I have had Red Alert tomato transplants eaten by the beasties.
That's good to hear, but it was an exceptionally easy winter. Nothing ever is the same year on year, and never mind, you have a lot more success than failure 😀
Inspirational as always! What was your lowest temperature this winter? Just to get an idea of what you mean when you say "mild winter" :D we had -15C this winter, which was colder than usual, but could e.g. purple sprouting broccili, cauliflower and chard be able to overwinter with such temperatures?
@@CharlesDowding1nodig thanks! Broccoli will be on the experimental end of the spectrum then :) of course, 2 winters ago we barely had frost. So it can work out...
Thank you for the video Charles ! Hey Charles ever had problems with ants? I just removed the tarps from my garden and i have 4 large nest in a small bed, and from past experience those are problematic, they eat stems of my bush beans and others. Any solution to this?
I have raised beds pallet collar type is this similar to no dig as I dont dig them? They do however dry out which can be a problem. My soil underlying soil is clay. Im wondering if I should just grown without the raised beds?
Yes, I would remove them, and you may be surprised by how many slugs you find. Just press down the edges to 45° with your foot, add a little more compost on top and you are fully no dig.
I tried for two years to grow broad beans. I lost the first year’s crop early on to what appears to be brown spot. The second year’s crop got a little further along but it too surcumbed the same way. Discouraged, I didn’t plant any this year.-Any suggestions?
It sounds like chocolate spot, and I've had it where the soil has not been sufficiently amended with organic matter. They like it rich and fertile, so I would add some extra compost of any kind. There is false information out there about them 'being a legume so not needing compost', but the soil needs to be healthy!
I don't, I'm very happy with pale green stems and they are still very long and sweet. Four potatoes we just pull them up after adding extra compost on top, ua-cam.com/video/EBV_ri1_XSQ/v-deo.html
I'm the same, I grew leeks last year and left them in the ground because they were still tiny, they have now more than doubled in size recently and I'm also not bothered about the colour, I'll just eat them as they are, last year when they were tiny I just cut them back and ate the tops and thought I'd just see if they'd grow back like spring onions do and they did. As for potatoes that has been one of my most successful crops, I can't seem to stop them growing here, they pop up everywhere 😂 even in places I never planted them, I have overwintered them a few times now successfully by putting some back in pots over winter covered with soil in the garden and just let them do what they want and they grow and it also means they get a head start in the spring and I'm harvesting potatoes earlier, around mid to late May, if they have leaves when there's some cold weather I will cover them with fleece and if the leaves do get damaged by frost I just cut the leaves back and they eventually sprout new leaves, potatoes do seem to be very hardy and I have also found some growing in my compost too, I love Charles' no fuss approach to gardening and I try to use the same approach which works well for me and saves a lot of work too, I try to work with nature rather than against it, i don't plant in rows partly because of lack of space and also because i think it seems to help with pests by mixing them up, maybe it distracts them by disguising the smells, I also don't worry too much about rotation and don't have the space for that anyway, I try to fill in as many gaps as possible and because I have a small garden the veg have to share pots with each other, I have to be creative with the space I have, I do forget what I've planted where 😂 but there's always a nice surprise when I go out there just to do one job and come back indoors with a selection of veg that I didn't know was there or had forgotten I'd planted, I did this a couple of days ago, I picked some chard, lettuce, spring onions and pack choi that had been out there over winter, I've also got some carrots still out there that I planted in autumn that were tiny but now they have since grown, there's also some spinach growing back from a last August sowing. I've learnt so much from this channel and as I'm in another part of Somerset I know my climate is going to be very similar to where Charles is based so I always take note of the dates he recommends.
Another great video Charles, thank you. Hope you don't mind me asking but I've recently moved into a property that has a few rhododendrons and was wondering if their leaves are ok to compost. So many conflicting theories online but I remembered that you are ok to put most things in your compost (and I trust your advice) so...do the bad parts of them break down as we would want them to or are they best not on there? As always, thank you from NZ
Go for it Vicki - just those leaves need chopping up because they are so oily and resist bacterial decomposition unless they are broken. I think also maybe people worry about pH but I don't see that there's any problem with it. Thanks for your nice words.
Great thought provoking video. I’m curious if any of these veg might work in my area in Southern Ontario, Canada. I planted as early as I possibly could, with row covers and plastic at times to protect my beds but growth just slows down. I don’t know if the transplants would make it through our winter and hard frosts/winter thaws. I garden in 2- 4x8 raised beds (for veg) and there’s never enough space. How old would the transplants have to be to go in the garden in the fall? Thank you for your advise.
Thanks, I'm glad you like the video and I'm sure you can do useful winter work because of your relatively low latitude, around 43° it looks to me while we are at 51°, much further north. However, you do not have the ocean warmth, so you need to make more of that sunshine, check out the work of Elliot Coleman. And sow cabbage + salad onions a little earlier than me, say 25th August to have larger transplants with maybe four true leaves.
@@CharlesDowding1nodig thank you so much for the advise about timing. You’re right about the sunshine. It declines significantly in the later summer months and of course as you said, no ocean warmth. I’ll check out the channel you suggested. I can use all the help I can get! Thank you 🙏
they're delicious boiled when green and fresh and used in salads and dips, or just a side, dressed with oil and salt. You can also dry them for keeping, they are used heavily that way in middle eastern cuisine such as egyptian style falafel and ful (a dip or soup made with dried broad beans).
Good evening. I planted garlic late October under fleece (now under insect mesh). Both successfully prevented leaf miners. It’s starting to bulb up slightly but fast fading under the pressure of rust. At what stage of rust pressure should pulling it be the optimum response. ie when half or more of the leaves are no longer green/photosynthesizing? Are you finding this an issue earlier than usual this year? It’s still May (17th)… I don’t normally pull until mid/late June…. 😞
Interesting, because here I have some leaf miner, but less rust that you. I wait until it's 80% rusty leaves, before harvest. Currently we are maybe 50% and they are still growing. Yours might be best removed soon and before end May, good luck!
@@CharlesDowding1nodig Thank you so much for your advice and feedback! I’ll get my drying racks up ready for harvesting soon. Will mince up and freeze the smaller heads without bothering to cure.
I'm on a smaller scale than you but I do try and keep to my succession planting schedule for what works best in my climate. I have an asparagus question. I have a lot of volunteers sprouting in my bed which I suppose means I have a lot of female plants. My production is a bit disappointing on my now 5 or 6 year old plants and I assume it may be because of the females. Should I let some of the volunteers grow or will they crowd my original crowns. I suppose I could try and eliminate the females and replace them with male volunteers but the originals are well established now and I'd have to dig them out and wait years for any new plants to get established. ugh.
Your comment is perceptive and there's no obvious answer that I know. I have a similar problem in one part of my patch. A supposed hybrid crown turned out to be a female, resulting in many competing and smaller plants. There is no guarantee that these self seeded plants will grow decent harvests, so I'm not sure!
You are a legend and an inspiration! 3 friends let me put some plants in their yards and one even let me make a compost! You have the system nailed down hoping for a yard of my own one day. Cheers and thanks!
That is awesome and those are the friends you need! Thanks.
Charles, one aspect of your genius that I don't know that we've heard much from you about is selling. I imagine it is a full-time job to constantly find buyers given the nature of your uneven and variable supply. However, given this channel is intended to primarily help home growers, I don't expect we would hear much of that.
The drainage of No Dig is absolutely, unarguably, patently better than dig. As someone who for years dug in amendments and more recently switched to No Dig, this is abundantly clear.
I suspect that No Dig beds also do better at overwintering and cold weather growing in general than dig, because No Dig has more living things in it, and living things generate heat.
Nicely put Ted, thanks. Yes I am sure the soil holds more warmth in winter and warms more rapidly in spring.
Finally some normal late spring weather ., if only for a few days .
It's warming!!
Always great information and appreciated encouragement... thank you! Blessings on your your garden season Sir! 🌻🐛Carolyn in Ohio🌿💚
Lovely to hear Carolyn
Overwintered spinach tastes way better than spring sown. Both are good but the sugars the spinach uses to survive freezing temps make it taste incredible.
So true!!
Ironically, we have harsher winters in SW Missouri, US than you have several hundred miles North of because we don’t have the Ocean stabilizing the weather. Spinach will survive lows well below 0 Fahrenheit and highs in the 20’s. Amazing plants.
@@johndyer9232 Do you plant them in ground in the fall or late fall and let them winter over? I'll need to buy seeds. No problem. Zone 6b. Ct.
@@smas3256 Late summer through early fall. Last week of August through October. They’ll slow down when it gets real cold, but any days in the 50’s and notice some growth. I use Bloomsdale Longstanding because they don’t bolt as quickly. Also in zone 6b here. I would imagine any spinach will handle the cold. The spinach I’m growing is from seed I’ve saved over the last few years. So it’s adapted to the microclimate of my garden.
Thanks Charles, thought provoking, challenging and inspiring as always !
We lost all our over-wintering broad beans again this year (sown last week of October) despite looking great in early December, thank goodness for chard !
😮 try Aquadulce Claudia
@@CharlesDowding1nodig Thanks Charles, that's what we planted, only had the problem the last couple of years, I think I'll try a different location this year. Not ready to give up on Autumn sowing yet, it's one of our few overwintering crops and we are plagued with blackly if we sow in the spring !
Really inspiring Charles, thanks for taking the time to make yet another great video! I have been overwintering some veg on your advice for the past few years and it's always worth it for those early harvests. Makes sense as you say to use the empty space in Winter that would otherwise have not a lot going on, this also helps to reduce CO2 emissions as bare soil erodes. Keep the videos coming!
Many thanks 💚
Having our longest growing season I can remember in my almost 40 years. Today is the last day for frost, normally its about the middle of June, getting almost an additional month of growing. Cheers Mate.
Nice to hear and we all need it!
@@CharlesDowding1nodig Hoping to get some UK weather lol. These -30 winters are for the birds!
arctic fowl 😂
I see!
It would be so beautiful to have your wedding on your land that way no one can ever take that memory from you and every moment you live there you know that one of the most important parts of your life’s is with you right on your land!!!
Thank you for the introduction to broad beans! Zone 7a southern US, I put them in the ground (direct sow) in early Dec. They came up shortly after a low of 6 degrees (rare here)! I was literally stunned. Been harvesting at green bean size since early April. I'm still amazed that i can be munching on a green bean before you can even consider putting summer beans in the ground. You are so very appreciated sir, thank you. 😊
Thanks so much for the feedback and how wonderful you managed that!
Here in zone 9/10 (CA), overwintering fava is easy. The biggest problem is that early heat can kill pollination. It's a race to get them to flower before the heat sets in. Same with Runner beans. I have some growing from last years beans (they are perennial if temps are mild) that are flowering now (May 26) and I already have a small bean or two, but when the heat comes, they wont pollinate.
You have been an inspiration to me. I've been following you on YT for years. Thank you for your advise. Over the past few years I've heard you say that garlic rust is becoming a problem in your garden. I never had it in my garden until three years ago. I realized that I did not dust my beds with wood ash that year. For the last two years I wanted to test my results before I contacted you. Last year and this year, in addition of covering my beds with compost, I covered my beds with wood ash from my fireplace. The results were the same, no sign of garlic rust in my garden. My thought is that my compost is nitrogen rich (mostly horse manure) but low in potassium.
So good to see this, thanks I shall try it :)
It baffles me how many allotment holders continue to dig. SO many say they like digging. I couldn't think of anything worse then turning over heavy clay and slowly breaking it up into a little pieces, yet they still plough on, even though most are pushing 70 on my site. Truly mind boggling.
I don't understand it either, and I must say, it feels selfish to me because much as they like it, the soil life they kill every year, does not! It's an introverted level of self-amusement 😮
@@CharlesDowding1nodig 😂 amazingly put!
At my allotment some people use rotavators at the start of every season. I've noticed how the clay soil quickly re-compacts after a few rain showers and they end up with a flat hard pan which is ripe for weeds like Bristly Oxtongue which are a pain to get rid of. I don't really do much digging any more although I will occasionally use a fork to gently tease up some areas which have some compaction. I never turn the soil over though.
@@jaspercaelan4998 my grandad grows his tomatoes in buckets to concentrate watering. The idea of mulching seemed like a very abstract and bizarre idea to him.
Oh, this is magnificent!
I am heartened to see this comment, but somebody else from Norway was saying how much more difficult it is for you and I wish you well, you probably need more covers than I am using
@@CharlesDowding1nodig Thank you Charles, you are so present ❤️ Yes, I might have to consider making some frames and consider using thicker but cheap fleece blankets. Last winter was incredibly hard, and so long this year. Surprisingly enough my kale almost made it through 2 rounds of -30, until a deer ended it. UK gardening videoes truly are it's own kind of torture for me. Once that winning lottery ticket comes through I'll get a house in Wales 🤭
@@SiljeMeum
I think you would enjoy the channel "Simple Living Alaska".
This young couple moved to the snowy wilderness of Alaska, and they show methods they use to grow a magnificent garden during their very short season.
They then moved several hours further north where it's even colder, and are just now starting a new garden from the beginning again.
I hope you can learn something from them!
@@rubygray7749 Thank you so much! That does sound relevant 👌🏼🌱 I get so frustrated seeing the English green winters 😂 I lived in the UK for a couple of years and was so excited to have my first green winter, and lo and behold: greater London had its first snow fall in 8 years 😵💫😂 I'll check them out, thank you. This year I'm trying perennial broccoli and siberian kale. I really need to get a green house and do some heavier measures before winter. We never know if we're having a wet mild winter or siberian cold!
We had success with corn salad underneath the currants....nice winter greens, great swathe of flowers for pollinators and low effort self-seeding. Left some lettuce to seed and now have a lovely succession of lettuce pop up for spring pickings....can alternatively just sling around packets of old seed and see what happens. Easy to transplant them or leave in situ if not interfering with other crops.
Great tips thanks
Just got my allotment this year so spending the time building it up in spring summer makes me hopeful i can still plant things later in the year that i can harvest early next year
That sounds promising, and you can still sow + plant a lot for harvest this summer and autumn, see my timeline of possible dates www.charlesdowding.co.uk/resources/sowing-timeline
Coral bells are a favorite of mine, and I live this river idea👍
Si que he disfrutado el paseo, gracias🙂
💚
I think I may have corn salad which has come from somewhere. It looks similar to what you have shown and I haven't planted it. Filed beans have been leaf after acting as a cover crop through winter and are now flowering. The beans will give an early harvest and I'm also using some of the tops as greens.
Sounds great Dafydd!
El efecto de la lluvias en tu zona de cultivo es muy positivo para mantener húmedo el compost.Por aquí hemos tenido semanas de calor y nada de lluvias,aunque los tres días últimos llueve algo y se va notando en las nuevas plantaciones.Saludos desde Tenerife !! 👏🏻🤙🏻🥦🐝🐞🥒🌹🌷😃☔️☔️
Tienes tanta razón Manuel. Espero que llueva un poco más para ti.
Good show, cheers Charles. Yeah Wood pigeons, RIP early peas...
Oh no!!
nice climate
We are fortunate, I hope you can manage some winter growing
Here in the south of Danmark, 54.9 degrees north, oceanic climate, a lot of late sowings work well. My guess is, that the compostbeds take the warmth and the soil life of the long sommerdays easily further into autumn. These beds are in so many ways a great benefit!
I did some overwintering salads last year with success. This year I I am looking forward to trying the sprouting broccoli.
Thank you so much for putting that much afford in promoting your NoDig approach!
Lovely to hear this from the 55th parallel, I'm impressed. Good soil and good gardening 💚
I live in Copenhagen and have tried getting sprouting broccoli outside through the winter a couple of times, but without success. There always seem to be 2 or 3 weeks which are just too cold and kills them off, together with autumn broad beans and chard. Kale can make it through though. What i have done is to dig up sprouting broccoli in November and put it in buckets in the greenhouse. That method works and i get a crop in spring, although perhaps limited a bit by the confined growing space in the buckets.
@@user-op4fb4kj7o Interesting! May be the mild local temperatures on my island Fejø, situated in a bay, around a to hours drive away to the south. I noticed the differece in this winters cold spell of minus 10-20 degrees Celsius in Copenhagen, compared to 3-7 degrees frost at my place. I am looking forward to trying the broccoli. Well, hoping, that we go free of the flooding this year.
I would recommend trying broad beans (hestebønner) if you haven’t already. They seem to not be so common in Denmark, but give a good and very early crop. I start mine in the greenhouse in February to get going extra early, for a crop in June which allows something else to be grown afterwards. Agree on the flooding front - less rain in DK this winter please!
Thank you, so many brilliant tips and tricks. Winter/spring veg is an area that I've been trying to expand lately 😊
Great to hear 🙂
Morning Charles, well got my garden fully in and for the last two months I’ve had a church class meet over here in which we’ve talk much about gardening and different tips I’ve learned from you. Thanks for all your videos and advice. Much thanks. (Old guy from Arkansas)🇺🇸
Wonderful and thank you for sharing 🙂
Thank you Charles, that came just at the right time and way jet again very encouraging 😊 no dig, no rotation I love it 😅
I am glad 🙂
Obrigado querido ❤
Thanks charles always a joy having a look round what your growing ect., ❤
Glad you enjoyed it Loraine
lovely video
Glad you enjoyed it Steven
Great video Charles! I love your Winter Vegetable book! I always find myself referring to it as the season progresses!
Great to hear Luke 🙂
Hey Charles! I think the best thing I ever did was to maintain a garden journal. I can look back and see what worked and I think it would be an added value to anyone who would want to purchase my house and garden. Cheers!
Love that Craig
Vườn rau của bạn thật tuyệt vời ,bạn rất giỏi chăm sóc rau chúng phát triển thật tốt cho thu hoạch cao nhìn rất thích ❤👍🌱.
Many thanks for your lovely comment!
I didn't think it was possible for us in zone 6b until this spring when beet greens and chard came up. I cut chard to the ground last winter and it few grew back.
Had stunted turnips last fall. Did not cover through winter. They are over 4 feet. Flowers for pollinators. Small tender leaves makes wonderful salads.
Now I'll be sewing beets and chard in late fall. We heavily mulch w. 3x's chopped brown leaves in late fall. Thank you Charles for teaching outside the box and sharing the possibilities.
Turnips are biennial. Save the seeds from this batch. I like to plant turnips in mid-summer. Then they’re ready to harvest in November, or let overwinter and they’ll make seed the following summer. The bees love turnip flowers (all brassicas for that matter).
Love this, very creative 💚
Great video,,,,
Thank you, glad you enjoyed it Sam
You have so mild winters there. Here in south of Norway or worse if you live in North of Norway you cant do what you do. I was lucky to sow some garlic in Desember when we have tempeture over 0+.
This winter we did have -5/10c in average and many weeks with -25/30, its very little you can sow to do what you do, would like for you to try what you do there, here in our conditintions.
Thanks Philip. you are right and it would need a special greenhouse, not so practical
What's worse, is the low light levels.
Really appreciate your support thru your videos! I'm fortunate to have a great library system because I have your Skills book on loan. Thank you Charles
That's nice Wayne. It's getting harder to find time to make them!
@@CharlesDowding1nodig thank you Charles! Your a very busy person. Wrestling with crabgrass and edging today, beautiful weather!
Bom dia querido perfeito obrigado pela explicação e pela tradução ❤
Você é muito bem-vindo Luisa
💚 from Poland
You have amazing tips for us beginners, thank you.
Oh good, I am happy to be helping
Bonsoir Charles
No Dig c'est super !!
Thank you 😊
Maxime 22 🇨🇵
Merci bien Maxime
I always learn something new here, even after watching for years now, there is always something new. I like that about you, Charles. I like your conversational type videos. And now...where can I get that book? :)
Cool, thanks. We sell Skills book www.charlesdowding.co.uk/product/skills-for-growing-2
So do Chelsea Green in the US
Well said plan ahead and enjoy the growing season by growing our own food ,,,like always so very inspiring 👍🇮🇳
💚
Thank you! Beautiful and informative as always. 😊
You are welcome!
I am very impressed with your greenhouses, can you share the cost of it?
2013 greenhouse was £6.500, 2019 polytunnel 18 x 42ft £2000 but more now, see video for comparison ua-cam.com/video/QsKne-hzLzM/v-deo.html
Thanks for the video! Have you ever considered putting in drip irrigation? I know no dig requires less frequent watering, and with you climate maybe not necessary, but wonder if that would save time in the long run. Thanks
Yes I have, tried it 1983-86 in the tunnels. Then decided overhead was better under cover. Never used it outside because I don't like how it leaves much of the soil dry, with microbes dormant.
In some situations, however I can see that it's worthwhile. It's good to be aware of the pros and cons, then you can work it out.
I’ve been harvesting overwintered Cauliflowers, Chard and Pak-Choi recently, which has utterly delighted me.
I’m in the process of transitioning the garden from Winter into Spring/Summer, and there’s obviously a lot of work to be done. How do you and your team cope physically with the manual labour? My modest garden produces more food than I can eat, but after long shifts in the heat of the past weekend I was exhausted, hence the interest in hearing how you all deal with the work.
Nice to hear Tufty. We are quite fit from doing this a lot, and efficient, it rarely feels like a slog!
I literally said a couple of hours ago to my daughter, I need a wintering veg show. Thank you!
😀
Thank you for sharing, it’s very inspiring!
Glad you enjoyed it
I don’t understand how people will eat collard greens and not eat broccoli and cauliflower leaves. They all taste the same and so delicious.
Do the broccoli and cauliflower leaves taste good?
@@91wayne90 you have to try them.
I definitely will! Have some broccoli plants with huge leaves.
@@91wayne90 they taste like cabbage, they are a brassica after all.
Broccoli leaves taste just like broccoli florets
Hi, have you got a video about when to sow veg for Christmas? Thank you for all the valuable information 😊
No - what do you eat at Christmas?!
@@CharlesDowding1nodig Christmas dinner…potatoes, carrots, parsnips etc
Potatoes asap, parsnips and carrots mid June, Brussels now
I wish that here, in zone 5, we could over winter crops… but with periods of temps of 0 Fahrenheit and lower, not possible.
Challenging! Check out "walapini" info.bcgreenhouses.com/en-ca/en-ca/walipini-underground-greenhouses
I’m in zone 5 as well. I’ve had cabbage, leeks, carrots last through the winter without any cover. It may depend on the winter, of course. I did find that the leeks & carrots were great until they started sending up flower stalks. Then they got a tough core in the middle and weren’t nice to eat anymore. But I left them to flower & get seeds.
I plan to try spinach this winter by using hoops with fleece like Charles does.
@@jenbear8652 yes, it does depend on winter. Fleece isn’t going to protect from high winds and -10 Fahrenheit temps.
Charles, as you know im keen on veg gardening and no dig is helping enormously (although i still rely on some agchem interventions)
An area im not making as much progress on as i want are crops to follow early potatoes, always Duke of York, peas and onions. I grow leeks and beetroot in the greenhouse to then have decent sized plants to fill in witg ltd success. Anything else i can try? Not leaves as we have chard and spinach in abundance.😊
Broccoli for autumn or spring David, also beetroot and carrots
Pretty sure that’s chickweed at the end and not lambs lettuce? Still, very similar and very tasty! Great video as always 👍
Ah no, it's lambs lettuce or corn salad, flowering with its pale blue flowers, on its way to setting seed, which I shall harvest in about three weeks. We have been harvesting leaves from those plants since November.
@@CharlesDowding1nodig ah I see, hadn’t seen it in flower before so wasn’t aware of how different the leaves look when it begins to flower. But I can now see it after googling pics of it in flower. Thanks!
It looks to me as if your purple sprouting broccoli is at a much closer spacing than the seed packets recommend. Clearly, it works for you! Can you confirm this observation?
Between plants, it's about 50 cm or 20 inches which can look a little close, but they have a lot of space and root run to either side, because the bed is 1.2 m/4 feet. And there's some path space on each side as well.
Thank you very much for interesting film and clever instruction👍🌷🍀🫑🥬🥒🥦
You are welcome Grażyna
@@CharlesDowding1nodig
Yes,of course,thanks for answer.
Pozdrawiam 👍
I always have problems with my longterm planning for the year. I always seem to be just behind in my planting.
Good luck with being ahead!
I'm finding direct sowing things now gets less slug damage, they always go for the transplants, got me thinking about vibrations and distress signals of plants, but it's also been a very wet spring
Congratulations. I find the exact opposite!
You mention cauliflower, this year I sowed on around 1st Jan, pricked out into pots and then kept them in the pots until late March when I was reasonably sure there would be no more frosts below -10 C. By then they are pretty sturdy plants, did great in the (no-dig) ground under fleece (which I have since removed) and will probably start heading up nicely towards the end of May. This approach isn't for everyone as it takes up a fair bit of indoor space but it circumvents the frost risk, and 8-10-week-old brassica plants are much less susceptible to being nibbled to death at that stage. I should add that I have to time it this way as we have very hot summers and I can't still have brassicas in the garden beyond June so it's a tight window.
You are so professional, congratulations. Brilliant work on timings and approach, for your climate.
@@CharlesDowding1nodig Thanks, I wish! Just bumbling through and trying to adapt no-dig principles to our very different climate (and to do it extremely hands-off, too, as I have very little time for gardening at this stage in life!)
Charles; I just had a thought - between your dig and no-dig beds, have you noticed that some types of veg show a marked difference while some other types of veg show little difference? Hypothetically, one might expect that the difference is due to mycorrhiza, and some plants may depend on these more than others. What do you think?
I have wondered that. However, there are so many factors at play and it's often less straightforward than isolating one factor.
Adam and Taryn are looking at mycorrhizal behaviour with and in brassica roots, which are supposed not to use them or associate with them. Yet they are! - I hope to make a video about this eventually.
@@CharlesDowding1nodig Thanks for replying. This discussion reminded me just now of a book, I think its this one: "The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate--Discoveries from a Secret World", which describes how plants use fungi not only as root extensions, but as conduits through which they can exchange nutrients with other plants and even to communicate with each other. Life is amazing. Thanks to evolution, pretty much anything that is physically possible (and useful to the organism) is likely to occur, sooner or later.
I’ve done this for years ..mainly to give the chickens something extra.. in my polytunnel….nobody else does it on the other plots but I like to use my polytunnel to extend to a full year….this year was chard/savoy cabbage/beetroot which sadly went to seed..but the chickens are nearly through the lot…they have been getting extra since start of year..
Nice job Darren
Hey Charles,
Looking to take some of these techniques. Is there any recommended varieties of Broccoli and red cabbage you may have in mind?
Do see this video ua-cam.com/video/Oir1J_CfU9Q/v-deo.html and use the timings list to find what you want
Hola! Felicitaciones! Por que los sustitutos cambian de idioma? Estaban en español y ahora están en portugués. Otros en italiano.
Gracias. Debería poder elegir entre esos diferentes idiomas y, si desea español, simplemente haga clic en español. Estoy usando un servicio de traducción diferente y tal vez algo haya cambiado en la configuración, pero todos los idiomas deberían estar ahí para ti.
When u say over wintering do u mean sow the seeds out and leve in the ground over winter
You sow seeds whenever is the right time for the particular vegetal;e, and then they overwinter as plants to give harvests either through winter or in spring
Charles - I told you in late autumn about my speculative sowing of Fava Beans, transplanting modules in early November, which we both agreed was a bit risky. As things turned out, the three areas I transplanted them into all grew beautifully, and I harvested them for composting in late April/early May (basically when I wanted to plant something else out). The last harvest, the plants were 5ft tall when I harvested them - it's a very easy cover crop to create and keeps beds well covered, particularly through spring as the plants grow significantly.
One thing I've also noticed this spring is that the onions and shallots from seed have been better than ever. I can't decide whether it's just my allotment no-dig beds are getting better and better, or whether the rain we had this spring (much more than normal in NW London) was something that young alliums like. I transplanted early April after a mid March sowing.
Finally, the Aquadulce Claudia seeds I harvested from a few plants that survived 2 weeks of -7C in winter 22/23 have survived a week of -6C much better this year (60% really strong plants vs 3-5% the previous year), so hopefully the seeds from this year's crop will be more uniformly deep frost resistant.
I must say that radish harvests have been much later this year than in previous years - the cool April may not have helped. Lots of foliage, but only in early May were the roots ready from an early March transplant. Keeps us all humble by teaching us that our predictions of harvest dates are variable to say the least.
Slugs this year are worse than for many years - first time in years I have had Red Alert tomato transplants eaten by the beasties.
That's good to hear, but it was an exceptionally easy winter. Nothing ever is the same year on year, and never mind, you have a lot more success than failure 😀
👍🙏
👍
Inspirational as always!
What was your lowest temperature this winter? Just to get an idea of what you mean when you say "mild winter" :D we had -15C this winter, which was colder than usual, but could e.g. purple sprouting broccili, cauliflower and chard be able to overwinter with such temperatures?
Thanks Jakob and it was -8C.
Below about -10°C, broccoli is not happy!
@@CharlesDowding1nodig thanks! Broccoli will be on the experimental end of the spectrum then :) of course, 2 winters ago we barely had frost. So it can work out...
Thank you for the video Charles ! Hey Charles ever had problems with ants? I just removed the tarps from my garden and i have 4 large nest in a small bed, and from past experience those are problematic, they eat stems of my bush beans and others. Any solution to this?
Yes I have them sometimes and use water as Chris says
Thank you very much both!
Can u do a video on beans
Here you are ua-cam.com/video/oO3P_TJx_so/v-deo.html
I have raised beds pallet collar type is this similar to no dig as I dont dig them? They do however dry out which can be a problem. My soil underlying soil is clay. Im wondering if I should just grown without the raised beds?
Yes, I would remove them, and you may be surprised by how many slugs you find. Just press down the edges to 45° with your foot, add a little more compost on top and you are fully no dig.
@@CharlesDowding1nodig great thank you 😊
I tried for two years to grow broad beans. I lost the first year’s crop early on to what appears to be brown spot. The second year’s crop got a little further along but it too surcumbed the same way. Discouraged, I didn’t plant any this year.-Any suggestions?
It sounds like chocolate spot, and I've had it where the soil has not been sufficiently amended with organic matter. They like it rich and fertile, so I would add some extra compost of any kind. There is false information out there about them 'being a legume so not needing compost', but the soil needs to be healthy!
@@CharlesDowding1nodig Thanks. I planted them the first and second year I was doing no dig. That would explain why they did better the second year.❤️
I was wondering... how do you get white bottom of leaks with no dig ? ... and potatoes ?
I don't, I'm very happy with pale green stems and they are still very long and sweet. Four potatoes we just pull them up after adding extra compost on top, ua-cam.com/video/EBV_ri1_XSQ/v-deo.html
@@CharlesDowding1nodig thanks a lot... 😁
I'm the same, I grew leeks last year and left them in the ground because they were still tiny, they have now more than doubled in size recently and I'm also not bothered about the colour, I'll just eat them as they are, last year when they were tiny I just cut them back and ate the tops and thought I'd just see if they'd grow back like spring onions do and they did. As for potatoes that has been one of my most successful crops, I can't seem to stop them growing here, they pop up everywhere 😂 even in places I never planted them, I have overwintered them a few times now successfully by putting some back in pots over winter covered with soil in the garden and just let them do what they want and they grow and it also means they get a head start in the spring and I'm harvesting potatoes earlier, around mid to late May, if they have leaves when there's some cold weather I will cover them with fleece and if the leaves do get damaged by frost I just cut the leaves back and they eventually sprout new leaves, potatoes do seem to be very hardy and I have also found some growing in my compost too, I love Charles' no fuss approach to gardening and I try to use the same approach which works well for me and saves a lot of work too, I try to work with nature rather than against it, i don't plant in rows partly because of lack of space and also because i think it seems to help with pests by mixing them up, maybe it distracts them by disguising the smells, I also don't worry too much about rotation and don't have the space for that anyway, I try to fill in as many gaps as possible and because I have a small garden the veg have to share pots with each other, I have to be creative with the space I have, I do forget what I've planted where 😂 but there's always a nice surprise when I go out there just to do one job and come back indoors with a selection of veg that I didn't know was there or had forgotten I'd planted, I did this a couple of days ago, I picked some chard, lettuce, spring onions and pack choi that had been out there over winter, I've also got some carrots still out there that I planted in autumn that were tiny but now they have since grown, there's also some spinach growing back from a last August sowing. I've learnt so much from this channel and as I'm in another part of Somerset I know my climate is going to be very similar to where Charles is based so I always take note of the dates he recommends.
Another great video Charles, thank you. Hope you don't mind me asking but I've recently moved into a property that has a few rhododendrons and was wondering if their leaves are ok to compost. So many conflicting theories online but I remembered that you are ok to put most things in your compost (and I trust your advice) so...do the bad parts of them break down as we would want them to or are they best not on there? As always, thank you from NZ
Go for it Vicki - just those leaves need chopping up because they are so oily and resist bacterial decomposition unless they are broken. I think also maybe people worry about pH but I don't see that there's any problem with it. Thanks for your nice words.
Awesome, thanks so much.
Great thought provoking video. I’m curious if any of these veg might work in my area in Southern Ontario, Canada. I planted as early as I possibly could, with row covers and plastic at times to protect my beds but growth just slows down. I don’t know if the transplants would make it through our winter and hard frosts/winter thaws. I garden in 2- 4x8 raised beds (for veg) and there’s never enough space. How old would the transplants have to be to go in the garden in the fall? Thank you for your advise.
Thanks, I'm glad you like the video and I'm sure you can do useful winter work because of your relatively low latitude, around 43° it looks to me while we are at 51°, much further north. However, you do not have the ocean warmth, so you need to make more of that sunshine, check out the work of Elliot Coleman. And sow cabbage + salad onions a little earlier than me, say 25th August to have larger transplants with maybe four true leaves.
@@CharlesDowding1nodig thank you so much for the advise about timing. You’re right about the sunshine. It declines significantly in the later summer months and of course as you said, no ocean warmth. I’ll check out the channel you suggested. I can use all the help I can get! Thank you 🙏
Would I be able to grow melon/cucumber and tomato in the same polytunnel or would it cause issues? Thanks 🙏🏻
I do, you can, ignore those who say you can't!
@@CharlesDowding1nodig that’s good to know, could you still save seed from each? Thanks again
Yes. they don't cross pollinate, and as long as they are not F1 hybrids
Can you tell me best place to get those wire hoops and mesh you use to keep pigeons and cabbage whites away thanks.
Yes this page, for the UK at least www.crocus.co.uk/products/_/vid.3796/numitems.100/sort.7/
Thank you am uk and thats great help. @@CharlesDowding1nodig
How do you eat those broad beans? I don’t know anyone local to me in the US that grows them. I don’t have a clue as to what recipes to try them in.
I sell a fair few, we eat a lot including course lunches, and some are for seed as green manure
they're delicious boiled when green and fresh and used in salads and dips, or just a side, dressed with oil and salt. You can also dry them for keeping, they are used heavily that way in middle eastern cuisine such as egyptian style falafel and ful (a dip or soup made with dried broad beans).
Do you not have to double pod them to eat insides only?
I live in Australia. Does the book accommodate my geographic location?
Datewise for sowings, no.
Advice on spacings, watering, propagation, planting tips, v similar for you I reckon.
Good evening. I planted garlic late October under fleece (now under insect mesh). Both successfully prevented leaf miners. It’s starting to bulb up slightly but fast fading under the pressure of rust. At what stage of rust pressure should pulling it be the optimum response. ie when half or more of the leaves are no longer green/photosynthesizing?
Are you finding this an issue earlier than usual this year?
It’s still May (17th)… I don’t normally pull until mid/late June…. 😞
Oh…. And this year I haven’t dowsed in diluted used coffee granule “tea”. Usually works but forgot to do it this year….
Interesting, because here I have some leaf miner, but less rust that you.
I wait until it's 80% rusty leaves, before harvest. Currently we are maybe 50% and they are still growing. Yours might be best removed soon and before end May, good luck!
@@CharlesDowding1nodig Thank you so much for your advice and feedback! I’ll get my drying racks up ready for harvesting soon. Will mince up and freeze the smaller heads without bothering to cure.
I'm no dog but I'm finding it really differcult to keep the soil moist it drying out very quick. What am I doing wrong?
Maybe add a layer of mulch ...grass clippings or woodchips to stop that evaporation.
@@gmorgan894 thanks I'll give that a try
Brst varities for overwintering Charles?
See this page www.charlesdowding.co.uk/resources/seeds-varieties
I'm on a smaller scale than you but I do try and keep to my succession planting schedule for what works best in my climate.
I have an asparagus question. I have a lot of volunteers sprouting in my bed which I suppose means I have a lot of female plants. My production is a bit disappointing on my now 5 or 6 year old plants and I assume it may be because of the females. Should I let some of the volunteers grow or will they crowd my original crowns. I suppose I could try and eliminate the females and replace them with male volunteers but the originals are well established now and I'd have to dig them out and wait years for any new plants to get established. ugh.
Your comment is perceptive and there's no obvious answer that I know. I have a similar problem in one part of my patch. A supposed hybrid crown turned out to be a female, resulting in many competing and smaller plants. There is no guarantee that these self seeded plants will grow decent harvests, so I'm not sure!
@@CharlesDowding1nodig Asparagus takes so long to get established it is frustrating when things don't go well. Thanks Charles!
Your mic sounds like it’s under several layers of clothing. Muffled. 🎙️
Thanks for your feedback, we shall check the settings, as you can see it's exposed.
Thank you so much for ideas on plants to over winter.
You are very welcome