You mentioned briefly that no dig gardens are not as affected by dry weather. This is what has amazed me in my garden. It went over 4 weeks here with dry hot weather and I only had to water a few of my young plants in the last week.
I envy your close proximity to a good seaweed supply. Elliot Coleman used to gather it himself for his place. Id love to start using it sometime, if I can find a source that I trust.
Este final de año no tengo tantos caracoles aunque la lluvia de estos días puede atraer más a estos.Espero que los mirlos vengan a desayunar a mi huerto 😂😂 Saludos desde Tenerife ☔️🐝🌸👏🏻🥕🥬🫑🐞🥦
I'm also a farmer (in Portugal) and this November has been amazing. Surprised to see a lot of stuff surviving and still cropping. Also the rain mixed with some days of sun is being good for a lot of rogue compost mounds I have
Nice to hear. I wonder whether the recent cold weather has reached you, it's very different here now with below freezing even all through today
10 місяців тому+2
@CharlesDowding1nodig with that I feel lucky. England is more rough with the cold. My plot is 5km from the ocean and the cold only reaches around 4/5 during the night. I'm even currently with only a t-shirt on building a structure for a bathtub in order to try worm composting (well right now I'm actually eating a sandwich and writing this 😅) Have a nice day, Charles!
Like you I've had problems with my leeks. Weeds have been a real issue this year with all the rain, so the weeds have got away a bit and none more so than on the leek bed. Whilst weeding, I found loads of caterpillars, which I now presume are from the leeks. I am disappointed as I use leeks instead of onions in cooking, once all my onions are finished. They too were not so brilliant this year. Mainly trying to get them dry, so quite a few of those have rotted and ended up on the compost heap. Whilst it might have been a challenging year this year, there is always next year to look forward to. I love these videos, they give so much inspiration,
Thank you Sharon. I'm sorry to hear about your onions and another time. I would bring them even into your house to finish the drying. Caterpillars on leeks would be a new one to me, but we're finding caterpillars on many vegetables where they did not used to be!
Oh my goodness, this is serious then and I'm wondering who else might be noticing similar. Today I saw one pigeon and it ate some Brussels sprouts tops, and for once I was not too cross!
Very inspiring, Charles! You've been big source of knowledge as I get my first garden off of the ground. I'm restoring some old land that belonged, at one point, to my grandfather. I'm documenting it on my own channel! Thanks for helping me during that process.
Awesome! Thank you Gabriela and I am very happy to see your comment here, because I noticed you have ordered a Calendar, for which thank you, and I hope it arrives okay because you are possibly the first person in Chile to order from my website. It will be a test for Royal Mail shipping! I am in Patagonia briefly in early January, Puerto Natales then Franciso Vio's.
I've find this year that autumn crops have been amazing in NW London and I think the reason was actually that July and August were less hot, more damp than previous years, so young plants established beautifully and didn't suffer pest damage. I learned that you can transplant out swede in July and actually get the best crop ever, despite me thinking that they'd gone out too late. They were shaded by sweetcorn through July and August, then had full sun in September and October. I was harvesting from the beginning of November, the best and most uniform stand I've ever grown. Fennel and autumn beetroot were also the best ever, beetroot transplanted 10th July and fennel late in the month. Cabbages aren't nearly as big as last year, though.
@@CharlesDowding1nodig Yes, it was due to all the autumn-sown broad beans dying in the hard winter frosts, so I had to plant more in February, which didn't finish cropping until the first week in July.
our no dig garden here in Denmark was attacked by the leaf minor fly in 2021 + 2022 and destryed all onions, leeks, before I found out about covering a new place in the kitchen garden with very fine mesh . it is covered all year round (also use to protect our cabbage plants at the same time) as the fly from last year has larvae in the ground which hatch in April and again in August. but it works. we have had the most beautiful leeks and onions from seed this year! Here i would say that one rotation is important to escape an effected area. Happy growing 🇩🇰🌱
Wow, this insect is so bad! I don't understand where these new horrible difficulties appear from, and why. Whatever, your information is extremely helpful, and thank you so much. My only concern is the thought of covering all year!
It's been a dark one, for sure. Your winter garden seems to be handling it better than mine, though. And thanks for showing off your the new challenges in the garden, Charles. We're always learning...
WELL… OUR NEW CHILDREN’S NO DIG GARDENING BOOK HAS ARRIVED AND SIR CHARLES EVEN SENT IT IN A STARTER PIECE OF CARDBOARD FOR THEIR FIRST NO DIG PLOT !!!!! HE CAN’T MAKE THIS ANY EASIER PEOPLE !!!!!!
That's amazing production from such a small area. I wish my Romanesco Cauli's were are big as yours. I'm thinking of starting sowing them a week or so earlier.
Give Charles a red and black Dennis the Menace tshirt and a Frank Spencer beret and hey presto you will have a Captain Sensible (the Damned) look-alike !
Charles I write to you from NZ, I follow your instructional videos with enthusiasm and have converted to your no dig growing method. We are just entering our summer season and I want to grow sprouts for winter. Have you a video about wats to succeed? I've only ever managed 1 successful crop in the last 4 years and I do so love sprouts! 😢😢😢😢
It definitely works! I always use beer traps early on in the season to put an oar in their reproductive cycle. Really does help. Catches loads. It’s actually quite disgusting 🤢 Then it tails off for a few weeks/months (depending on weather) because there are less babies around - which can cause folk to think it’s stopped working. Tbh, after the first flush of success I too stop. Three reasons: Gets costly; catches too many beneficial stag beetles which upsets the balance; too lazy/busy. I wish I could remember to restart beer traps early autumn but I never do! 😫.
I'm looking forward to the planning of the growing season using your calendar it calls to my inner autistic mind, we go all out with whatever we try. Looking at your wee plot here gives me ideas, one of my goals for 2024 is to see how much my wee garden can grow. Thank you!!
I also have been having slug problem in my leafy greens all the way here in Oregon. As I cut off leaves starting from the bottom it seems to help. Keeping it tidy as you recommend. Thank you for all your great information.
We have leek miner in Warwickshire which devastates leeks in October and November. I’ve tried growing them under fine mesh but they were still mined. Next year I’m going to try growing them singly (not multi sown) in the hope they will grow a bit bigger before the end of September which is when to harvest to avoid total loss of the crop. I’d be very interested to see what solutions you come up with, Charles, for this pesky pest
Thanks for sharing this Gill, even though it's bad news. It's good to know what we're up against, and I'm finding similar for carrots, that the flies are getting better at crawling underneath the edges! So, we shall see
Hi Jill. Fleece onion and leek seeds upon sowing. Keep under fleece until transplant. Transplant at night and mulch with clean compost to suppress weeds as best as possible so as not to limit time uncovering to weed. Keep fleeced until harvest or if you’re growing winter/spring leeks, and you’ve been successful keeping those pesky miners away, you can uncover after the first hard frosts from early December until mid February to be safe. They get into onions too (different miners than those that cause the telltale leaf twist) which you only discover when chopping up. The reason leeks tend to go mouldy/smelly I think is because water gets into the tunnels burrowed out by the miner larvae. Doesn’t get quite as bad with onions because they’re usually harvested after the first miner cycle has flown. Second miner cycle late summer/early autumn intend to burrow to hibernate overwinter. Summer leaf miner moth is another story! Also in the Midlands now. Fleece is best IMHO.
Greetings, Charles, from Windermere, Florida zone 9b USA We had 2 mornings at 46-48°F, now back to high 60's and 80's daytime. I'm trying to keep up with Weeding and ready the soil with a winter crop. Merry Christmas to you and your family 🎅🎄🤶 ❤Peggy❤
Thanks for sharing your lovely temperatures Peggy! We've just had a fair amount of freezing weather. For you, it sounds ideal now to start lots of winter vegetables, good luck with that, and thanks for your festive wishes, I wish you a lovely time.
Here in the Bay Area, its been cool, even cold some nights, but the average temperature has been higher than normal, as I can see by my outdoor tomatoes continuing to grow and set flowers. My runner beans died off a month ago, but some stragglers stayed green and even grew a bit and I had some fresh beans last week. My Japanese turnips are glowing nicely, if slowly, and with the rain, there's been some slug damage, so I put out beer. I also have sweet peas blooming. I couldnt say that I'm getting huge harvests at the moment or that the crops I have are summer sweet, but there's always something to nibble. So it looks like in general, we're having the same skew of the weather that you are... but the low light levels just slow everything down. The parsley is doing fantastic though!
Fantastic garden, Charles. My garden was a bit of a disaster this year. From deer getting into the garden and weeds overrunning everything and so much not germinating this year. I also was plagued with birds this year so I wonder whether the germination issues were actually the birds. Looking forward to spring and hopping for a better year next year.
On your leeks at the 1:00 mark, you don’t hill them with dirt, or decomposed wood chips maybe? That will allow them to blanch and stay white farther up the shoot. The white part is the more tender delicious part of the plant.
Thoroughly enjoy your steady flow of videos thank you. I am surprised that you didn't start your broadbeans in modules. I transplanted mine a couple of weeks ago under fleece as I lost them last year due to severe frost.
Cheers Martin. I always do some direct sown and some from modules and compare them. Last year the best results were from Direct sowing on first November, but that's not always true! Some I sowed this year on 27th October, direct, and they look fantastically strong now, but still very small, which is ideal ahead of winter.
I usually pick lamb's lettuce by harvesting the whole plant. Recently, I saw in a video by Jean-Martin Fortier that he only picks the outer leaves and and lets the plant grow on for more pickings, is that something you have ever tried? Yeah, only three weeks till days start getting longer.
Thanks Helen, and if Jean-Martin is doing that, I truly admire his patience and ability to withstand cold fingers!! I cut whole plants, there is a little regrowth but it's not much.
Nice harvest, Charles. That‘s sad that the slugs have eaten so much. Hopefully next year the birds will find their way back in your garden. At my garden, there were plenty of birds and also slugs🤷🏻♀️, an when I wasn‘t aware the birds ate nearly all of my lettuce seeds🙈. Luckily I had plenty from last year. Next year I plan to dare early plantings, the last year I dowded the weather and finally got them out a little late. Thank you for the look around in November! Here in Southern Germany it finally got winter, one foot snow since yesterday evening and the night is forecasted -7 degrees Celsius🥶.
It really is. Whished, I could post a photo… I hope you‘ll also get such a white covering soon, maybe even for Christmas! it‘s soothing to the eyes after this grey rainy days we also had for a long time.
For a Londoner like me it is always particularly instructive when you talk about your "small garden" area. In this video you also mention spreading granulated seaweed every few years. Roughly how many gramms per square meter do you use for this? Thank you for your work! :)
Leaf miner flies can get through mesh. 😫. Or crawl in under the sides. Fleece is better. In my experience, leaf miner moths take over in the summer from the dormant cycle periods of the leaf miner flies. Once you have leaf miner it’s best to kick start the rotation system because leaf miner moths can lay eggs in the soil next to the leaks/onions/garlic, an larvae/maggots can drop into the soil when they pupate whereas leaf miner flies tend to pupate in the bulbs. I’ve had success with diluted coffee granule tea on miner infested leaves before they migrate into the stem/bulbs. Best results is with fleece protection until winter sets in. Re-cover from mid February. I’ve also been clear of miner in alliums in mixed uncovered beds. Probably by chance. Wouldn’t bank on it.
@@CharlesDowding1nodig I know! So depressing! They’re manageable in garlic and leeks in that once the tell tale sign of a line of punctures are spotted you can remove the leaf before the larvae travels to the bulb/stem. Onions seem to react differently (or it attracts a different type of miner) and the leaves twist. I pull the plant. Although I have left a few in situ to see what happens and for some reason they didn’t rot completely over winter but grew new leaves the following year that again twisted and didn’t exactly flourish but still flowered despite being used AGAIN by a leaf miner. Onions that look healthy at harvest but have a miner’s pupae within its bulb will not store for long but I still use them. Garlic stores ok over winter but you need to be careful not to drop a pupae (that hide in between cloves) into the area you’re planting from saved cloves. ie separate bulbs away from the planting area and clean up/check cloves thoroughly. Leeks and onions need to be covered from the time of sowing or at least after germination. I pop them in a fleece covered cold frame until they’re planted under fleece cover. Leeks are covered immediately after planting out into weed free bed. I find nighttime better. Then I mulch around the transplants to suppress germination of weed seeds. I’ll uncover if I see the telltale regular dots of an adult miner having laid eggs and groom dodgy looking leaves. Then I trust in optimism until harvest time which is when you can see whether the pupae are embedded. Early harvests with pupae can be cleaned up to eat. Later harvests are usually rotten and smelly and disposed. It’s a joy to see overwintering leeks uncovered and unaffected. The poisons/insectides used to combat allium leaf miners are banned for home growers. I understand they’re being banned for commercial growers soon. I love leeks so I prefer to keep growing them to eat poison free . I’m not a scientist so don’t study the insects under microscope. I just watch closely what’s happening. My garden is insecticide free and ecologically fairly balanced but there’s no prey insect I’ve seen that feeds off the miners. Spring early summer and autumn early winter the allium miner fly insects are around. I’ve watched them crawl through enviromesh. Late spring through to early autumn are the allium miner moths. To be on the safe side I stick with fleece although the moth doesn’t get in through enviromesh. If anyone else has more information please let me know! I can’t see the point in growing your own food if I give up on garlic, onions (including spring onions) and leaks. That’s why I invested in a large roll of fleece. Commercial growers round me use half acre wide fleece! I’m wondering if they got caught out last year with the summer newcomer, allium leaf miner moth…. Sorry about the long winded comment…
Please don't apologise, this is so helpful. I'm thinking I should make a small video about it to share this information and if I do, how do I credit you? Do you want to share your full name? I'm not sure that you are right to call the moth a miner! I always see it referred to as leek moth, and I have had it here since 2011. However, lately, it's much less common! So maybe it has a predator or two, unlike the revolting miners.
@@CharlesDowding1nodig Oh yes. It *IS* leek moth. Not a miner. I should have taken more time to put my comment together. Not looking for credit, Charles!. Was really only relating my own experience hoping to encourage others or the more knowledgeable to add theirs. A large contract market gardener perhaps. It’s difficult to search for scientific papers on the matter. US State Extension Offices are really helpful. Allium leaf miners have made their presence known there now. And there’s plenty of US universities conducting studies on Extension Office research farms. There were scientific papers released in the UK in the 90’s by the Allium Research department of Warwick University (including white rot which was eye opening!!!) but Mr Google’s frustrating algorithm for promoting preferred websites gets the better of me these days. If you include EU in the search box the papers are sometimes revealed as the institution is referred to within them. And we do largely align with the EU on laws due to import export. EU study Documents are available in every language. NFU/Farmers magazines/Press released science reports are behind firewalls that prevent access by the general public but I don’t think it’s nefarious. There was something I got linked to regarding laws home growers must abide by when registering to sell or give away produce on a “regular” basis. It’s VERY long and involves bio security and complicated chemical references I don’t understand! Perhaps someone like you would have better luck with contacting a UK university research expert who’d be more than happy to give an interview or at least bring you up to date. The NFU might be helpful re latest/impending laws on insecticides. Or Defra. Meanwhile, for your lovely followers who don’t have access to quality bulk compost, don’t trust it, or unable to make their own that reach high enough temperatures, I’d recommend using a quality store bought bagged compost to mulch onion/leek/garlic beds after transplant to limit the chance of bringing in overwintering pupae from their own compost bins. Or mulch with grass clippings to suppress weed growth after transplant. Lifting fleece to weed during the day gives the pesky little flies that hang around the opportunity to make their home permanent for the duration. Putting chickens onto allium beds after harvest is complete is an excellent way to rid pupae. And throwing allium leaves/bulbs for chickens to peck through in their coop before composting is good practice. They don’t like the leaves much (obvs) but have excellent eyesight for spotting bugs/eggs. Obviously, chickens aren’t allowed near areas when registered for selling/giving away food for human consumption. But ok for home/family growers atm…. until it’s not…. Anyway, as mentioned above, I’ve had some success with coffee ground tea. I discovered it by accident when I threw a flask of real coffee over some leeks in a tantrum after it had got cold. The leeks were the only ones that didn’t have miner damage in that area when harvesting. I tried to do some research on it before we left the EU. Found out using coffee grounds as an insecticide was “illegal” but using it for making compost or as a barrier against slugs was allowed. Not sure if we’d get fined now or if I’ll get cancelled for suggesting it on line. Not even sure it works 😂 Have a great week!
@@CharlesDowding1nodig Forgot to mention, the leek moth caterpillars were on my onions this year. I hadn’t kept the fleece on because I thought we were out of danger for the leaf miner cycle. I did however have them covered with bird netting to prevent amorous pigeon damage shenanigans. Too large a hole to prevent butterflies/moths. They’ll be fleeced until harvest next year. I’ll even loosely fleece when drying because yep the moth and miners still loiter around after being pulled. 🙁
I’ve really struggled with couch grass and bind weed in a bed that I covered in cardboard and compost. Mid potato season I put additional cardboard and wood chip to try and control the weeds but I kept loosing the battle. My Maris Pipers were only the size of hens eggs. If you were me and really struggling in an area, would you dig out the roots and then do no dig moving forward?
Thanks for commenting, and I'm pretty sure that you have not been doing any follow-up weed removal, like new shoots of couch grass and bindweed which emerge after the initial smothering by cardboard and compost. I do emphasise this in other videos, that the first year can be difficult when the roots of perennial weeds are strong. Also, I wonder if you have mulched and are maintaining weed free the pathways next to your beds. Also if you have wooden sides because that makes weed removal more difficult. You could consider placing a big sheet of black plastic in March over beds and paths, and plant potatoes through holes in the plastic in April, see my new area playlist ua-cam.com/play/PL7WDfop74y-k1a3lMA0ooD5m8bhiKu5sR.html
@@CharlesDowding1nodig thanks Charles. My plot has flag paths with grass boarders around the exterior. No wood because I believe that makes slug and weed problems worse! I’ll try and be more proactive with weed removal. Just hard being my first year here. They’re everywhere! Thank you for your awesome suggestions. Hopefully this next will be better 👍🏻
What about topping with wood chips (to lower the surface moisture) sprinkled with diatomaceous earth to kill the slugs/snails? You get slugs/snails because you are too wet too often.
I have found that woodchips can offer a home or habitat to slugs when more than about 1 inch deep. A little diatomaceous earth is a good idea. I would emphasise though that I have lost almost no plantings here, it's more a question of peripheral damage, which I like to point out because I feel that helps people to be informed. About what slugs like to eat!
@@CharlesDowding1nodigI like your garden tours, just to see some common problem areas we also might be having. Thank you for sharing and showing both the good and issues as well.
Dear brother Charles, Love the combinations between lamb's lettuce with strawberries and mustard with rye. Do you treat the chard as a perenial, in case it survives the winter? And about fennel... is it an annual or a perenial vegetable in your garden? (considering the climate) And also, when do you sow fennel? Thank you !
Thanks, nice, fennel sown 20th-25th July is annual, usually killed by winter frost. Chard is biennial and rises to flower by May when I remove it, but in a very cold winter say below -8°C. It's killed by frost.
No dig soil has a higher amount of organic matter, thanks to no carbon being oxidised to CO2 during cultivations. Organic matter is like a sponge which holds moisture. At the same time, the structure is better because there has been no disturbance at any level and the capillary flow of moisture both up and down is therefore more even. Every winter, I hear stories from allotment sites in the UK where no dig plots are draining well, and it's the dug ones which have surface water.
Thankyou. I looked this up, and from what I can see, the week starts with a Sunday in the USA. Whereas in most of Europe and here in the UK, it's more commonly Monday, with Sunday or the day of rest, worship, whatever, a nice marker for the end of the week.
The damage to your leeks looks similar to what I'm experiencing. The actual pest I have are tiny round black or reddish brown bugs that chew into the leek and create vertical stripe-like damage going up and down the leek. So you believe they come from flies laying eggs and can be controlled by covering with mesh? I'm very frustrated. They reduced my leek harvest by 70-80%. Thanks Charles.
Same. I reckon that you are describing the pupal stage, the oval brown blob, which is a dormant stage after the very small caterpillar or maggot has done its eating. Others are saying that mesh has not been effective for them, so I'm not sure!
Hello, what fascinates me the most is how - seemingly - all your sowing germinate and grow so regularly. I keep sowing in summer for autumn and winter harvest but for most of the plants (particularly salads) it is just to warm than and I have nowhere cooler to put the seed trays ... Would you have any advice for this problem?
Thanks, and it's related to our summer temperatures which are warm rather than hot. Average afternoons here are 20 to 22°C/low 70s Fahrenheit. Sometimes it's hotter and then I germinate seedlings out of sunlight but still in the greenhouse. In your case, it might be worth using a cellar if you have one, for germination 5 days or so!
@@CharlesDowding1nodig Thank you for your kindness to answer my question among so many comments! I am watching from the north west of Germany, temperatures are not vastly different to Somerset. Unfortunately I do not have a cellar, but maybe I should try germination in the fridge😁 All the best to you and your garden.
Slugs have been a major problem for us this year - collected half a bucket full when we found their winter hiding place! We do have good bird numbers unlike you by what you were saying. I wonder if you have a lot of wind turbines near where you live?
Thanks for sharing this, and that's an interesting question, actually there are very few wind turbines hereabouts, none within 10 miles I think. Slug pellets in farmers fields could be an issue, there are so many ways we are hurting nature
How do you keep your planting mojo? I have found this Yr I am really struggling to keep motivated. I still have asparagus seedlings in trays from the beginning of 2023 I have thrown away so many seedlings that withered because of being pot bound. My plot is 30m x 30m with 3 polytunnels each 6x3 and I am really struggling with motivation.
Oh Sarah, I am sad to see this, especially as you have all that space, including plenty under cover. I wonder whether you are feeling a bit overwhelmed by the amount of garden you need to manage. It's 36 times the surface area of my small garden! You could be supplying many families with produce, or perhaps you are already? If not, I would sow cover crops like clover on even 2/3 of your area, so you can concentrate really productively on the smaller resulting area. You will surely connect again with your mojo, just slowly now in December though! 💚
Yes I would sow a month later until mid April, two weeks later from then until mid May, thereafter similar until mid July, after which sow earlier! I hope your season is good.
I have wondered that, and believe it or not saw her with a pigeon in her mouth. But this is quite a big garden for one cat to make all that difference!
Thanks for sharing an honest picture of your garden. I’m less discouraged when even an experienced grower like you deals with pest problems. Row covers don’t look as pretty as seeing everything growing, but leaving them on spared my winter radishes root fly which was worth the trade off. Followed your advice for slugs and the mizuna came back.
You mentioned briefly that no dig gardens are not as affected by dry weather. This is what has amazed me in my garden. It went over 4 weeks here with dry hot weather and I only had to water a few of my young plants in the last week.
Super nice to hear Yvonne!
I envy your close proximity to a good seaweed supply. Elliot Coleman used to gather it himself for his place. Id love to start using it sometime, if I can find a source that I trust.
Where are you based?
Piękny ogród 😊
Dziękuję
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Este final de año no tengo tantos caracoles aunque la lluvia de estos días puede atraer más a estos.Espero que los mirlos vengan a desayunar a mi huerto 😂😂 Saludos desde Tenerife ☔️🐝🌸👏🏻🥕🥬🫑🐞🥦
¡Yo tambien lo espero!
I'm also a farmer (in Portugal) and this November has been amazing. Surprised to see a lot of stuff surviving and still cropping. Also the rain mixed with some days of sun is being good for a lot of rogue compost mounds I have
Nice to hear. I wonder whether the recent cold weather has reached you, it's very different here now with below freezing even all through today
@CharlesDowding1nodig with that I feel lucky. England is more rough with the cold. My plot is 5km from the ocean and the cold only reaches around 4/5 during the night. I'm even currently with only a t-shirt on building a structure for a bathtub in order to try worm composting (well right now I'm actually eating a sandwich and writing this 😅)
Have a nice day, Charles!
Thanks for sharing this, you have a bit of heaven there! Good luck with the worm farming, it's such a good project
Im going to try interplanting Lambs Lettuce with my strawberries because of this video, thanks Charles!
Best of luck!
Hello from France. I will try this too, I was wondering what I could place between the strawberries plants.
@@sylvieradecki3793 Yes indeed! Best luck!
That’s a great harvest for a small area. Enough to keep anyone well fed.
Thanks to No Dig
Another great video! Love how organised and productive this little space is
Thank you glad you enjoyed it
Like you I've had problems with my leeks. Weeds have been a real issue this year with all the rain, so the weeds have got away a bit and none more so than on the leek bed. Whilst weeding, I found loads of caterpillars, which I now presume are from the leeks. I am disappointed as I use leeks instead of onions in cooking, once all my onions are finished. They too were not so brilliant this year. Mainly trying to get them dry, so quite a few of those have rotted and ended up on the compost heap. Whilst it might have been a challenging year this year, there is always next year to look forward to. I love these videos, they give so much inspiration,
Thank you Sharon. I'm sorry to hear about your onions and another time. I would bring them even into your house to finish the drying.
Caterpillars on leeks would be a new one to me, but we're finding caterpillars on many vegetables where they did not used to be!
@@CharlesDowding1nodig The caterpillars are the leaf miner moths. The new miner in town!
Oh no!!
We too have lost all our birds in North Hampshire. Even the pigeons have gone, so interested to hear yours are missing too
Oh my goodness, this is serious then and I'm wondering who else might be noticing similar. Today I saw one pigeon and it ate some Brussels sprouts tops, and for once I was not too cross!
Very inspiring, Charles! You've been big source of knowledge as I get my first garden off of the ground. I'm restoring some old land that belonged, at one point, to my grandfather. I'm documenting it on my own channel! Thanks for helping me during that process.
Best of luck, a great project
Thank you 😇
Thank you
I've watched this three times already. Can't get enough
Glad you enjoyed it
Nice
Hi, Charles, I follow you from Patagonia Chile, starting my no dig farming! Full of hope and joy. Thnks for all you share with us 😊
Awesome! Thank you Gabriela and I am very happy to see your comment here, because I noticed you have ordered a Calendar, for which thank you, and I hope it arrives okay because you are possibly the first person in Chile to order from my website. It will be a test for Royal Mail shipping! I am in Patagonia briefly in early January, Puerto Natales then Franciso Vio's.
I've find this year that autumn crops have been amazing in NW London and I think the reason was actually that July and August were less hot, more damp than previous years, so young plants established beautifully and didn't suffer pest damage. I learned that you can transplant out swede in July and actually get the best crop ever, despite me thinking that they'd gone out too late. They were shaded by sweetcorn through July and August, then had full sun in September and October. I was harvesting from the beginning of November, the best and most uniform stand I've ever grown. Fennel and autumn beetroot were also the best ever, beetroot transplanted 10th July and fennel late in the month. Cabbages aren't nearly as big as last year, though.
Wow that is late for swede, nice job Rhys, a growing autumn as you say
@@CharlesDowding1nodig Yes, it was due to all the autumn-sown broad beans dying in the hard winter frosts, so I had to plant more in February, which didn't finish cropping until the first week in July.
our no dig garden here in Denmark was attacked by the leaf minor fly in 2021 + 2022 and destryed all onions, leeks, before I found out about covering a new place in the kitchen garden with very fine mesh . it is covered all year round (also use to protect our cabbage plants at the same time) as the fly from last year has larvae in the ground which hatch in April and again in August. but it works. we have had the most beautiful leeks and onions from seed this year! Here i would say that one rotation is important to escape an effected area. Happy growing 🇩🇰🌱
Wow, this insect is so bad! I don't understand where these new horrible difficulties appear from, and why. Whatever, your information is extremely helpful, and thank you so much. My only concern is the thought of covering all year!
Thank you for a good video. Your garden looks great. It takes a lot of work to look that good.
Thank you Rachel
Thank you for sharing @CharlesDowding1nodig -- I always enjoy the "small garden" videos.
Glad you enjoyed it Erin
You work so hard to build your dreams!
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Very enjoyable to watch Charles. Thank you for sharing. Best wishes Jason from Melbourne Australia.
Glad you enjoyed it Jason
Small garden! Woo!
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Felicitaciones!!
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It's been a dark one, for sure. Your winter garden seems to be handling it better than mine, though. And thanks for showing off your the new challenges in the garden, Charles. We're always learning...
You bet, and thanks
Endlessly enjoyable content, oh and excellently educating!
perfect edutainment
Thank you
Thank you I am glad you enjoyed it
WELL… OUR NEW CHILDREN’S NO DIG GARDENING BOOK HAS ARRIVED AND SIR CHARLES EVEN SENT IT IN A STARTER PIECE OF CARDBOARD FOR THEIR FIRST NO DIG PLOT !!!!! HE CAN’T MAKE THIS ANY EASIER PEOPLE !!!!!!
I so love your sense of humour, and all the best to your kids for growing fantastic vegetables
That's amazing production from such a small area. I wish my Romanesco Cauli's were are big as yours. I'm thinking of starting sowing them a week or so earlier.
Go for it Simon
I've never tried them but might give them a go next year, as _All Year Round_ seems to come all at once...
Give Charles a red and black Dennis the Menace tshirt and a Frank Spencer beret and hey presto you will have a Captain Sensible (the Damned) look-alike !
Haha maybe I shall surprise you
Charles I write to you from NZ, I follow your instructional videos with enthusiasm and have converted to your no dig growing method. We are just entering our summer season and I want to grow sprouts for winter. Have you a video about wats to succeed? I've only ever managed 1 successful crop in the last 4 years and I do so love sprouts! 😢😢😢😢
Cheers Mike, grow F1 variety, sow asap if not already, use mesh cover because insects love them, 60cm spacing
In the US some folk put out a dish of beer as a trap for slugs and snails. Can't prove it works
Yes, it works! However, other beneficial insects can fall in such as beetles, so it needs constant maintenance.
It definitely works! I always use beer traps early on in the season to put an oar in their reproductive cycle. Really does help. Catches loads. It’s actually quite disgusting 🤢 Then it tails off for a few weeks/months (depending on weather) because there are less babies around - which can cause folk to think it’s stopped working. Tbh, after the first flush of success I too stop. Three reasons: Gets costly; catches too many beneficial stag beetles which upsets the balance; too lazy/busy. I wish I could remember to restart beer traps early autumn but I never do! 😫.
I'm looking forward to the planning of the growing season using your calendar it calls to my inner autistic mind, we go all out with whatever we try. Looking at your wee plot here gives me ideas, one of my goals for 2024 is to see how much my wee garden can grow. Thank you!!
Fantastic, I wish you an abundant 2024!
I also have been having slug problem in my leafy greens all the way here in Oregon. As I cut off leaves starting from the bottom it seems to help. Keeping it tidy as you recommend. Thank you for all your great information.
We have leek miner in Warwickshire which devastates leeks in October and November. I’ve tried growing them under fine mesh but they were still mined. Next year I’m going to try growing them singly (not multi sown) in the hope they will grow a bit bigger before the end of September which is when to harvest to avoid total loss of the crop. I’d be very interested to see what solutions you come up with, Charles, for this pesky pest
Thanks for sharing this Gill, even though it's bad news. It's good to know what we're up against, and I'm finding similar for carrots, that the flies are getting better at crawling underneath the edges! So, we shall see
Hi Jill. Fleece onion and leek seeds upon sowing. Keep under fleece until transplant. Transplant at night and mulch with clean compost to suppress weeds as best as possible so as not to limit time uncovering to weed. Keep fleeced until harvest or if you’re growing winter/spring leeks, and you’ve been successful keeping those pesky miners away, you can uncover after the first hard frosts from early December until mid February to be safe. They get into onions too (different miners than those that cause the telltale leaf twist) which you only discover when chopping up. The reason leeks tend to go mouldy/smelly I think is because water gets into the tunnels burrowed out by the miner larvae. Doesn’t get quite as bad with onions because they’re usually harvested after the first miner cycle has flown. Second miner cycle late summer/early autumn intend to burrow to hibernate overwinter. Summer leaf miner moth is another story! Also in the Midlands now. Fleece is best IMHO.
Brilliantly helpful thanks
Thank you for all the info - I’ll definitely try this.
Greetings, Charles, from Windermere, Florida zone 9b USA
We had 2 mornings at 46-48°F, now back to high 60's and 80's daytime. I'm trying to keep up with Weeding and ready the soil with a winter crop.
Merry Christmas to you and your family 🎅🎄🤶
❤Peggy❤
Thanks for sharing your lovely temperatures Peggy! We've just had a fair amount of freezing weather. For you, it sounds ideal now to start lots of winter vegetables, good luck with that, and thanks for your festive wishes, I wish you a lovely time.
jt dont matter what time of year your crops always looks great well done charles ,im having one of your calendars for xmas look forward to it
Thank you, not long to wait 🙂
Here in the Bay Area, its been cool, even cold some nights, but the average temperature has been higher than normal, as I can see by my outdoor tomatoes continuing to grow and set flowers. My runner beans died off a month ago, but some stragglers stayed green and even grew a bit and I had some fresh beans last week. My Japanese turnips are glowing nicely, if slowly, and with the rain, there's been some slug damage, so I put out beer. I also have sweet peas blooming. I couldnt say that I'm getting huge harvests at the moment or that the crops I have are summer sweet, but there's always something to nibble. So it looks like in general, we're having the same skew of the weather that you are... but the low light levels just slow everything down. The parsley is doing fantastic though!
Nice to hear the comparison, and your light levels should be stronger than here at 38N, we are 51!
Fantastic garden, Charles.
My garden was a bit of a disaster this year. From deer getting into the garden and weeds overrunning everything and so much not germinating this year. I also was plagued with birds this year so I wonder whether the germination issues were actually the birds. Looking forward to spring and hopping for a better year next year.
Sorry to hear that. I would look at propagating under cover eg in your house, hope spring goes better
@@CharlesDowding1nodig Yep, definitely will do.
On your leeks at the 1:00 mark, you don’t hill them with dirt, or decomposed wood chips maybe? That will allow them to blanch and stay white farther up the shoot. The white part is the more tender delicious part of the plant.
You can do that, but I like the pale green as well, and it's still tender!
Thoroughly enjoy your steady flow of videos thank you. I am surprised that you didn't start your broadbeans in modules. I transplanted mine a couple of weeks ago under fleece as I lost them last year due to severe frost.
Cheers Martin.
I always do some direct sown and some from modules and compare them. Last year the best results were from Direct sowing on first November, but that's not always true! Some I sowed this year on 27th October, direct, and they look fantastically strong now, but still very small, which is ideal ahead of winter.
Obrigado pela explicação adorei ❤
Estou feliz
I usually pick lamb's lettuce by harvesting the whole plant. Recently, I saw in a video by Jean-Martin Fortier that he only picks the outer leaves and and lets the plant grow on for more pickings, is that something you have ever tried? Yeah, only three weeks till days start getting longer.
Thanks Helen, and if Jean-Martin is doing that, I truly admire his patience and ability to withstand cold fingers!! I cut whole plants, there is a little regrowth but it's not much.
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Nice harvest, Charles.
That‘s sad that the slugs have eaten so much. Hopefully next year the birds will find their way back in your garden. At my garden, there were plenty of birds and also slugs🤷🏻♀️, an when I wasn‘t aware the birds ate nearly all of my lettuce seeds🙈. Luckily I had plenty from last year.
Next year I plan to dare early plantings, the last year I dowded the weather and finally got them out a little late.
Thank you for the look around in November!
Here in Southern Germany it finally got winter, one foot snow since yesterday evening and the night is forecasted -7 degrees Celsius🥶.
Thank you and good luck with early plantings.
That is amazing weather you have, here it's just a freezing fog!
It really is. Whished, I could post a photo… I hope you‘ll also get such a white covering soon, maybe even for Christmas! it‘s soothing to the eyes after this grey rainy days we also had for a long time.
For a Londoner like me it is always particularly instructive when you talk about your "small garden" area. In this video you also mention spreading granulated seaweed every few years. Roughly how many gramms per square meter do you use for this? Thank you for your work! :)
Cheers and maybe 1kg per 8m2
Thanks, Charles! :)
@@CharlesDowding1nodig
snails remind me of rabbits with shells, lol
😮!!
I like how we don't need to cover brassicas in winter cos no cabbage moths around 😁
Exactly!
Leaf miner flies can get through mesh. 😫. Or crawl in under the sides. Fleece is better.
In my experience, leaf miner moths take over in the summer from the dormant cycle periods of the leaf miner flies. Once you have leaf miner it’s best to kick start the rotation system because leaf miner moths can lay eggs in the soil next to the leaks/onions/garlic, an larvae/maggots can drop into the soil when they pupate whereas leaf miner flies tend to pupate in the bulbs. I’ve had success with diluted coffee granule tea on miner infested leaves before they migrate into the stem/bulbs. Best results is with fleece protection until winter sets in. Re-cover from mid February.
I’ve also been clear of miner in alliums in mixed uncovered beds. Probably by chance. Wouldn’t bank on it.
This is very helpful, thank you. Also, it's depressing! It feels wrong to me somehow that they should be so difficult!
@@CharlesDowding1nodig I know! So depressing! They’re manageable in garlic and leeks in that once the tell tale sign of a line of punctures are spotted you can remove the leaf before the larvae travels to the bulb/stem. Onions seem to react differently (or it attracts a different type of miner) and the leaves twist. I pull the plant. Although I have left a few in situ to see what happens and for some reason they didn’t rot completely over winter but grew new leaves the following year that again twisted and didn’t exactly flourish but still flowered despite being used AGAIN by a leaf miner. Onions that look healthy at harvest but have a miner’s pupae within its bulb will not store for long but I still use them.
Garlic stores ok over winter but you need to be careful not to drop a pupae (that hide in between cloves) into the area you’re planting from saved cloves. ie separate bulbs away from the planting area and clean up/check cloves thoroughly.
Leeks and onions need to be covered from the time of sowing or at least after germination. I pop them in a fleece covered cold frame until they’re planted under fleece cover.
Leeks are covered immediately after planting out into weed free bed. I find nighttime better. Then I mulch around the transplants to suppress germination of weed seeds. I’ll uncover if I see the telltale regular dots of an adult miner having laid eggs and groom dodgy looking leaves. Then I trust in optimism until harvest time which is when you can see whether the pupae are embedded. Early harvests with pupae can be cleaned up to eat. Later harvests are usually rotten and smelly and disposed.
It’s a joy to see overwintering leeks uncovered and unaffected.
The poisons/insectides used to combat allium leaf miners are banned for home growers. I understand they’re being banned for commercial growers soon. I love leeks so I prefer to keep growing them to eat poison free .
I’m not a scientist so don’t study the insects under microscope. I just watch closely what’s happening. My garden is insecticide free and ecologically fairly balanced but there’s no prey insect I’ve seen that feeds off the miners.
Spring early summer and autumn early winter the allium miner fly insects are around. I’ve watched them crawl through enviromesh. Late spring through to early autumn are the allium miner moths. To be on the safe side I stick with fleece although the moth doesn’t get in through enviromesh.
If anyone else has more information please let me know! I can’t see the point in growing your own food if I give up on garlic, onions (including spring onions) and leaks. That’s why I invested in a large roll of fleece. Commercial growers round me use half acre wide fleece! I’m wondering if they got caught out last year with the summer newcomer, allium leaf miner moth….
Sorry about the long winded comment…
Please don't apologise, this is so helpful. I'm thinking I should make a small video about it to share this information and if I do, how do I credit you? Do you want to share your full name?
I'm not sure that you are right to call the moth a miner! I always see it referred to as leek moth, and I have had it here since 2011. However, lately, it's much less common! So maybe it has a predator or two, unlike the revolting miners.
@@CharlesDowding1nodig Oh yes. It *IS* leek moth. Not a miner. I should have taken more time to put my comment together.
Not looking for credit, Charles!. Was really only relating my own experience hoping to encourage others or the more knowledgeable to add theirs. A large contract market gardener perhaps.
It’s difficult to search for scientific papers on the matter. US State Extension Offices are really helpful. Allium leaf miners have made their presence known there now. And there’s plenty of US universities conducting studies on Extension Office research farms. There were scientific papers released in the UK in the 90’s by the Allium Research department of Warwick University (including white rot which was eye opening!!!) but Mr Google’s frustrating algorithm for promoting preferred websites gets the better of me these days. If you include EU in the search box the papers are sometimes revealed as the institution is referred to within them. And we do largely align with the EU on laws due to import export. EU study Documents are available in every language. NFU/Farmers magazines/Press released science reports are behind firewalls that prevent access by the general public but I don’t think it’s nefarious. There was something I got linked to regarding laws home growers must abide by when registering to sell or give away produce on a “regular” basis. It’s VERY long and involves bio security and complicated chemical references I don’t understand!
Perhaps someone like you would have better luck with contacting a UK university research expert who’d be more than happy to give an interview or at least bring you up to date. The NFU might be helpful re latest/impending laws on insecticides. Or Defra.
Meanwhile, for your lovely followers who don’t have access to quality bulk compost, don’t trust it, or unable to make their own that reach high enough temperatures, I’d recommend using a quality store bought bagged compost to mulch onion/leek/garlic beds after transplant to limit the chance of bringing in overwintering pupae from their own compost bins. Or mulch with grass clippings to suppress weed growth after transplant. Lifting fleece to weed during the day gives the pesky little flies that hang around the opportunity to make their home permanent for the duration.
Putting chickens onto allium beds after harvest is complete is an excellent way to rid pupae. And throwing allium leaves/bulbs for chickens to peck through in their coop before composting is good practice. They don’t like the leaves much (obvs) but have excellent eyesight for spotting bugs/eggs. Obviously, chickens aren’t allowed near areas when registered for selling/giving away food for human consumption. But ok for home/family growers atm…. until it’s not….
Anyway, as mentioned above, I’ve had some success with coffee ground tea. I discovered it by accident when I threw a flask of real coffee over some leeks in a tantrum after it had got cold. The leeks were the only ones that didn’t have miner damage in that area when harvesting. I tried to do some research on it before we left the EU. Found out using coffee grounds as an insecticide was “illegal” but using it for making compost or as a barrier against slugs was allowed. Not sure if we’d get fined now or if I’ll get cancelled for suggesting it on line. Not even sure it works 😂
Have a great week!
@@CharlesDowding1nodig Forgot to mention, the leek moth caterpillars were on my onions this year. I hadn’t kept the fleece on because I thought we were out of danger for the leaf miner cycle. I did however have them covered with bird netting to prevent amorous pigeon damage shenanigans. Too large a hole to prevent butterflies/moths. They’ll be fleeced until harvest next year. I’ll even loosely fleece when drying because yep the moth and miners still loiter around after being pulled. 🙁
I wonder whatever happened to the fig tree, did you get any figs to ripen?
Well spotted and no, so it's gone and I have a new tree by the garage which gives figs!
I’ve really struggled with couch grass and bind weed in a bed that I covered in cardboard and compost. Mid potato season I put additional cardboard and wood chip to try and control the weeds but I kept loosing the battle. My Maris Pipers were only the size of hens eggs.
If you were me and really struggling in an area, would you dig out the roots and then do no dig moving forward?
Thanks for commenting, and I'm pretty sure that you have not been doing any follow-up weed removal, like new shoots of couch grass and bindweed which emerge after the initial smothering by cardboard and compost. I do emphasise this in other videos, that the first year can be difficult when the roots of perennial weeds are strong.
Also, I wonder if you have mulched and are maintaining weed free the pathways next to your beds. Also if you have wooden sides because that makes weed removal more difficult.
You could consider placing a big sheet of black plastic in March over beds and paths, and plant potatoes through holes in the plastic in April, see my new area playlist ua-cam.com/play/PL7WDfop74y-k1a3lMA0ooD5m8bhiKu5sR.html
@@CharlesDowding1nodig thanks Charles. My plot has flag paths with grass boarders around the exterior. No wood because I believe that makes slug and weed problems worse! I’ll try and be more proactive with weed removal. Just hard being my first year here. They’re everywhere! Thank you for your awesome suggestions. Hopefully this next will be better 👍🏻
Nice to hear. Only your flag paths make it difficult because all the weed roots can hide under the stones!
What about topping with wood chips (to lower the surface moisture) sprinkled with diatomaceous earth to kill the slugs/snails? You get slugs/snails because you are too wet too often.
I have found that woodchips can offer a home or habitat to slugs when more than about 1 inch deep. A little diatomaceous earth is a good idea. I would emphasise though that I have lost almost no plantings here, it's more a question of peripheral damage, which I like to point out because I feel that helps people to be informed. About what slugs like to eat!
@@CharlesDowding1nodigI like your garden tours, just to see some common problem areas we also might be having. Thank you for sharing and showing both the good and issues as well.
my pleasure Brian
Dear brother Charles,
Love the combinations between lamb's lettuce with strawberries and mustard with rye.
Do you treat the chard as a perenial, in case it survives the winter?
And about fennel... is it an annual or a perenial vegetable in your garden? (considering the climate) And also, when do you sow fennel?
Thank you !
Thanks, nice, fennel sown 20th-25th July is annual, usually killed by winter frost. Chard is biennial and rises to flower by May when I remove it, but in a very cold winter say below -8°C. It's killed by frost.
It drains well but also retains water? I'd love to hear more about that
No dig soil has a higher amount of organic matter, thanks to no carbon being oxidised to CO2 during cultivations. Organic matter is like a sponge which holds moisture. At the same time, the structure is better because there has been no disturbance at any level and the capillary flow of moisture both up and down is therefore more even. Every winter, I hear stories from allotment sites in the UK where no dig plots are draining well, and it's the dug ones which have surface water.
@@CharlesDowding1nodig oh, I see. So the organic material in the soil actually works like organic material growing in the soil (plants)?
When combined with no dig!
I think your spinach was been eating by birds. The same thing happen in my garden. Birds like spinach very much🤭
Is true. I see so many snails though!
Hi Charles loves your video but why do your calendar start with Monday?
Thankyou. I looked this up, and from what I can see, the week starts with a Sunday in the USA. Whereas in most of Europe and here in the UK, it's more commonly Monday, with Sunday or the day of rest, worship, whatever, a nice marker for the end of the week.
Well yes I'm here in the US Saturday is my (personal) day of worship and TY for No dig.
The damage to your leeks looks similar to what I'm experiencing. The actual pest I have are tiny round black or reddish brown bugs that chew into the leek and create vertical stripe-like damage going up and down the leek. So you believe they come from flies laying eggs and can be controlled by covering with mesh? I'm very frustrated. They reduced my leek harvest by 70-80%. Thanks Charles.
Same. I reckon that you are describing the pupal stage, the oval brown blob, which is a dormant stage after the very small caterpillar or maggot has done its eating. Others are saying that mesh has not been effective for them, so I'm not sure!
Hello, what fascinates me the most is how - seemingly - all your sowing germinate and grow so regularly. I keep sowing in summer for autumn and winter harvest but for most of the plants (particularly salads) it is just to warm than and I have nowhere cooler to put the seed trays ... Would you have any advice for this problem?
Thanks, and it's related to our summer temperatures which are warm rather than hot. Average afternoons here are 20 to 22°C/low 70s Fahrenheit. Sometimes it's hotter and then I germinate seedlings out of sunlight but still in the greenhouse. In your case, it might be worth using a cellar if you have one, for germination 5 days or so!
@@CharlesDowding1nodig Thank you for your kindness to answer my question among so many comments! I am watching from the north west of Germany, temperatures are not vastly different to Somerset. Unfortunately I do not have a cellar, but maybe I should try germination in the fridge😁 All the best to you and your garden.
Slugs have been a major problem for us this year - collected half a bucket full when we found their winter hiding place! We do have good bird numbers unlike you by what you were saying. I wonder if you have a lot of wind turbines near where you live?
Thanks for sharing this, and that's an interesting question, actually there are very few wind turbines hereabouts, none within 10 miles I think. Slug pellets in farmers fields could be an issue, there are so many ways we are hurting nature
What is the website where I can find the signed calendar?
Sorry I forgot to add the link, www.charlesdowding.co.uk/product/charles-dowdings-calendar-of-vegetable-sowing-dates
How do you keep your planting mojo? I have found this Yr I am really struggling to keep motivated. I still have asparagus seedlings in trays from the beginning of 2023 I have thrown away so many seedlings that withered because of being pot bound. My plot is 30m x 30m with 3 polytunnels each 6x3 and I am really struggling with motivation.
Oh Sarah, I am sad to see this, especially as you have all that space, including plenty under cover. I wonder whether you are feeling a bit overwhelmed by the amount of garden you need to manage. It's 36 times the surface area of my small garden!
You could be supplying many families with produce, or perhaps you are already?
If not, I would sow cover crops like clover on even 2/3 of your area, so you can concentrate really productively on the smaller resulting area. You will surely connect again with your mojo, just slowly now in December though! 💚
hi is this calendar ok for growing in northeast Scotland(Aberdeen) or do i need to adjust the timings..thanks
Yes I would sow a month later until mid April, two weeks later from then until mid May, thereafter similar until mid July, after which sow earlier! I hope your season is good.
@@CharlesDowding1nodig thank you
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Im in Brooklyn NYC Worst slug damage to date. I mean at one point I went out and it was morning and they were just out eating my komatsuna.
It's not good!!
Да, тёплый климат - это с одной стороны хорошо. А с другой стороны-так много вредителей! Суровые зимы не дают им так размножаться.
Очень хороший момент, и у нас определенно больше вредителей, чем раньше, больше, чем вы, я думаю.
5G is what's happened.
I do wonder, and hope that is not correct, because if so, we're in trouble. There are so many assaults on wildlife, and indeed us!
Growing things here in zone 4b is much different as to what we can and can't do 🫤
I can imagine!
Maybe your cat is killing birds.A neighbour’s two cats kill many birds in my garden
I have wondered that, and believe it or not saw her with a pigeon in her mouth. But this is quite a big garden for one cat to make all that difference!
Thanks for sharing an honest picture of your garden. I’m less discouraged when even an experienced grower like you deals with pest problems. Row covers don’t look as pretty as seeing everything growing, but leaving them on spared my winter radishes root fly which was worth the trade off. Followed your advice for slugs and the mizuna came back.
Great to hear 💚