It takes a real humble person to give a tour of a "catalogue of disasters." Charles you are my mentor and a true inspiration to all gardeners. Kudos sir!
Zone 6 Kentucky last year and it was a disaster. Many neighbors said the same thing. Fruit trees were very disappointing too. Praying for a better year this year.
It's a good point, but I feel increasingly now that we have new issues to cope with such as whatever falls out of the trails, which are suddenly so common in the skies
Truly year round gardening! After having mulched with leaves in the fall six beds are covered here in Michigan USA. New to no till, no dig. Hoping to remove the mulched leaves and be able to rake bed even and take off. Of course weeding .... opening up the beds will be exciting. Thank you for the direction to a new method.
It got down to about -12 on my Smallholding, I’ve lost almost everything I had including kale Brussels and most my spinage, I always thought Brussels were bulletproof Only thing that came through untouched was the garlic, here’s looking forward to a good growing year this year, happy growing everyone
I managed to grow beautiful purple sprouting broccolis this year , they grew tall with lush leaves … I was sooo looking forward to eating the sprouts… and then the frosts arrived … 1 frost wouldn’t have killed them but 3 , 4 , finished them off , they turned mushy … such a shame ! I think that’s why you have lost your cauliflowers too . Constant frost has done it . Thanks for showing us around . Hot bed in the making here too . 😊
It's a good time to do some fencing, too. I put the first posts in the ground. Dear deer, no munching on cale here! Although they are playing and they eat all they want outside the fence.
Think normally after a frost we have nice sunny morning with the temperatures above zero so the plants recover but we have had a week or more with extreme night time temperatures and zero degrees during the day so the plants can’t recover
Thanks for sharing this great tour Charles especially the things that didn't go to plan. I've been subscribed for years and work from your books and am still learning every time I watch and listen to you on one of your videos. ❤
I'm experiencing the same 'disproportional' effect of the winter CD. I too have lost half my claret PSB, quite a few Japanese onions, a few garlic, and just last week 5/6 cauliflowers which were protected by a polycarbonate cloche. In the case of the PSB I suspect a combination of cold and wind as the lost ones were all to the south west of the bed. So pleased to see I'm not the only one!
@@CharlesDowding1nodig It's not just the veg either - bay trees, choisya, hebes all showing signs of frost damage not seen before and like you it's only got down to -9
Thank you. I was in the garden today pruning and taking cuttings from my plum tree and grape vines. It's way too early to do much more than that here in Nova Scotia. We expect -17C Friday evening, but I feel it will be an early spring, which means early gardening. Cheers.
I've had good success with the inground garden worm buckets in a very similar climate (zone 9b, southern Vancouver island). I kept thinking as you surveyed the frost damage on your rutabaga and spinach "oh, the worms would love that!" The buckets are sunk into the beds and all you have to do is lift the lid to throw in some organic matter. ~ Sandra
I’ve had some shrubs and things that have lived for years without issue get killed off this year. It was so bitterly cold for several weeks on end. 🤷♀️
I tried no dig last year but had to order the garden/compost mix to be delivered. Over all I was pretty let down with the mix. It didn't seem to hold moisture or have much nutrients. So recently, I bought bagged garden soil and turned it into my no dig beds to try to revive them and plan to never dig again. It just needed saving from what appeared to be dead soil. To be continued.....
@@CharlesDowding1nodig Thanks for the input. It seemed really heavy. It seemed to me it had to much sand. Hoping I helped it. Time will tell. :) Love your videos!!! I've learned so much!
Hi Charles. I think you are getting all my frosty weather. Connecticut Valley U.S.A. We don't have a green house and don't want to sterilize our green compost, just kitchen waste, in our oven to avoid bugs. Others do, Stinks. So we need to buy planting medium to start our seeds to get an early start. Bottom water. After they sprout under basic grow lights we bottom water with a compost tea we made last fall. Onions off to a good start from seeds. First time. Garlic cloves we planted last fall is under compost, leaves, and a tarp. Time will tell how that works out. See you next time. Have fun.
Living not far away and having at least three hard frost with milder periods between, I think it was the freeze/defrost three times which certainly helped the damage.
Thankyou so much for donating to our community garden in Kerry last year. The money went towards putting in a herb bed and laying woodchip on a pathway by a wild life pond.
Thanks for the winter tour update. I was shocked when my large mature Taunton Deane plant was badly damaged by the frost in December (and again in January). I'm leaving it alone for now in the hope that it recovers in the spring, but it's possible it's a gonner! Thankfully i have plenty of cuttings so can easily replace it, but this just goes to show how harsh a winter we've had. I think i spotted that your TD in the small garden was looking a bit leafless as well, but that you might have had some cuttings sitting outside the greenhouse for insurance purposes.
@@CharlesDowding1nodig Thanks Charles. I'm in the south east and it seems to me as though we're in the middle of a drought. In February! I can see this summer being a real challenge if it's as dry again. Your pond could be a real godsend if you can keep it filled up. On the small plus side for you, all those lettuce leaves you've got will be worth a fortune soon if the UK supply issue continues. I'm off to sow a tray now!!
Marvellous and insightful as always. I do feel that one of the problems with our climate is the fluctuations. Over the last year, in London , we’ve had drought , then water logging, then a very cold snap and unusual warmth for the winter too. No wonder some plants just curl up their toes.
I will agree, it is fun to try things to see what may work :-) & find out if what we wanted to work,... didn't :-( but we tried. I feel the older I get, the more I like plants. Thank you so much for your time & videos.
Thank you Charles, as always. Third time I’ve watched this one. So much useful information for a self taught novice like me, in my 3rd year as an allotmenteer. I’m enjoying reading your new book No Dig, so useful. Please don’t stop your free RUclips vids. I learn a lot from reading but nothing beats being shown visually how to do things and what they should look like. Always so comprehensive. Thank you Charles. Kind Regards Pat Joyce
Gosh Charles this has given me so much hope. I lost all my autumn planted Broad Beans to the -17 deg we had up here one night in Scotland. Also my Spring cabbages and a lot of Kale froze, melted then turned to slush . Never known anything like it. I really hope this is the end of Winter now. Thankyou so much for showing us around Homeacres. Cant wait to see it all sprout into action again!
I’m so impressed with your skill and to see how well you cope with a very difficult winter just like you I’m disappointed with colly in December I had 20 colly naw I have only 4 but as a gardener I will definitely try something different next time…thank you very much for the tireless effort to help us all out with veggies
Excellent video, as always! I am so relieved to see that I am not the only one having lost so much this winter! My garden here in the Lot et Garonne looks very similar...problems with spinach, cauliflower, cabbage, etc... thank you for showing that gardening is never a perfect science!
I always enjoy the garden tours, what a treat. I have to ask - how do you keep the edges of the garden so neat and perfectly square? I am constantly struggling with grass creeping in. Do you use an edger?
I live in the southeastern United States and surprisingly we have a very similar climate to yours in spite of the difference in latitude. After a very hard freeze (17 degrees F) I too lost the cabbage, radishes, fava beans, mustard and turnips-crops mostly known for being cold hardy. But what has concerned me most this year is a weed known as Spanish needle produced stunted deformed seed. This is true everywhere I’ve been and I’ve never seen it happen before.
Oooh I don't like the sound of this deformed seedt! I have an uncomfortable feeling that the trails we see so commonly now contain stuff which is not good for soil and plants. It's in the rain I guess. Hope I'm wrong!
@@CharlesDowding1nodig Comment caught my eye, Charles. Not sure if the Far East virus and bugs of onions has crept to Turkey or even across Europe. Hard to get onions in Turkey atm. Could be a succession of poor seed quality allowed to infiltrate the markets during Covid home growing demands or various other factors converging, including in the atmosphere. And last year (UK) I had terrible germination/survival except for 2014 seeds from France found in my late mother’s collection. This year I’m getting poor/intermittent onion germination AGAIN with Beds Champ and another (Fothergills and Premier Seeds) but Sturon ok. Trying Walla Walla from Suttons sown few days ago: Only UK major seed supplier selling them after quick google and was surprised they were on offer from £3 something to c80p per 150seeds packet. Seemed odd. Also left some onions and shallots mixture of bulbs and starts in a “leftover bed” that failed to sprout properly in last year’s drought/heat. But started to show signs of recovery in autumn. These have all survived the two freezing snaps we’ve had this winter. Leaving them put to monitor harvest/go to seed depending on how they fair v-a-v rest of onions this year. Btw, spraying garlic with diluted real coffee helped with rust for me two years running now. I also have a permanent little garlic bed experiment going. This will be my 5 year. Produces a mixture of flowering seeds and side cloves. I just leave it be and use fresh green growth for garlic flavouring during spring/early summer. Sorry about long comment. Just thought you might be interested in the world onion and onion seed issues from a UK home veg grower. 😃🧅🧄🥕🥔
@@CharlesDowding1nodig Thanks for the reply. You could be right. Spanish needle is a very hardy plant that can thrive in difficult environments. I’m keeping an eye out.
I normally just chuck my woodchip down but throwing it through a screen like that would let me just have the larger parts on the path and the finer stuff although not quite compost would make a great bulking ingredient to add to the compost esp as alot of people struggle to get enough carbon materials to add to their compost. I love that old metal shed in the small garden. Needs a little lick of paint.😉
Great video thanks very much for continuing to share. Please could you post a link for where to find the woodchip sieve? That is a fantastic idea but I can't find anything online for it. Thanks.
Here you are www.vidaxl.co.uk/e/vidaxl-garden-sieve-galvanised-steel/8719883834511.html?gclid=CjwKCAiAmJGgBhAZEiwA1JZoloNvFxDG_Pb9DPp49KuUdHBQNtOZKQCdvS46VAD3Vm4_clCR6BoISxoCmVoQAvD_BwE
Nice one. This is what happens over winter. Some you win some you loose 🤷♂️. I recon it will fly when when warm spring shows up. Charles have you ever thought of make a garden record book? For people to write up sowing dates, bed planning, bed sowing info etc. I ask because in get one from free with a seed company and I find it very useful and easy to look back on and compare results etc?
those two cold snaps did a lot of damage for us as well, I suppose it was consistently below zero for two weeks or more in December and again in January, the ground was hard for a longer period than most winters even if the average temperature overall hasn't been that cold
I wonder if these unusual winter losses might be due to the swings of temperature we now see. Perhaps things that would normally survive ok during persistent cool with frosts, however hard, struggle when the temperature flip flops 10°+ , sometimes in a day, which I have seen so much in the last year. I have gone from breaking ice on water troughs one day to being outside in a tshirt the next a few times this winter, it has to be extremely disruptive to plants.
What's the theory behind sowing the wild rocket in tiny little modules and then transplanting them into the bigger pots? Why not cut your work in half and just sow direct into the big pots? Am I missing something? 😂 Could just sow multiple seeds in the bigger pots and kill off the smaller seedling if you are worried about germination rates? Can't be a space saving thing is it? You have to have more trays and pots and the seedlings still end up taking up the same space once they are in the bigger pots? Haha Im sure there is an obvious reason!
Yes, Dean, you are missing the timing aspect. The seeds are tiny and germinate very slowly so a small seed tray with up to 200 seedlings takes up very little space in September and October, when my greenhouse is full of transplants for October, planting undercover. Then we prick them out, and it's much less watering, just two trays of 60 cells, plus and more importantly, there is less waterlogging of roots. Small seedlings grow better in small amounts of compost. That is key and often gets overlooked. It takes very little time to prick out or pot on, and you see the wonderful result there.
some of my broad bean plants look as if they were frozen, they're black and wilted. I wonder what happened, some plants are ok. the lowest temp. was around -5 (broad beans are in the countryside, not where I live). they're supposed to be hardy...
They are hardy but to a point only and they survive better when very small. Possibly yours were sown a little too early. I'm finding best survival from November sowing, or even December in the greenhouse.
Charles I like those white trays in your greenhouse that hold several of your module trays perfectly. Was that just a happy accident to find those that fit, or is that another product of yours that we can buy? Thanks for this tour, really great to see how your place fares this time of year!
Could it be seed resilience that's led to some disappointing results this year? As you've pointed out before that home saved seed is better adapted for our own microclimates, maybe the last few milder winters have led the seeds to bear less frost hardy plants? I find it interesting that I'm in the Scottish Highlands and haven't lost any brassicas to frost (no more than outer leaf damage) and I still have winter purslane outdoors that looks lush and green.
@@CharlesDowding1nodig I guess that in itself is unusual! High winds have been more of an issue for us this year - 98mph gusts on Friday night...thank goodness for good soil structure and healthy root systems!
My compost is is a miserable mess after winter, frozen and been wheighed down of snow. No activity in it and low temp. Is there a way to kickstart it and get it up and running again?
It depends whether there is much undecomposed green material in there. That's what you need for the kickstart and it could be grass clippings or weeds. You might need to mix it all in and I would add dry paper too, to soak up the excess moisture.
@@CharlesDowding1nodig thank you! Ill give it a look when it warms up a bit. The weather is just horrible with temps between +5 and -6 celsius the coming week.
зима) в россии снег еще лежит - у нас такая погода как у вас в октябре месяце ) = winter) in Russia there is still snow - we have the same weather as you have in October)
It just seems strange that you can have that much growth at those extreme temperatures. Seems like when I get anything in the 20s F, nothing will endure, maybe some broccoli and collards, but timing, your timing is something it seems like out of reach
So helpful to see your garden when it's not at it's peak. It does really give us newbies some hope, haha. I also really appreciate your laid back attitude towards growing vegetables. I often get myself too worked up worrying about not having an exact plan or getting behind on things. Watching your videos helps me recalibrate and relax a little!
@@CharlesDowding1nodig btw regarding the spinach. Idk if you already tried it, but the New Zealander Spinach is a phenomenal plant. It produces a huge amount of tasty leaves. I really can recommend it.
I'm so glad I'm not the only one to have lost things like Purple Sprouting Broccoli, Cauliflowers & Celeriac due to the hard frosts - if the Great "CD" loses crops then there's still hope for the likes of me 😉
This man is such a kind and caring person, thank you Charles for sharing. Ps my better half brought me your recent book , I’m part way through and it’s brilliant. 🎉
I have had a bad summer in Central Australia, more rain than usual meant an explosion of every pest and I was so unprepared for them as I had never faced them in such numbers. But as you say, I learned a lot from it. I learn more from my failures than my successes. Thanks for another great video.
Your frost losses are interesting. I lost 3 established shrubs including my 3ft rosemary after the 6" snowfall that soon dispersed. I'm inclined to think the sky geoengineering that can often be observed is a contributor. What ever it is they use to force ice nucleation must be landing on the leaves & soil & reacting in non-natural ways when the temperature drops below 0. My veg plot has cleared itself of all plants through something other than animal or bird pest as it is completely enclosed in netting. The garlic outside it is OK tho!
I've ordered logs from the same company for a few years now. This year the bark burns extremely fast & hot with a lot of black smoke before they settle down. They are grown in Scandinavia. I was wondering the same sort of thing. It's like there is a 'coating' on the bark.
Always a pleasure to learn and be entertained with your updates. We have had to start again from scratch with some parts of our grounds, as our last polytunnel took flight in high winds in early winter down here in Cornwall. So we have replaced, and made larger our polytunnel, with more emphasis with no dig on our outside space ( all through your simple no fuss advise) This year will be the start of being able to sow, grow and harvest a year through plan to keep the natural soil growing cycle to produce amazing Vegetables. Thanks again for your insightful updates.
Thank you so much for showing some discouraging beds. It really does give us hope when we are miles behind you on this no dig gardening. We need not give up because there are less than stellar attempts.
I love the way that you give confidence to growers to 'give things a try'! It is such a supportive statement. Additionally by underlining how little effort 'no dig' is, you highlight that 'giving things a try' is really not the big investment in time and energy that so many gardening 'experts' make it out to be. My thanks.
For us, I think it's been the widely fluctuating temperatures. We went from 60 F to -2 F in the space of about 24 hours in December, and it was murder on the plants. It's been a pretty mild winter and I think the plants get soft in the warmer times and are less able to stand the cold then.
Listening to Charles talk about his weather conditions is always entertaining. I enjoy the videos and there are some great ideas, but I often wonder how he would handle a more severe continental climate like the one I "enjoy" in the central U.S.
Ive noticed the brassicas have suffered more than usual this year considering the temps Charles. The only thing I can put it down to is the drastic drops and raises in temps rather than it being gradual.
Charles my theory on why we have had so much frost damage is that we had that unseasonal and brutally long cold spell in December and the plants hadn't a chance to build up a tolerance to colder nights. I'm only 6 miles from you but higher up and we literally went went from temperatures of around 18c to -10 or so over the course of a week.
Those disasters are so refreshing to see in times where people only share successes, that puts enormous pressure on those on the other side that are not familiar with reality. 2023 is the first season for me and the other day I realized how instead of joy that is was supposed to be i felt nothing more than anxiety from overwhelming expectations starting from setting beds, getting compost, planning plans, reading books about the topic in time, growing healthy things, keeping them alive when you are away, and even eating them all before it goes to waste. Unrealistic, I know and I now started working on my expectations :)) Thank you for sharing these fails!
In started 2022 and had the same pressure! This year, I’m keeping expectations low and surprise myself with the results ❤ Still feeling some pressure though - my perfectionist brain just can’t help itself. But I have to say: it’s much better than at this time last year. Good luck for your gardening 😊👍
My direct sown broadbeans have suffered as well. Combo of much rain, with frost in between. My onions are fine: planted Stuttgarter Giants as set in early november for use as springonions/early onions. Garlic looks great. Oddly though my supermarket bought hardnecks, generally look better than my seedstore bought softnecks. Still have stored pumpkins 500 onion sprouts waiting to go in in 2-3 weeks. All my 'new' (pre-winter) no dig beds look great, there is only one that has dandelions coming through, the rest virtually weed free
I bought Siberian garlic hoping it would overwinter better in my US zone 5. Looks pretty sad and it wasn't a bad winter. I'm starting to think that if temp happens gradually it's ok but if it changes fast. No bueno. Your thoughts?
Probably a good example of climate change in action, the stress of the dry summer followed by the stress of a cold winter has likely had detrimental effect on the microbial flora within the soil. We really need to focus on developing methods to grow under these unfolding extreme conditions.
Hey Charles! I recently odered quite a big amoung of compost (45m³) but it is still quite warm - about 30 degree Celsius (that said, once layed on beds, it goes cold). The quality itself seems very good to me and it is well broken down without many lumps and deep black. Do you think it is fine to already plant in there of should I rather wait a bit and maybe sow into trays first instead? How long should such compost continue to "ripen"? Thank you in advance!
Harvested a huge swede last week and noticed a few baby slugs had very recently created a hidey-hole. When I was preparing, the few small areas around the slugs’ homes were definitely beginning to deteriorate. I cut them out and had plenty to utilise. However I reckon the whole root might not have held up in a week or two’s time. Not checked the other swedes yet as the remaining aren’t very big and probably won’t be harvested for food anyway. Perhaps slugs hatch during milder winter days….. My unharvested beetroots disintegrated weeks ago. 😂Combination of too lazy to harvest, the frost, and most definitely chomping critters I conceded defeat to years ago 😩 !We have lots of odd looking little amber or black coloured mice/voles. Some with short stubby tails, some long tails. Field mice? We’ve even spotted a multicoloured! Too tiny for rats. Not moles either cos we have them too. Creating sink holes under transplants! 🤦🏼♀️ Can’t ID them.
Here in BC, we had the same overwintering experience. For some reason, crops that are normally tough didn't do too well. I suspect lower than normal sugar levels.
Hi Charles, thank you for this no dig tour. Your honesty over the failures as well as the successes is very much appreciated, and you’re so right it’s all a learning process. On this beautiful sunny day, I followed your advice on saving space and compost to sow my first seeds. I did sow some tomotoes today which have gone on a heatmat indoors but will save the others to follow your advice. Also, just to say that both myself and my partner love your ‘No Dig’ book, its our ‘go to’ now. Thanks! Caroline
I've had similar problems with my swedes as you,with rotting bottoms,I've usually find them to be very Hardy,was wondering if it's to do with more rainfall that we had before the frosts,I'm in the next county,Wiltshire not far from you. Thanks for such an informative video.
Mr Charles, have you considered having some of the odd dead plants tested for chemical poisoning or anything like that... Chemtrails or residues from plants/trees that have been poisoned...? Hope these problems are temporary ... I’ve had similar problems with plants I’ve never had problems with before... 😐 Thank You for sharing your wisdom with us 💝
It’s because it’s not just the temp but the length of time at the colder temp. You can have a cold night drop down but the plants can withstand a couple of hours at that cold. It’s when it starts to get into longer lengths of time below freezing that the plants can’t really handle it. I live in E TN and we got down to -11F with windchill (-11/12C) and that happened for a couple of days straight. It was -11F during the day. I almost lost all my plants. Even the dinosaur kale died. My strawberries, oregano, wild bergamot, thyme, garlic, and mint survived. I think everything else I had died that I was hoping to overwinter. I lost all the onion, some garlic, chives, parsley, kale, cilantro, poppies, rosemary, lavender, sage. It was just way too cold for way too long. I’m just glad some plants survived. I moved the container strawberries right next to the house to keep warm using the radiant heat and that seemed to help a lot. Wish I had done that with more of my plants.
Hi there, most of my cauliflower, Aalsmeer and 'All the year round' Cauli sown late summer has also really suffered from the cold and I've lost most of them. The Leamington cauli, however, sown in June, is looking really good, not lost a single one. Not cropped yet but looking promising, was very good last year too.
Hi Charles thank you very much for all knowledge you have been sharing with the gardener's around the world. I am wondering if you can share some thoughts on homemade pesticides and IMO.thank you again
That's a nice comment. This could be quite a short video and the reason I do not speak about them is because I do not make any so-called pesticides, preferring to work on growing healthy plants. However I'm sure there are some worthwhile ones, it's just a question of time available.
Hi Charles, I find your videos so helpful and educational, I just got an allotment plot last year, and I’m just starting out, I can’t find on some of the videos what time of year you make the video…? Where can I find this info?
Thank you, that is nice to hear. Lately I have been putting dates on and you should find them in the description, but not on the screen of the video. Good luck with your new allotment!
I sowed some cabbage (spring or summer) and cauliflower (all year round variety) in autumn to see what would happen if I overwintered them in pots in the potting shed. I now appear to have healthy looking 4 inch high plants. If I plant them out are they going to grow hearts and heads? I never see anyone overwintering brassicas to plant out in spring so not sure this would work? Thanks
Just chucking ideas about Charles. I took off the poly and covered the frame of my poly tunnel doors with green windbreak mesh so the doors can be used normally for access but are are closed otherwise but well ventilated. Saves heaving frames around. I could half cover the doors with poly but haven’t found that necessary. Keeps out critters and larger insects and butterflies I am sure you have good reason to use the method that you showed. I wish I had the space to have a poly tunnel as large as yours-bliss!
Thank you Charles for showing all the mishaps you've had this winter,, it's good to see I'm not the only one having issues with the weather,, I'm amazed with how you find the time to answer the couple of questions I asked last week with all the jobs you have to do each and every week, thanks again!
Hi Charles. What length are your netting supports over the beds with the cabbages? I would think their length is relative to the width of your bed? Thanks. Pauric
Where is the most reasonable place to get compost for no dig beds in Hampshire,my local council delivers a tonne bag but it’s pricey at £175 ,can you use soil conditioner for no dig?
That is a crazy price! And interesting about that flipping phrase, soil conditioner. That's what I'm talking about here, and I call it compost. Very misleading! So I would buy the soil conditioner!
Love the relaxed informative style. I don’t like black plastic but need to use some so i have a question what kind of black plastic do you use and where do you source?
Thank you Charles. Echo the last two comments. Two things: at the end there's a slip of the tongue which might need a caption over - 10 March not May for tomatoes! Secondly the disproportionate damage by frost has been the same here in Norfolk. Broad beans Aquadulce Claudia: 1 survivor. Spinach Medania: wiped out. Tatsoi outside looking very rough, inside something's eating it (of course). Best survivor outside: kale, 100% OK. Broccoli 50% like yours. But lifting the last parsnips last week, they were great (though the spade was needed). My real disaster though: using some compost from an open sack to sow seeds ten days ago to save money. Totally false economy. About to resow everything...
Great tour. Glad to see the problems here in wet west of Ireland are similar. Minus 7 here at times but biggest problem here during winter is condensation at my works poly tunnel as I have to lock it up, my home one is fine because I can open doors although mould did effect lettuce and some of the kale inside. Had wonderful harvest from kale,purple sprouting,carrots,leeks,celery and spinach(winter giant) in poly over winter. You’ve always been my inspiration. Thank you.
@@CharlesDowding1nodig Yes... maybe you dont have three cats, when there's -6 frosty ground, so nowhere to... Yes, I'm afraid one of them probably did. I was totally stupid and lazy, smelt a bit of an ammonia smell and just carried on. Still, it's good to support nice seed companies... and, as you always say, in spring you can catch up, from July onwards you can't.
Charles the woodchip that was sived by Adam you said you wouldn't use it as compost, what would it be useful for? As I have old woodchip on a new plot I have to sort out. There are old raised beds i want to take away and grow on the ground.
It takes a real humble person to give a tour of a "catalogue of disasters." Charles you are my mentor and a true inspiration to all gardeners. Kudos sir!
Agreed.
Go Gracefully. Charles said many more frost and unusual. I told him he is getting all my frosty weather from East Coast USA.
It helps to inspire others as nothing is ever perfect and this has been a tricky winter with plant losses.
Zone 6 Kentucky last year and it was a disaster. Many neighbors said the same thing. Fruit trees were very disappointing too.
Praying for a better year this year.
We have had temps down to single digits Farenheit and our kholrabi was left in the snow. We've harvested half since then and have half still growing!
Amazing!
I have noticed over the years, that extra mineral support.. be it seaweed or azomite... really helps plants survive the extra hard cold spells.
It's a good point, but I feel increasingly now that we have new issues to cope with such as whatever falls out of the trails, which are suddenly so common in the skies
Truly year round gardening! After having mulched with leaves in the fall six beds are covered here in Michigan USA. New to no till, no dig. Hoping to remove the mulched leaves and be able to rake bed even and take off. Of course weeding .... opening up the beds will be exciting. Thank you for the direction to a new method.
Sounds great Wayne
@@CharlesDowding1nodig Thank you Charles!
I am willing to bet that they have a very similar chipper. One keeps his blades sharp and the other doesn’t bother too much. Hence the difference!
That is so interesting. The guy making big chips has many employees, the small chip guy is a one man band!
The only time of the year my small plot looks anything like Charles'!
😂😂🌱
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It got down to about -12 on my Smallholding, I’ve lost almost everything I had including kale Brussels and most my spinage, I always thought Brussels were bulletproof
Only thing that came through untouched was the garlic, here’s looking forward to a good growing year this year, happy growing everyone
Yes indeed and thanks
I managed to grow beautiful purple sprouting broccolis this year , they grew tall with lush leaves … I was sooo looking forward to eating the sprouts… and then the frosts arrived … 1 frost wouldn’t have killed them but 3 , 4 , finished them off , they turned mushy … such a shame ! I think that’s why you have lost your cauliflowers too . Constant frost has done it . Thanks for showing us around . Hot bed in the making here too . 😊
Good luck with that Sandrine. It's bad about the weather :(
It's a good time to do some fencing, too. I put the first posts in the ground. Dear deer, no munching on cale here!
Although they are playing and they eat all they want outside the fence.
Think normally after a frost we have nice sunny morning with the temperatures above zero so the plants recover but we have had a week or more with extreme night time temperatures and zero degrees during the day so the plants can’t recover
One of the best YT-channels, and you should have millions of subscribers imo 💚
Thankyou!
Thanks for sharing this great tour Charles especially the things that didn't go to plan. I've been subscribed for years and work from your books and am still learning every time I watch and listen to you on one of your videos. ❤
Awesome and nice to hear
I'm experiencing the same 'disproportional' effect of the winter CD. I too have lost half my claret PSB, quite a few Japanese onions, a few garlic, and just last week 5/6 cauliflowers which were protected by a polycarbonate cloche. In the case of the PSB I suspect a combination of cold and wind as the lost ones were all to the south west of the bed. So pleased to see I'm not the only one!
‼️
@@CharlesDowding1nodig It's not just the veg either - bay trees, choisya, hebes all showing signs of frost damage not seen before and like you it's only got down to -9
Thank you so much. I learn something with every video.
Nice to hear
Thank you. I was in the garden today pruning and taking cuttings from my plum tree and grape vines. It's way too early to do much more than that here in Nova Scotia. We expect -17C Friday evening, but I feel it will be an early spring, which means early gardening. Cheers.
Wonderful optimism!
I've had good success with the inground garden worm buckets in a very similar climate (zone 9b, southern Vancouver island). I kept thinking as you surveyed the frost damage on your rutabaga and spinach "oh, the worms would love that!" The buckets are sunk into the beds and all you have to do is lift the lid to throw in some organic matter.
~ Sandra
Great tip Nana thanks
I’ve had some shrubs and things that have lived for years without issue get killed off this year. It was so bitterly cold for several weeks on end. 🤷♀️
😒 maddening
I tried no dig last year but had to order the garden/compost mix to be delivered. Over all I was pretty let down with the mix. It didn't seem to hold moisture or have much nutrients. So recently, I bought bagged garden soil and turned it into my no dig beds to try to revive them and plan to never dig again. It just needed saving from what appeared to be dead soil. To be continued.....
It sounds like compost, which was sold too fresh! Actually the same stuff a year later should be good
@@CharlesDowding1nodig Thanks for the input. It seemed really heavy. It seemed to me it had to much sand. Hoping I helped it. Time will tell. :) Love your videos!!! I've learned so much!
Thanks, and I see! Sounds like a con :( and good luck with new compost. Mushroom compost is good.
Hi Charles. I think you are getting all my frosty weather. Connecticut Valley U.S.A.
We don't have a green house and don't want to sterilize our green compost, just kitchen waste, in our oven to avoid bugs. Others do, Stinks. So we need to buy planting medium to start our seeds to get an early start. Bottom water. After they sprout under basic grow lights we bottom water with a compost tea we made last fall. Onions off to a good start from seeds. First time.
Garlic cloves we planted last fall is under compost, leaves, and a tarp. Time will tell how that works out. See you next time. Have fun.
You sound well sorted! Thanks for sharing
Great tour. Thank you.
Living not far away and having at least three hard frost with milder periods between, I think it was the freeze/defrost three times which certainly helped the damage.
Yup!
Thankyou so much for donating to our community garden in Kerry last year. The money went towards putting in a herb bed and laying woodchip on a pathway by a wild life pond.
Lovely to hear Bernadette!
Thanks for the winter tour update. I was shocked when my large mature Taunton Deane plant was badly damaged by the frost in December (and again in January). I'm leaving it alone for now in the hope that it recovers in the spring, but it's possible it's a gonner! Thankfully i have plenty of cuttings so can easily replace it, but this just goes to show how harsh a winter we've had.
I think i spotted that your TD in the small garden was looking a bit leafless as well, but that you might have had some cuttings sitting outside the greenhouse for insurance purposes.
Cheers Tony and same here.
And I'm worried what happens next.
@@CharlesDowding1nodig Thanks Charles. I'm in the south east and it seems to me as though we're in the middle of a drought. In February! I can see this summer being a real challenge if it's as dry again. Your pond could be a real godsend if you can keep it filled up.
On the small plus side for you, all those lettuce leaves you've got will be worth a fortune soon if the UK supply issue continues. I'm off to sow a tray now!!
Cheers Tony, and yes it's crazy times. My pond actually is quite empty already!
Marvellous and insightful as always. I do feel that one of the problems with our climate is the fluctuations. Over the last year, in London , we’ve had drought , then water logging, then a very cold snap and unusual warmth for the winter too. No wonder some plants just curl up their toes.
‼️ yes indeed
I will agree, it is fun to try things to see what may work :-) & find out if what we wanted to work,... didn't :-( but we tried. I feel the older I get, the more I like plants. Thank you so much for your time & videos.
Exactly! thanks
Thank you Charles, as always. Third time I’ve watched this one. So much useful information for a self taught novice like me, in my 3rd year as an allotmenteer. I’m enjoying reading your new book No Dig, so useful. Please don’t stop your free RUclips vids. I learn a lot from reading but nothing beats being shown visually how to do things and what they should look like. Always so comprehensive. Thank you Charles. Kind Regards Pat Joyce
Lovely comment, Pat! Thanks for your appreciation, it helps to keep me motivated!
Gosh Charles this has given me so much hope. I lost all my autumn planted Broad Beans to the -17 deg we had up here one night in Scotland. Also my Spring cabbages and a lot of Kale froze, melted then turned to slush . Never known anything like it. I really hope this is the end of Winter now. Thankyou so much for showing us around Homeacres. Cant wait to see it all sprout into action again!
Sorry to hear that, new spring new hope. 💚
I’m so impressed with your skill and to see how well you cope with a very difficult winter just like you I’m disappointed with colly in December I had 20 colly naw I have only 4 but as a gardener I will definitely try something different next time…thank you very much for the tireless effort to help us all out with veggies
Cheers Philip, a pleasure
Excellent video, as always! I am so relieved to see that I am not the only one having lost so much this winter! My garden here in the Lot et Garonne looks very similar...problems with spinach, cauliflower, cabbage, etc... thank you for showing that gardening is never a perfect science!
Seems so widespread, thanks for sharing 💚
I always enjoy the garden tours, what a treat. I have to ask - how do you keep the edges of the garden so neat and perfectly square? I am constantly struggling with grass creeping in. Do you use an edger?
We use a half moon edger twice a year and keep the grass short to reduce its vigour. Plus we use long handled shears in the summer and autumn
I live in the southeastern United States and surprisingly we have a very similar climate to yours in spite of the difference in latitude. After a very hard freeze (17 degrees F) I too lost the cabbage, radishes, fava beans, mustard and turnips-crops mostly known for being cold hardy. But what has concerned me most this year is a weed known as Spanish needle produced stunted deformed seed. This is true everywhere I’ve been and I’ve never seen it happen before.
Oooh I don't like the sound of this deformed seedt! I have an uncomfortable feeling that the trails we see so commonly now contain stuff which is not good for soil and plants. It's in the rain I guess. Hope I'm wrong!
@@CharlesDowding1nodig Comment caught my eye, Charles. Not sure if the Far East virus and bugs of onions has crept to Turkey or even across Europe. Hard to get onions in Turkey atm. Could be a succession of poor seed quality allowed to infiltrate the markets during Covid home growing demands or various other factors converging, including in the atmosphere. And last year (UK) I had terrible germination/survival except for 2014 seeds from France found in my late mother’s collection. This year I’m getting poor/intermittent onion germination AGAIN with Beds Champ and another (Fothergills and Premier Seeds) but Sturon ok. Trying Walla Walla from Suttons sown few days ago: Only UK major seed supplier selling them after quick google and was surprised they were on offer from £3 something to c80p per 150seeds packet. Seemed odd. Also left some onions and shallots mixture of bulbs and starts in a “leftover bed” that failed to sprout properly in last year’s drought/heat. But started to show signs of recovery in autumn. These have all survived the two freezing snaps we’ve had this winter. Leaving them put to monitor harvest/go to seed depending on how they fair v-a-v rest of onions this year. Btw, spraying garlic with diluted real coffee helped with rust for me two years running now. I also have a permanent little garlic bed experiment going. This will be my 5 year. Produces a mixture of flowering seeds and side cloves. I just leave it be and use fresh green growth for garlic flavouring during spring/early summer.
Sorry about long comment. Just thought you might be interested in the world onion and onion seed issues from a UK home veg grower.
😃🧅🧄🥕🥔
@@CharlesDowding1nodig Thanks for the reply. You could be right. Spanish needle is a very hardy plant that can thrive in difficult environments. I’m keeping an eye out.
Nice to hear of coffee on garlic!
Onion seed does not store well and there is a lot of old seed sold.
I normally just chuck my woodchip down but throwing it through a screen like that would let me just have the larger parts on the path and the finer stuff although not quite compost would make a great bulking ingredient to add to the compost esp as alot of people struggle to get enough carbon materials to add to their compost. I love that old metal shed in the small garden. Needs a little lick of paint.😉
Good to hear.
And I like it unpainted!
Great video thanks very much for continuing to share. Please could you post a link for where to find the woodchip sieve? That is a fantastic idea but I can't find anything online for it. Thanks.
Here you are www.vidaxl.co.uk/e/vidaxl-garden-sieve-galvanised-steel/8719883834511.html?gclid=CjwKCAiAmJGgBhAZEiwA1JZoloNvFxDG_Pb9DPp49KuUdHBQNtOZKQCdvS46VAD3Vm4_clCR6BoISxoCmVoQAvD_BwE
Nice one. This is what happens over winter. Some you win some you loose 🤷♂️. I recon it will fly when when warm spring shows up. Charles have you ever thought of make a garden record book? For people to write up sowing dates, bed planning, bed sowing info etc. I ask because in get one from free with a seed company and I find it very useful and easy to look back on and compare results etc?
Cheers Billy - I use computer :)
those two cold snaps did a lot of damage for us as well, I suppose it was consistently below zero for two weeks or more in December and again in January, the ground was hard for a longer period than most winters even if the average temperature overall hasn't been that cold
Exactly tight Nick, the intensity
I wonder if these unusual winter losses might be due to the swings of temperature we now see. Perhaps things that would normally survive ok during persistent cool with frosts, however hard, struggle when the temperature flip flops 10°+ , sometimes in a day, which I have seen so much in the last year. I have gone from breaking ice on water troughs one day to being outside in a tshirt the next a few times this winter, it has to be extremely disruptive to plants.
Yes exactly!
Could be to do with the barium and aluminium they’re spraying on the land and us!
I'm afraid so!
ชอบมากๆๆๆๆค่ะ
What's the theory behind sowing the wild rocket in tiny little modules and then transplanting them into the bigger pots?
Why not cut your work in half and just sow direct into the big pots? Am I missing something? 😂
Could just sow multiple seeds in the bigger pots and kill off the smaller seedling if you are worried about germination rates?
Can't be a space saving thing is it?
You have to have more trays and pots and the seedlings still end up taking up the same space once they are in the bigger pots?
Haha Im sure there is an obvious reason!
Yes, Dean, you are missing the timing aspect. The seeds are tiny and germinate very slowly so a small seed tray with up to 200 seedlings takes up very little space in September and October, when my greenhouse is full of transplants for October, planting undercover.
Then we prick them out, and it's much less watering, just two trays of 60 cells, plus and more importantly, there is less waterlogging of roots. Small seedlings grow better in small amounts of compost. That is key and often gets overlooked.
It takes very little time to prick out or pot on, and you see the wonderful result there.
some of my broad bean plants look as if they were frozen, they're black and wilted. I wonder what happened, some plants are ok. the lowest temp. was around -5 (broad beans are in the countryside, not where I live). they're supposed to be hardy...
They are hardy but to a point only and they survive better when very small. Possibly yours were sown a little too early.
I'm finding best survival from November sowing, or even December in the greenhouse.
Cats can jump over 😂
What do you think about using pine shavings (from guinea pig bedding) as path surface or adding into compost heap? Thank you 😊
Either can work, maybe best on surface of paths
@@CharlesDowding1nodig thank you 😊
Charles I like those white trays in your greenhouse that hold several of your module trays perfectly. Was that just a happy accident to find those that fit, or is that another product of yours that we can buy? Thanks for this tour, really great to see how your place fares this time of year!
Cheers Ted and yes a happy chance. I bought them in 1983! Not sure if still available. Glad you enjoyed it.
We always enjoy the tour, this one did not disappoint. Question: Does the spinach bolt as soon as warmer weather arrives?
At normal time in May. Before that we had harvests since September, nothing this winter though
Could it be seed resilience that's led to some disappointing results this year? As you've pointed out before that home saved seed is better adapted for our own microclimates, maybe the last few milder winters have led the seeds to bear less frost hardy plants? I find it interesting that I'm in the Scottish Highlands and haven't lost any brassicas to frost (no more than outer leaf damage) and I still have winter purslane outdoors that looks lush and green.
Could be, but the frost was intense and more than you had, unusually!
@@CharlesDowding1nodig I guess that in itself is unusual! High winds have been more of an issue for us this year - 98mph gusts on Friday night...thank goodness for good soil structure and healthy root systems!
Hey Charles.
How wide are your beds?
Respect from Africa 🇿🇦
1.2m average Justus
At 4:08 it looked like chip was a cover on the broad beans. Is small particle compost under the chip?
Well spotted and exactly that - the wood accumulation top with good material below
Charles did you send me a gift by some text number? They have your picture and a separate acct in your name!
26:15 you don't sow tomatoes until the 10th of May? I believe it should be March.
Sorry yes March!
I also notice that ..
My compost is is a miserable mess after winter, frozen and been wheighed down of snow. No activity in it and low temp. Is there a way to kickstart it and get it up and running again?
It depends whether there is much undecomposed green material in there. That's what you need for the kickstart and it could be grass clippings or weeds. You might need to mix it all in and I would add dry paper too, to soak up the excess moisture.
@@CharlesDowding1nodig thank you! Ill give it a look when it warms up a bit. The weather is just horrible with temps between +5 and -6 celsius the coming week.
зима) в россии снег еще лежит - у нас такая погода как у вас в октябре месяце ) = winter) in Russia there is still snow - we have the same weather as you have in October)
Спасибо, что поделились этой невероятной разницей! Я не могу себе это представить, и я надеюсь, что весна скоро наступит для тебя
@@CharlesDowding1nodig )
How much biochar would you and to compost?
Say 1%, as charcoal
I honestly think, if there was a nuclear disaster, lambs lettuce would still survive 😬, joking aside great tour Charles
Thanks, love that
It just seems strange that you can have that much growth at those extreme temperatures. Seems like when I get anything in the 20s F, nothing will endure, maybe some broccoli and collards, but timing, your timing is something it seems like out of reach
Thanks. Green thumb!
"a catalogue of disaster" - winter tour! I love this video and how a master gardener humbly admits to his lessons :)
So helpful to see your garden when it's not at it's peak. It does really give us newbies some hope, haha. I also really appreciate your laid back attitude towards growing vegetables. I often get myself too worked up worrying about not having an exact plan or getting behind on things. Watching your videos helps me recalibrate and relax a little!
So nice to see this Jason!
@@CharlesDowding1nodig btw regarding the spinach. Idk if you already tried it, but the New Zealander Spinach is a phenomenal plant. It produces a huge amount of tasty leaves. I really can recommend it.
I just love how you waste nothing.... you even stuff a tiny Brussel Sprout in your pocket for later. You are a true gardener. 😇
🏆 good luck
haha thanks!
I'm so glad I'm not the only one to have lost things like Purple Sprouting Broccoli, Cauliflowers & Celeriac due to the hard frosts - if the Great "CD" loses crops then there's still hope for the likes of me 😉
This man is such a kind and caring person, thank you Charles for sharing. Ps my better half brought me your recent book , I’m part way through and it’s brilliant. 🎉
How nice thanks 💚
I have had a bad summer in Central Australia, more rain than usual meant an explosion of every pest and I was so unprepared for them as I had never faced them in such numbers. But as you say, I learned a lot from it. I learn more from my failures than my successes. Thanks for another great video.
Sorry to hear that, hope you all have enough to eat. I feel sure it's engineered weather, happening a lot to you :( and I hope autumn goes better
Your frost losses are interesting. I lost 3 established shrubs including my 3ft rosemary after the 6" snowfall that soon dispersed. I'm inclined to think the sky geoengineering that can often be observed is a contributor. What ever it is they use to force ice nucleation must be landing on the leaves & soil & reacting in non-natural ways when the temperature drops below 0. My veg plot has cleared itself of all plants through something other than animal or bird pest as it is completely enclosed in netting. The garlic outside it is OK tho!
Yes all weird, I'm inclined to agree
I've ordered logs from the same company for a few years now. This year the bark burns extremely fast & hot with a lot of black smoke before they settle down. They are grown in Scandinavia. I was wondering the same sort of thing. It's like there is a 'coating' on the bark.
Always a pleasure to learn and be entertained with your updates. We have had to start again from scratch with some parts of our grounds, as our last polytunnel took flight in high winds in early winter down here in Cornwall.
So we have replaced, and made larger our polytunnel, with more emphasis with no dig on our outside space ( all through your simple no fuss advise)
This year will be the start of being able to sow, grow and harvest a year through plan to keep the natural soil growing cycle to produce amazing Vegetables.
Thanks again for your insightful updates.
Wonderful, grow well!
Advice about Hostas....don't buy the kind people exchange amongst eachother, get new and unique ones.
Thank you so much for showing some discouraging beds. It really does give us hope when we are miles behind you on this no dig gardening. We need not give up because there are less than stellar attempts.
`Yes keep going! 🌱
I love the way that you give confidence to growers to 'give things a try'! It is such a supportive statement. Additionally by underlining how little effort 'no dig' is, you highlight that 'giving things a try' is really not the big investment in time and energy that so many gardening 'experts' make it out to be. My thanks.
Nice to hear 💚
Indeed!
For us, I think it's been the widely fluctuating temperatures. We went from 60 F to -2 F in the space of about 24 hours in December, and it was murder on the plants. It's been a pretty mild winter and I think the plants get soft in the warmer times and are less able to stand the cold then.
Yes, that is crazy fluctuation!
Yes, just this past Friday it was 60 degrees F at 6am. By 6pm it was a mere 30 degree F and 20knt gusts
Listening to Charles talk about his weather conditions is always entertaining. I enjoy the videos and there are some great ideas, but I often wonder how he would handle a more severe continental climate like the one I "enjoy" in the central U.S.
Ive noticed the brassicas have suffered more than usual this year considering the temps Charles. The only thing I can put it down to is the drastic drops and raises in temps rather than it being gradual.
I feel we are all looking for the cause!
Charles my theory on why we have had so much frost damage is that we had that unseasonal and brutally long cold spell in December and the plants hadn't a chance to build up a tolerance to colder nights. I'm only 6 miles from you but higher up and we literally went went from temperatures of around 18c to -10 or so over the course of a week.
Good point Andrew. We were 5-8C by day for the week before the first -6 frosts.There is more to it I feel
Those disasters are so refreshing to see in times where people only share successes, that puts enormous pressure on those on the other side that are not familiar with reality. 2023 is the first season for me and the other day I realized how instead of joy that is was supposed to be i felt nothing more than anxiety from overwhelming expectations starting from setting beds, getting compost, planning plans, reading books about the topic in time, growing healthy things, keeping them alive when you are away, and even eating them all before it goes to waste. Unrealistic, I know and I now started working on my expectations :)) Thank you for sharing these fails!
Thank you for sharing that. I also start every spring with low expectations!
And don't believe everything you hear / read, some failures is normal.
70 year old gardener here and still learning. Plus we learn from our mistakes.
In started 2022 and had the same pressure! This year, I’m keeping expectations low and surprise myself with the results ❤ Still feeling some pressure though - my perfectionist brain just can’t help itself. But I have to say: it’s much better than at this time last year. Good luck for your gardening 😊👍
My direct sown broadbeans have suffered as well. Combo of much rain, with frost in between. My onions are fine: planted Stuttgarter Giants as set in early november for use as springonions/early onions.
Garlic looks great. Oddly though my supermarket bought hardnecks, generally look better than my seedstore bought softnecks.
Still have stored pumpkins
500 onion sprouts waiting to go in in 2-3 weeks.
All my 'new' (pre-winter) no dig beds look great, there is only one that has dandelions coming through, the rest virtually weed free
You are on it Ed!
@@CharlesDowding1nodig mainly thanks to you
I bought Siberian garlic hoping it would overwinter better in my US zone 5. Looks pretty sad and it wasn't a bad winter. I'm starting to think that if temp happens gradually it's ok but if it changes fast. No bueno. Your thoughts?
Yes it could be that rapid fluctuation. It's weird though.
Probably a good example of climate change in action, the stress of the dry summer followed by the stress of a cold winter has likely had detrimental effect on the microbial flora within the soil. We really need to focus on developing methods to grow under these unfolding extreme conditions.
Great point and I think it's not 'climate change' 💦
Hey Charles!
I recently odered quite a big amoung of compost (45m³) but it is still quite warm - about 30 degree Celsius (that said, once layed on beds, it goes cold).
The quality itself seems very good to me and it is well broken down without many lumps and deep black.
Do you think it is fine to already plant in there of should I rather wait a bit and maybe sow into trays first instead?
How long should such compost continue to "ripen"?
Thank you in advance!
Sounds ok as 30C is mild heat! I would spread, water if dry, helps decomposition. Raise transplants where possible this spring
@@CharlesDowding1nodig Perfect, thank you, Charles!
I had a couple of swede do that each year - they rot which smells awful! I've also had mice chew tunnels through them or hollow them out completely!
Harvested a huge swede last week and noticed a few baby slugs had very recently created a hidey-hole. When I was preparing, the few small areas around the slugs’ homes were definitely beginning to deteriorate. I cut them out and had plenty to utilise. However I reckon the whole root might not have held up in a week or two’s time. Not checked the other swedes yet as the remaining aren’t very big and probably won’t be harvested for food anyway. Perhaps slugs hatch during milder winter days….. My unharvested beetroots disintegrated weeks ago. 😂Combination of too lazy to harvest, the frost, and most definitely chomping critters I conceded defeat to years ago 😩 !We have lots of odd looking little amber or black coloured mice/voles. Some with short stubby tails, some long tails. Field mice? We’ve even spotted a multicoloured! Too tiny for rats. Not moles either cos we have them too. Creating sink holes under transplants! 🤦🏼♀️ Can’t ID them.
In your 25 square metre garden how much(kilo) compost is necessary?
Around 200kg, once a year
Here in BC, we had the same overwintering experience. For some reason, crops that are normally tough didn't do too well. I suspect lower than normal sugar levels.
Rotted out with cold this year /last year, -8/-10, just to cold, killed a lot of veg plants during that time.
Hi Charles, thank you for this no dig tour. Your honesty over the failures as well as the successes is very much appreciated, and you’re so right it’s all a learning process. On this beautiful sunny day, I followed your advice on saving space and compost to sow my first seeds. I did sow some tomotoes today which have gone on a heatmat indoors but will save the others to follow your advice. Also, just to say that both myself and my partner love your ‘No Dig’ book, its our ‘go to’ now. Thanks! Caroline
How nice thanks Caroline
Such a beautiful garden and jammed packed with valuable information. Inspiring!
My Welsh Onions are still producing nicely even through the cold snaps, I live in a rural area just outside Glasgow
Hello Charles!
So…what Do you use woodchip to?
Mix with compost or?
Best Regards Helene in Sweden
Yes a lot, and spread it on all paths, and leave some to decompose another year then use in a new bed as 3cm layer, andsieve to 4mm for potting
@@CharlesDowding1nodig Thank you for your anserw and have a nice monday
I've had similar problems with my swedes as you,with rotting bottoms,I've usually find them to be very Hardy,was wondering if it's to do with more rainfall that we had before the frosts,I'm in the next county,Wiltshire not far from you. Thanks for such an informative video.
It’s because it’s been more humid Charles, tonnes of rainfall before the frosts causing expansion in the cells and extreme frost damage.
The size of a man's chipper can be quite person, Our Charles...
Mr Charles, have you considered having some of the odd dead plants tested for chemical poisoning or anything like that... Chemtrails or residues from plants/trees that have been poisoned...?
Hope these problems are temporary ... I’ve had similar problems with plants I’ve never had problems with before... 😐
Thank You for sharing your wisdom with us 💝
Food for thought thanks
It’s because it’s not just the temp but the length of time at the colder temp. You can have a cold night drop down but the plants can withstand a couple of hours at that cold. It’s when it starts to get into longer lengths of time below freezing that the plants can’t really handle it.
I live in E TN and we got down to -11F with windchill (-11/12C) and that happened for a couple of days straight. It was -11F during the day. I almost lost all my plants. Even the dinosaur kale died. My strawberries, oregano, wild bergamot, thyme, garlic, and mint survived.
I think everything else I had died that I was hoping to overwinter. I lost all the onion, some garlic, chives, parsley, kale, cilantro, poppies, rosemary, lavender, sage.
It was just way too cold for way too long. I’m just glad some plants survived. I moved the container strawberries right next to the house to keep warm using the radiant heat and that seemed to help a lot. Wish I had done that with more of my plants.
I'm very sorry to read this, that you had such deep cold NTN. I'm praying that these episodes do not become more frequent!
Hi there, most of my cauliflower, Aalsmeer and 'All the year round' Cauli sown late summer has also really suffered from the cold and I've lost most of them. The Leamington cauli, however, sown in June, is looking really good, not lost a single one. Not cropped yet but looking promising, was very good last year too.
A nice tip, thanks David
Hi Charles thank you very much for all knowledge you have been sharing with the gardener's around the world. I am wondering if you can share some thoughts on homemade pesticides and IMO.thank you again
That's a nice comment. This could be quite a short video and the reason I do not speak about them is because I do not make any so-called pesticides, preferring to work on growing healthy plants. However I'm sure there are some worthwhile ones, it's just a question of time available.
Hi Charles,
I find your videos so helpful and educational, I just got an allotment plot last year, and I’m just starting out, I can’t find on some of the videos what time of year you make the video…? Where can I find this info?
Thank you, that is nice to hear. Lately I have been putting dates on and you should find them in the description, but not on the screen of the video. Good luck with your new allotment!
I sowed some cabbage (spring or summer) and cauliflower (all year round variety) in autumn to see what would happen if I overwintered them in pots in the potting shed. I now appear to have healthy looking 4 inch high plants. If I plant them out are they going to grow hearts and heads? I never see anyone overwintering brassicas to plant out in spring so not sure this would work? Thanks
Congrats Scott!
Saved by the shed, plant out asap as they need to grow quickly before maturity in mid spring
Just chucking ideas about Charles. I took off the poly and covered the frame of my poly tunnel doors with green windbreak mesh so the doors can be used normally for access but are are closed otherwise but well ventilated. Saves heaving frames around. I could half cover the doors with poly but haven’t found that necessary. Keeps out critters and larger insects and butterflies I am sure you have good reason to use the method that you showed. I wish I had the space to have a poly tunnel as large as yours-bliss!
Yes I am lucky and thanks for sharing that
QUESTION- Where did you get those white trays for your seedlings? I LOVE those! Also do you use soil blocks ever?
Sommer Allibert in 1983 :) and I tried blocks, find trays easier
Thank you Charles for showing all the mishaps you've had this winter,, it's good to see I'm not the only one having issues with the weather,,
I'm amazed with how you find the time to answer the couple of questions I asked last week with all the jobs you have to do each and every week, thanks again!
Got 3000 seed out to the greenhouse today and needed this after a hard but joyous day :) cheers! Hi from Sweden Charles
Wonderful job Damien
Hi Charles. What length are your netting supports over the beds with the cabbages? I would think their length is relative to the width of your bed? Thanks. Pauric
2.5m m, [ushed in further than normal for this narrow bed
Where is the most reasonable place to get compost for no dig beds in Hampshire,my local council delivers a tonne bag but it’s pricey at £175 ,can you use soil conditioner for no dig?
That is a crazy price! And interesting about that flipping phrase, soil conditioner. That's what I'm talking about here, and I call it compost. Very misleading! So I would buy the soil conditioner!
Love the relaxed informative style. I don’t like black plastic but need to use some so i have a question what kind of black plastic do you use and where do you source?
Thanks. 600 gauge, and agricultural suppliers should stock it
Thank you Charles. Echo the last two comments. Two things: at the end there's a slip of the tongue which might need a caption over - 10 March not May for tomatoes! Secondly the disproportionate damage by frost has been the same here in Norfolk. Broad beans Aquadulce Claudia: 1 survivor. Spinach Medania: wiped out. Tatsoi outside looking very rough, inside something's eating it (of course). Best survivor outside: kale, 100% OK. Broccoli 50% like yours. But lifting the last parsnips last week, they were great (though the spade was needed). My real disaster though: using some compost from an open sack to sow seeds ten days ago to save money. Totally false economy. About to resow everything...
Thanks so much Alan. Gulp, May!!
Open sack should be fine, I do that
Great tour. Glad to see the problems here in wet west of Ireland are similar. Minus 7 here at times but biggest problem here during winter is condensation at my works poly tunnel as I have to lock it up, my home one is fine because I can open doors although mould did effect lettuce and some of the kale inside. Had wonderful harvest from kale,purple sprouting,carrots,leeks,celery and spinach(winter giant) in poly over winter. You’ve always been my inspiration. Thank you.
@@CharlesDowding1nodig Yes... maybe you dont have three cats, when there's -6 frosty ground, so nowhere to... Yes, I'm afraid one of them probably did. I was totally stupid and lazy, smelt a bit of an ammonia smell and just carried on. Still, it's good to support nice seed companies... and, as you always say, in spring you can catch up, from July onwards you can't.
Don't judge me I have been out digging this morning at allotment.
My rutabaga & purple sprouting broccoli didn't do well either; actually, they were complete failures. 😞
So sorry
Charles the woodchip that was sived by Adam you said you wouldn't use it as compost, what would it be useful for? As I have old woodchip on a new plot I have to sort out. There are old raised beds i want to take away and grow on the ground.
for sieving again and finer 4mm, to use in potting. For perennial plants like asparagus. Pathways. Bottom layer of deep beds, good luck