My late grandmother lived in a moist climate and she would maintain her garden bed edges with a half moon edger including an inch or so deep depression along the edge. As you also suggested she periodically scalped the edges by dropping the lawnmower wheels into the depression and this combined with minimal/no dig allowed her to keep an acre of landscaping/garden absolutely beautiful single-handedly until shortly before her death at age 85.
Hello! Your comment, warms my heart and thanks for sharing this lovely result. I'm sure also that it's food which taste better and is bringing good health 💚. For the last few months, I've been paying for Hindi subtitles on these videos and please do share them with any friends who are interested.
Charles, in my experience with cardboard edging around beds, its super important to keep all the edges of the cardboard covered. If I dont cover the exposed edges with mulch then the slugs just love going under the flaps during the day! And weeds will find a way to poke out easier too.
What a fantastic way of showing and teaching . Always so inspiring to see and admire your garden and crops. Motivating. Thanks . My new market garden is trying to go and be this way . A lot of work and dreams.
Thankyou Charles, my garden edging is easy like yours, because I modeled your example..my husband mows weekly to keep it short and a quick spring cleanup and a quick fall cleanup is all it takes. My husband is also in charge of removing any Dandylions from our yard..yes he has a tool that allows him to do the job without bending over. All weeds go on to the heap..😊
Love this video. Thank you Charles. The principle you use - little and often - is I think also applicable to other daily tasks and life’s little things, isn’t it? ❤ Helps us enjoy them and have more fun too! 😊
Seeing your well maintained garden beds is an inspiration to us all. My setup is different as I have all raised beds with small to medium sized gravel in between or in some of my garden woodchips in between. I just go around a few times a year with a propane torch and burn the weeds or sometimes spray vinegar on them to kill them. Any weeds in my actual beds I just pull since there are generally very few by practicing no dig and using lots of compost and mulches. My biggest problem is always having to replacing my boxes or doing maintenance on them.
Hello Charles, I enjoyed the garden visit. I need to tend to mine. I have always wondered how you maintained such perfect edges. Beautiful carrot harvest. Enjoy your day.
I like to use a physical edging like a metal or plastic barrier dug down into the soil. Is of course a bit more expensive but gives a super slick edge that you can mow straight up to.
At my field I have an edge of tight- sown calendula- marigold mix, that’s often seen here in south germany and discourages slugs in a way to enter the bed, too. In my pathways I had low- growing white clover I got from Bingenheimer. That helped feeding the pollinators, keeping the moisture in between of the beds, especially in the moisture- lacking months and I was able to regularly cut the leaves a bit to use them as a mulch. That also helped to keep the ground from drying out, but there‘ve been some weeds taking advantage and hiding amongst the clover, that had to be removed singly. Maybe I‘ll try the woodchip- pathways next year if I get a hold on some for an appropriate price. But now in winter I surely will put some at the outer pathways on the field to protect my shoes during muddy season when I‘ll be cutting my lamb‘s lettuce😊. Thank you Charles for this inspiration! Happy No Dig Day!
A lovely informative comment! I would hesitate to grow calendula near my vegetable garden because of how they seed so quickly, with hundreds of new plants! That sounds very organised with the clover, if you can stop it spreading into the beds much!
I could never wield the long handled shears.....I always ended up shuffling along on my knees with short handles ! Weeding as I went along was easy that way too . Love using the half moon...which, for some reason, we call a "ritter" Nice to hear you GQT, BBC radio4, this afternoon. 👍
Good morning, Charles, from Windermere, Florida zone 9b USA We have an electric edger that we use after every lawn mowing. St. Augustine grass consists of runners. It needs to be kept in line. Happy No Dig Day. I hope it was a success ❤Peggy❤
Charles thank you so much for this video. This is so helpful!! I have been fighting with my garden edge for over 2 years. I think your advice will help so much.
We raise our own corn (dent field corn for our poultry , small 20 foot long by 12 foot wide plots) my husband puts a layer of corn stalks around each of our veg beds. He lays them down in a perfect square then takes his corn knife and chops on them ( perhaps at 64 years old as excercise or relieve of frustrations LOL, by Spring they keep the grass and weeds smothered out as well as rot away leaving us a nice path all growing season as well, then he simply rakes the rotten stalks over into the beds in the Fall and replaces them with new stalks into the next harvest, works very well for us!!!! DIG NO DIG!!! Thanks for your AWESOME videos Charles, Mia,
I’ve decided to completely surround my polytunnel with weed barrier & bark to keep maintenance low as i had too many items to mow around (with storm straps & stone) so created a straight line edge with plans to put a tall edging strip so the mower can hopefully but up to it . Doing jobs now to save time and energy in the summer 🤗
When I worked in parks and recreation. We used to string the beds (only for straight edges) and use a scaffold board. You stand on the board with the half moon edger and by placing one foot on the edger cut with a rocking motion keeping your foot on the edger as you lift and using your leg rather than your arms to do the down cut. Moving along and pinging the string occasionally to make sure it hasn’t wandered. Sounds like a faff but when you are edging a lot it is in fact much quicker. We under cut the side to be removed with a turfing iron (theres a thing of past history) using your legs as the power source is less tiring.Perennial weeds were just cut off allowed to grow a bit then removed effectively. Just chucking ideas into the hat and sharing a bit of bygone knowledge Charles. Your method is fab too! Thank you I have learned so much from your instruction.
That's a great tip, thank you. The grass has crept into my flower beds and I need to cut a new edge and even with string it can get wavy on me. The board idea will keep it straight for at least six of the eight foot length and sliding it along with some overlap should keep it straight enough for my purposes.
Your garden is my inspiration. 😍I was long waited for this video. I've always asked myself how you mow your grass, if you use fertilizers or if you need to irrigate it. Your grass looks so fresh green and amazing all year long and the edges seems all the time so well shaped. I also use some scissors for some more problematic areas, twice a year that half moon edger and in the rest of the time a battery operated string trimmer. Thank you for another great video. Such a pleasure to watch you.
Cleaning up the edge is one of the quickest and easiest ways to spruce up a bed. I prefer doing it by hand, like you. I usually use a hand claw, a horihori or a shovel, depending on how big the area is.
Wonderfull video on an underrated topic❤ According to an old gardening book those dandelion roots can be collected and stored to produce blanched buds like a kind of chicons (we call them molsla in Dutch), I've yet to try but it sounds like a fun experiment
Whenever I pull out dandelions I wash the root, slice and dry it. Then when I have a jar full I roast them and grind them into a coffee-like drink. Not the most efficient way to make a hot drink, but it does taste nice!
Hi Charles, Long time fan here from California❤. Thank you for posting this video as I am transitioning my rear yard into a garden. Hopefully we can cross paths in the near future🎉. Cheers!-Dave
Merci beaucoup pour toutes vos videos, I live in France and I was wondering how you did to have such neat hedges, so beautiful and tidy. Thanks for your counsel and help.
I live in the desert and have opted out of watering grass. Id rather water food. I love watching your green beautiful paradise. Even the weeds look magnificent 😅
We have quite a few dandelions in our lawn. Our soil is compact sand. I use a heavy duty tool similar to the.... Husky 6.2 inches Double Injection. The hand held weeder tip end looks like a 2 pronged fork hence the name double injection. I go around a dandelion in several locations under the leaves near the center of the dandelion and rock the tool toward the flower and back. I feel the roots loosen. I usually get the whole root. Husky also has a trowel type tool but is deep to scoop soil like a short handled deep shovel. Since watching you Charles I've started the cardboard. Great for paths in our small garden and when we extended our garden a foot.
Oh, Charles. Ive only begun the video, so if something changes I will come back and amend my comment ... but it pains me to see you spend unneeded labor and time. IK exercise is great, but so is efficiency. You must be aware of the motorized tools, Im certain. If you dont want a 2 cycle internal combustion engine driven tool, Stihl makes a fantastic battery powered edger, the FCA 135. I am in no way affiliated with them (I wish!) just a fan of the brand. But Im sure less expensive brands would suit your needs as well. Much 💚to Charles. I will say, though, it was quite interesting to see how you do it with the Charles-powered tools 😊
After watching .. I understand the no dig considerations, such as limited disturbance to the mycorrhizal fungi and not wanting to cut too deep. I have a garden roughly 2.5X the standard UK allotment that I run myself, and I simply cant imagine doing the manual edging on those hundreds of foot of edge on a regular basis. I like the idea of reapplying the cardboard! Thanks Charles, another awesome video!!!
Great tips and lots of good info. My problem is weeds taking over my gravel driveway. The weeds do seem to be dying off for winter. I'm afraid I'd ruin a nice copper trowel if I used it. Any tips much appreciated!
Went down and got myself a half moon edger, didn't know what I was missing !@@CharlesDowding1nodig BTW i really appreciate all the advice and your collaboration with Dr Berg is excellent, between your two channels, it's really improved my life significantly. At first I was like, here's another bloke showing off his immaculate garden, but when I started to actually listen and do the things you said, the results were immediate. It would take lifetimes to figure these things out by yourself, it's invaluable knowledge that needs to be preserved. I believe printed books are the best way to preserve that knowledge.
I had to take a different appraoch, I have couch grass, it's a very small patch and I got rolls of edging and had it layed around each bed, because it's a very small area it didn't cost too much, the labour cost more than the edging. It's worked great, I only have annual grass weeds in the beds now.
I have just found Charles Dowding and am totally absorbed! A query though. I have built up my vegetable plot with compost every year and now the bed is higher than the grass. I guess I could skim off the lovely soil, but that rather defeats the objective of caring for the soil structure. Charles must have the same problem with repeated applications of cardboard and compost?
Cheers Mike, and actually not! Cardboard is only used on weeds when starting out and not after that. Weeds are gone! The annual application of compost is around 1 inch and most of that is eaten by soil organisms through the following year, so any rise in level is not significant. The whole plot might be slightly higher, but it's not a problem and with no wooden sides there can be no overflowing.
Charles I think professional landscapers actually dig a slight < between beds and grass. This way the grass roots are exposed at the edges and air does most of the cutting/pruning for you. Might be worth a try to dig just a tad bit deeper near the edge?
Thanks but it's a bit diggy for me! We tried it and found that birds end up kicking surface organic matter into the mini trench which soon fills up. Also I don't like having bare soil anywhere.
Here's an life hack, if u want a bigger vegetable garden but u are not allowd by ure partner, use the half moon tool. And cut the edge back a few cm each year an nobody will notice it while ure vegetable pach slowly gets bigger 🌱
Hi Charles. Thank you for another helpfull video. My plot is covered with couch grass what would you suggest I do to create new no till beds. I did however already till part of the ground as it was rock hard and the soil has almost no organic material. Should I remove all the gras that is now under neath the soil?
Leave it all! I would use black plastic to cover the ground (add any organic matter first) and that deprives the couch grass of light. Then in the spring when you want to start planting, roll back some plastic a little at a time, remove any surface roots you see, spread compost, and plant. Then keep pulling any new regrowth of weeds. My New Area playlist takes you thorough this process ruclips.net/p/PL7WDfop74y-k1a3lMA0ooD5m8bhiKu5sR
Simple and effective tips… I have two edges between beds …. Hmmm things to contemplate - would you just smother the grass, put cardboard down then mulch to avoid the creeping grass and weeds -as now grass is the “weed” creeping into the beds
Hi Charles, thanks for this and so many other videos! Good reminder on the turf within the veg beds- that has been a mistake I made in the past. I wonder if you've tried an electric mower? we've had great and very quiet success with the Ego brand mower and chain saw.
Hi, I have issues with my pebble pathways weeds coming up and also the grass creeping in. Would you suggest to remove the weeds, push the pebbles to the side then cardboard plus reapply the pebbles back on top to stop the weed growth?
That is a big problem with pebbles and gravel. If it was me I'd remove them altogether and use woodchip instead! Your idea is a good one but you do need to pull the bubbles back first for sure. Then apply two layers of thick cardboard if possible
Similar Aileen. Buttercup is described as creeping, but I often feel that it's running, moving very fast to colonise new space. Either you need to cut it every two weeks in summer or, cardboard can buy you time and give 6 to 8 weeks without edging
How have you gotten rid of your couch grass? Could you made a vid on that? Mine will grow right under the cardboard and woodchip. Vicious stuff. Over last summer it grew all through a large area that had been heavily woodchipped over cardboard and into my planting beds. I literally dug out an entire small pickup load of of roots and took them to the dump. Now I have to be super vigilant.
how do you know so well where your original edge was? is there something about the character of the new grass that you can see but is not translating in the video? or is it just intense familiarity with bed proportions?
I'm 62 and cannot convince my family to do anything gardening related, so I have to do things differently. The sharp half moon, long handled pick shovel, and hand held spade with saw edge are rarely used. I hit the edges with a oscillating hoe or a battery string trimmer (vertical then horizontal). I kneel on a garden cushion since my lower back will not tolerate the squatting you can do. The largest garden is edged in mounded grass clippings and square hay bales. The house landscaping is the only neat and tidy area, but I don't have to deal with a camera crew.
Did u think about having some kind of edge so you don't have to do this? Not sure about English, in Czech it's called invisible curb. Basically a thin strip of something you burry into the ground and it doesn't allow things to spread sideways. Like something you'd do for bamboo but not that deep.
Yes, and I have done that for raspberries with a 15 cm metal bar, and it's very effective in stopping the roots spreading out. However I would need a huge amount of whatever bar I might use, for this garden. We are managing pretty well by hand.
Hi Charles, have you ever use the bed redifender tool (machine)...? If yes, does it help? If not, why?... I have the same problem but with stronger roots🥺... it's a really nightmare 😊, lovely video...!!! Cheers from Chile🇨🇱
Thanks for the tip, however I never use any two-stroke engines in the garden and do not like them! I can see that it might save some time but also, I like using copper. is kinder to soil
When some woodchips are putting on a cardboard, it brings little trouble to cut the edges because the woodchips can easily slide on cardboard to the grass. The result is woodchips in the grass unfortunately. This is my Experience. So I need to cut little area back from cardboard.
12:43 It´s very very important to check whether your cardboard contains PFC or not. Cause PFC is very toxic. So unless you are 100% sure it´s PFC free, don´t use it at all. You might want to read the PFC report from Northern Italy.
@@CharlesDowding1nodig VEO QUE ASÍ COMO LO HACES ES PERFECTO Y FUNCIONA GENIAL! GRACIAS POR MOSTRARNOS TU MANERA DE HACER BIEN, LAS TAREAS DEL HUERTO! SALUDOS!!!
I have cooch grass- Bermudagrass. Mixed with I think fescue. I don't understand why anyone wpuld purposely plant a rhizomatic grass in a home lawn!? It's so hard to deal with. I spend so much time trying to pull them out of my garden beds (at least 5 hours every weekend) I sometimes ask myself is it even worth it? I just want to go get a bottle of grass killer. 😢 I wonder if I should at least kill all the grass around my flower beds & vegetable gardens, & reseed a different grass... becaise sometimes I spend all my free time weeding, & then have no time to enjoy the garden.
Oh dear, that is a pity. Do bear in mind that weedkiller does not necessarily work! Against such a persistent rhizome. I would look at using cardboard, edging and reducing edges somehow.
@CharlesDowding1nodig Thanks for your reply! I edge it back an extra foot than where I actually want it to be every spring, & weekly there are about 30-50 "vines" going into each bed, in between plants. If i ever go more than a week or two,there are some up to a foot long already!?! Next spring I am going to edge it back again, & use the plastic stuff that landscapers use (the stuff that goes in the soil a couple Inches and sticks out a couple Inches) to hopefully help 🙏
Me seeing that overgrown weedy area. "Geez that's a pain of a job, I'll get around to it one day." You just get stuck in a clear a huge patch in a couple of minutes while talking like it's nothing 😂 there is a reason your garden is nicer than mine.
" IL TARASSACO " essendo, commestibile porrebbe far parte delle verdure, che coltivate per vendere, e magari coltivarlo appositamente. 🍽 Saluti, dall' ITALIA 🇮🇹
@@CharlesDowding1nodig nel ringraziarla, per la sua, risposta, volevo precisare che; intendevo l'utilizzo del tarassaco in aggiunta ad una " misticcanza di insalate ".🥬
Because it's plastic which is there all the time and over time, soil and compost and organic matter fall on top, and then before you know it, as I've seen many times, it disappears into the ground, and you have a carpet of weeds on top!
00:15 gosh just watching that body position makes my lower back hurt! 🙈🙈🙈 You should find a good "Manual Handling" course, they can help you show how to do these things without damaging yourself. Even if it doesn't hurt now, you are causing a lot of wear and tear to your spine and it WILL hurt sooner or later.
![Megan Thee Stallion - Roc Steady (feat. Flo Milli) [Official Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/HozPPyqW0dY/mqdefault.jpg)
Charles is at the cutting edge of no dig gardening.
😂 love it thanks
😂😂
I knew there was a pun in there somewhere lmao
He is also cutting the edge!
LOLOLLLLLLZZ. that is hillarious!
My late grandmother lived in a moist climate and she would maintain her garden bed edges with a half moon edger including an inch or so deep depression along the edge. As you also suggested she periodically scalped the edges by dropping the lawnmower wheels into the depression and this combined with minimal/no dig allowed her to keep an acre of landscaping/garden absolutely beautiful single-handedly until shortly before her death at age 85.
How encouraging is this, thanks for sharing
Happy No Dig Day! We've been celebrating by having tea and getting to know our plot neighbours.
Thanks and that is awesome!
Mr. Dowding, Im from Manipur, India. Watching your video inspired me to start gardening. Three years later, Im growing 80% of my own food
Hello! Your comment, warms my heart and thanks for sharing this lovely result. I'm sure also that it's food which taste better and is bringing good health 💚.
For the last few months, I've been paying for Hindi subtitles on these videos and please do share them with any friends who are interested.
Your videos always bring be a sense of calm and an abundance of joy. Thank you Charles. Happy no dig day!!!!!
Great to hear, thank you
I've been waiting for this one for years. Thank you!
I am glad you enjoyed it Abigail 🙂
Charles, in my experience with cardboard edging around beds, its super important to keep all the edges of the cardboard covered. If I dont cover the exposed edges with mulch then the slugs just love going under the flaps during the day! And weeds will find a way to poke out easier too.
Thanks for sharing Mary and yes weighted down is good
What a fantastic way of showing and teaching . Always so inspiring to see and admire your garden and crops. Motivating. Thanks . My new market garden is trying to go and be this way . A lot of work and dreams.
I am glad you are inspired and motivated Esteban
I’ve been wanting to see a video on edging for ages! Thanks Charles
🙌
Thankyou Charles, my garden edging is easy like yours, because I modeled your example..my husband mows weekly to keep it short and a quick spring cleanup and a quick fall cleanup is all it takes. My husband is also in charge of removing any Dandylions from our yard..yes he has a tool that allows him to do the job without bending over. All weeds go on to the heap..😊
That's great Linda 💚
Love this video. Thank you Charles. The principle you use - little and often - is I think also applicable to other daily tasks and life’s little things, isn’t it? ❤ Helps us enjoy them and have more fun too! 😊
So true! Thanks
Thanks. Really helpful. I have found that time invested in creating good wood chip paths brings huge benefits.
Excellent!
Seeing your well maintained garden beds is an inspiration to us all. My setup is different as I have all raised beds with small to medium sized gravel in between or in some of my garden woodchips in between. I just go around a few times a year with a propane torch and burn the weeds or sometimes spray vinegar on them to kill them. Any weeds in my actual beds I just pull since there are generally very few by practicing no dig and using lots of compost and mulches. My biggest problem is always having to replacing my boxes or doing maintenance on them.
Yes such a different approach! Thanks for sharing
Thank you Sir for your encouragement to keep up with weeding. I do so every morning after feeding kitty outside.
Thank you! I need to increase the area between grass and plants! So helpful.
Just the video we needed! Thank you, so informative!
I am glad you enjoyed it Marvin
Hello Charles, I enjoyed the garden visit.
I need to tend to mine. I have always wondered how you maintained such perfect edges.
Beautiful carrot harvest. Enjoy your day.
Thanks Naomi 👍
I was just thinking how nice your garden edges look on you last short video. Thanks for the tips.😃
My pleasure Kenneth
I like to use a physical edging like a metal or plastic barrier dug down into the soil. Is of course a bit more expensive but gives a super slick edge that you can mow straight up to.
Relaxing and motivational at the same time...mine need doing and I'll be on it tomorrow, weather permitting. Thank you Mr Dowding!
Cheers Adam
At my field I have an edge of tight- sown calendula- marigold mix, that’s often seen here in south germany and discourages slugs in a way to enter the bed, too.
In my pathways I had low- growing white clover I got from Bingenheimer. That helped feeding the pollinators, keeping the moisture in between of the beds, especially in the moisture- lacking months and I was able to regularly cut the leaves a bit to use them as a mulch. That also helped to keep the ground from drying out, but there‘ve been some weeds taking advantage and hiding amongst the clover, that had to be removed singly.
Maybe I‘ll try the woodchip- pathways next year if I get a hold on some for an appropriate price.
But now in winter I surely will put some at the outer pathways on the field to protect my shoes during muddy season when I‘ll be cutting my lamb‘s lettuce😊.
Thank you Charles for this inspiration!
Happy No Dig Day!
A lovely informative comment! I would hesitate to grow calendula near my vegetable garden because of how they seed so quickly, with hundreds of new plants! That sounds very organised with the clover, if you can stop it spreading into the beds much!
Hi, I heard about benefits of clover growing before. Clover seems much better than an ordinary lawn. Surprising, it is not that popular in uk.
I enjoyed seeing his passion and love for the garden.
Thank you, I am glad
I could never wield the long handled shears.....I always ended up shuffling along on my knees with short handles ! Weeding as I went along was easy that way too . Love using the half moon...which, for some reason, we call a "ritter" Nice to hear you GQT, BBC radio4, this afternoon. 👍
Thanks for sharing, tools are so personal it's true, glad you liked the radio
Thanks for sharing Charles.great ideas for keeping things tidy and in order, I’ll be using this method where I can! 👍
Great to hear David and thank you
Wonderful garden, and best teacher Charles 🙏 thank you 🌱
So nice of you
Excellent thanks, I'd call this "advanced back to basics"! Id love more, useful for both veg & flower gardeners ❤ 🌼 🥕
Glad you enjoyed it 🙂
Good morning, Charles, from Windermere, Florida zone 9b USA
We have an electric edger that we use after every lawn mowing. St. Augustine grass consists of runners. It needs to be kept in line.
Happy No Dig Day. I hope it was a success
❤Peggy❤
Thanks for sharing Peggy, that sounds useful :) and yesterday was amazing, so much enthusiasm worldwide
Charles thank you so much for this video. This is so helpful!! I have been fighting with my garden edge for over 2 years. I think your advice will help so much.
I wish you straight tidy edges!
We raise our own corn (dent field corn for our poultry , small 20 foot long by 12 foot wide plots) my husband puts a layer of corn stalks around each of our veg beds. He lays them down in a perfect square then takes his corn knife and chops on them ( perhaps at 64 years old as excercise or relieve of frustrations LOL, by Spring they keep the grass and weeds smothered out as well as rot away leaving us a nice path all growing season as well, then he simply rakes the rotten stalks over into the beds in the Fall and replaces them with new stalks into the next harvest, works very well for us!!!! DIG NO DIG!!! Thanks for your AWESOME videos Charles, Mia,
Thanks so much for sharing this, what a brilliant improvisation and use of resources, please say hello from me!
I’ve decided to completely surround my polytunnel with weed barrier & bark to keep maintenance low as i had too many items to mow around (with storm straps & stone) so created a straight line edge with plans to put a tall edging strip so the mower can hopefully but up to it . Doing jobs now to save time and energy in the summer 🤗
Planning! 😎
Ah brilliant. Just what I was looking for! Fortunately I've just inherited a lovely old edger.
Fantastic!
When I worked in parks and recreation. We used to string the beds (only for straight edges) and use a scaffold board. You stand on the board with the half moon edger and by placing one foot on the edger cut with a rocking motion keeping your foot on the edger as you lift and using your leg rather than your arms to do the down cut. Moving along and pinging the string occasionally to make sure it hasn’t wandered. Sounds like a faff but when you are edging a lot it is in fact much quicker. We under cut the side to be removed with a turfing iron (theres a thing of past history) using your legs as the power source is less tiring.Perennial weeds were just cut off allowed to grow a bit then removed effectively. Just chucking ideas into the hat and sharing a bit of bygone knowledge Charles. Your method is fab too! Thank you I have learned so much from your instruction.
Thanks so much for sharing this fascinating insight. It's true that many skills are disappearing so this is a great reminder.
That's a great tip, thank you. The grass has crept into my flower beds and I need to cut a new edge and even with string it can get wavy on me. The board idea will keep it straight for at least six of the eight foot length and sliding it along with some overlap should keep it straight enough for my purposes.
You're an inspiration :) On my way to tidy up my edges in my garden!
I am glad you are inspired Natalia, Great to hear 🙂
Your garden is my inspiration. 😍I was long waited for this video. I've always asked myself how you mow your grass, if you use fertilizers or if you need to irrigate it. Your grass looks so fresh green and amazing all year long and the edges seems all the time so well shaped. I also use some scissors for some more problematic areas, twice a year that half moon edger and in the rest of the time a battery operated string trimmer. Thank you for another great video. Such a pleasure to watch you.
This is good to hear and glad that you enjoyed it Iyanla 🙂
Cleaning up the edge is one of the quickest and easiest ways to spruce up a bed. I prefer doing it by hand, like you. I usually use a hand claw, a horihori or a shovel, depending on how big the area is.
Good advice, I'm dealing with exactly the same condition gardening here in California. Best regards!
Cracking video, some really good tips there, thanks again
Glad you enjoyed it Philip
Wonderfull video on an underrated topic❤
According to an old gardening book those dandelion roots can be collected and stored to produce blanched buds like a kind of chicons (we call them molsla in Dutch), I've yet to try but it sounds like a fun experiment
Thanks for the info, great idea
Whenever I pull out dandelions I wash the root, slice and dry it. Then when I have a jar full I roast them and grind them into a coffee-like drink. Not the most efficient way to make a hot drink, but it does taste nice!
Your carrots looked delicious, Charles. I forgot to replant mine after my early harvest 😢. I'm missing them right now. Hagd.
Sorry to hear that and thanks Lisa
Hi Charles,
Long time fan here from California❤. Thank you for posting this video as I am transitioning my rear yard into a garden. Hopefully we can cross paths in the near future🎉.
Cheers!-Dave
Sounds great Dave. Haha yes, cross paths, with tidy edges 😀
Merci beaucoup pour toutes vos videos, I live in France and I was wondering how you did to have such neat hedges, so beautiful and tidy. Thanks for your counsel and help.
You are welcome David
I live in the desert and have opted out of watering grass. Id rather water food. I love watching your green beautiful paradise. Even the weeds look magnificent 😅
That sounds challenging Miriam. It's the opposite here where sometimes we yearn for sunshine, but you're right, the greenery is amazing!
Thank you very much. I feel like this is an underdiscussed part of no dig gardening.
You're very welcome!
We have quite a few dandelions in our lawn. Our soil is compact sand. I use a heavy duty tool similar to the....
Husky 6.2 inches Double Injection. The hand held weeder tip end looks like a 2 pronged fork hence the name double injection. I go around a dandelion in several
locations under the leaves near the center of the dandelion and rock the tool toward the flower and back. I feel the roots loosen. I usually get the whole
root. Husky also has a trowel type tool but is deep to scoop soil like a short handled deep shovel.
Since watching you Charles I've started the cardboard. Great for paths in our small garden and when we extended our garden a foot.
That's well organised and thanks
Good video Charles , I hate weeding not my favorite thing to do in the garden.
Glad you enjoyed it Rocco
Thank you so much Charles
My pleasure
Oh, Charles. Ive only begun the video, so if something changes I will come back and amend my comment ... but it pains me to see you spend unneeded labor and time. IK exercise is great, but so is efficiency. You must be aware of the motorized tools, Im certain. If you dont want a 2 cycle internal combustion engine driven tool, Stihl makes a fantastic battery powered edger, the FCA 135. I am in no way affiliated with them (I wish!) just a fan of the brand. But Im sure less expensive brands would suit your needs as well. Much 💚to Charles. I will say, though, it was quite interesting to see how you do it with the Charles-powered tools 😊
After watching .. I understand the no dig considerations, such as limited disturbance to the mycorrhizal fungi and not wanting to cut too deep. I have a garden roughly 2.5X the standard UK allotment that I run myself, and I simply cant imagine doing the manual edging on those hundreds of foot of edge on a regular basis. I like the idea of reapplying the cardboard! Thanks Charles, another awesome video!!!
Cheers Ted. It's a fair comment and you have got me thinking, let's see.
I have a battery powered Stihl hedge trimmer, is excellent
Great tips and lots of good info. My problem is weeds taking over my gravel driveway. The weeds do seem to be dying off for winter. I'm afraid I'd ruin a nice copper trowel if I used it. Any tips much appreciated!
Hmm difficult and I would avoid using gravel anywhere, for that reason! Afraid I have no tips for weeding it.
Hi Charles! You mentioned about couch grass, can you make a video about "fighting" them. I got lot's of it in my garden.
I have eliminated it all! Shall see
Legend, that of great timely advice
Very kind, thank you
Went down and got myself a half moon edger, didn't know what I was missing !@@CharlesDowding1nodig BTW i really appreciate all the advice and your collaboration with Dr Berg is excellent, between your two channels, it's really improved my life significantly. At first I was like, here's another bloke showing off his immaculate garden, but when I started to actually listen and do the things you said, the results were immediate. It would take lifetimes to figure these things out by yourself, it's invaluable knowledge that needs to be preserved. I believe printed books are the best way to preserve that knowledge.
Lovely to hear, thanks, it's nice to feel appreciated.
I am just writing my 15th book! About making compost
Little and often ❤️🤠👍💚
💚
I had to take a different appraoch, I have couch grass, it's a very small patch and I got rolls of edging and had it layed around each bed, because it's a very small area it didn't cost too much, the labour cost more than the edging. It's worked great, I only have annual grass weeds in the beds now.
I have just found Charles Dowding and am totally absorbed! A query though. I have built up my vegetable plot with compost every year and now the bed is higher than the grass. I guess I could skim off the lovely soil, but that rather defeats the objective of caring for the soil structure. Charles must have the same problem with repeated applications of cardboard and compost?
Cheers Mike, and actually not!
Cardboard is only used on weeds when starting out and not after that. Weeds are gone!
The annual application of compost is around 1 inch and most of that is eaten by soil organisms through the following year, so any rise in level is not significant. The whole plot might be slightly higher, but it's not a problem and with no wooden sides there can be no overflowing.
Long live the Legend!
Meanwhile back at the Shire. Bilbo visits Charles Dowdings garden and learns more no dig maintenance tips and tricks. 😊
Love that!
Charles I think professional landscapers actually dig a slight < between beds and grass. This way the grass roots are exposed at the edges and air does most of the cutting/pruning for you. Might be worth a try to dig just a tad bit deeper near the edge?
Thanks but it's a bit diggy for me! We tried it and found that birds end up kicking surface organic matter into the mini trench which soon fills up.
Also I don't like having bare soil anywhere.
@@CharlesDowding1nodig makes sense! Have a blessed weekend!
Charles, what is that beautiful plant with the red flowers on the end of the plot you are edging at 8.08 mins? I love it!
It is snapdragon / antirrhinum, 2nd year and flowered all summer, then rotted this winter!
@@CharlesDowding1nodig Thank you for the response, it is going on my shopping list!
Here's an life hack, if u want a bigger vegetable garden but u are not allowd by ure partner, use the half moon tool. And cut the edge back a few cm each year an nobody will notice it while ure vegetable pach slowly gets bigger 🌱
😂
Been employing this technique for 35 years! Works great!
@@juliemulie1805 must be a nice expension by now 😯
I celebrated no-dig day by ceremonially spreading my first bit of home-made compost.
Brilliant Tim!
Hi Charles. Thank you for another helpfull video. My plot is covered with couch grass what would you suggest I do to create new no till beds. I did however already till part of the ground as it was rock hard and the soil has almost no organic material. Should I remove all the gras that is now under neath the soil?
Leave it all! I would use black plastic to cover the ground (add any organic matter first) and that deprives the couch grass of light. Then in the spring when you want to start planting, roll back some plastic a little at a time, remove any surface roots you see, spread compost, and plant. Then keep pulling any new regrowth of weeds.
My New Area playlist takes you thorough this process ruclips.net/p/PL7WDfop74y-k1a3lMA0ooD5m8bhiKu5sR
Simple and effective tips… I have two edges between beds …. Hmmm things to contemplate - would you just smother the grass, put cardboard down then mulch to avoid the creeping grass and weeds -as now grass is the “weed” creeping into the beds
Yes Jane, I would do exactly that because you have two edges from one path! Cardboard then a little woodchip can save you so much time
Thank you - you have no idea how much joy and inspiration you are giving to others.
Ah wow that is nice to hear 💚
I don’t speak for everyone :) *of course* it would love to see a video on flowers at Home Acres!
That's nice and we made a few, this one recently ruclips.net/video/laqSyi7Wrjs/видео.html
Hi Charles, thanks for this and so many other videos! Good reminder on the turf within the veg beds- that has been a mistake I made in the past. I wonder if you've tried an electric mower? we've had great and very quiet success with the Ego brand mower and chain saw.
Glad it was helpful and I had not heard of them
Charles may I ask a question? Where can I buy seed grain in small quantities suitable for sowing a patch on the allotment?
Hi Sue, I would buy it from a whole food shop, usually works only you don't know variety name, it's how I started with rye
Thank you so much
Perfeito fica bem restinho obrigado ❤
💚
Hi,
I have issues with my pebble pathways weeds coming up and also the grass creeping in. Would you suggest to remove the weeds, push the pebbles to the side then cardboard plus reapply the pebbles back on top to stop the weed growth?
That is a big problem with pebbles and gravel. If it was me I'd remove them altogether and use woodchip instead! Your idea is a good one but you do need to pull the bubbles back first for sure. Then apply two layers of thick cardboard if possible
And I'll have to wait for rain. Just tried to use the half moon tool and much too hard.
Wow, hope you have some of ours!
What would you suggest to do with borders that's planted? There's buttercup around the herbaceous perennials.
Similar Aileen. Buttercup is described as creeping, but I often feel that it's running, moving very fast to colonise new space. Either you need to cut it every two weeks in summer or, cardboard can buy you time and give 6 to 8 weeks without edging
Thanks so much Charles.
How have you gotten rid of your couch grass? Could you made a vid on that? Mine will grow right under the cardboard and woodchip. Vicious stuff. Over last summer it grew all through a large area that had been heavily woodchipped over cardboard and into my planting beds. I literally dug out an entire small pickup load of of roots and took them to the dump. Now I have to be super vigilant.
O, I know this kind of sturdy grass, too… it‘s coming up like the dandelion and bindweed here, too.
One has to be patient and dig it up for a while.
Yes I know it. Regular, weedy minimum removal sees it weaken. That can be easier to say than do
Gardeners question time today included a piece with you on no dig!
ah so good they included it!
How well would it work to half-bury a thin piece of timber around the perimeter to work as a sort of fence?
That would work for a while until the wood rotted. The time needed to bury it would reduce the time saved!
@@CharlesDowding1nodig Thanks, Charles!
how do you know so well where your original edge was? is there something about the character of the new grass that you can see but is not translating in the video? or is it just intense familiarity with bed proportions?
Good question, and yes, it's familiarity! Also by looking at what is planted there and the distance should be around 30 cm/12" to the edge
@@CharlesDowding1nodigSounds like I need to be more precise with my planting 😅
How would you approach edging against concrete paths and patios?
Love that you use hand tools rather than engine edgers and string trimmers
Thanks Linda and I use the edger once a year, it's surprising how much the grass and weeds creep over
I'm 62 and cannot convince my family to do anything gardening related, so I have to do things differently. The sharp half moon, long handled pick shovel, and hand held spade with saw edge are rarely used. I hit the edges with a oscillating hoe or a battery string trimmer (vertical then horizontal). I kneel on a garden cushion since my lower back will not tolerate the squatting you can do. The largest garden is edged in mounded grass clippings and square hay bales. The house landscaping is the only neat and tidy area, but I don't have to deal with a camera crew.
Thanks for sharing this Julie, a nice insight into gardening differently. It's great that we can all find ways to do it.
Did u think about having some kind of edge so you don't have to do this? Not sure about English, in Czech it's called invisible curb. Basically a thin strip of something you burry into the ground and it doesn't allow things to spread sideways. Like something you'd do for bamboo but not that deep.
Yes, and I have done that for raspberries with a 15 cm metal bar, and it's very effective in stopping the roots spreading out. However I would need a huge amount of whatever bar I might use, for this garden. We are managing pretty well by hand.
Hi Charles, have you ever use the bed redifender tool (machine)...? If yes, does it help? If not, why?... I have the same problem but with stronger roots🥺... it's a really nightmare 😊, lovely video...!!! Cheers from Chile🇨🇱
Thanks for the tip, however I never use any two-stroke engines in the garden and do not like them! I can see that it might save some time but also, I like using copper. is kinder to soil
@@CharlesDowding1nodig awww, thank you for your advise. Have a nice day.
Not so easy on a slope, but still a great solution on flats 💗
Good point
I have to ask mr dowding. Where did you get the bracelet from ? Greeting from gramsbergen netherlands
Ah nice, it's by my friend Julia from Joodaboo Jewellery joodaboo.com/collections/bracelets - made to order
On the half moon edger, is it better to have a smooth edge or a toothed edge?
Smooth gives a cleaner cut and keeps the blade cleaner too
When some woodchips are putting on a cardboard, it brings little trouble to cut the edges because the woodchips can easily slide on cardboard to the grass. The result is woodchips in the grass unfortunately. This is my Experience. So I need to cut little area back from cardboard.
You are so right, and that is why I prefer to use small woodchip, even cheap/woody compost
Charles, I recently learned that PFAS is used in the production of toilet paper - how about cardboard?
Oh no, impossible to avoid it seems and I don't know.
The rain that falls, the air we and plants breathe...
12:43 It´s very very important to check whether your cardboard contains PFC or not. Cause PFC is very toxic. So unless you are 100% sure it´s PFC free, don´t use it at all. You might want to read the PFC report from Northern Italy.
Thanks
❤❤❤❤❤❤
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I've put edgings in, I have enough to do without all that malarky too.
Does a timber edge solve this?
Good point, yes and no because grass and weeds keep growing up the sides, they make it easier for sure
Use a weeding knife, replaces all the tools used in this vid, can control the depth i.e. deep weeds or shallow grass, and it's quicker.
and pull the soil back at the edge below the base of the turf, it will stop it creeping in as often.
Nice tips thanks
CHARLES: ESA ES TAREA SIN FIN!!! LAS PLANTAS VOLUNTARIAS TIENEN MÁS DETERMINACION POR VIVIR... QUE LAS PLANTAS INVITADAS...
¡Tienes razón Lidia! Sin embargo, vale la pena y es necesario, a menos que compre bordes metálicos.
@@CharlesDowding1nodig VEO QUE ASÍ COMO LO HACES ES PERFECTO Y FUNCIONA GENIAL! GRACIAS POR MOSTRARNOS TU MANERA DE HACER BIEN, LAS TAREAS DEL HUERTO! SALUDOS!!!
I have cooch grass- Bermudagrass. Mixed with I think fescue. I don't understand why anyone wpuld purposely plant a rhizomatic grass in a home lawn!? It's so hard to deal with. I spend so much time trying to pull them out of my garden beds (at least 5 hours every weekend) I sometimes ask myself is it even worth it? I just want to go get a bottle of grass killer. 😢 I wonder if I should at least kill all the grass around my flower beds & vegetable gardens, & reseed a different grass... becaise sometimes I spend all my free time weeding, & then have no time to enjoy the garden.
Oh dear, that is a pity. Do bear in mind that weedkiller does not necessarily work! Against such a persistent rhizome. I would look at using cardboard, edging and reducing edges somehow.
@CharlesDowding1nodig Thanks for your reply! I edge it back an extra foot than where I actually want it to be every spring, & weekly there are about 30-50 "vines" going into each bed, in between plants. If i ever go more than a week or two,there are some up to a foot long already!?! Next spring I am going to edge it back again, & use the plastic stuff that landscapers use (the stuff that goes in the soil a couple Inches and sticks out a couple Inches) to hopefully help 🙏
Coincidentally, I was doing some edges today 😂
🙌
Use a strimmer on edge to maintain
Me seeing that overgrown weedy area. "Geez that's a pain of a job, I'll get around to it one day."
You just get stuck in a clear a huge patch in a couple of minutes while talking like it's nothing 😂 there is a reason your garden is nicer than mine.
😂 go you!!
" IL TARASSACO " essendo, commestibile porrebbe far parte delle verdure, che coltivate per vendere, e magari coltivarlo appositamente. 🍽
Saluti, dall' ITALIA 🇮🇹
Grazie! Forse, ma ci vuole molto tempo per ottenere il peso delle foglie di tarassaco! Non sarebbe economico
@@CharlesDowding1nodig nel ringraziarla, per la sua, risposta, volevo precisare che; intendevo l'utilizzo del tarassaco in aggiunta ad una " misticcanza di insalate ".🥬
Ahh si!
Consider a hori hori knife instead of a trowel.
I prefer copper to iron
Need to drop your stress level? Just tune in to a Charles Dowding vid 😊
💚
why not just put weed blocking fabric on all the edges, say 2 feet?
Because it's plastic which is there all the time and over time, soil and compost and organic matter fall on top, and then before you know it, as I've seen many times, it disappears into the ground, and you have a carpet of weeds on top!
Not to plug a particular brand, by the way...
00:15 gosh just watching that body position makes my lower back hurt! 🙈🙈🙈 You should find a good "Manual Handling" course, they can help you show how to do these things without damaging yourself. Even if it doesn't hurt now, you are causing a lot of wear and tear to your spine and it WILL hurt sooner or later.
Thanks! I am 64 and my back is straight and feels good after five decades of physical work. Core muscles 😊 and i keep learning
@@CharlesDowding1nodig Wow, you definitely don't look 64! 👍
Ah good!
So .... ... ... you lock the person with the camera in the shed between shootings!!!! What! 😲
Watch closely!
OMG and a copper edger…. my next purchase especially for edge work. I have trowel and Dutch hoe ❤️
Nice!!
Hi folks, who else is on the vino and prefers Charles to Monty