DUE TO THE ABUNDANCE WITH NO DIG AND NOT HAVING TO WORK AS HARD PULLING WEEDS, WE HAVE GAINED FIVE POUNDS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! SO WE WENT OUT TODAY AND HUNTED DOWN A FEW WEEDS TO PULL IN ORDER TO FEEL LIKE WE WERE GETTING A WORKOUT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! IT'S A GOOD PROBLEM TO HAVE REALLY !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THANK YOU NO DIG !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I am a teacher, but you are The Teacher. Each time I watch and listen to you I take notes, as all good students should do, simply because in two weeks time I am getting my long awaited piece of land. Having a 10 year experience in an average city garden, I hope to fulfill my dream of no dig garden. Thanks for sharing all your knowledge and experience. Regards from distant Poland 🌹
What a find, I am delighted to find you and courtesy of The Happy Pear's video (with you) today. Your produce is impressive - I am envious ! A delight to see your lovely, well organised and immaculate Homeacres.....you must be very proud.
This might sound awful, but I was very happy to see your rust-affected garlic. Our hard neck (and soft neck) were both impacted badly by rust this year and we’ve got some very small bulbs plus a bit of splitting. It’s reassuring to know that it’s just been a bit of a bad year, and we’ll try again next season. Thank you!
Nice video Charles, thank you. Indeed, summer is full on! In our allotment in Bath, all the crops are thriving nicely. We are using no dig for the sprouts, peas, and broad beans plot. They are liking it a lot.
I have just harvested my garlic and was pleased with them, until you had some the same size and called them 'tragic'! 😄 I love the tour and aspire to be as productive in the much smaller area that I have on my allotment.
Lovely video as always Charles. I love your wildflower area. Its stunning! I agree about the grasses too, we have so many areas around our farm full of beautiful grasses and I use them in my flower displays. We don't have a lot of butterflies either at the moment, I hope it improves. So interesting seeing all your trials. Enjoyed every minute of this, never boring! Thanks for the inspiration again.
All my beds are covered in wood chip but as you say Charles more leaves/wood/bush trimmings.. and I normally put on about 6 inches each sep/oct..and by the time I grow it’s rotted down quite a bit..and then I mulch around the plants with the wood chip mix…I understand what your saying about more solid wood not the best but we’re getting a good mix of mulch… and I can see how the plants react simply by not disturbing the soil… And when I dig down you can see the layer that’s been created by the wood chip mulch layer… And the added bonus of hardly any weeds.. the odd one picked by hand… It’s was the cheapest way for me as when I got plot there was a massive pile of wood chip that had been there for years… I basically started at the bottom of the pile and took that so I wouldn’t shock the plants when they went out.. I’m a good 4 years into it now and I try and explain to people it takes time ..like most things in life..think people expect results straight away but patience is the key.. The same as making my own compost ..using the chicken poop ..it’s a work in progress..but it gives my plants that extra boost they need and I try not to use chemicals/make my own liquid feeds.. Happy growing Charles..🌱
Hi Charles, Another great video, i love your setup and how you keep everything nice a organised plus the no dig is a great way to garden. Thanks for sharing all your knowledge with us, I do appreciate it.
NEVER IN OUR LIVES DID WE EVER THINK WE WOULD GROW SO MUCH SPINACH WITH NO DIG THAT WE COULD NOT CONSUME IT FAST ENOUGH AND WOULD HAVE TO CUT HALF OF THE PLANTS DOWN IN ORDER TO MAKE ROOM FOR OTHER VEGETABLES !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! IT'S PURE INSANITY TO US AT THIS POINT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WE LOVE IT THOUGH !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thank you, Charles! This is my first year working on a vegetable farm and I started getting back to your valuable videos just recently. They are a huge inspiration and I am excited to learn and see what I can implement here bit by bit.
I wish had the space to have so much abundace of stunning vegetables.I leave Dandelions as they provide many health benefits and add them to salads and roast the roots.
Charles, I remember a video from years ago of you talking about garlic rust and that put the problem on my radar. I live in the mountains of NC that historically gets more rain than Seattle and we have cool, damp springs and off and on hot, humid days. At the top of the hill is most of my garlic, with a few in the kitchen garden by the back door. I have never had rust. Last year, I started hollyhocks from seed and I planted them all through the landscape. We had a bed we had created from dry stack rock and filled with nothing but tree bark mulch the year before to make the porch beds look balanced. The hollyhocks planted in that bed grew well enough, but were riddled with rust. The hollyhocks 10 feet away, that were planted in soil with a layer of shredded bark mulch, had no rust. In the fall, I laid a very thick layer of chopped leaves on the problem bed, because I wasn't sure if the rain could splash spores upward from the mulch. The hollyhocks died back over the winter and popped up again this spring. Today they are 6 feet tall (!) and so far....despite the humidity (knock on wood) no rust in sight. My anecdotal involuntary experiment 😏 leads me to think that the bed was way too fungal-ly dominated, because of the wood chips and then that perpetuated the puccinia malvacearum....same rust for both garlic and hollyhocks. Would love to know whether you have ever thought this. Would it be an interesting trial to have one garlic bed with soil/compost and one with wood chips?
That is a great comparison Elizabeth and thank you for sharing. I'm not sure how much of this rust is coming from soil below, and how much is on the wind (hence less under cover here), in humid weather. Also the rust you mention is not quite the same but I think the characteristics are very similar. Garlic infects with Puccinia allii. I shall try and area next year with something on the surface to stop upward splashing and see if that makes a difference.
Thanks Charles, watched the whole way through, as always👩🌾👍 Brilliant information 🌿💚🌿 BTW...1st day of Summer ☀️ and it's in the 90°'s F and I think Florida should have it's own calendar saying Summer began the middle of April 👩🌾👍🌞
A wonderful, interesting and instructive tour as always. I'm sorry you had the garlic rust problem, but it's some comfort to me as we had the exact same problem here (43N not far from Toulouse). This was with Edenrose seed garlic planted into 3" of a mix of homemade and municipal compost in October. First ever garlic planting. It seemed to be going well until the rust struck. I removed the worst leaves at first but the rust won. Interplanted tomatoes are fine. Thank you for all the knowledge you so freely share. You're the voice in my head whenever I'm gardening.
Cheers Paul and this is a nice comment. I once had a farm near you, in Astaffort to be precise just south of Agen. We grew garlic commercially and never suffered any rust, so I think it's quite a new phenomenon for it to be so bad. Not sure why, maybe all those nuclear power stations!
@@CharlesDowding1nodig Well, we are some way to the East and a good distance from any power station! I forgot to mention that last winter was bad for rabbits, and, being French, they targeted the young garlic. Maybe this weakened them so that (as you always say) they were more susceptible to infection and then some combination of Spring weather also favoured the rust. Spring weather here was surprisingly similar to UK with matching periods of damp and cold snaps. It's a tad warmer now though :)
Thanks for sharing, Charles! Always a pleasure to see your progress throughout the year. Regarding the potatoes that are not doing so hot in the semi-decomposed woodchips...are you considering planting potatoes in the same spot over the coming years to see how the yield increases year-over-year as the woodchip continues to decompose?
Great idea if I was a research station and did not need the food! I never thought they would be so poor and so I have lost some of my winter provisions from this! Onwards and upwards, in this case removing most of the woodchip to a pile. They are eminently unsuitable for gardening, totally the wrong sort which I now realise. Maybe add compost then grow potatoes again
I always learn so much from you Charles. Your wild flower garden is so pretty. I have been thinking of doing a patch in my yard like that. Can you do a video on how you put that in?
So nice of you Mary. It's very simple, just you need their soil to start and then we scatter the seeds over the top. It's your decision on which plants to remove as the flowering ones grow, and we hoed off a lot of buttercup because that's so common here
@@CharlesDowding1nodig I was thinking of putting cardboard down and compost over it and then put the wildflower seeds over it. Or did you scatter the seed among the existing grass?
What a beautiful overview of your productive garden at this time of year , and learning at the same time thank you et merci, à la prochaine , bien sure . Josy
Excellent video once again!!! Our moths are here now in Ohio, cabbage is making heads under netting. We love to watch them try figuring out WHAT the problem is. They can see it......BUT can't get to it!! We also planted red clover in between the veg beds. The clover is now flowering the same time as the cucs and tomatoes along with the potatoes and the bees are not only getting their fill of pollen running between the clover and veg but also helping us make veg and given us some great honey. Next year the clover will be where the no dig veg is and the veg will be where the clover is and so on. THANK YOU FOR ALL you do!!
Hi Charles, I have found a great protection from slugs mice etc is to completely cover the space round the plants with Alpaca fleece. This seems to make it difficult for attack, and it also rots down into the bed.
Garden looks great Charles, a lot of everything! I have rye and wheat growing too, try to get berries out by hand to make flour. I got that thistle thing in the garden, yes big problem!
I’m constantly pulling grass out of my raised beds. The Bermuda grass (couch grass?) is slowly coming under control, but the fescue pops up to 3” tall just overnight. It comes in from beneath my beds, which are for the most part about 3 years old. Fortunately the fescue is easy to pull out but it’s maddening to stop t the end of the day seeing grass-free beds, only to awaken the following morning to find quite a bit of new fescue has popped up. We are also in a heat wave in the Deep South of the US, with temps as high as the mid/high 90’s this past week (I garden in zone 7b). It’s extremely hot for this early in the summer. Your garden is always amazing and I have learned so much from you! I’m starting some new beds and looking forward to gardening in the fall when it should be much cooler. Thank you for the beautiful and informative tour!
Thank you. I'm puzzled that you are not getting to the point where the grass roots die. They really should if you are on it pulling new shoots regularly! And I'm sure they will, good luck with the heat
As always, very informative and very interesting. I've had small white caterpillars two weeks ago and large white this week. Vigilance is required! And netting without holes!
Only discovered charles dowding a couple of weeks ago. Have watched loads of his videos at this stage! Great stuff. Very relaxing viewing. Similar to Monty Don, if not different methods. Will be looking to take my veg patch to no dig next spring. Keep up the good work charles.
Beautiful video as always loving the whole tour. I grew my potatoes in wood chips last year an I got a good harvest yes there is wood chip and there is wood chip. My only issue was so many slug holes this year I’m planting it in partly rotted horse manure and so far my yield is good.
thank you for always sharing your depth of knowledge and tips. and your energy! you really got me interested to dive head first into gardening this way and i've been taking your courses. its my first season proper and its been amazing. thank you.
yes i used to have long arguments with my compost supplier when I was growing organic seedlings commercially. When the compost is steaming when it is delivered it has a long way to go to be comfortably useable
What is missing for many viewers is the zone of these gardens, as for newbies it is different souls, seasons that is the learning curve. As 9B in Arizona, most soil,Aka dirt is less than 1% organics. So it's not one size fits all.
You are so right and that logic also applies to the zonal classification. We are zone 8, the same as Texas, and in my introduction I say how the temperature has been 80 Fahrenheit which for us is a hot day! I well know that for Texas at this time it would not be a hot day, yet we are in the same zone. And that is why at 0. 59 I say the climate is temperate oceanic. I find that a more accurate climatic description than the zone number, although I often do mention it.
@@CharlesDowding1nodig I look at the grass in the roadside ditches, and that is my 1st indication on several things, rainfall, soil health. I looked for property a few years ago in Canada, May 15 and still snow in roadside ditches, " outa here, not gardening country". I wish over 1/2 the RUclips stuff wasn't on it, as some isn't even reality for the novice.
Здравствуйте! Большое спасибо за Ваш колоссальный опыт. У Вас все растения - овощи, и салаты, и картофель, и цветы - прекрасны, Очень понравилось в Ваших теплицах. Стараюсь все выращивать, как Вы, используя Ваши советы. Спасибо большое, удачи!!!
I usually collect ladybirds and their larvae and introduce them into the greenhouse. Aphid populations seem to be high this year and I haven't seen many ladybirds yet.
Bon nuit, Monsieur Charles Dowding. Hello again from Bowling Green, Kentucky. Tremendous video (another one). Your garden area looks fantastic. My little garden is growing here. The weather has been very hot here lately. Next week, we are forecasted to hit 100 degrees, but my garden is going strong. I always enjoy your videos. Bon nuit!
Regarding growing in pots you should watch my latest video when I visited Coutts Skyline Garden where they grow their kitchen garden entirely in pots on a roof in London!
Watching on 18 June from zone 8A, Georgia, USA. We have had temperatures in excess of 38C and heat index to almost 44C. 🥵 I discovered you from a gardening group on FB, Sir, and am excited to learn from you💕
Oh wow! Several people from Georgia have commented on your extraordinary heat wave, I hope that your plants are coping not to mention yourself. Welcome, and enjoy the learning!
Thanks again for the wonderful visit. Success? Oh Yes!!! Would love to see how you plait your garlic. Mine is throwing scapes now...delicios in stir fry. Growing Great Guns in Clearwater, B.C.
Charles, I have wondered why the compost mulch method is not working well for me here during the summer. You said 80F was a heatwave for you there and that's when I started thinking. Here in the the state of Georgia in U.S. it has been in the mid 90s most days and hit 102F one day last week. They are saying 105F this coming Wednesday. Today it was 96F so I took some temperature readings with a infrared and compost thermometer. The dry surface of the compost mulch bed was 164F, two inches down 110F, six inches down 80F. Wet compost mulch 30 min after watering 110F on the surface, 90F two inches down and 80F six inches down. The beds with wheat straw 120F on the surface and 80F on the surface of the compost underneath the straw. The surface of the grass was 120F. The black compost mulch is like planting in an asphalt parking lot, it was 44 degrees hotter than my grass or straw mulched beds. I'm wondering if these high temps could also be causing the gasification of nutrients out of the layer of compost? I know it's not good when a compost pile gets that hot. My thought is does the 164F temps from the compost mulch surface causes heat stress, loss of nutrients out of the compost and death of microbial life near the surface? I would gladly send you some pictures if your interested in seeing. Have you ever taken temperature readings of your garden beds in the sun?
Hi Matthew, this is really helpful to know and thanks for making these comparisons. Those are extreme temperatures and I have to agree, I would use a straw or hay mulch on top of the compost in such conditions. Your measurements prove that worthwhile, and I shall see if we can find time to do that.
@@CharlesDowding1nodig Thank you for your response. If the plants are close enough to shade out the compost surface before it gets hot It works fine. Yesterday it was a record 103F and the compost mulch surface was over 170F. We've only had about a inch of rain in the past month as well. I will need to use straw or hay in the summer and try to manage the slugs and woodlice. Then remove the mulch for the fall, winter and early spring crops. The compost mulch will help keep the soil warm during those times.
Greetings Charles. I’m a huge fan from the New York City suburbs. I’m part of a community garden at Clark Botanical. Also a couple of miles away we are blessed with Old Westbury Gardens in heavy bloom right now. You are my inspiration 😍🥰 By the way, I guess it’s the jet stream but New York is having another mild cool breezy summer.
Thanks for sharing and that sounds really worthwhile. Interesting about your weather because after one hot day here, we are back to cool, grey skies and I struggle to see a warming trend!
@@CharlesDowding1nodig gardening last year it was on the cool side. Sure we had a couple of high 90 degree days. But too cold for me to swim in the beautiful bay with the egrets, crabs and mussels. I think it’s the jet stream. Unfortunately the western US is too hot not solely from climate change but I feel from the jet stream too. It’s like autumn here today. Gray, windy and cold. Yesterday it was almost 90. Mother Earth is trying to balance herself.
I collect every bettle and spider I can find and put then in my Greenhouses and the Tomato plants with webbing have zero pests but the ones without have some white flys.
@@CharlesDowding1nodig I also collect beatles, centipedes and Devil's coachhorse to patrol the raise beds as they tend to feast on every pest we hate. Thank you for the wealth of knowledge you provide from your videos.
best garden tour you have done so far.....you answered many questions for me, ive been curious about feeding toms/cucs to promote flowering/high yields, having researched this and found that commercial tom feed is just expensive watered down seaweed with added N, ive been using seaweed for two years with great results. Ive also recently found some information about aphids and nitrogen, if you feed with high nitrogen it actually attracts aphids to feed on the plant, the plant will be stressed due to cellular and stomata swelling, allowing pests to feed on the plant excretions and disease can enter the plant at these points.i trialed this over the winter with lettuce, adding chicken manure to a few plants and they got hammered with green fly in the spring, so we can look at out of control infestations of aphid as a indicator of high nitrogen, funnily enough our compost has high levels of nitrogen but the nodig/mycelium system regulates what a plant requires for steady growth and protection from disease. Also, organic fruit growers in canada have noticed by removing honey bee farms from thier orchards, has increased the populations of wild bees and particularly wasps, which have a major predator role to play, this has changed the populations of aphid and caterpiller to a point where there is the perfect amount to feed the remianing predators but no infestation, very interesting indeed!! so we can also look at out of control aphid infestations as a indicator of the predator prey balance is out of sync. Thanks for all the answers Charles
Cheers Jim, I really appreciate your comment and helpful observations. No surprise about those lettuce, after adding the chicken menu! I'm only glad that the Canadian orchardists have sufficient wild bees. They are so under threat from farming practice. I did not know that about commercial tomato feed and I am not surprised! I hope that your pitches are looking good and not suffering lack of rain.
@@CharlesDowding1nodig Allthough AG pesticides are part of the low wild bee populations, it has been discovered that Farmed honey bees may well be passing pathogens to the wild bees, Paul Stamets has noted that if you use his mycellium supplement for your honey bees, it will regulate pathogens and also mites, makes sense when considering the farm hive is disconnected from the ground in comparison to a wild hive or solitary predators, as they enter thier hives/holes they will carry mycellium spores in with them. Worth looking into Pauls Mycellium work perhaps.(mycellium running is also a great book) Regarding the pitches, well its been incredibly windy here in edinburgh for months now, realy drying everything out....but my Carbon top dressing (rootzone = compost and sand) was certainly a success, a slight increase in worm casts during december and january,but In sport pitch groundmanship its always a battle between annual and perennial grasses.....It was very mild this winter and as result i noticed that our favoured Rye Grasses continued to feed on the carbon throughout the winter maintaining decent colour all the way to the drier weather of late,also noting the annual meadow grasses which don't grow in the winter had a drop in population as the Rye started to out compete the Poa annua.Thanks for asking Charles.
@@00jim cheers Jim, that's helpful and I do have Paul's book, it's good. Also we notice bees feeding on mycelia both in soil and on logs for example Great news about your grasses, although not about the weather. It's becoming very dry here, despite rain forecast all the time!
It’s so encouraging to see you succeed against the bindweed. But how do deal with it in your grass pathways. I haven’t figured out how manage mine in the grass yet.
Charles I sincerely hope you never get Possums over there - absolute ruination of beautiful gardens- we are currently paying AUD $8.00 a head & I had some beautiful beds in & lost them to Possums (Protected animal over here). Our Government needs to take a bloody good look at the carnage these pests -(sorry protected animals) do. This video was just unbelievable & I loved it,I am having some success slightly as our winter is being a little but kinder to us. Cheers Denise- Australia
Oh that is bad, and it reminds me of badgers here. Bad news for you, and I hope you can work out a way. I have been wondering about you with all the strange news coming out of Oz about weather and power station fires and more!
The wood chips will also deform and grow into the potatoes. I get lots of free wood chips and tried this experiment a couple of years ago with 30 lbs of potato seed. Final yield: 30 lbs of potatoes. 😂 never again.
Charles, Always a pleasure to view your garden. If I am not mistaken I noticed quite a few marigolds around the garden. Are they companion plant plantings? I saw quite a few around the tomatoes.
That 'white stuff' in your compost pile that you were not sure was may possibly be actinomycetes, bacterium that appears like a fungus -- until recently scientists thought it a fungus and you will still find articles online stating it is fungi. Actinomycetes love organic compost/gardening and is a good sign for your garden. However, it is also a reason organic gardeners should wear gloves when gardening/composting and wash their hands well afterwards. If this bacterium gets into an open wound and you develop an infection, you may find yourself on a 4-month course of antibiotics (yes, that is not a typo). Ask me how I know. Disclaimer: I am not a doctor and do not pretend to be one, just a former actinomycetes patient.
Looking just lovely! Well done 👏👏 I agree, about home saved seed. Anything I grow from home saved seed germinates faster, and stronger, than what I buy. PS you didn’t update us on the dam? Is it still holding water, did the clay work?
Thank you Suzanne. And that is a big story, quick answer is no and I put that in my newsletter today, hope the link works.mailchi.mp/c01a3831b3b3/plant-again-through-summer?e=d992f1d9c9
Really looking forward to the video with Dr Berg! Keto has been essential for my health recovery and he has been instrumental in helping me to understand my illnesses and show me how to recover: amazing guy. Keto has healed many many people of chronic illness.
The level of knowledge gleaned from Charles is fantastic…. Each 1 hour video is a book and a half!
Cheers David
Definitely...and simply and clearly explained. Beautiful garden too!
Thanks Mr dowding ♥️
Always a pleasure walking your garden with you, learning something new every time. Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend.
Same to you Wende!
DUE TO THE ABUNDANCE WITH NO DIG AND NOT HAVING TO WORK AS HARD PULLING WEEDS, WE HAVE GAINED FIVE POUNDS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! SO WE WENT OUT TODAY AND HUNTED DOWN A FEW WEEDS TO PULL IN ORDER TO FEEL LIKE WE WERE GETTING A WORKOUT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! IT'S A GOOD PROBLEM TO HAVE REALLY !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THANK YOU NO DIG !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I love to see your smile while you watching your plants 🌱, I see your heart ❤️ very ind love with your work🙏 thank you from 🇩🇰Dk.
Thanks Angela!
NOW THAT WE HAVE A THREE BAY COMPOSTING FACILITY, WE FEEL THAT WE HAVE ENTERED THE COMPOSTING BIG LEAGUES !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Just one word: FANTASTIC
I am a teacher, but you are The Teacher. Each time I watch and listen to you I take notes, as all good students should do, simply because in two weeks time I am getting my long awaited piece of land. Having a 10 year experience in an average city garden, I hope to fulfill my dream of no dig garden. Thanks for sharing all your knowledge and experience. Regards from distant Poland 🌹
Thank you so much Hanna, and I wish you lots of health and happiness and fine harvests in your new property
What a find, I am delighted to find you and courtesy of The Happy Pear's video (with you) today. Your produce is impressive - I am envious ! A delight to see your lovely, well organised and immaculate Homeacres.....you must be very proud.
Many thanks!
Brilliant stuff.
I'd give anything to say 80 degrees is hot! Right now its 93 with a heat index of 107! Next monday the real temp is expected to be 101!
Where are you?
Same... we're in Georgia, USA. The humidity is what's SO dangerous! Stay hydrated.
Right!!! Same here in Tennessee this week and next
NW Georgia here. Its brutal. 7am this morning felt like walking into an oven.
Oh come on now, it’s an oven in Arizona (real temp 112)
So lovely 😊
This might sound awful, but I was very happy to see your rust-affected garlic. Our hard neck (and soft neck) were both impacted badly by rust this year and we’ve got some very small bulbs plus a bit of splitting. It’s reassuring to know that it’s just been a bit of a bad year, and we’ll try again next season. Thank you!
Thanks for sharing!!
Wonderful !
i learned a lot from this tour thanks a bunch!
Glad to hear it
Great video. Thanks.
Your climate sounds amazing. Its been 96-100F 38C every day the last few weeks
Oh dear, that sounds horrible and I wish you the best, we are fortunate indeed
Nice video Charles, thank you. Indeed, summer is full on! In our allotment in Bath, all the crops are thriving nicely. We are using no dig for the sprouts, peas, and broad beans plot. They are liking it a lot.
Wonderful! Thanks Leonardo
I have just harvested my garlic and was pleased with them, until you had some the same size and called them 'tragic'! 😄 I love the tour and aspire to be as productive in the much smaller area that I have on my allotment.
Whoops! 🌱
I love your videos Charles. Packed with great information and your garden looks so productive, pretty and amazing!
Thanks, really happy to help
Lovely video as always Charles. I love your wildflower area. Its stunning! I agree about the grasses too, we have so many areas around our farm full of beautiful grasses and I use them in my flower displays. We don't have a lot of butterflies either at the moment, I hope it improves. So interesting seeing all your trials. Enjoyed every minute of this, never boring! Thanks for the inspiration again.
Many thanks Jenny!!
I love that string method for cucumbers. Should also help me to see squash bugs more easily as well!
Rust, the bane of gardeners and farmers worldwide.
All my beds are covered in wood chip but as you say Charles more leaves/wood/bush trimmings.. and I normally put on about 6 inches each sep/oct..and by the time I grow it’s rotted down quite a bit..and then I mulch around the plants with the wood chip mix…I understand what your saying about more solid wood not the best but we’re getting a good mix of mulch… and I can see how the plants react simply by not disturbing the soil…
And when I dig down you can see the layer that’s been created by the wood chip mulch layer…
And the added bonus of hardly any weeds.. the odd one picked by hand…
It’s was the cheapest way for me as when I got plot there was a massive pile of wood chip that had been there for years…
I basically started at the bottom of the pile and took that so I wouldn’t shock the plants when they went out..
I’m a good 4 years into it now and I try and explain to people it takes time ..like most things in life..think people expect results straight away but patience is the key..
The same as making my own compost ..using the chicken poop ..it’s a work in progress..but it gives my plants that extra boost they need and I try not to use chemicals/make my own liquid feeds..
Happy growing Charles..🌱
Thanks for your feedback Darren and that is good to hear!
Thank you Mr. Dowding. You have been a great inspiration to me over the past few years. I have learned so much from you.
Glad to hear it William 💚
Hi Charles,
Another great video, i love your setup and how you keep everything nice a organised plus the no dig is a great way to garden.
Thanks for sharing all your knowledge with us, I do appreciate it.
Thanks 👍
NEVER IN OUR LIVES DID WE EVER THINK WE WOULD GROW SO MUCH SPINACH WITH NO DIG THAT WE COULD NOT CONSUME IT FAST ENOUGH AND WOULD HAVE TO CUT HALF OF THE PLANTS DOWN IN ORDER TO MAKE ROOM FOR OTHER VEGETABLES !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! IT'S PURE INSANITY TO US AT THIS POINT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WE LOVE IT THOUGH !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yup nice problem!!
Thank you, Charles! This is my first year working on a vegetable farm and I started getting back to your valuable videos just recently. They are a huge inspiration and I am excited to learn and see what I can implement here bit by bit.
Best of luck Miriam, sounds exciting
I wish had the space to have so much abundace of stunning vegetables.I leave Dandelions as they provide many health benefits and add them to salads and roast the roots.
Charles, I remember a video from years ago of you talking about garlic rust and that put the problem on my radar. I live in the mountains of NC that historically gets more rain than Seattle and we have cool, damp springs and off and on hot, humid days. At the top of the hill is most of my garlic, with a few in the kitchen garden by the back door. I have never had rust. Last year, I started hollyhocks from seed and I planted them all through the landscape. We had a bed we had created from dry stack rock and filled with nothing but tree bark mulch the year before to make the porch beds look balanced. The hollyhocks planted in that bed grew well enough, but were riddled with rust. The hollyhocks 10 feet away, that were planted in soil with a layer of shredded bark mulch, had no rust. In the fall, I laid a very thick layer of chopped leaves on the problem bed, because I wasn't sure if the rain could splash spores upward from the mulch. The hollyhocks died back over the winter and popped up again this spring. Today they are 6 feet tall (!) and so far....despite the humidity (knock on wood) no rust in sight. My anecdotal involuntary experiment 😏 leads me to think that the bed was way too fungal-ly dominated, because of the wood chips and then that perpetuated the puccinia malvacearum....same rust for both garlic and hollyhocks.
Would love to know whether you have ever thought this. Would it be an interesting trial to have one garlic bed with soil/compost and one with wood chips?
That is a great comparison Elizabeth and thank you for sharing. I'm not sure how much of this rust is coming from soil below, and how much is on the wind (hence less under cover here), in humid weather. Also the rust you mention is not quite the same but I think the characteristics are very similar. Garlic infects with Puccinia allii.
I shall try and area next year with something on the surface to stop upward splashing and see if that makes a difference.
Todas lindas. Você está sempre nos alegrando com suas flores.
🌺
Perfect touch of encouragement and sanity! Thank you Charles and Edward.😉
Thank you June, and it was Nicola on the camera!
Thanks Charles, watched the whole way through, as always👩🌾👍
Brilliant information 🌿💚🌿
BTW...1st day of Summer ☀️
and it's in the 90°'s F and I think Florida should have it's own calendar saying Summer began the middle of April 👩🌾👍🌞
You rock Peggy and wow!!! We have 81F today, 66F Friday!
Terrific, Charles. Many thanks!
A wonderful, interesting and instructive tour as always. I'm sorry you had the garlic rust problem, but it's some comfort to me as we had the exact same problem here (43N not far from Toulouse). This was with Edenrose seed garlic planted into 3" of a mix of homemade and municipal compost in October. First ever garlic planting. It seemed to be going well until the rust struck. I removed the worst leaves at first but the rust won. Interplanted tomatoes are fine. Thank you for all the knowledge you so freely share. You're the voice in my head whenever I'm gardening.
Cheers Paul and this is a nice comment. I once had a farm near you, in Astaffort to be precise just south of Agen. We grew garlic commercially and never suffered any rust, so I think it's quite a new phenomenon for it to be so bad. Not sure why, maybe all those nuclear power stations!
@@CharlesDowding1nodig Well, we are some way to the East and a good distance from any power station! I forgot to mention that last winter was bad for rabbits, and, being French, they targeted the young garlic. Maybe this weakened them so that (as you always say) they were more susceptible to infection and then some combination of Spring weather also favoured the rust. Spring weather here was surprisingly similar to UK with matching periods of damp and cold snaps. It's a tad warmer now though :)
Thanks for sharing, Charles! Always a pleasure to see your progress throughout the year. Regarding the potatoes that are not doing so hot in the semi-decomposed woodchips...are you considering planting potatoes in the same spot over the coming years to see how the yield increases year-over-year as the woodchip continues to decompose?
Great idea if I was a research station and did not need the food! I never thought they would be so poor and so I have lost some of my winter provisions from this! Onwards and upwards, in this case removing most of the woodchip to a pile. They are eminently unsuitable for gardening, totally the wrong sort which I now realise. Maybe add compost then grow potatoes again
The next invention in drones technology has to be one for vloggers who need a drone to film them and follow them around.
I always learn so much from you Charles. Your wild flower garden is so pretty. I have been thinking of doing a patch in my yard like that. Can you do a video on how you put that in?
So nice of you Mary. It's very simple, just you need their soil to start and then we scatter the seeds over the top. It's your decision on which plants to remove as the flowering ones grow, and we hoed off a lot of buttercup because that's so common here
@@CharlesDowding1nodig I was thinking of putting cardboard down and compost over it and then put the wildflower seeds over it. Or did you scatter the seed among the existing grass?
What a beautiful overview of your productive garden at this time of year , and learning at the same time thank you et merci, à la prochaine , bien sure . Josy
Chouette 💚
Great reply , i didn’t here this word for quite a while now am living in Ireland 😀👍
Excellent video once again!!! Our moths are here now in Ohio, cabbage is making heads under netting. We love to watch them try figuring out WHAT the problem is. They can see it......BUT can't get to it!! We also planted red clover in between the veg beds. The clover is now flowering the same time as the cucs and tomatoes along with the potatoes and the bees are not only getting their fill of pollen running between the clover and veg but also helping us make veg and given us some great honey. Next year the clover will be where the no dig veg is and the veg will be where the clover is and so on. THANK YOU FOR ALL you do!!
That sounds an amazing system, and great that you have bees as well!
Hi Charles, I have found a great protection from slugs mice etc is to completely cover the space round the plants with Alpaca fleece. This seems to make it difficult for attack, and it also rots down into the bed.
That's a nice discovery! I hope the effect endures for some time 🌱
Nice garden tour! As always! Thank you for sharing with us!
My pleasure
Thanks!
That is kind, thanks Wayne
Delightful tour. Thank you very much.
I didn't realize the was so tall!
Love your garden, I do not till as well
Fabulous video, so encouraging and down to earth, thankyou.
I love your videos Charles - thanks !!!!!
Cheers Paul
Garden looks great Charles, a lot of everything! I have rye and wheat growing too, try to get berries out by hand to make flour. I got that thistle thing in the garden, yes big problem!
Sounds great Katja, keep thistle-pulling!!
Great video again Chuck. Love that you show failures too. Beautiful looking garden though.
Mt favorite metodo no dig! Bauty
Of Uruguay 🇺🇾
Great to hear!!
So inspirational!
Thanks Charles, your videos are a great inspiration.
I am jealous of your cooler wether. It is 40 degrees here in northwest France.
That is extreme!
Nice vídeo.
I’m constantly pulling grass out of my raised beds. The Bermuda grass (couch grass?) is slowly coming under control, but the fescue pops up to 3” tall just overnight. It comes in from beneath my beds, which are for the most part about 3 years old. Fortunately the fescue is easy to pull out but it’s maddening to stop t the end of the day seeing grass-free beds, only to awaken the following morning to find quite a bit of new fescue has popped up. We are also in a heat wave in the Deep South of the US, with temps as high as the mid/high 90’s this past week (I garden in zone 7b). It’s extremely hot for this early in the summer. Your garden is always amazing and I have learned so much from you! I’m starting some new beds and looking forward to gardening in the fall when it should be much cooler. Thank you for the beautiful and informative tour!
Thank you. I'm puzzled that you are not getting to the point where the grass roots die. They really should if you are on it pulling new shoots regularly! And I'm sure they will, good luck with the heat
Jestem zachwycona podziwiam korzystam z Pana doświadczenia, pozdrawiam 👍💚♥️
👍
Another excellent and informative video, thank you for sharing your knowledge.
Glad you enjoyed it
Really enjoy your videos. Thank you. Also enjoy your books.
Greay thanks
You would also have a very interesting conversation with Dr Sarah Myhill.
Thanks, she sounds amazing
As always, very informative and very interesting. I've had small white caterpillars two weeks ago and large white this week. Vigilance is required! And netting without holes!
Already!! Best of netting to you 😀
Only discovered charles dowding a couple of weeks ago. Have watched loads of his videos at this stage! Great stuff. Very relaxing viewing. Similar to Monty Don, if not different methods. Will be looking to take my veg patch to no dig next spring. Keep up the good work charles.
Welcome and I wish you success
Khu vườn đẹp quá, thật tuyệt vời!
Cảm ơn đã ghé thăm!
Beautiful video as always loving the whole tour. I grew my potatoes in wood chips last year an I got a good harvest yes there is wood chip and there is wood chip. My only issue was so many slug holes this year I’m planting it in partly rotted horse manure and so far my yield is good.
Sounds great, thanks for sharing, mine are too deep
thank you for always sharing your depth of knowledge and tips. and your energy! you really got me interested to dive head first into gardening this way and i've been taking your courses. its my first season proper and its been amazing. thank you.
I'm really happy to see this Kaili, and wish you continuing success! Please post a review on my courses webpage? 💚
yes i used to have long arguments with my compost supplier when I was growing organic seedlings commercially. When the compost is steaming when it is delivered it has a long way to go to be comfortably useable
Those guys often do not understand their product!
What is missing for many viewers is the zone of these gardens, as for newbies it is different souls, seasons that is the learning curve.
As 9B in Arizona, most soil,Aka dirt is less than 1% organics.
So it's not one size fits all.
You are so right and that logic also applies to the zonal classification.
We are zone 8, the same as Texas, and in my introduction I say how the temperature has been 80 Fahrenheit which for us is a hot day!
I well know that for Texas at this time it would not be a hot day, yet we are in the same zone. And that is why at 0. 59 I say the climate is temperate oceanic. I find that a more accurate climatic description than the zone number, although I often do mention it.
@@CharlesDowding1nodig I look at the grass in the roadside ditches, and that is my 1st indication on several things, rainfall, soil health.
I looked for property a few years ago in Canada, May 15 and still snow in roadside ditches, " outa here, not gardening country".
I wish over 1/2 the RUclips stuff wasn't on it, as some isn't even reality for the novice.
Great information Charles, the garden is looking well and productive.
Thank you
Здравствуйте! Большое спасибо за Ваш колоссальный опыт. У Вас все растения - овощи, и салаты, и картофель, и цветы - прекрасны, Очень понравилось в Ваших теплицах. Стараюсь все выращивать, как Вы, используя Ваши советы. Спасибо большое, удачи!!!
Я очень рада видеть эту Наталью! Поделитесь знаниями.
Your garden is like heaven on earth! Thank you for the June tour! You’re awesome!
You are so welcome
Well, you have no shortage of wood for matches🕯 🤣😁🌱☀️
😂
I usually collect ladybirds and their larvae and introduce them into the greenhouse. Aphid populations seem to be high this year and I haven't seen many ladybirds yet.
Bon nuit, Monsieur Charles Dowding. Hello again from Bowling Green, Kentucky. Tremendous video (another one). Your garden area looks fantastic. My little garden is growing here. The weather has been very hot here lately. Next week, we are forecasted to hit 100 degrees, but my garden is going strong. I always enjoy your videos. Bon nuit!
That sounds hot Derek and bonne continuation 😀
You barely caught me. It's midnight here in Kentucky. I was about to log off and go to bed!
Regarding growing in pots you should watch my latest video when I visited Coutts Skyline Garden where they grow their kitchen garden entirely in pots on a roof in London!
Cool!
Watching on 18 June from zone 8A, Georgia, USA. We have had temperatures in excess of 38C and heat index to almost 44C. 🥵 I discovered you from a gardening group on FB, Sir, and am excited to learn from you💕
Oh wow! Several people from Georgia have commented on your extraordinary heat wave, I hope that your plants are coping not to mention yourself. Welcome, and enjoy the learning!
Great video cheers BUT those numerous Google and other 15 second + adverts really spoil the viewing BUT obviously assist your channel lol
Thanks and yes I need them, difficult
Thanks again for the wonderful visit.
Success? Oh Yes!!!
Would love to see how you plait your garlic.
Mine is throwing scapes now...delicios in stir fry.
Growing Great Guns in Clearwater, B.C.
Great to hear Connie, shall see about the plaiting
Hi Charles, in your wood chips bed, maybe Christmas trees would thrive. - Their natural habitat?
😊
It’s all looking good , I wonder why slugs don’t eat weeds 😂
😅
Charles, Did you go to Paul McCartney's concert with Bruce Springsteen on Saturday at Worthy Farm? Apparently it was quite good.
Haha no, we were running courses all weekend, they were good!
"Dalek bin"... ❤️😂🤣
Charles, I have wondered why the compost mulch method is not working well for me here during the summer. You said 80F was a heatwave for you there and that's when I started thinking. Here in the the state of Georgia in U.S. it has been in the mid 90s most days and hit 102F one day last week. They are saying 105F this coming Wednesday. Today it was 96F so I took some temperature readings with a infrared and compost thermometer. The dry surface of the compost mulch bed was 164F, two inches down 110F, six inches down 80F. Wet compost mulch 30 min after watering 110F on the surface, 90F two inches down and 80F six inches down. The beds with wheat straw 120F on the surface and 80F on the surface of the compost underneath the straw. The surface of the grass was 120F. The black compost mulch is like planting in an asphalt parking lot, it was 44 degrees hotter than my grass or straw mulched beds. I'm wondering if these high temps could also be causing the gasification of nutrients out of the layer of compost? I know it's not good when a compost pile gets that hot. My thought is does the 164F temps from the compost mulch surface causes heat stress, loss of nutrients out of the compost and death of microbial life near the surface? I would gladly send you some pictures if your interested in seeing. Have you ever taken temperature readings of your garden beds in the sun?
Hi Matthew, this is really helpful to know and thanks for making these comparisons. Those are extreme temperatures and I have to agree, I would use a straw or hay mulch on top of the compost in such conditions. Your measurements prove that worthwhile, and I shall see if we can find time to do that.
@@CharlesDowding1nodig Thank you for your response. If the plants are close enough to shade out the compost surface before it gets hot It works fine. Yesterday it was a record 103F and the compost mulch surface was over 170F. We've only had about a inch of rain in the past month as well. I will need to use straw or hay in the summer and try to manage the slugs and woodlice. Then remove the mulch for the fall, winter and early spring crops. The compost mulch will help keep the soil warm during those times.
Greetings Charles. I’m a huge fan from the New York City suburbs. I’m part of a community garden at Clark Botanical. Also a couple of miles away we are blessed with Old Westbury Gardens in heavy bloom right now. You are my inspiration 😍🥰 By the way, I guess it’s the jet stream but New York is having another mild cool breezy summer.
Thanks for sharing and that sounds really worthwhile.
Interesting about your weather because after one hot day here, we are back to cool, grey skies and I struggle to see a warming trend!
@@CharlesDowding1nodig gardening last year it was on the cool side. Sure we had a couple of high 90 degree days. But too cold for me to swim in the beautiful bay with the egrets, crabs and mussels. I think it’s the jet stream. Unfortunately the western US is too hot not solely from climate change but I feel from the jet stream too. It’s like autumn here today. Gray, windy and cold. Yesterday it was almost 90. Mother Earth is trying to balance herself.
I collect every bettle and spider I can find and put then in my Greenhouses and the Tomato plants with webbing have zero pests but the ones without have some white flys.
Nice tip. Adam was collecting ladybirds yesterday, and put them in the polytunnel!
@@CharlesDowding1nodig I also collect beatles, centipedes and Devil's coachhorse to patrol the raise beds as they tend to feast on every pest we hate.
Thank you for the wealth of knowledge you provide from your videos.
What i found is every time i listen to charles while playing online chess i win .
I like that 😀
best garden tour you have done so far.....you answered many questions for me, ive been curious about feeding toms/cucs to promote flowering/high yields, having researched this and found that commercial tom feed is just expensive watered down seaweed with added N, ive been using seaweed for two years with great results.
Ive also recently found some information about aphids and nitrogen, if you feed with high nitrogen it actually attracts aphids to feed on the plant, the plant will be stressed due to cellular and stomata swelling, allowing pests to feed on the plant excretions and disease can enter the plant at these points.i trialed this over the winter with lettuce, adding chicken manure to a few plants and they got hammered with green fly in the spring, so we can look at out of control infestations of aphid as a indicator of high nitrogen, funnily enough our compost has high levels of nitrogen but the nodig/mycelium system regulates what a plant requires for steady growth and protection from disease.
Also, organic fruit growers in canada have noticed by removing honey bee farms from thier orchards, has increased the populations of wild bees and particularly wasps, which have a major predator role to play, this has changed the populations of aphid and caterpiller to a point where there is the perfect amount to feed the remianing predators but no infestation, very interesting indeed!! so we can also look at out of control aphid infestations as a indicator of the predator prey balance is out of sync.
Thanks for all the answers Charles
Cheers Jim, I really appreciate your comment and helpful observations. No surprise about those lettuce, after adding the chicken menu! I'm only glad that the Canadian orchardists have sufficient wild bees. They are so under threat from farming practice.
I did not know that about commercial tomato feed and I am not surprised!
I hope that your pitches are looking good and not suffering lack of rain.
@@CharlesDowding1nodig Allthough AG pesticides are part of the low wild bee populations, it has been discovered that Farmed honey bees may well be passing pathogens to the wild bees, Paul Stamets has noted that if you use his mycellium supplement for your honey bees, it will regulate pathogens and also mites, makes sense when considering the farm hive is disconnected from the ground in comparison to a wild hive or solitary predators, as they enter thier hives/holes they will carry mycellium spores in with them. Worth looking into Pauls Mycellium work perhaps.(mycellium running is also a great book)
Regarding the pitches, well its been incredibly windy here in edinburgh for months now, realy drying everything out....but my Carbon top dressing (rootzone = compost and sand) was certainly a success, a slight increase in worm casts during december and january,but In sport pitch groundmanship its always a battle between annual and perennial grasses.....It was very mild this winter and as result i noticed that our favoured Rye Grasses continued to feed on the carbon throughout the winter maintaining decent colour all the way to the drier weather of late,also noting the annual meadow grasses which don't grow in the winter had a drop in population as the Rye started to out compete the Poa annua.Thanks for asking Charles.
@@00jim cheers Jim, that's helpful and I do have Paul's book, it's good. Also we notice bees feeding on mycelia both in soil and on logs for example
Great news about your grasses, although not about the weather. It's becoming very dry here, despite rain forecast all the time!
@@CharlesDowding1nodig I think the bees extract h20 from mycellium also
It’s so encouraging to see you succeed against the bindweed. But how do deal with it in your grass pathways. I haven’t figured out how manage mine in the grass yet.
Thanks. Regular mowing weakens the roots
Charles I sincerely hope you never get Possums over there - absolute ruination of beautiful gardens- we are currently paying AUD $8.00 a head & I had some beautiful beds in & lost them to Possums (Protected animal over here). Our Government needs to take a bloody good look at the carnage these pests -(sorry protected animals) do.
This video was just unbelievable & I loved it,I am having some success slightly as our winter is being a little but kinder to us. Cheers Denise- Australia
Oh that is bad, and it reminds me of badgers here. Bad news for you, and I hope you can work out a way. I have been wondering about you with all the strange news coming out of Oz about weather and power station fires and more!
@@CharlesDowding1nodig Thank you for your concern but so far we are fine- just a change in Government but hopefully going to look brighter now ??
@@denisebrady6858 ah good!
Really enjoyed the tour. A lovely way to end the weekend. Sadly my garlic was dreadful - must try harder!
Thanks, and you are not alone!
🙏🥰
The wood chips will also deform and grow into the potatoes. I get lots of free wood chips and tried this experiment a couple of years ago with 30 lbs of potato seed. Final yield: 30 lbs of potatoes. 😂 never again.
Ah thanks for sharing!!
🌈💚🍀
You need to put some beehives in that wild flower corner!
They are there :)
I think that mould in the compost heap might be Dog Vomit Mould.
Yes thanks, Adam told me that, such a fine name
Charles,
Always a pleasure to view your garden. If I am not mistaken I noticed quite a few marigolds around the garden. Are they companion plant plantings? I saw quite a few around the tomatoes.
Thanks Carl and yes, for me too :)
That 'white stuff' in your compost pile that you were not sure was may possibly be actinomycetes, bacterium that appears like a fungus -- until recently scientists thought it a fungus and you will still find articles online stating it is fungi. Actinomycetes love organic compost/gardening and is a good sign for your garden. However, it is also a reason organic gardeners should wear gloves when gardening/composting and wash their hands well afterwards. If this bacterium gets into an open wound and you develop an infection, you may find yourself on a 4-month course of antibiotics (yes, that is not a typo). Ask me how I know. Disclaimer: I am not a doctor and do not pretend to be one, just a former actinomycetes patient.
Hi Lynn
Wow, I am sorry to hear this and thank you very much for sharing that information. I shall spread the word.
Looking just lovely! Well done 👏👏
I agree, about home saved seed. Anything I grow from home saved seed germinates faster, and stronger, than what I buy. PS you didn’t update us on the dam? Is it still holding water, did the clay work?
Thank you Suzanne. And that is a big story, quick answer is no and I put that in my newsletter today, hope the link works.mailchi.mp/c01a3831b3b3/plant-again-through-summer?e=d992f1d9c9
Would love to see how you collect seeds!
Soon we shall post a video.
Servus Charles 👩🏻🌾
Lg aus der Eifel
Really looking forward to the video with Dr Berg! Keto has been essential for my health recovery and he has been instrumental in helping me to understand my illnesses and show me how to recover: amazing guy. Keto has healed many many people of chronic illness.
Thanks Katy. He antagonises a few people it seems, and helps a lot! Good to hear your experience.