Living close to nature is always the best. The days I cannot get away from the tedious tasks of life I come here and experience the splendor through Charles. Thank you ❤️
I seriously love your videos of gardening information Mr Dowding. You are wisely seasoned, & such a treasure to listen to. Deeply appreciate your information, & embraced "no dig" 6-7 yrs ago, thanks to you
Mr. Dowding, Last year I implemented your methods in my 15 x 25 foot Garden, as of today, I have harvested 192 lbs. so far this season and I anticipate come fall I should be close to 300 lbs. Thank You for your wisdom. South Central Pennsylvania, US Zone 7.
Hello Sir I had NEVER grown a thing in my life before I came across your video 3yrs ago..... It gave me the mojo to TRY .... I now have 5 raised beds and have grown runners...tomatoes....cucumber.....potatoes....carrots....bell pepper and cabbage.... I'm still learning and fresh vegetables are fantastic and I'm really thankful to you..... Thanks so much and love lots xx ❤
We use organic soap so we can use bath, dish and laundry water for the flowers and grass . That way we have plenty of clean water for the veggies. Just a way we try to conserve
I moved into a new house (and therefore new garden) last september, so this year has been my first growing season. Not really much went to plan, it isn't very far from the old house so I assumed much the same would happen as it did in the old garden, lets just say I have been humbled. The old house was a tiny garden in a stack of terraced houses, so there wasn't much wildlife and it was quite sheltered from pests because there was just nothing but grass in every direction. The new house is higher on a hill, it is enclosed by a very old woodland/marshland and it is at least 3 times the size of the last garden, we have had blackbirds digging up seedlings, squirels stealing everything they could, the slug onslaught was unstoppable and a bad storm snapped most of my garlic stalks so they all had to be pulled early to mitagate damage... the only thing i successfully grew were peas that shot up too fast for the damage to stop them. I also managed to keep ONE pepper plant alive as its up on a table away from slugs. I'm not too disappointed as there is always next year, which is the best part of gardening.
I feel your pain in the Slug and General Varmints department!! I've never had to start my seeds indoors before, but due to my recent house move and the damper conditions,,,, ~ I can be seen in the wee small hours,,,in my garden, torch in hand.... Slug Hunting!! (*Should be a national sport!!) On the positive side, I'm developing quite a strong Throwing arm!!
The details about Swiss chard was very helpful - I also love this plant because of its versatility. I guess it is drought tolerant. It’s especially useful because it is not chewed up by so many pests and it is so prolific. I’m glad it’s getting the attention it deserves.
Love to see the garden thriving. In arizona we are thankful plants are still alive in the 110+ Fahrenheit weather I can’t wait for mid august to start planting againg
Praying for the people of the UK those children 😢hope you're government wakes up. Will be doing a small garden this coming summer. I have tried the no till must say it was the easiest garden I've ever had ❤❤❤
Note to producer .. your skills over the years have become quite impressive, and I truly am appreciative of your work 🙏However, although the music used in this video and in many others is quite fitting with the tone of Charles videos, I found it distracting for the music to be constant behind his voice. Just my 2pence. Thanks for what you do for us.
Always learning from you -thank you so much! AND thank you for mentioning we should take time to enjoy the beauty now, also. So easy to forget that when there is so much hard work to complete that isn't fun. But we CAN make it enjoyable!
Perfect timing for this video. We have been experiencing extremely dry weather and constant heat waves here on our homestead (in New York State in the U.S.), and we have had to decide what to water and what we just don't have the water for. We have a well, and it is getting low. With five small greenhouses, and a lot of outdoor plantings it has been tough to make those choices. I did build a greenhouse with a living roof this year (the roof is purple pole beans), and the tomatoes, peppers, and watermelons inside are doing well mostly because of the shade the living roof provides. I think we are all going to have to be more creative with our growing as we experience changes with our climate. Another great video, Charles. Always so much excellent information.
Absolutely agree! We're having the same type of weather out here in NW Washington State. We had only a ¼" of rain since June and about 3 weeks of 90°F. August is looking the same. Our well is ok only because the Pacific Northwest has just 2 seasons - autumn, winter and spring are our rainy season and summer is our dry season.
Can’t agree more about getting more creative growing in these climate changes. All this rain in WI has stunted the tomatoes and brought early mildew, rust and blight. We are about a foot over avg rainfall for this time of year so far. Last year was severe drought and had less wildlife pressure which is odd.
@@dustyflats3832 Wisconsin too has had really unusual weather? I've read that the further north you live, the faster the climate changes are occurring.
I think there is always a bright side to the weather being so changeable when it comes to the garden. (Not that I am a fan of climate change at all) Where some crops fail, others excel. Not great for the market gardener for sure but like you showed with the extra beets, we just have to see what is doing well and plant more of it for the second part of the growing season. While my Nightshades (eggplant, tomatoes, potatoes) are not liking the excessive heat we are having, there is still something there to harvest. I planted less bush beans this year but we have had a bumper crop of green, yellow and purple varieties. My cucumbers seem really happy but I planted them in part shade to shield them from too much heat and that has been quite successful. My cabbages were also planted in part shade and are early and abundant. I am making some sauerkraut today. I just wanted to give people hope and leave some positive encouragement to off set the despair. Take heart people, the garden can be forgiving and there is food to be found when you least expect it. ☺
Dont wanna occupy your time but plz, friend, edit the typo of the 'missing space between a bracket and a word'. It doesnt just look awful, it trigers something deep inside my autistic brain. This one specific particular typo acts as a stressfactor for some branhes of disabled people. Sounds trivial to you, im sure, but its not to me
@@slevinchannel7589 You should edit your comment you've written tyoo and sapace when you should have written typo and space. Trigger is also spelled wrong in your comment. 😊
The sunflower at the beginning reminds me of the varieties that Sunflower Steve is developing here in the states. He has so many beautiful forms he’s working on.
4:20 Yes in your climate along with considering the amount of cloudy days you've said you have then bare soil that's already a good percentage of organic material drying out is a non-issue and frankly I'd want it to dry out some. Context is everything. When we have a string of 100 F days and clouds are sparse and the air dries out and the organic material in the soil isn't as high that's a very different context and I'm going to have everything covered with straw which is very effective in this environment.
Ah how fast time flies! We are already planting seeds in trays for our autumn/winter garden! Its fascinating how there is always something cool to do in the garden! 🙂
I have chickens and sheep. I grow extra to feed them in the summer when things get brown and dry. They love it. I can't free range my chickens because of the bald eagles snatching them. I only let them out in the field and animal pens when I'm out there with them cleaning up the pens for the compost pile. So, they love the greens and extras from the garden 😊
Hey Charles have you heard this one farmer down in the states growing sunflowers and the sunflowers are not following the Sun, they appear to be turning away.
Thanks for sharing this Mike, and goodness me, that is strange and worrying. I have not noticed with mine and shall check today. However, we have so little sunshine, but I shall find some at some point!
Yes some plants I had no hope for have suddenly recovered. Tomatoes not ripening though, but more beans I know what to do with! Not sure what the pumpkins are doing to be honest. Some seem OK, others not doing much other than producing fungus leaves. I do remove them. Celeriac, swede and leeks OK (I think!) I've shoved in some globe artichokes in a bed that seems to kill everything I put in it. Perhaps because under pear trees. Anyway, the chokes seem happy under there (for now!). The sweet corn has gone jurassic. Hope I can get to it before the rats, mice, squirrels, and flying rabbits! 😂😊 By the way, chopping back the strawberries worked like magic. Oh...and thank you!
Exactly the same here. Some squash really prolific others have done nothing in the same bed. Sweet corn plants and cobs huge. Hoping for a prize in this weeks local produce show!
The oddest growing season this year with tomatoes and other plants just not fruiting well. Temperatures up and down, and constant cloud cover, spoiling the harvest.
You have such a fantastic relaxing voice, and every word is useful knowledge. A truly great teacher. Listening to this while doing the weekly garden harvest. Green beans, peas, radish, tomatoes, cucumber and lots of herbs and various lettuces. Thank you Charles(the true king of the garden)
Watering here in the states has been demanding too. A lot of sun, low humidity and high temps 90F+. I don’t have enough compost yet to get away with conserving water, even with my clay soil. I found relying on some ground cover weeds like Purslane really helps retain soil moisture. They are succulent like plants so probably do suck up a lot of water but the shade they provide from the unrelenting sunshine I think outweighs their impact. At least for this year anyways. It also discourages the deer from jumping the fence. And less work for me!
I potted on my seedlings and they all died off - worst year ever! Spuds are good - blighted but still OK underneath. Tomatoes all shrivelled. A lot stunted with the cold and never seemed to recover regarding squash. And the most weird thing I've ever seen - I still have one apple tree producing blossom! I did have another tree with one little clump of blossom last month, but that one apple tree that still has blossom has been consistent with it's flowering! It does have apples, although immature - the squirrels are chewing them and spitting out the unripe bits of apples! Some are chewed like you see in a cartoon! That was when it was wet, so I can understand it while the weather is hot, but this is bonkers!
My apple trees in the US have very few apples this year. My tree is usually loaded. I attributed it to our exceptionally hot dry spring. Where I live we had 90° weather in June and it has continued straight on through August. I believe it's from the geoengineering.
Hi, Charles. Thank you for this beautiful video. I watch your RUclips channel when I want to relax. My small rented garden in Sendai Japan is producing amazing vegetables this year. One of the prettiest is the bitter melon, which is creamy white. Also Okura that is pale green and round, not star-shaped. Thank you for continuing to inspire a novice farmer like me!
Always a great pleasure watching your content. Going to search your channel. Hoping you have a video of your compost set up. I've retired this year and have settled into my forever home. I'm also learning to garden with my husbands help. I need a good compost area set up. Thank you
Hi Tammy, Thank you for your kind words. You can find my latest video on compost here ruclips.net/video/MCftXbye1AA/видео.html I look forward to hearing your progress
Nice to see you again after a while. I take more care of watering pots and boxes particularly, and of course recently planted seeds and plantlets. Most of my garden is weeds this year and they survive very well. 😂 Maybe next year I’ll spend more time on the garden and have an enviable one like yours. Mine never looked better than during the COVID years.
Like always a pleasure to watch your videos,,even more when i saw minty 🐈😺 fluttering around you while removing/tidying the lower leaves 🌿 🍀 of your plants ,,thats super cute ,,,inspired,, and i am off to my terrace garden to start weeding 👍🇮🇳😊
Another lovely video, thank you Charles for all the valuable information you share with us. My allotment has become so lush over the past month, plants are now producing and thriving not too badly when i thought it would be a poor year. Just shows you what a bit of sunshine and some warmth does for the garden and its insects which im happy to report have returned.
Hi Charles and crew. Great to keep us updated. We appreciate you. Thanks. Zone 6b. Our growing season is short compared to yours. It's a big year of tomatoes and cucumbers in our garden. Tomatoes from transplants all in the ground. No dig of course. Hubby with green thumbs. His success with tomatoes I'll share.>>>>>>> Putting garden to "bed". He put down compost then covered with 3x's chopped brown leaves. Before planting he temporarily moved the leaves that weren't completely decomposed. He prunes very little. You can experiment by top dressing tomatoes and less pruning for outdoor tomatoes. (hubby does not take chances depending on his compost so he adds slow release fertilizer when transplanting.) Enjoying life. The good. The bad and the ugly. lol
Such valued advice, thank you Charles! Here we have drought and record heat challenges (MD, USA). The benefit of gray water irrigation, vegetable plants survive while the weeds thrive. Peace and Blessings 🌱🌻🐈⬛
I'm not done with my garden and already looking forward to doing things differently according to what I've learned from your channel, plus with all the insane news I pay attention to it's calming to watch your podcasts.
Gearing up and preparing for spring here! Still waiting on winter to arrive! Feeling like its going to be a challenging season but with your sharing of knowledge and our trialling amd practices we will thrive! Thank you and always an amazing garden you have! Kia ora
I love in South Wales and had a family occasion in July so had to leave my garden to its own devices. I had someone go and water for me if the weather was too hot but that only happened twice. When I returned after 3 weeks I was amazed at how well everything had done, my beans, peas, mange tout, courgettes/marrows and especially the spinach beet and lettuce. My tomatoes are slower as they are outside as I have no room for a greenhouse,but seems stronger and more flowers than last year. This does puzzle me. On the whole very happy with how nature has helped my garden.
That depends on what pests you have. Like the chard was covered against rabbits, but they are now eating grass and dandelions. You come so ASAP, it will not be very large.
Ive just given up on any veg this year [the slugs and snails have won the battle] but am just starting some late autumn and over wintering veg and hoping for the best
Thank you for sharing call your vast knowledge with us.....I'm in Australia and have many seeds germinated ready to plant out ... we've had some really cold (for us) nights/mornings this winter 0°C or their abouts on many nights.....I'm excited to plant out more fruits and veggies .......and the more you grow the more compost you can make 😊😊😊
@@CharlesDowding1nodig thank you for your kind reply, i live sub-tropical so not used to this cold we've had this winter the days are beautiful usually around 22°C (not bad for winter) I've never had a frost where I live so did plant out some seedlings today, with more to do tomorrow....I've even managed to germinate my watermelon and rockmelon seeds, I have already got several volunteer tomato plants that have done well over winter now to protect from the parrots
I read somewhere that ice/rats carry disease and slugs eat their droppings leave residue on greens which poses health risk to humans (something to do with spine/back, can’t remember).
Thanks, I'm inclined not to believe that because otherwise we'd all be pretty ill! I feel that's another kind of scary story to put us off homegrown food and get us into the supermarket! Also, I must say that I do not like the phrase, I read somewhere!
Don't feel too sorry for yourself about lack of warmth for warmth loving plants. I have the opposite problem this year. My tomatoes are outside, but will not ripen due to the consistently high temperatures >85F, with daily nighttime lows above your daytime highs. So far I have had to bring in 200 pounds of green tomatoes to ripen indoors. It has worked very well, thank God, but I would prefer they ripen on the plant. In case you or anyone reading this ever has a similar problem, it is worth saying that placing bananas, preferable on the greenish side, with the green tomatoes has seemed to help them ripen indoors very very nicely. I was skeptical at the notion, but I must say the gas they say is put off by bananas really does seem to help.
So glad I discovered your channel. Like many I grew up gardening in the conventional way but over time have adopted many of the same habits that you have. Lots of trial and error with seed selection and saving, companion and succession planting in my small but highly productive backyard garden. I like especially how you share your experience and encourage us to experiment. I pick up a little wisdom in each of your videos. I started recently in a new location ( urban southern california) in terrible sterile sandy ground but within 2 years there is an amazing amount of life in my garden, including the usual pests although I enjoy observing the interaction with their natural predators I still take some action. Thanks for who you are. Curt
There are flowers and perennial herbs that can be grown now for next year. They'll survive winter just fine and comeback stronger and bloom much better than a spring starter. I've got Lupine at the moment, strawberries, Sage cuttings, Coneflower, Vervain, Winter Savory, Oregano, Spearmint and a few more I can't remember right now.
J'adore vraiment vos vidéos. Je suis en reconversion j'étais entraîneur de natation ( formation et haut niveau ) mais lire votre livre, ainsi que ceux du potager d'olivier me réconforte dans mes choix. Je vous conseille de regarder sur youtube ou les livres de Joseph chauffray. Encore merci
Thanks for the interesting update, as always. Given the issues so many of us have had with slugs and snails this year it would be really useful to get some guidance possibly in a future short on what damage is terminal and what plants can recover from please e.g. all my runner beans are munched mid-stem, will they reshoot? Can 4-5 month old brassicas recover from the loss of all outer leaves?
With tomatoes there is something called steering the growth. Eg too much vegetative growth as in your case - remove the leafs opposite the fruit clusters. That will direct the plant energy from leaf to fruit. Works surprisingly well.
Hi Charles. Whilst I wouldn't wish ongoing bad weather to anyone it is a small comfort that it is not only us over here that are suffering. We've had the wettest summer I've ever known, last month alone saw a cyclone that dropped 100ml of rain in one day beating all records and leaving many cities flooded and we've had rain pretty much everyday since. Last year there was a 6 week drought so I invested in 200m hoses and a pump to pump up from the lake! I've grown the best potato plants ever this year by covering the beds over winter killing off all weeds (ruth stout method 4 years) and now blight is rampaging through them, they did flower so I'm hoping there will be some harvest. The rain does seem to have caused nutrient washing in some beds as I've relied more on liquid fertilisers this year. Sadly as Latvia is still a world leader in peat production/exports getting any other type of compost is extremely hard and we can't produce enough ourselves (currently). But as I keep saying with positive optimism 'there's always next year' :)
Oh no, I'm so sorry to see this. That sounds truly horrible. And yet in the Balkans they have extreme drought. I hope that you get your potatoes out okay, that's a key crop
LEAVE IT TO SIR CHARLES TO DESIGN A TOMATO SO THAT THOSE OF US ON A CARNIVORE DIET FOR AUTO IMMUNE SYMPTOMS CAN STILL ENJOY THE WONDERFUL TASTE OF A NO DIG TOMATO !!!! WHAT A HUMANITARIAN !!!!! ROCK ON BEEF TOMATOES !!!!!! 🤘🤘🥩🥩🍅🍅
❤ Dankeschön. I had to harvest my potatoes early because of sudden blight. BUT the harvest was great, even double compared to last years dry season!😊 So nothing is so bad that it cannot be good for something, my grandma used to say. Hope this makes sense in English😅
August may be a lovely month for you, BUT my garden in the low AZ, U.S.A. desert, EVERYTHING IS BURNED UP! Our temps run 110 to 117. Enjoying your beautiful garden!
Chickens absolutely love chard and beet tops. Thanks for your lovely video, you've inspired me to get busy in the garden. My pumkins have taken off in the humanure, incredible, I think they are going to take over the whole garden 😂
Always a joy to watch your videos. I actually found out recently whilst creating an art project that chia sees from the supermarket are from salvia... I'm not sure what variety but I grew some for the project and now I am trying to continue growing some of the spares. I'm in Australia so I'm not sure it's quite the best season to getting them going but I have some in my greenhouse and I can always sow some more later if they don't work out... the joy of gardening :D
Hahah love the cover pic! ❤ and thank you for saying “Little and Often” again - I was just thinking abt it for something else I need to do - so timely! Thank you lots ❤
Pickle Worms and Army worms have been hard to deal with. Even with spraying often they have caused so much damage. Didn't see any last year. I'm hopeful late Summer and Fall will be less challenging.
I have a single clump of wild rocket sown last august, still growing strong! It's in a shady bed, so I managed to prevent it bolting. Woody stems but it tastes great!
Just love how everything looks so lush and healthy with hardly any pest damage, I need to get on top of my game! For starters how do you stop cats from pooping in your soil where the veggies are growing Charles please?
I put up with it because I have a large garden and only one cat. However you could use bird netting to deter them. That worked for me when I had two cats.
The snail on the new chard leaf shows an alternative method to your usual one and it's what I do. I leave the old damaged leaves on so the slugs n snails tuck into those leaving the better ones for me. Edit: Whilst I introduce them to my scissors 😄
If you leave slugs alone to eat part of your garden, it's a matter of time before they multiply and gets out of control. If you see one.. get ride of them quickly.
This photo was me after I found the one single ripened Black Krim on the vine, hiding on the ground underneath a lot of leaves that the deer must have missed. I needed to harvest most of my tomatoes this year green and ripen them inside my house.
It hasbeen a difficult growing year here in Wales. The courgettes fruited in June but have done nothing since due to the poor light levels and woodlice keep eating all my carrot seedlings
Oh dear, I'm so sorry to hear this, and one thing which might help is to use compost with less wood ingredients, maybe not have wooden sided beds if you do. But I agree, the light levels have been appalling and obviously worse for you.
Living close to nature is always the best. The days I cannot get away from the tedious tasks of life I come here and experience the splendor through Charles. Thank you ❤️
How lovely!
I seriously love your videos of gardening information Mr Dowding. You are wisely seasoned, & such a treasure to listen to. Deeply appreciate your information, & embraced "no dig" 6-7 yrs ago, thanks to you
So nice of you to say, happy you garden no dig
Mr. Dowding, Last year I implemented your methods in my 15 x 25 foot Garden, as of today, I have harvested 192 lbs. so far this season and I anticipate come fall I should be close to 300 lbs. Thank You for your wisdom. South Central Pennsylvania, US Zone 7.
Lovely to hear of your success 🌱
Hello Sir I had NEVER grown a thing in my life before I came across your video 3yrs ago.....
It gave me the mojo to TRY ....
I now have 5 raised beds and have grown runners...tomatoes....cucumber.....potatoes....carrots....bell pepper and cabbage....
I'm still learning and fresh vegetables are fantastic and I'm really thankful to you.....
Thanks so much and love lots xx ❤
That is great to hear of your success Theresa 🙂
We use organic soap so we can use bath, dish and laundry water for the flowers and grass . That way we have plenty of clean water for the veggies. Just a way we try to conserve
Great tip 😊
It was 82 degrees here today, zone 6 in New England. I think I’ll throw in some Swiss Chard seeds now. Thank you so much!
I moved into a new house (and therefore new garden) last september, so this year has been my first growing season. Not really much went to plan, it isn't very far from the old house so I assumed much the same would happen as it did in the old garden, lets just say I have been humbled. The old house was a tiny garden in a stack of terraced houses, so there wasn't much wildlife and it was quite sheltered from pests because there was just nothing but grass in every direction. The new house is higher on a hill, it is enclosed by a very old woodland/marshland and it is at least 3 times the size of the last garden, we have had blackbirds digging up seedlings, squirels stealing everything they could, the slug onslaught was unstoppable and a bad storm snapped most of my garlic stalks so they all had to be pulled early to mitagate damage... the only thing i successfully grew were peas that shot up too fast for the damage to stop them. I also managed to keep ONE pepper plant alive as its up on a table away from slugs. I'm not too disappointed as there is always next year, which is the best part of gardening.
I feel your pain in the Slug and General Varmints department!!
I've never had to start my seeds indoors before,
but due to my recent house move and the damper conditions,,,,
~ I can be seen in the wee small hours,,,in my garden, torch in hand....
Slug Hunting!!
(*Should be a national sport!!)
On the positive side, I'm developing quite a strong Throwing arm!!
The details about Swiss chard was very helpful - I also love this plant because of its versatility. I guess it is drought tolerant. It’s especially useful because it is not chewed up by so many pests and it is so prolific. I’m glad it’s getting the attention it deserves.
Thank you Charles for another inspiring videos. Your passion for gardening is contagious and your charm makes me look forward to the next posts!
I am glad you enjoyed it 🙂
Love to see the garden thriving. In arizona we are thankful plants are still alive in the 110+ Fahrenheit weather
I can’t wait for mid august to start planting againg
Oh wow! May fall be good
North Texas is crazy hot also
Praying for the people of the UK those children 😢hope you're government wakes up. Will be doing a small garden this coming summer. I have tried the no till must say it was the easiest garden I've ever had ❤❤❤
Our government is awake, you clearly dont have a clue what is going on. How appropriate is this channel for your right wing nonsense?
That greenhouse is so pretty.
💚
Is true! 12 years old
"They're not concerned about that" 🌱❤
Note to producer .. your skills over the years have become quite impressive, and I truly am appreciative of your work 🙏However, although the music used in this video and in many others is quite fitting with the tone of Charles videos, I found it distracting for the music to be constant behind his voice. Just my 2pence. Thanks for what you do for us.
Working on it Ted. New producer!
Always learning from you -thank you so much! AND thank you for mentioning we should take time to enjoy the beauty now, also. So easy to forget that when there is so much hard work to complete that isn't fun. But we CAN make it enjoyable!
You are so welcome
Perfect timing for this video. We have been experiencing extremely dry weather and constant heat waves here on our homestead (in New York State in the U.S.), and we have had to decide what to water and what we just don't have the water for. We have a well, and it is getting low. With five small greenhouses, and a lot of outdoor plantings it has been tough to make those choices. I did build a greenhouse with a living roof this year (the roof is purple pole beans), and the tomatoes, peppers, and watermelons inside are doing well mostly because of the shade the living roof provides. I think we are all going to have to be more creative with our growing as we experience changes with our climate. Another great video, Charles. Always so much excellent information.
Absolutely agree! We're having the same type of weather out here in NW Washington State. We had only a ¼" of rain since June and about 3 weeks of 90°F. August is looking the same. Our well is ok only because the Pacific Northwest has just 2 seasons - autumn, winter and spring are our rainy season and summer is our dry season.
Can’t agree more about getting more creative growing in these climate changes. All this rain in WI has stunted the tomatoes and brought early mildew, rust and blight. We are about a foot over avg rainfall for this time of year so far. Last year was severe drought and had less wildlife pressure which is odd.
@@dustyflats3832 Wisconsin too has had really unusual weather? I've read that the further north you live, the faster the climate changes are occurring.
@@dustyflats3832so challenging when you don’t know the weather in advance
I think there is always a bright side to the weather being so changeable when it comes to the garden. (Not that I am a fan of climate change at all) Where some crops fail, others excel. Not great for the market gardener for sure but like you showed with the extra beets, we just have to see what is doing well and plant more of it for the second part of the growing season. While my Nightshades (eggplant, tomatoes, potatoes) are not liking the excessive heat we are having, there is still something there to harvest. I planted less bush beans this year but we have had a bumper crop of green, yellow and purple varieties. My cucumbers seem really happy but I planted them in part shade to shield them from too much heat and that has been quite successful. My cabbages were also planted in part shade and are early and abundant. I am making some sauerkraut today.
I just wanted to give people hope and leave some positive encouragement to off set the despair. Take heart people, the garden can be forgiving and there is food to be found when you least expect it. ☺
Dont wanna occupy your time but plz, friend, edit the typo of the 'missing space between a bracket and a word'. It doesnt just look awful, it trigers something deep inside my autistic brain. This one specific particular typo acts as a stressfactor for some branhes of disabled people. Sounds trivial to you, im sure, but its not to me
@@slevinchannel7589
You should edit your comment you've written tyoo and sapace when you should have written typo and space. Trigger is also spelled wrong in your comment. 😊
@@slevinchannel7589 Hopefully I corrected the right thing. ☺ Respect. 👊
@@angelad.8944 One last thing: between "garden." and "(Not that) there is a space missing
The sunflower at the beginning reminds me of the varieties that Sunflower Steve is developing here in the states. He has so many beautiful forms he’s working on.
Interesting! All of my sunflowers this year came from the seed of one orange flowered plant! It was growing close to different beauties
Thanks! Very helpful - as usual !!!❤
👍🙂❤️☀️
Dziękuję za film i za napisy w języku polskim😘
Nasza przyjemność
what a great lot of produce well done charles
Cheers Steven
4:20 Yes in your climate along with considering the amount of cloudy days you've said you have then bare soil that's already a good percentage of organic material drying out is a non-issue and frankly I'd want it to dry out some.
Context is everything. When we have a string of 100 F days and clouds are sparse and the air dries out and the organic material in the soil isn't as high that's a very different context and I'm going to have everything covered with straw which is very effective in this environment.
Nice one Charles, wonderful vid...
Glad you enjoyed it Ralph
Fantastic presentation, Charles. Thank you for your generosity.
I am glad you enjoyed it Mike
Always helpful. Thank you 🐞🐜🐝🐛
You are welcome Tzipi
Ah how fast time flies! We are already planting seeds in trays for our autumn/winter garden! Its fascinating how there is always something cool to do in the garden! 🙂
I'm sowing seeds for spring harvest now! Spring cabbage, purple sprouting broccoli, cauliflower 😁
@@jez-bird Hell yeah 😛
Great to hear
What an encouragement it was to watch this video. Thank you very much.
I am glad and you are welcome Dwight 🙂
I have chickens and sheep. I grow extra to feed them in the summer when things get brown and dry. They love it. I can't free range my chickens because of the bald eagles snatching them. I only let them out in the field and animal pens when I'm out there with them cleaning up the pens for the compost pile. So, they love the greens and extras from the garden 😊
Great system!
Such a great teacher for quality gardening 😊
Many thanks
I compost everything I don't eat! 😂😂😂
Ah brilliant
Hey Charles have you heard this one farmer down in the states growing sunflowers and the sunflowers are not following the Sun, they appear to be turning away.
Thanks for sharing this Mike, and goodness me, that is strange and worrying. I have not noticed with mine and shall check today. However, we have so little sunshine, but I shall find some at some point!
Thank you, Charles, for all your advice. What a gorgeous cat! ❤
Our pleasure, and she is Minty
Glad to see the return of the nice 4k footage Charles
Looks great, and yes! It seems the planning for next year never stops 😂
Yes some plants I had no hope for have suddenly recovered. Tomatoes not ripening though, but more beans I know what to do with! Not sure what the pumpkins are doing to be honest. Some seem OK, others not doing much other than producing fungus leaves. I do remove them. Celeriac, swede and leeks OK (I think!) I've shoved in some globe artichokes in a bed that seems to kill everything I put in it. Perhaps because under pear trees. Anyway, the chokes seem happy under there (for now!). The sweet corn has gone jurassic. Hope I can get to it before the rats, mice, squirrels, and flying rabbits! 😂😊
By the way, chopping back the strawberries worked like magic. Oh...and thank you!
Nice to hear, recovery!!
Exactly the same here. Some squash really prolific others have done nothing in the same bed. Sweet corn plants and cobs huge. Hoping for a prize in this weeks local produce show!
Good Luck Christina
@@christinadowney42 best of luck in the show, Cristina!
The oddest growing season this year with tomatoes and other plants just not fruiting well. Temperatures up and down, and constant cloud cover, spoiling the harvest.
Totally agree about tomatoes not growing well. We have had Way too much rain here in Wisconsin and never had such weak growing tomatoes ever.
You have such a fantastic relaxing voice, and every word is useful knowledge.
A truly great teacher.
Listening to this while doing the weekly garden harvest. Green beans, peas, radish, tomatoes, cucumber and lots of herbs and various lettuces.
Thank you Charles(the true king of the garden)
Thank you! 😃
Love the thumbnail!😂
I was about to mention that,, please don't do the 😮 route charles, it normally puts me off
I love watching Charles. He gives me lots to aspire to with regard to my allotment, but hey, ho, I learn a lot and it certainly helps with stress.
Lovely to hear Becky, thank you
Beautiful! Over here is so hot and humid, I don't want to be outside I would gladly switch thetemperature with you!
Such a pity for you
Thank you Charles, enjoyed the visit.
Your garden is beautiful
Glad you enjoyed it Naomi
Очень полезное видео, спасибо!
Приятно слышать!
Always the best advice I find if I do things around the time you do I am more successful 👍
Perfect!
Watering here in the states has been demanding too. A lot of sun, low humidity and high temps 90F+. I don’t have enough compost yet to get away with conserving water, even with my clay soil. I found relying on some ground cover weeds like Purslane really helps retain soil moisture. They are succulent like plants so probably do suck up a lot of water but the shade they provide from the unrelenting sunshine I think outweighs their impact. At least for this year anyways. It also discourages the deer from jumping the fence. And less work for me!
I potted on my seedlings and they all died off - worst year ever! Spuds are good - blighted but still OK underneath. Tomatoes all shrivelled. A lot stunted with the cold and never seemed to recover regarding squash. And the most weird thing I've ever seen - I still have one apple tree producing blossom! I did have another tree with one little clump of blossom last month, but that one apple tree that still has blossom has been consistent with it's flowering! It does have apples, although immature - the squirrels are chewing them and spitting out the unripe bits of apples! Some are chewed like you see in a cartoon! That was when it was wet, so I can understand it while the weather is hot, but this is bonkers!
Flowering in August?! 😲Thats crazy!
My apple trees in the US have very few apples this year. My tree is usually loaded. I attributed it to our exceptionally hot dry spring. Where I live we had 90° weather in June and it has continued straight on through August. I believe it's from the geoengineering.
@@socloseagain4298 Yes - I can see there are still 3 sets of blossoms on there!
Hi, Charles. Thank you for this beautiful video. I watch your RUclips channel when I want to relax. My small rented garden in Sendai Japan is producing amazing vegetables this year. One of the prettiest is the bitter melon, which is creamy white. Also Okura that is pale green and round, not star-shaped. Thank you for continuing to inspire a novice farmer like me!
Lovely to hear of your successes Eriko 🙂
Wonderful. This video is really helpful. Thank you, Charles!
You are welcome
8:10 I tried gathering organic matter from nearby cemeteries and now I'm in jail!
😂 brilliant joke. I hope!!
Always a great pleasure watching your content. Going to search your channel. Hoping you have a video of your compost set up. I've retired this year and have settled into my forever home. I'm also learning to garden with my husbands help. I need a good compost area set up. Thank you
Hi Tammy, Thank you for your kind words. You can find my latest video on compost here ruclips.net/video/MCftXbye1AA/видео.html I look forward to hearing your progress
Nice to see you again after a while. I take more care of watering pots and boxes particularly, and of course recently planted seeds and plantlets. Most of my garden is weeds this year and they survive very well. 😂 Maybe next year I’ll spend more time on the garden and have an enviable one like yours. Mine never looked better than during the COVID years.
Thanks Terry, go you in 2025!
Like always a pleasure to watch your videos,,even more when i saw minty 🐈😺 fluttering around you while removing/tidying the lower leaves 🌿 🍀 of your plants ,,thats super cute ,,,inspired,, and i am off to my terrace garden to start weeding 👍🇮🇳😊
Lovely to hear Azam
Another lovely video, thank you Charles for all the valuable information you share with us. My allotment has become so lush over the past month, plants are now producing and thriving not too badly when i thought it would be a poor year. Just shows you what a bit of sunshine and some warmth does for the garden and its insects which im happy to report have returned.
I am glad to hear this Ona 🌱
Always a pleasure to see your videos Charles
Great to hear John 🙂
Love your cover photo, bout sums it up for 2024
Hi Charles and crew. Great to keep us updated. We appreciate you. Thanks.
Zone 6b. Our growing season is short compared to yours.
It's a big year of tomatoes and cucumbers in our garden.
Tomatoes from transplants all in the ground. No dig of course.
Hubby with green thumbs. His success with tomatoes I'll share.>>>>>>>
Putting garden to "bed". He put down compost then covered with 3x's chopped brown leaves. Before planting he temporarily moved the leaves that weren't completely decomposed. He prunes very little.
You can experiment by top dressing tomatoes and less pruning for outdoor tomatoes. (hubby does not take chances depending on his compost so he adds slow release fertilizer when transplanting.) Enjoying life. The good. The bad and the ugly. lol
So cool!
Lots of good advice , thankyou Charles . 💚
💚
Thank you Charles for valuable information. Wonderful garden full of flowers 💚
I am glad and thank you Marzena
Such valued advice, thank you Charles! Here we have drought and record heat challenges (MD, USA). The benefit of gray water irrigation, vegetable plants survive while the weeds thrive. Peace and Blessings 🌱🌻🐈⬛
Oh wow!!
great vid
Thanks
Very nice Charles. A real informative clip. Many Thanks!
Glad you enjoyed it Jim
A very interesting video as always. Thanks Mr. Dowding👏🏻💐
Glad you enjoyed it Maria
I'm not done with my garden and already looking forward to doing things differently according to what I've learned from your channel, plus with all the insane news I pay attention to it's calming to watch your podcasts.
Wonderful!
Gearing up and preparing for spring here! Still waiting on winter to arrive! Feeling like its going to be a challenging season but with your sharing of knowledge and our trialling amd practices we will thrive! Thank you and always an amazing garden you have! Kia ora
Thanks Renata and may spring be kind
Very nice catch up. Thanks, Charles.
Glad you enjoyed it Matthew
I love in South Wales and had a family occasion in July so had to leave my garden to its own devices. I had someone go and water for me if the weather was too hot but that only happened twice. When I returned after 3 weeks I was amazed at how well everything had done, my beans, peas, mange tout, courgettes/marrows and especially the spinach beet and lettuce. My tomatoes are slower as they are outside as I have no room for a greenhouse,but seems stronger and more flowers than last year. This does puzzle me. On the whole very happy with how nature has helped my garden.
Lovely to see this Sandra
Looking great, if it grows wack it into the space😀🇦🇺
i notice you do not cover your kale and chard.. when do you need to cover? Also can i sow Kale now ?
That depends on what pests you have. Like the chard was covered against rabbits, but they are now eating grass and dandelions. You come so ASAP, it will not be very large.
Hello charles I love sound of chard wonderful 💚
Ive just given up on any veg this year [the slugs and snails have won the battle] but am just starting some late autumn and over wintering veg and hoping for the best
Go you, definitely worth it
Thank you 🙏 😊
Bom dia Charles perfeito e adorável obrigado ❤
Obrigado Luisa!
👍thanks great video charles i always learn something from you 🍅🥒😊
You are welcome Loraine and I am glad 🌱
Thanks so much 🙏 💓
You are welcome Claire
🌻 😊 Thank You 💚 🍃 Always a pleasure 🌞
You are welcome
Thank you for sharing call your vast knowledge with us.....I'm in Australia and have many seeds germinated ready to plant out ... we've had some really cold (for us) nights/mornings this winter 0°C or their abouts on many nights.....I'm excited to plant out more fruits and veggies .......and the more you grow the more compost you can make 😊😊😊
Best of luck Melanie. That’s interesting about your unusually cold nights and I hope they don’t continue too long.
@@CharlesDowding1nodig thank you for your kind reply, i live sub-tropical so not used to this cold we've had this winter the days are beautiful usually around 22°C (not bad for winter) I've never had a frost where I live so did plant out some seedlings today, with more to do tomorrow....I've even managed to germinate my watermelon and rockmelon seeds, I have already got several volunteer tomato plants that have done well over winter now to protect from the parrots
Great video! 🌱 Everything is looking fantastic 🤩
Thank you Tommy
I read somewhere that ice/rats carry disease and slugs eat their droppings leave residue on greens which poses health risk to humans (something to do with spine/back, can’t remember).
Thanks, I'm inclined not to believe that because otherwise we'd all be pretty ill! I feel that's another kind of scary story to put us off homegrown food and get us into the supermarket! Also, I must say that I do not like the phrase, I read somewhere!
Don't feel too sorry for yourself about lack of warmth for warmth loving plants. I have the opposite problem this year. My tomatoes are outside, but will not ripen due to the consistently high temperatures >85F, with daily nighttime lows above your daytime highs. So far I have had to bring in 200 pounds of green tomatoes to ripen indoors. It has worked very well, thank God, but I would prefer they ripen on the plant. In case you or anyone reading this ever has a similar problem, it is worth saying that placing bananas, preferable on the greenish side, with the green tomatoes has seemed to help them ripen indoors very very nicely. I was skeptical at the notion, but I must say the gas they say is put off by bananas really does seem to help.
Thanks for sharing this Ted - such a different problem!
So glad I discovered your channel. Like many I grew up gardening in the conventional way but over time have adopted many of the same habits that you have. Lots of trial and error with seed selection and saving, companion and succession planting in my small but highly productive backyard garden. I like especially how you share your experience and encourage us to experiment. I pick up a little wisdom in each of your videos. I started recently in a new location ( urban southern california) in terrible sterile sandy ground but within 2 years there is an amazing amount of life in my garden, including the usual pests although I enjoy observing the interaction with their natural predators I still take some action. Thanks for who you are. Curt
I am happy to read this Curt, lovely success
Lovely to hear of your success and thank you for your kind words Curtis
There are flowers and perennial herbs that can be grown now for next year. They'll survive winter just fine and comeback stronger and bloom much better than a spring starter. I've got Lupine at the moment, strawberries, Sage cuttings, Coneflower, Vervain, Winter Savory, Oregano, Spearmint and a few more I can't remember right now.
J'adore vraiment vos vidéos. Je suis en reconversion j'étais entraîneur de natation ( formation et haut niveau ) mais lire votre livre, ainsi que ceux du potager d'olivier me réconforte dans mes choix. Je vous conseille de regarder sur youtube ou les livres de Joseph chauffray.
Encore merci
Merci bien William!
Thanks for the interesting update, as always. Given the issues so many of us have had with slugs and snails this year it would be really useful to get some guidance possibly in a future short on what damage is terminal and what plants can recover from please e.g. all my runner beans are munched mid-stem, will they reshoot? Can 4-5 month old brassicas recover from the loss of all outer leaves?
Oh dear, both sound terminal. Thanks for suggestion.
With tomatoes there is something called steering the growth. Eg too much vegetative growth as in your case - remove the leafs opposite the fruit clusters. That will direct the plant energy from leaf to fruit. Works surprisingly well.
Thanks, interesting
Hi Charles. Whilst I wouldn't wish ongoing bad weather to anyone it is a small comfort that it is not only us over here that are suffering. We've had the wettest summer I've ever known, last month alone saw a cyclone that dropped 100ml of rain in one day beating all records and leaving many cities flooded and we've had rain pretty much everyday since. Last year there was a 6 week drought so I invested in 200m hoses and a pump to pump up from the lake! I've grown the best potato plants ever this year by covering the beds over winter killing off all weeds (ruth stout method 4 years) and now blight is rampaging through them, they did flower so I'm hoping there will be some harvest. The rain does seem to have caused nutrient washing in some beds as I've relied more on liquid fertilisers this year. Sadly as Latvia is still a world leader in peat production/exports getting any other type of compost is extremely hard and we can't produce enough ourselves (currently). But as I keep saying with positive optimism 'there's always next year' :)
Oh no, I'm so sorry to see this. That sounds truly horrible. And yet in the Balkans they have extreme drought. I hope that you get your potatoes out okay, that's a key crop
LEAVE IT TO SIR CHARLES TO DESIGN A TOMATO SO THAT THOSE OF US ON A CARNIVORE DIET FOR AUTO IMMUNE SYMPTOMS CAN STILL ENJOY THE WONDERFUL TASTE OF A NO DIG TOMATO !!!! WHAT A HUMANITARIAN !!!!! ROCK ON BEEF TOMATOES !!!!!! 🤘🤘🥩🥩🍅🍅
❤ Dankeschön. I had to harvest my potatoes early because of sudden blight. BUT the harvest was great, even double compared to last years dry season!😊 So nothing is so bad that it cannot be good for something, my grandma used to say. Hope this makes sense in English😅
Fantastic saying. We say also that every cloud has a silver lining
beautiful home garden
Thank you
Kind sir your country is in turmoil I wish you well no harm to you or your family ❤❤
It's not as bad as you hear on the media who would like to stoke fear and worry! Thank you anyway
❤❤❤❤❤
💚
August may be a lovely month for you, BUT my garden in the low AZ, U.S.A. desert, EVERYTHING IS BURNED UP! Our temps run 110 to 117. Enjoying your beautiful garden!
Oh wow, sorry to hear that
Chickens absolutely love chard and beet tops. Thanks for your lovely video, you've inspired me to get busy in the garden. My pumkins have taken off in the humanure, incredible, I think they are going to take over the whole garden 😂
Great to hear of your success Bernadette 🌱
Always a joy to watch your videos. I actually found out recently whilst creating an art project that chia sees from the supermarket are from salvia... I'm not sure what variety but I grew some for the project and now I am trying to continue growing some of the spares. I'm in Australia so I'm not sure it's quite the best season to getting them going but I have some in my greenhouse and I can always sow some more later if they don't work out... the joy of gardening :D
Interesting! Best of luck with it
Hahah love the cover pic! ❤ and thank you for saying “Little and Often” again - I was just thinking abt it for something else I need to do - so timely! Thank you lots ❤
Thanks, and we had fun making that photo!
@@CharlesDowding1nodig more please!!!
Pickle Worms and Army worms have been hard to deal with. Even with spraying often they have caused so much damage. Didn't see any last year. I'm hopeful late Summer and Fall will be less challenging.
I have a single clump of wild rocket sown last august, still growing strong! It's in a shady bed, so I managed to prevent it bolting. Woody stems but it tastes great!
Just love how everything looks so lush and healthy with hardly any pest damage, I need to get on top of my game!
For starters how do you stop cats from pooping in your soil where the veggies are growing Charles please?
I put up with it because I have a large garden and only one cat. However you could use bird netting to deter them. That worked for me when I had two cats.
@@CharlesDowding1nodig Thank you Charles 🙏
The snail on the new chard leaf shows an alternative method to your usual one and it's what I do. I leave the old damaged leaves on so the slugs n snails tuck into those leaving the better ones for me. Edit: Whilst I introduce them to my scissors 😄
Haha I prefer to keep their numbers low
If you leave slugs alone to eat part of your garden, it's a matter of time before they multiply and gets out of control. If you see one.. get ride of them quickly.
So do I, but you've got to give them something to eat whilst you catch them. I'd rather the collateral damage be old and unneeded leaves.
Español subtítulos muchas gracias❤
This photo was me after I found the one single ripened Black Krim on the vine, hiding on the ground underneath a lot of leaves that the deer must have missed. I needed to harvest most of my tomatoes this year green and ripen them inside my house.
Oh wow!!
It hasbeen a difficult growing year here in Wales. The courgettes fruited in June but have done nothing since due to the poor light levels and woodlice keep eating all my carrot seedlings
Oh dear, I'm so sorry to hear this, and one thing which might help is to use compost with less wood ingredients, maybe not have wooden sided beds if you do.
But I agree, the light levels have been appalling and obviously worse for you.