No dig, easy and speedy!

Name: No dig, easy and speedy!
Uploaded: 2026-07-14T12:34:01+00:00
Duration: 18 min 38 s
Channel: Charles Dowding

00:09I'm showing you here what I call no dig ease and speed where because of the very small amount of

00:18soil preparation needed at any stage you can so quickly clear a vegetable that's finished and pop

00:27in new plants this is 23rd of September going into autumn now there's about a month and a half of

00:36growing time left in our climate we're zone 8 we'll have a first frost in about a month everything

00:43you see in this video was planted in the summer so we've already had crops on all of the ground

00:48with one exception I'll point out here for example this one bed many plantings that were put in during

00:56the summer like this was beetroot in the spring early summer harvested then chard and a red cabbage

01:03on the end there this was lettuce that we were picking through the spring early summer

01:10twisted that out planted celery in July this was onions harvested late July we planted these

01:20chicory sown early July and they are making nice hearts for radicules this was this was this is the

01:31fourth crop this was spinach in late winter between that I enter planted fennel that boiled up in June

01:40between the fennel I planted French beans fennel harvest French beans crop between the French

01:46beans before they finished we planted these radish this is winter radish of different colors in all

01:53this time this bed has received no feed or fertilizer just the compost and that's true of all the garden

01:59here one application of compost in Eugene November December as harvester cleared this was carrots sown in March

02:11harvested June July then planted these multi sown leeks and on the end was peas for shoots and when we

02:19cleared

02:19them late June planted beetroot multi sown beetroot again so using that multi sown technique quite a bit

02:25to increase cropping and always having plug plants ready so propagations helping to achieve these amazing

02:33results and that's something worth looking at check out my videos on that for some ideas over here we've got

02:39more results of that where we got spinach between lettuce this is an interplant so we've been picking

02:51these lettuce all through the summer taking off the outer leaves I'm just picking not cutting and one

03:00Friday morning four weeks ago so that you've got space after the pick and we popped in these spinach plants

03:07these were sown 10th of August planted 28 so they've been in the ground about four weeks and you can

03:14see

03:15how they're now pretty much starting to overtake the lettuce and the lettuce will perhaps do one more pick

03:21and then twist them out and then we've already got our spinach the beauty of this method is that you're

03:28overlapping these harvest you're getting a whole month really of growth and with no dig there's so few weeds

03:34it's you know we've barely weeded this bed in all the time that this has been happening I mean all

03:39through the year the fact that there's so few weeds means it's very simple to do this you haven't got

03:43to be weeding around lots of close plantings which would be quite tricky actually and it's variety medania

03:49of spinach which will crop through the autumn very slowly in the winter but it's very winter hardy down to

03:55minus 10 centigrade 12 Fahrenheit crop again in the spring so really worthwhile plant let's have a

04:02look next at a slower one the one that takes most of the season here we have celeriac and because

04:18it

04:18grows so slowly this was actually sown in the middle of March so six months ago took two months to

04:26get

04:26the seedlings and they even in April they were quite small we planted the mid-may that's the first crop

04:32of the year and it's just been chugging away slowly we've been watering a bit and also deleting a bit

04:38taking off the disease lower leaves nice result this is Monica and there is Prince whereas here these are

04:46much faster vegetables to grow like the chicories again different types of chicory these ones for

04:52hearting more in the winter Castelfranco and Sugarloaf chicories and the leeks so again second crop this bed

04:59was Calabrese, Kohlrabi and beetroot with carrots down the middle all through the spring and so these

05:07second plantings didn't go in actually until early August which is quite late for planting leeks the leeks

05:13were sown in early April so they were quite old at the time of going in and I hadn't really

05:18potted

05:18them on enough so they struggled a bit and that's why they're not enormous but having said that these

05:22are winter leeks a variety husky which will go on right through the winter it's very hardy and will

05:29carry on growing February March even into April so these could be a decent size by late winter when

05:36we'll really value them likewise brussels sprouts which we'll look at next brussels sprouts take a

05:49fair time to grow but they're not as slow as sometimes made out and often the seed packets say

05:56you should sell them in April plant them in May I find it can work really well actually to sell

06:01them in

06:01May plant them in June it gives you another month because here these Brussels sprouts are the third

06:08crop of the year growing in this one bed because the first sowing I made in March was carrots with

06:16some radish as well and the radish we harvested early May there was a mash over the bed the whole

06:22time carrots then grew up and we started harvesting carrots right the enemy and through June and then in

06:29the middle of June what I do is harvest a little sort of circle of space harvest the carrots to

06:35make

06:35that little circular space to pop in a brussels sprout plant this was actually on the 18th of June this

06:42year so these these were sown on the 10th of May planted 18th of June is quite decent sized plant

06:49and

06:50this is the result so we finished harvesting the carrots mid July actually and then the brussels really

06:55going and they're all under the same mesh and see the results so this is an early variety called

07:01Marta and the second half of the bed beyond is a lake variety so that also one planting I'm getting

07:08a longer season of harvest now these are actually for home use we eat a lot of Brussels sprouts quite

07:13a favorite in the winter months well not winter yet and actually you know you can be picking them now

07:18and one thing I'm doing it to keep the plants tidy is is breaking off lower leaves like this so

07:27these

07:27leaves are you can see how that was going quite yellow already they're not working for the plant

07:33anymore and if you leave them they just fall on the ground and then go even more yellow and start

07:38rotting and then you get slugs coming in and pests generally so I'm keeping it tidy but all that's

07:46happened here in terms of soil surface is the compost that went on last November December and that was

07:53sitting here over winter as a mulch on the bed no dig and then carrot sewn into that the root

08:00through

08:00it into the soil below so very simple in that nothing has gone on this bed since then so these

08:05Brussels

08:05sprouts are feeding from the goodness enabled by the compost compost is not a fertilizer it's more a

08:13a soil activator if you like oh that's how I've come to see it where it's triggering the biology in

08:19the

08:19soil which things like fungal networks help make nutrients available that were there already but the

08:25the the high life of the soil helps these nutrients become free to use for the plants and you can

08:33see the

08:33result you know like nothing given it and these are hungry plants so they're doing all right our next port

08:40of

08:40call is going to be we'll have a look at some lettuce the lettuce here is the my third sowing

08:51of the year

08:53because we're not cutting the heads I don't need to do many sowing because one sowing gives eight ten

08:59weeks of cropping by taking off the outer leaves so this third sowing of the year sown 20th of July

09:07planted a month later and that was after a harvest of onions onions growing here all through the spring

09:14early summer and we'll carry on harvesting these letters for another month or so well here we have

09:22these lovely Swedes which were not sown until the first of June here I find that's a really good date

09:30for sowing Swedes it's a nice one easy one to remember and I start them in the greenhouse because

09:36these plants are very susceptible to pests in the summer like all summer brassicas even now there's

09:42some flea beetle damage making holes on the leaves but at this time of year it's not too strong and

09:49so

09:49they can grow away and there's more rain but in the summer I had them under mesh after planting we

09:55put

09:55them out as three week old plants around 24th of June mesh over for nearly two months and again easy

10:05with no dig because not much weed pressure just pulling out the occasional weed that's that's all

10:09we did I haven't hoed here all summer this is pulling out the old weed and one other thing that

10:15I'm doing partly to keep on top of pests and keep these looking nice is taking off these outer leaves

10:21and

10:22it's interesting with brassicas I notice as they get older they often kind of curl like that and so I

10:28just push down and twist it off and then you've got a leaf that's not looking as brilliant it is

10:34still

10:34green but there's more damage and starting to lose quality around the edge often on these older leaves

10:41so that can go to compost and before the peas and also beetroot that we planted beyond at the same

10:48time

10:49also so in early June planted 24th this whole bed before that was pea shoots so peas so in February

10:57planted March for picking off shoots from late April through May and the first half of June so there's

11:04a lot of food coming off all these beds right the way through the season and this harvest particularly

11:09the Swedes in our climate they are very winter hardy I can just come out here anytime not much even

11:16eats them actually except for us so I come out and harvest right even until the end of March early

11:22April something else I love to do is plant flowers around the garden and particularly on the ends of the

11:30beds I sort of I mean it's kind of convenient and looks really nice and it probably helps achieve a

11:37better balance of pest and predator I can't prove that but actually these marigolds do apparently secrete

11:43something called limonines which reduces ophids but more than anything they're here for for

11:48beauty and and good cheer and that's normal dwarf French marigold that's probably the easiest one

11:54of all because it doesn't proliferate with seed it does drop seeds but they they're not prolific self

12:01seeders and they just keep flowering all summer they just look so lovely and warm friendly not too big

12:08that's another thing like the zinnias you know you can get quite big zinnias that's a more medium

12:14sized red one and I deadhead it every so often it just keeps flowering all summer so you can have

12:22fun

12:22with that any any flowers really or California poppies I've got some oriental poppies there the

12:28odd sunflower maybe not too big and you see them dotted around the garden and snapdragons gladioli yeah

12:35they're lovely we'll have a look now it's another Brasca which has a earlier period of harvest in these two

12:45beds we have second plantings and even third planting so this side is Romanesco cauliflowers gorgeous heads

12:57that should happen oh actually I've just noticed one developing and the idea is to get them late

13:04autumn they when it cools down and they develop quite slowly so they were sown and second week of

13:12June planted here early July after kohlrabi and wild rocket was in this bed so they finished in the

13:22summer and we planted these and it was same story as all of these brassicas mesh over and they look

13:27really quite miserable for the first four or five weeks just if you can get them through that and then

13:32you get this wonderful growth in the autumn as it cools down and starts to rain more these are even

13:40faster growing than the Romanesco it's something called caibroc or broccoli it's a cross between

13:46Chinese flowering broccoli and European calabrese and they won't grow enormous but they'll make small

13:54heads when they're very welcome as late as even December here and we pop them in between lettuce

14:01there's still some of the lettuce here this whole bed was lettuce in the summer and it was after

14:07broccoli actually so this was purple spreading broccoli until May we took those plants out and

14:14planted the lettuce in June been cropping the lettuce through the summer and then planted these between

14:20the lettuce so that the interplants you can see some mustards up further along and some fennel fennel

14:26is a great plant for the late sowing so late July plant late August bulb up late October November

14:35and finally we'll finish with a look at this year's broccoli that's going to head up next April

14:46for brassicas like this purple sprouting broccoli I love this time of year because

14:54they look so miserable in the summer and you can see from the shot of when we were planting them

15:00it was

15:00high summer small plants and they struggle a bit at first and then whoosh they're coming on now so

15:07these broccoli will not crop for a long time yet next April in our climate they can freeze down

15:14to minus six minus seven that's like 20 Fahrenheit they'll survive that and then they start to make

15:20their broccoli heads beautiful purple ones in the early to middle of spring April for this variety here

15:27which is claret f1 hybrid which I find very reliable for lovely big heads and these followed broad beans so

15:36the broad beans went in the ground last November and cropped in June and we didn't put any more

15:42compost on at that point but we shall put someone in the winter under these plants this is something

15:48else you can do to feed your soil give it the annual feed and that's helped by doing the same

15:54thing that

15:55we're doing with the other brassicas we're taking off the lower leaves so that opens up the space at the

15:58bottom a bit and a little interplant of beetroot for leaves here and it means that we can spread the

16:05compost November December for the whole year ahead so next summer this could be when the broccoli finish

16:11in May it might be like the next way the lettuce and then into plants of other things going into

16:17the

16:17autumn whereas this bed here had beetroot in the spring and early summer finished cropping late July

16:27Chinese cabbage is a really fast-growing plant I don't start until the 31st of July if you saw earlier

16:34and the problem with that can be that every pest even more than all the other brassicas they just

16:40love Chinese cabbage and we have been dealing these as well actually just to keep them in check a bit

16:45and also slow them down because these so 31st July and only planted here in the middle of August so

16:51that's six weeks ago you know that's how big they're getting and even thinking of making a head

16:57already I don't actually want the heads until November so taking off the outer leaves can slow

17:02that down a bit and my idea is that the heads happen when there's less pests fewer pests at least

17:08by

17:10November time but we're keeping this mesh on all the time I've just pulled it back so you can see

17:14what

17:15can happen if you get one caterpillar and it burrows into a heart that really rather spoils the whole thing

17:20so not an easy vegetable that one but very fast and we lost a few to slugs I mean there

17:26aren't many

17:26slugs in this garden I barely mention them just because there aren't many hope we're well on top

17:30of it keeping it tidy but if they're gonna eat anything it'll be these when they're small and we lost

17:36those few so we planted these mustards for salad leaves picking larger leaves for the salad mix green frills

17:47so there you've had a nice look at all the garden and I've giving you this impression of the ease

17:55and

17:55speed of it so that how quickly you can keep replanting through the summer maybe make a little plan early

18:04in

18:04the year so that you've got your seeds ready and then you can get your plants ready timing is really

18:08important make notes in your diary to remind you about all these summer plantings because almost

18:15everything you see here at the moment was not here in the spring you know this was all planted June

18:21July

18:21August and no dig so you've just got relatively few weeds to worry about you can really concentrate on that

Category

Transcript

Comments

Recommended