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June 2020 extreme weather, early harvests, mulching, no dig garlic, insects, keep sowing, problems with bought composts
30th May 2020 Featured
No dig update and seasonal information
Online Courses 1 and 2
This bundle includes: Online Course 1, No Dig Gardening and Online Course 2, Growing Success
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Browse the No Dig shop for books and courses by Charles
Latest news from Charles
Misleading Names
Our attention has been drawn to some misleading names given to a particular manure. Levingtons Organic Blend Farmyard Manure presents itself as an organic product, however, it has been confirmed by the suppliers that it is not.
Read more >Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival – 10th to 15th September
Charles has been invited to design a no dig garden along with co-designer Stephanie Hafferty. The show was originally scheduled in July, but now tickets for the show are on sale for the September dates via the RHS site. The garden will feature all the elements of Charles' Homeacres garden and Steph’s allotment: weed free, no dig beds with beautiful vegetables growing. Complete with a polytunnel, garden shed and greenhouse, the garden will demonstrate to visitors the joys of the no dig method.
Read more >The Organic Gardening Podcast discusses no dig
Both Charles and Steph are interviewed by Sarah Brown. Charles talks about his no dig method and soil health as well as and his gardening history going back to the 1980s. Steph discusses with Sarah ‘ No Dig Organic Home & Garden’, the book co-written with Charles, and also her love of using the whole plant for many different uses
Virus worries trigger an increase in gardening
Subscriptions to Charles’s YouTube channel are increasing by a thousand plus daily. We have also seen an increase in the number of questions here and by email. We answer as many as we can and as fast as possible. Do look at the ‘Learn’ tab which contains a wealth of information in its menu, to help you garden productively. Also you can use the search function to find information of specific topics. See Start No Dig tab for those first steps in reducing weeds and increasing soil health.
Online courses explained
Charles has two online courses and the first, No Dig Gardening is for anyone wishing to learn the no dig method, beginners or for experience alike. It features 18 lessons, 48,000 words, 660 photos and 28 exclusive videos made especially for the online course.
Read more >Taste of Scilly Festivals – 27th September 2020
Charles will give a talk at this event arranged by Salakee Farm. The farm adopted the No Dig method for their market garden. They have planned a number of speakers and workshops as well as music and food from the farm.
Intro to Charles & No Dig Organic Gardening
Charles Dowding has explored and shared new ways to garden since 1983, most notably no dig organic gardening, and since 2003 has developed ways to continuous-crop salad leaves. Discover his weed free no dig methods to achieve superb and time-saving results in both small and large garden areas. He sells produce from Homeacres bio-intensive and no dig garden, has written nine books on no dig and organic gardening, writes for national and international magazines, runs a YouTube channel, appears on TV and radio including BBC Gardeners World, and teaches extensively at home and abroad.
For answers to your questions about no dig, see the FAQs
You can listen to my growing story on podcasts one and two with Joe Lamp’l 2019.
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As Seen In
Just wanted to thank you for the inspiration to experiment with no-dig, as I’ve tried it with amazing success in my container veg garden.
Erik Storhok
Michigan, 17.9.19
This is our first year of no dig and we are the envy of our fellow allotmenteers.
Jacqui D
You Tube Plan video 15.12.19
A combination of your you tube channel, the books I have bought from you and following on Facebook, have completely turned my gardening life around. Thank you for being so inspirational, informational, educational and thought provoking over this last couple of years.
Steve Randles, Cumbria
I learned of you while studying organic gardening at a community college in San Antonio Texas. I have since followed you on social media. In my book you are the most inspirational horticulturalist for 2019!
Jenna Leigh-Ann
Facebook 8.1.2020
I made the mistake of straying from your advice, and I tried “amending” my clay heavy soil in areas instead of continuing to add on compost with no-dig. This winter we’ve had a lot of rain and the only bed that has not flooded is the bed I left as no-dig! Now I know that digging around helps nothing, certainly not drainage. My no-dig bed absorbs the water like its nothing
Timothy K
Winter veg 27.1.20
Thank you so much for all the practical information, the exceptional food and the general sense of can-do, my favourite advice of all being ‘Alleviate your worries!’ I spent several enjoyable hours renovating a neglected bed of raspberries using compost and polythene, a job so daunting I had put it off for months. Am feeling very empowered.
Laura Evans
After day course 12.2.20
No-dig is a life changing way to garden. I’ve fallen in love with my garden again. Thank you!
Donna Creager
YouTube Beautiful Veg
I started this method four years ago and I wish Id known about it decades earlier. We had just bought a big rototiller to start all of our beds before I discovered no dig and ended up selling it. This method works very very well and for very little effort or money.
Janette Lavender
I am in Northern California, a mile east of the ocean. From your videos I attempted my first No Dig garden at the end of 2018. Even through winter storms it started producing, and by the time spring arrived, I had an abundant, healthy, thriving garden, with my nearest neighbours deciding they must take up the method themselves.
Linda Schneider
This has been my first year of no dig, I had such an amazing time and had loads of produce. Thank you Charles for all your help and amazing videos, and your books are brilliant.
Elaine Hutchinson
You Tube
I thoroughly enjoyed your online course and have learnt so much. I am just starting out on an allotment plot and already notice how few weeds I have compared to my plot-holder neighbours. And I’m loving weed-free paths!
Susan Souter
Cindy Conner
Californian flower farmer
I have learned so much from watching your videos. You’re an excellent teacher — concise and generous at the same time. You helped rekindle my love of growing food. Thank you!
Andrea Berry
I LOVE your videos and the online course was fantastic. Can’t wait for the next one.
Sharon Gunn
gardening in Texas USA
This has been my first year of no dig, I had such an amazing time and had loads of produce. Thank you Charles for all your help and your books are brilliant.
You have changed my approach to gardening, and I couldn’t be happier now than when I’m outside planting and growing and seeing the amazing results of your no dig advice.
Thank you sir for your amazing video advice. I followed your every thing to the letter I have an amazing garden and abundance
Complete incredible stuff in under 7 months: took keys of property on 6th December last year 1 acrePoly tunnel in place, my beds are feeding 5 people not fully but incredibly. Thank you for changing our lives.
Tinker bell
August 2018
“Many thanks for making the journey to Sheffield last week, and providing such a fantastic and stimulating talk for our audience. Everyone loved it!”
Gareth Roberts of Regather
Sheffield’s Festival of Debate Talk Attendee
“Charles has become the guru of no dig gardening. He’s a really good grower, organic, has fabulous produce and we went down to Somerset to see how he does it…. I’m a convert now, I want to dig as little as possible.”
Monty Don
BBC Gardeners World
I came on a course last August, and it has given me so much direction and understanding in my gardening thinking. And your updates through the winter are an absolute tonic.
Clare Finzi
Course Attendee
Have just received your splendid calendar with the sumptuous pics. An annus mirabilis at Homeacres methinks!! It will take pride of place in the potting shed to remind us what we should be doing
Jim Buckland
Head Gardener at West Dean College, Chichester.
May 2020 update, fast new growth but frost returns, sowing methods, pea supports, compost heaps, carrots, slugs & flea beetles
We just had a week of summer weather, now winter returns briefly. Old weather lore refers to the ice nights of 11th-13th May! I hope you can cover potatoes enough to protect them, and any other frost
May 2020, propagate, pick, water, pests, no dig, clear to replant, new sowings
April in the UK has been kind to gardeners, unusually warm and sunny, and now there is rain. I hope it’s springlike elsewhere, or nicely autumnal in the southern hemisphere. Gardening is at leas
April update of seasonal no dig tips and for new gardeners, seed quality and saving
For those starting now, I wish you well. It’s never too late to make a bed or two, and new plantings continue until autumn, so take heart. My latest video has many tips for transplanting, after a qu
April 2020 no dig methods to sow and plant, transplant size, what is compost, keep sowing
There is now an epic amount of interest in food growing, and this is seasonal advice. Also about starting out. It’s based on no dig and seasonal methods, keeping things simple and in a well info