Late July 2026

Written by
Charles Dowding

Last Updated
July 27, 2026

No Dig for success

I pulled these carrots without using a trowel, just by holding them firmly around their shoulder. They are not washed, and their clean surface shows how dry the soil is.

My recently revised No Dig online course has much detail about how to proceed for best results.

Romance F1 carrots sown early spring, are still growing. No dig carrots mostly grow straight and descend easily into soil that feels hard when dry. Don’t worry if your soil feels rock-like in summer - roots can still use it.

Soil preparation with no dig is simple. For all vegetables, spread the same amount of compost, of any kind, once a year.

So I apply no less compost on beds for carrots, and no more compost on beds for cabbages and Brussels sprouts. The old language of heavy feeders and light feeders does not apply any more. It’s not about feeding plants.

14th year of tomatoes in this same greenhouse bed, and I do not feed or fertilise them, just relying on the compost applied once a year in late April.

The no dig approach is easier and simpler, allowing soil networks to do the work. They are so good at finding the moisture and nutrients needed for each different plant. I explain all this in my No Dig book, and we are running a three book offer of Compost and Grow Together, with it.

Cucumbers mid-July, all with stems lowered and on the ground already. I do not feed or fertilise them. They are in the same polytunnel as tomatoes, with the same soil treatment of compost added late April.

I'm teaching no dig at Hampton Manor hotel, in the Midlands on 26th July. It's a beautiful garden and will be a lovely venue for a day course.
At the end of August, I'm teaching in Switzerland near Zurich, in an Alpine no dig garden. There are two day courses over the weekend.

New Sowings

There is still (just!) time to sow fennel, kale, kohlrabi, beetroot, lettuce (see new video), chard and leaf beet,, preferably under cover. Carrots can be sown direct, asap.

Until month’s end is good for sowings of sprouting broccoli to overwinter, endive for autumn salad, chicory for radicchios and winter radish. Also Chinese cabbage, even sown in early August, for autumn hearting.

Last sowing of lettuce and chicories of 20th July, six days earlier and recently pricked out into CD60 trays

The period 24th to 27th July is strong for all sowings, which are boosted by the moon’s waxing energy, before full moon on 29th.

Then early August is a top time to sow salad rocket and spinach. But this year, I'm thinking to sow salad rocket a little later, unless the weather changes enough to reduce flea beetle populations.

Flea beetle damage to young kale planted four weeks earlier, after peas. They are looking stronger now and can grow away from the damage already caused.

Even in summer, I make almost all my sowings in the greenhouse, even though temperatures are often 35°C in there. I sow seeds in my normal potting mix which holds moisture very well, plus there are not many flea beetles in the greenhouse, which is the big problem outside for seedlings of any brassica plants.

What can be sown in CD trays

All vegetables and flowers, except for runner and broad beans, the largest seeds. Even broad beans are possible, but you have to transplant when they are small because the roots quickly run out of space.
You can sow sweetcorn and French beans in them.
They work well tfor multisowing beetroot, onions, spinach, chard, leeks, turnips, radish, and more, with three to five seeds together in each little cell.

The cells are 3 cm² wide at the top, 4 cm deep, and each cell has a 13 mm diameter hole at the bottom, making it easy to push out the rootball, and that ensures good drainage as well.

Best transplant before the roots have filled all the potting mix, and before the leaves are competing too much for space at the top. This ensures rapid adaptation after planting in the new location, with less transplant shock, because the plants hardly know they have been moved and carry on growing.

International stockists include The Farm Dream in the Netherlands (ships within EU) / Lindholm Gard in Norway / All About the Garden in USA / Growable in Australia & NZ.

The Containerwise 40L are what I use for broad (fava) beans and runner beans.

Celery success

Victoria F1 sown mid-February, transplanted early April with mesh over for 6 weeks.

I’ve suffered so many poor harvests of celery over the decades, that I feel really happy now to understand more clearly what needs to happen. Three things in particular:

Modern hybrid varieties are more consistent and reliable
Space closely at 22 cm / 9in
Use a cover after transplanting to keep aphids off and protect from toher pests and cold winds
Water more than any other vegetable.

Discover more tips like this on my 15th August day course. It's the last one with available places, all the others have sold out and I don't have time to offer extra ones.

Potato Harvest …

Charlotte potatoes from a trial area where I grow potatoes every year, without rotation. This was the 12th consecutive year of potatoes in the same bed, and they are as healthy as ever. There was a slightly smaller harvest this year because of the dry weather, and I did not water them much.

The leaves of second early potatoes are now dying back and you can harvest all of them. With no dig that means pulling rather than digging them out, because the potatoes develop close to the surface. Which also means they need some extra compost or any organic matter on top, to stop them going green.

After pulling, I leave them in sunshine for a day or two to dry fully, and for the skins to harden a little, so that they will then store well in paper sacks. These can be stored even in warmth, because sprouting does not happen until triggered by cold autumn nights.

Maincrop potatoes are still growing and will benefit from some water if you can do that.

I had this question:

My beetroot and potatoes look a bit iffy on top with bits dying back, with leaves wilting and looking a bit yellow, is it safe to eat? Do you know if it's individual pests like leaf miner on the beets and just wilting from the sun on the potatoes or could my compost be compromised with pesticide? New compost added this year from garden centre bags.

The answer is yes for sure, those vegetables are safe to eat. The potatoes are close to harvest, while leaf miner on beetroot is a common problem but does not affect root quality, except perhaps for making them smaller. Nothing described in this question relates to compost contamination.

… and replant with leeks

Leeks transplanted straight after the potato harvest. They were multisown in my CD trays, then moved into 7 cm pots for the next two months. We are still watering them every second or third day.

Tomato harvests beginning

Tomatoes were slow to get going this year, compromised by cold conditions in both early May and early June, interspersed by a freak heatwave in late May.

Now finally they are coming good, and I'm picking a lot of cherry tomatoes, while the beef tomatoes are starting to ripen.

The photo gives you an idea how much I de-leaf, to improve ventilation and allow easier access to fruit trusses so that I can prune them. I allow two or three beef tomatoes per truss, and 12 to 15 cherry tomatoes That’s in order to have decent size fruit without overloading the plant, which would compromise fruit development higher up.

I'm not feeding tomatoes at all, because nutrients are enabled by no dig soil processes and helped by the 3 cm compost we apply in late April. It includes horse manure, and I find that any animal manure is really good for tomatoes and other under cover summer crops.

Ogen melons ripen nice and unevenly

Beef tomatoes were slow to start, now have many almost-ripe fruit. It’s 14th year of tomatoes in this bed.

It has been hot for tomatoes under cover, which can be a factor causing leaf roll. . A friend from Idaho, where summers are much hotter than here, is enjoying great success from using shade cloth over her hoop house, just during the summer.

One symptom of too much heat can be leaves rolling upwards on tomato plants. Having said that, it's not too critical and not all varieties are susceptible. Sakura F1 in particular has very healthy leaves in hot conditions.

Leaf roll on an oxheart tomato in the polytunnel

Little leaf roll on Sakura, same growing conditions

Melons also not rotated

It’s the fifth year of growing melons in the same soil. I sowed them in late March and transplanted in early May, with fleece over for two weeks.

Then they grew like a rocket. And in late May, I hung some little cards on them and also cucumbers, with the predator phytoseilus to eat red spider mites. This has made a big difference to the longevity of plants, ensuring strong final growth and top flavour in the fruits.

Remarkable Alvaro melons in the greenhouse, close to ripening. The best ripeness clue is a wonderful aroma in the greenhouse once they start to sweeten, also a slight cracking around the stalk and yellowing of the skin.

Making compost

Adding docks and bindweed to my compost heap, I made a short video about this to explain why it's fine to add weed roots and seeds, despite all that you hear saying the opposite!

I was shocked to hear from participants on a course here, that Monty Don had been advising people not to add bindweed to their compost heaps. It's not indestructible nor immortal, and is a valuable addition of both organic matter and nutrients.

The video explains in more detail. At this time of year, there is a wealth of organic matter both in your gardens and elsewhere, to bulk up heaps. A sufficient quantity of new materials serves to build heat, which is necessary to kill weed seeds.

Conical plastic bins make lovely compost and are suitable for smaller gardens

Heaps you fill during late July and August will decompose more quickly than those filled in late autumn and winter. The compost can be usable by winter when it's just 5 to 6 months old. It does not have to be in perfect condition and makes a good mulch on the soil when partially undecomposed.

Grow Together combination and we are just harvesting all the beetroot now. They were planted late April between garlic, courgettes soon after.

Grow Together combinations

Some good combination/overlaps in the next month are kale, chicory and dill in between onions, and carrots between lettuce, In August you can transplant fennel between ridge cucumbers, and sow coriander between lettuce.

New sauna

I have used the sauna twice so far, and love it! The view is compelling 🙂

I was offered a sauna by Pakmako UK, in exchange for publicising it. After looking at the range, I chose this one and I'm so pleased with how it looks, and how it works.

It's heated by a wood burning stove and is really economical with the wood needed, just one load for temperatures above 80°C. Then I bought a stock tank for cold water to lie in and it's helping a lot to reduce my lymphoedema.