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March 2021 update new seedlings and sowings, new land, no dig bed prep, cool spring

Written by

Charles Dowding

Last Updated

March 13, 2021

It has been a different kind of winter here, somehow cold and damp in a more damaging way than 2018, when we had bitter winds in March but with less damage to plants. See the broad bean photos below. However, I am encouraged by the broccoli which I sowed last June and it should be cropping within a month, through the beginning of hungry gap time. My new course 3A has a lesson for each vegetable, with lots of these details.

And the plantings I made into the compost of a brand-new bed with cardboard underneath, and strong perennial weeds under the cardboard on 21st November (see video with Epic Gardening), have all done really well. The one exception is direct sown spinach. Transplants generally work better, although the garlic was cloves I popped in.

I heard from a follower in South Sweden who said her broccoli has not survived the winter. Their frosts of lower than -10 C/14 F seem to be a temperature limit for its survival, but also depending how long that level of cold is sustained, whether there is snow protection, and how windy it is as well.

Soon we shall pass that exciting time of equinox and already the days feel amazingly light, even though it’s not very sunny here! In the first 12 days of March we have had four hours of sunshine and the average night temperature has been 1.8C / 36F with average day temperatures of 9C / 48F. Rain to 12th March was 32.4mm / 1.3in, less than normal.

The weather charts suggest that we are not warming up much any time soon, and I think that’s the same for most of north-west Europe. The wind direction at equinox is a clue to the next few weeks of weather and it looks like being more northerly then southerly, so I am expecting a spring more cool than warm, sadly. Fleece covers will serve well for new plantings.

Purple sprouting broccoli has survived winter well — Purple sprouting broccoli sown in June, transplanted early July after broad beans, and with a net on top to deter pigeons. Should crop soon!

Homeacres on a frosty morning, 7th March — it was -5C 23F on 7th March, with cabbage under mesh and new broad beans under fleece on right

Bed created in November and planted on same day, straight into the compost — I created this bed on top of very vigorous weed growth on 21st November, and popped in these plants + garlic on the same day. The cardboard underneath is now mostly decomposed and you can see exactly how I did this in the video we made with Epic Gardening, link in text above.

Sowing now or soon

Despite the cool and windy weather, some of us can soon make a few sowings outdoors. I find that late March is excellent for carrots and parsnips here, and you could also make outdoor sowings of lettuce, spinach, onions plus salad onions and shallots, onion and shallot sets, early varieties of cabbage + cauliflower + broccoli, radish, broad beans and peas. For the latter two there is always a risk of mice eating seeds.

Sowing under cover is more reliable, and you can so any of the above plus tomatoes celery, and celeriac. I do not recommend sowing leeks yet unless you want a few for a very early harvest. I do my main leek sowing in early April, together with chard. Both of these have a small risk of bolting if sown too early. Find sowing dates all year in my Calendar, now cheaper in our spring sale.

See the photos and this IGTV video, for how I rapidly prepare beds after winter, for seeds and plants.

Charles hand weeding, it's pretty quick — Before preparing a seedbed, I pull any larger weeds including grasses, any which are too big to die in the sun and wind at this time of year.

Charles raking the surface lightly to prepare for plantings — Then I rake over the surface very lightly, to skim through the compost and disturb any weed seedlings which then die if small, plus break up any lumps, so that the bed is ready for seeds and transplants.

A reader's photo of manure on a bed — In contrast this is a reader’s photograph of some of manure spread last autumn which was fresher than she had hoped. The winter weather has done a nice job of decomposition but I would not try to sow carrots in a surface like this, and also I would hand weed plus rake lightly.

Propagation

I use windowsills and space in my house for most germination at this time of year, five days or so straight after seeding which is when one counts for the most, and before light is necessary. If space allows I also germinate on the hotbed of fresh horse manure, whose surface is currently 39 C/102 F, after we added two large wheelbarrows of more fresh manure, four days ago.

The Moorland Gold compost is performing better now. I am sure it contained some ingredients which were too fresh, not fully composted, partly because of how it is not holding moisture so well as normal. Plus we did not react enough to its being so fine, and should have pushed it less firmly into the cells. After realising this I mixed some new potting compost with the Moorland Gold together with some of my own compost which I sieved, and much of what you see in these photographs is that mix which is growing well so far.

Hotbed for propagation and seedlings — On left is the hot bed with about one ton of fresh manure, created three weeks ago and on the right is a new pallet for trays, above Claytonia salads

multisown beetroot and singles of broccoli, fennel and coriander — Except for multisown beetroot, these broccoli, fennel and coriander are picked out to grow as singles

Seedling propagation on pallets stacked over salad plants — In the middle of this photo is another new palette for seedlings above salad rocket which we are still picking

Homesaved seeds germinating strongly compared to brought seed — Peas sown 16 days ago with homesaved 2018 Alderman left and new seed from Kings right!! This germination rate ‘should’ be the other way around, in terms of seed age

Pea seedlings in CD60 module — A relief on two fronts that my CD16 module looks large enough for two seedlings of peas, and the Moorland Gold compost of 2021 is settling down!

Multisown onion seedlings 19 days — Sown 19 days, home-saved multisown onion seeds in front are from Krautgaart in Luxembourg, variety is Roscoff and behind are Robelja from Bingenheimer Saatgut. compost is a mix

Making compost

Most of us want to make more compost and at this time of year, there is not a great deal of raw material. I find that my compost heaps fill very slowly until April. We just finished adding to the heap which we started last November, and it had been 3/4 full by Christmas, then has received only small top ups until recently.

A final boost was using the lawnmower to cut some brambles and grass and ivy, which was a quite nice mix of green and brown, more brown actually with the bramble stems in small pieces. To finish the heap, we again used the lawnmower and cut some year old woodchip, to make a capping layer of about 3 cm/an inch. The temperature is only 30 C/86 Fahrenheit which reflects the lack of green. It will become nice Compost but more slowly and with more weed seeds, than if there were more green additions. I should love to add a little fresh manure from the neighbour’s horses, but simply do not dare to because of the potential pyralid weedkiller, see below.

Finished heap of compost — One year old woodchip cut with a lawnmower, this is too hods, spread on top of a now-finished heap

New and finished compost heaps — The new compost heap is on the left and the finished one is on the right, and there is an empty bay to the right of the finished heap, into which we shall turn the compost in about two months, then shall use it in the autumn.

Homemade 9 month old compost — Compost in a heap which we finished last July, and turned just one time in September. The roof has helped to keep it in nice condition and not soggy. I do not sieve it before using, the woody bits are great for soil microbes especially fungi

New land, new video

We continue to do some different mulchings of weeds in the new ground. Some mulches we spread six weeks earlier made a great backdrop for the video with Wini Walbaum in Santiago. I first met Winnie on Instagram over a discussion about T-shirts, and one result of that is a new range of no dig clothing in organic cotton! When you buy before end of 14th March, they plant a tree for every order received.

It was such a pleasure discussing with her on Zoom, which has been one small blessing of lockdowns. We are in the process now of making available my courses at Homeacres and first ones in June, do keep an eye on the website.

Sadly the villagers have decided not to hold Alampton Gardens open day on 23rd May, but we may do a visits day then instead – again do watch this space.

Mulch of old wood chip still warm — One year old woodchip from a tree surgeon, which is still 50 C and this is a trial to see how it works, spreading directly on the ground and weeds, then we shall put compost on top, might have been better the other way around! Emma is spreading here, was quick since we could get the lorry in.

Video thumbnail Wini Walbaum Chile, published 9th March

Checking composts for weedkiller

It upsets me that this is necessary, but I want peace of mind. Happily, many of you will be fortunate and succeed with clean compost. Then there will be a few of you who do not, and there is no way of knowing by looking at compost, or by talking to the sellers who don’t know either, whether the highly poisonous pyralid weedkiller is in there.

For example in garden waste compost it can come from lawn weedkillers. It is far worse than glyphosate, which does break down in a compost heap. Happily, both batches of green waste compost which I have purchased are free of this poison and even better than that, they are growing excellent plants, as you can see in the photograph on left.

Compared to them, the beans I sowed in freshly delivered mushroom compost hardly germinated, which got me worried. Then three weeks later I sowed peas in the same mushroom compost and they are looking fine, so probably the compost was just too fresh (heap was 50C). That shows how worthwhile it is to buy compost a few weeks before you want to spread it. However this is not always possible and you can still use fresh compost as a thin mulch on the surface, to feed soil life rather than plant roots, but I would not use it to fill a whole bed, until more mature.

I have added the photograph of a contaminated plant to give you an idea of the possible symptoms, which concentrate in the growing point, not so much in lower leaves.

Field (small-seeded broad) beans growing in recently delivered green waste compost, sown five weeks ago and germinated in the house, now in unheated greenhouse

Field beans sown 18 days ago in mushroom compost are slower to grow than those in the green waste compost on the left, are on a house windowsill for warmth

Broad beans sown three months ago in one year old horse manure, showing classic symptoms of hormone weed killer damage, those small and twisted leaves at the top

Want a job?

I have been asked by Russ Carrington at Knepp Regen Farms (rewilding) in South Sussex, if I know a grower with experience of no dig market gardening, follow the link. Also there is an opportunity at Roots to Work in central Somerset.

New ground for no dig

My new area is expanding and I have less time than ever before, because of so much computer work. Therefore I have employed a full-time gardener, Adam who lives in Bruton. As well as being familiar with vegetable growing, he has a passion for working with fungi.

The biggest job of the last week has been removing the last fence panels and massive amounts of bramble and ivy. Most of the roots are still in the ground, but we mode very short and may just keep going which will allow the grass to develop and grow between. It’s amazing how grass develops in this climate when it is repeatedly cut short, making it spread horizontally into a lawn!

Before last clearing — Already we have cut a lot of brambles, and I am about to cut the rest with a Stihl HLA 65 electric hedge trimmer which I find excellent

After cutting and removing the brambles and fence panels — After cutting and removing the brambles, but the roots are still in the ground and we have also pushed over the remaining fence panels, to burn

New apple trees planted among the weeds — Now this area has new apple trees and I am thinking to put a few other things between them, and you can see where we had the bonfire in front with a very clean burn in dry conditions

The selection of culinary apple trees on M26 root stock, are from Pennard Plants, who are near here. Chris Smith the owner is building our RHS no dig garden at Hampton Court.

Design for no dig show garden, Hampton Court London in July — Design for no dig show garden by Charles Dowding and Stephanie Hafferty, RHS Hampton Court London in July 6th – 15th

Beds ready

Winter has been long, and spring is rushing in. With no dig it’s such a beautiful method of preparation that takes almost no time, to rake the bed lightly, and remove any weeds including any in the pathways. People sometimes ask if I have cardboard under the woodchip but absolutely never do I use that after year one, when it is for smothering perennial weeds.

Trial beds, dig left and no dig right, same amount of compost — Dig bed left of my trial and no dig right, both have same compost, in the first year without wooden sides

New herb garden is ready — New herb garden with homemade compost on top, ready to plant, is 4m / 13ft diameter

No dig beds and paths ready for spring — No dig beds and paths ready to go, should be few slugs as habitat is minimal

Broad bean failures and learning

I am so disappointed to have lost a lot of broad bean transplants, and it is partly my carelessness. I have been so immersed in writing course material this winter that I have not given quite enough time for a few jobs. We rushed to get these transplants in the ground in December, just before a frost as it happened, and there was not time to put a cover on. Normally I would have waited to transplant them later, but I have been trying to get everything done when I have a gang here, and that’s not always at the right time.

Nonetheless it’s fascinating to see how the most damaged beans are in the three strip trial, on the bed which we fork, while the neighbouring no dig bed has a reasonable survival rate. This is the seventh winter of growing broad beans there.