Success with succession comes from choosing a vegetable suited to the timing of new planting. With the healthy and fertile soil of no dig, we are not governed by a need to ‘rotate plantings’. You have many choices in each season.
First, see what will soon finish giving harvests. Here the broccoli new growth was diminishing in August, so I twisted the plants out. Adam spread compost.
Second, pop in some plants or seeds.
Before 20th August in this temperate climate, is a great time for both sowing and transplanting spinach. I had ready some two week old transplants. Compared to sowing direct, that adds two weeks to the growing season because you’re not waiting for them to germinate.
Heidi and I transplanted them on 18th August. We watered them in and covered with mesh.
Nothing more needed doing for a whole month. Then there were a few weeds, needing one minute of weeding!
By the middle of October, there were lovely large leaves ready to pick, not cut. Careful picking means repeat harvests, more quickly.
See my spinach growing guide https://shop.charlesdowding.co.uk/products/spinach-growing-guide
My Skills book is on offer https://shop.charlesdowding.co.uk/products/charles-dowdings-skills-for-growing-sowing-spacing-planting-picking-watering-and-more
Filmed by Carly Dutton-Edwards 4th October 2024 at Homeacres no dig garden, Somerset, UK
Music by: @rorydinwoodiemusic
IG: rorydinwoodiemusic
00:00 Intro
00:46 Succession plantings in the summer – clearing broccoli and cabbage, and spreading compost
01:38 Failed carrot crop, due to slugs
02:02 No need for rotation
02:32 How to pick spinach leaves, and removing lower leaves to help with slug prevention
03:49 Mesh cover against rabbits
04:16 My Skills for Growing online course and book
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29 Comments
QUESTION which type of mesh u use and where do u find it thanks!
We had very dry and scorching springs though summers until mid autumn here in Hungary for the past few years so classic spinach just burnt/withered away, but I had great success with the New Zeeland variety. Tastes a bit different but it's a great alternative for drier climates.
Charles you sound that you got a cold? 😊 hope you get better thanks for the video.
Thank you ! You mentionned that spinash got sweeter in winter. Among all vegetables, is spinash the veggie that get the sweetest under cold temperature? Because I left my Kale in the frost to see if they would taste sweet but I could not really tell the difference. I was then reading that spinash you can taste the difference, I was wondering what was your personal experience with that?
Cheers and have a wonderful winter season.
Hello dear Charles. 😊
Charles have you had your soil tested when you topdress in the Autumn & again elsewhere in the Spring. You hear the older gardeners always say to topdress in the Spring as the garden goes to bed during the Winter.
Just wondered how many so called nutrients you actually lose over the winter if any with or without compost 🤷♀️
Thanks 👍
Thank you Charles. Planning ahead while enjoying a cup of tomato soup. I'm saving a few onions from this year's harvest to figure how many to plant next time. Extras for failures. Garlic cloves surrounding garden last fall to keep out voles. No damage on potatoes or evidence of moles or voles. . Still no luck growing garlic bulbs. Its 78 degrees and normally in the 40's during the day. We are using row covers when temp dips to 34. Your gardens and soil are tops.
Awesome Charles! I'm cooking spinach right now as I watch your video that I just picked yesterday. Such a great fall and winter crop.
You need a few ducks running around. They love slugs, they leave fertilizer around and they really don't destroy your plants like chickens can.
So short version. We hope you used sun factor 50 plus. And want to know where you got your work skirt from
Great to see you again it feels like gardeing therapy seeing a new vid ..that I now miss till March.. bought the compost book it's brilliant I will focus on this now in winter. I made 1.5 tonnes this year from 3 wheelie bins I have (1 lot from 2023 autumn and one lot from April to August this year. Now I've got my bins nearly full ready for the winter composting) the hardest bit was gathering the brown material (leaves) 25kg back pack with every woods walk with my dog… plus it makes you healthy
Wow that slug is huge!
I've got some broad leaf spinach which I planted for winter because of my problems with Brussels Sprouts. It's my only green crop for winter. Do you recon it will benefit from a blast of seaweed fertilizer has you have suggested before? I have also got some Lambs Lettuce which is growing but the net protecting it is pretty weak with holes in it. I spent all day sticking patches on it using Gorilla Glue but didn't get all of it. I also have got two of your books the first one and the one about growing winter veg. I also use the Biodynamic Calendar (Maria Thun), and get the book every year, but it's heavy going. Thinking about getting another one of your books for Christmas but haven't decided which one yet. Seeing I'm not getting my winter fuel allowance and will pay tax on my pension for the first time.
Great video spinach is my favourite leaf vegetable and I have failed every year to sustain a crop due to slugs. But this video has encouraged me to have another go. Also I too am using my home made compost for the first year and it’s a beautiful thing! I like raking over the beds and think of it as a nutritious spread like marmite on toast 😂
👍👍👍👍
Hedgehogs & frogs eats slugs don't they?
Hi Charles I would love to interview you on a live if you have time as always happy gardening Richardx
Frosen her now above Lillhammer
So luscious!
Verybeautiful.
HappyN
Good.
enjoyable video
Very nice 👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽
Hello Charles,
J'ai 3 variétés d'épinards en ce moment, 2 variétés de mâche et bien sûr de la roquette que je coupe régulièrement et qui repousse à une vitesse incroyable 😲
Que du bonheur et le plein de vitamines C
If you leave the roots in the ground, doesn't it get in the way of the following crop where you plant.
❤ My spinach seed didn’t have great germination, but I’ve noticed some seeds germinate after winter in early spring when planted in outside containers. I’ve a small amount growing, just enough to enjoy with morning eggs. 😊
My dear Charles,
Finding the words to express my admiration for you is no easy task. Whether it is the eloquence and tone of your voice in your videos, or the invaluable knowledge and experience you share, your work is truly remarkable. I am newly thirty-one, and if I were to name those who inspired me to embrace a no-dig garden and a permaculture mindset, it would certainly be you alongside a few close friends.
What you are doing – and I wonder if you fully realise this – is inspiring thousands around the world who care deeply about the quality of the soil, the microorganisms within it, and, by extension, the health of the natural environment, wildlife (ourselves included), and all interconnected facets of nature. You are a splendid mentor, an invaluable guide, a person worthy of admiration, a gardener, and, in your own way, a philosopher.
Thank you, wholeheartedly, for all that you do. It has meaning.
Wishing you, and your plants, the very best of health,
Jan Pospíšil
Moravia, Czech Republic
Awesome, thanks Charles! Always have great information for us, I really appreciate it! Blessings 🙏🏻💞