3rd December 2018 Featured, Winter

Autumn ends, and it’s been a great season here for rich harvests with more to come. No dig helps so much, for two special reasons this autumn and one as we come into winter: moisture retention in dr

14th February 2018 Winter

Early sowings… it’s still early! The beauty of spring is that there is always more light ahead, and usually more warmth (!), so later sowings often catch up. As well as that, they grow mor

21st January 2018 Winter

It’s midwinter, so we can look forward to spring!! Including to sow seeds, just not yet except for undercover sowings of broad beans and exhibition onions. Wait for Valentines Day/mid February to ma

15th December 2017 Winter

This is the last update for five weeks, as we head into a quiet time for gardening, unless you are making a new garden or clearing ground. I am giving many talks, not least the northern tour Jan 30th

30th November 2017 Winter

There is just some kale and mustard leaves to harvest on the beds comparing growth between dig and no dig. Total harvests in 2017 are 103.9kg dig and 119.7kg no dig: each bed is 1.5 x 5m/5x16ft, see

15th February 2017 Winter

Hooray let’s go. Undercover to start with, because outside it’s still vegetable winter, see the amazing differences between spring, summer and winter. I make no outdoor sowings before mid March,

30th January 2017 Winter

Winter’s cold and more-or-less fine is turning in the UK to mild, wet and stormy, for the first half of February. Either way, I recommend you wait before sowing, except for broad beans. Check m

31st December 2016 Winter

A happy new year to my readers, may your gardens be bountiful, and easier to look after. When does the gardening year begin? You could pick any date from October to March, depending where you live (sn

15th December 2016 Winter

It has been mild here, after a freezing first four days when we had two nights of -6.5C (20F). That was cold enough to freeze plants in the polytunnel and greenhouse, and to damage older salad plants

30th November 2016 Winter

  Are you ready for cold weather?  November was 4.5C (8F) cooler than last year, and December looks to be cool, perhaps with snow around the solstice. Otherwise mostly dry. November was above av

14th February 2016 Winter

Its been so mild this winter, so far, and now when the sowing green light appears, so do frosts! However the light levels are improving fast and under glass or polythene this means warmth by day. All

22nd January 2016 Winter

Winter’s brief appearance and disappearance,  rabbits arrive, raising beds (or not), aerating compost with a metal corkscrew, root veg for winter abundance,  more on potting composts and peat

30th December 2015 Winter

WEATHER CHECK December was extraordinarily warm and especially by night, with no frost at all. So Brussels sprouts and leeks are cropping well, I am picking early purple sprouting, weeds are germinati

15th December 2015 Winter

The taste of home-grown Brussels sprouts, they are just so delicious!! and they look beautiful both in the garden and on the plate. For us they are a culinary highlight of the winter and this year, al

29th November 2015 Winter

Another mild month is ending, in fact its been the warmest ever November here, also the dullest. Going forwards its looking like a stormy and mild December to come. Temperatures are high enough for ne

15th February 2015 Winter

What to sow now, some into modules and some in trays for pricking out, seeds or sets for onions,  preparing no dig beds for planting, winter veg to eat now, winter salads, a shed for Homeacres compos

29th January 2015 Winter

Composts for propagating, watering tips, spring salads, updates on another trial and mustard green manure

10th January 2015 Winter

Keep clearing, mulching, preparing, no sowing yet

31st December 2014 Winter

Coping with winter and a look back at the weather of 2014

14th December 2014 Winter

Mid-December updates, preparing at Homeacres for 2015.

1st December 2014 Winter

I compare the year’s yields of Homeacres’ experiments with dug and undug beds, show how to judge the quality of compost and manure, catch up on winter growth and maintenance at Homeacres a