January 2023
I wish you a healthy and productive gardening year.
Photo above is 2nd January 2023. In front is rye for grain.
It’s the quietest time, a chance for me to think website structure. Much as I love informing you with monthly blogs, I’ve decided to streamline them with my newsletter. This reaches a wider audience and contains much of the same information as in these updates. Going forwards, I am increasing the garden advice part of the newsletter.
Here is the newsletter I sent in early January. I shall write another one mid month and they are twice monthly.
On a gardening note, last year, I was sent two sacks of new potting compost to trial, from Hull in Yorkshire. It’s produced by a man my age called Pete and I tried it several times last summer and autumn, finding it really good. Pete has long experience, and I respect his conscientiousness, therefore I warmly recommend Pete’s peat free compost. It’s not cheap, but you get what you pay for, and when using my module trays with their small cell size, you need only 2 L of compost for 60 cells.
If you then multisow onions or beetroot in those cells, you have used 2 L of compost for over 200 plants. I transplant straight from the module trays without any potting on, that also saves time, compost and propagation space. However, do not sow anything yet! It’s too early.
I created this website in 2007, soon after bringing out my first book – see our new Books page for details of them all. Plus, I’ve written the monthly and sometimes twice monthly blogs/updates for 15 years. The site has grown in size and is ripe for reorganising.
In the early part of this year, the website will streamline and continue to hold a huge amount of information, in a more accessible form. There are pages hiding which I think are fascinating, and I hope you do as well, such as Seeds and Varieties which I updated recently. It’s to help you make productive choices when you buy your seeds.
One of the most visited pages is my Sowing Timeline, available any time to remind you, and it contains a link to download a southern hemisphere version of my calendar.
The page Get Started is about first steps in no dig, and the Trials page has information about my comparisons between digging and no dig. Over 10 years, the no dig bed has produced 12% more food. In 2022 it grew 20% more, and the last time I saw such a big difference was in 2018, another very dry summer. Interesting! There is a three strip trial too, comparing the effect of forking soil, compared to no dig, 2022 results in shortly.
ORFC online conference details are here.
If you want to learn more in person, do check out my days of teaching here at Homeacres. And there’s lots going on in the shop with so many recent books. Very soon we shall add my children’s book which appears 19th of January. Meanwhile you can pre-order at Waterstones, and other online places!
Thank you for reading this, and I hope you continue to find my website useful in your gardening. And what do you make of this:
GARLIC IN ICELAND
“We are in the west side of Iceland and using No Dig method and cover crop. I use the soil under the grass because of lack of soil in the area so we take the top of the grass and till it, put in nutrients, and make beds 1×5 m. We put thick cardboards in between the rows and put woodchips in the pathways and no more dig or tilling after that.
We have often very bad weather in the area, so we are using cover crop to stop the soil from blowing away and floating away. We used 8 types of seeds for the cover crop and it made a huge difference and makes a good cover for the winter. The temperature has gone to -20° for the past 3-4 days.
We have nearly 3000 garlic of various types to find out which works best in our zone.
Here are some pictures from our land where we are preparing and the first 23 beds.
We sowed cover crop in all the beds in late August and sow the garlic in between the rows in end of September to mid-November.”
Charles. I gave a few questions about compost!
Should bought compost ( peat free of course) have a use by date? If so what makes it deteriorate?
Also if yes, does same apply to homegrown compost?
What sort of thermometer is best to test compost temp? I have one I use for jam making?
And finally, how come some green waste compost is sold as organic, how can they be sure people haven’t used things which their composting process does not kill or break down?
Thought you might know!
Katrina
No sell by date is needed in my experience. Often they work better when older / mature.
Proper compost thermometer, strong metal probe 30cm long, ETI company
“Organic compost” is a sales trick and means nothing, unless accompanied ny the certification symbol of a recognised standards body eg Soil Association.
Dear Charles
I sent you a PM on Facebook on the 30/1/23 @ 21.34pm, this included 10 photo’s regarding a serious pest problem in my polytunnel. Grateful if you could please give me any advice.
Thanks very much for your time.
Hi Wyn
Too many notifications on FB. I don’t go there. My time is not infinite.
What you mentions sounds like soil and watering issue causing aphids, Needs more organic matter probably.
I lost my Purple Sprouting Broccoli due to the weather, although I suspect that pigeon damage might not have helped.
How high do the plants grow so I can try to protect them next year from both birds and teh cold
I’m sorry to hear that John. How high the plants grow depends.
Firstly when you sowed them, say April for taller plants and June for shorter ones. And on the variety as well. My Clarets sown mid June, need a net 5 foot high on average. Often plants are blown sideways by wind, and then the stems lean on the ground before growing upwards again, and this helps to reduce the height.
Thank you very much for the encouragement.
Hi Charles, I live in Hungary, I have been looking for the most practical kitchen garden solution for a while now. I really like your website. The results are very convincing. If I had the chance, I would like to move there and I would do it myself. But I know it’s just a dream right now. But I would like to try this production method here in my country. I have a long garden because I live in the countryside, in a house with a garden, and I divided the last 1/3 of it into long allotments. (this allotments consists of 6 pieces) So far I have loosened these with a fork, then raked them or I rotated the top with a machine, then sprinkled some composted manure pellets from the store, but, for example, in the summer drought, there is not enough water, so there is not much left from crop. I’ve been trying to compost the green waste found in the garden and kitchen waste together for about two years, but it somehow doesn’t get done for me in a few months. After two years of my first composting, I was able to spread it out. But this proved few for the allotments. In autumn I was able to buy a tractor’s manure from a local farmer. However, the texture of this manure is sticky, lumpy, and would require even more decomposition. I used this material on top of two pieces to cover it, it was a 5 cm thick layer. However, I don’t know and that’s why I would like to ask what can be sown or planted in these pieces in the spring? My other question would be how to compost the still sticky and quite chunky cow dung (but maybe there is a little bit of pig dung in it) so that it can become a more suitable material for spreading as soon as possible. But it is also possible that you simply have to leave the manure uncovered, and then the weather will compost it over time.
Hello Emese
Nice to hear from you. I never visited Hungary, but performed Hungarian dancing when I was at university!
That sounds actually like you’re doing good things there, but it’s a pity you broke up the soil, and that would not have helped with the dry weather last summer. However, you are in a better place now because that manure you spread before winter will have been softening a lot now in winter weather and I’m pretty sure that boy March or even February, if it’s not too cold, you can pass a rake or fork through it to break up the lumps which will be much softer. Thanks to winter weather. Try it and see! I think you’ll be surprised.
And that is the answer to your question, you can sow and plant into that surface manure/compost. It’s easier with transplants if you can do some propagation, or you could put some seed potatoes in underneath it, not too deep. Then put some more of the decomposing manure around the growing potato plants in May and June, and again you will find it breaks up thanks to weather over 2 to 4 months. You’re on the right track and you have the farmyard compost so all is good, and good luck with making compost! You can do it.
Hello there Charles , a couple of comments and one tangential question :
– TY , a very interesting and useful update on your favourite seeds, and seed suppliers. A nice prompt too to reviewing my seed boxes.
– personally, I think the guide to growing winter vegetables is perhaps one of your best books, as it an area not often easy to master early on as a grower. I found it one of the most useful, and I recommend it to anyone who comments on all the lovely produce on my plot ( and on our plates ) in the middle of winter.
Re: your passing reference to oca. My first try in cultivating oca has been a complete failure ( first frosts coinciding with prolonged hard freeze, followed by torrential rains) with tubers all becoming spongy and sodden. If I leave in the ground, rather than attempting to dig them all out and discarding, is there any risk of attracting slugs, or causing any soil pests/ diseases ? Any views/advice would be welcome.
Best regards, Vee
Thank you for your nice comments Vee.
I should be inclined to leave them there, some slugs probably will get involved but so will other soil organisms and I expect they will disappear quite quickly since they are quite watery. It’s not an easy crop because of the late harvest time.
Well done on your nice winter allotment.
Happy New Year Charles! I’ve just signed up for your news letter, many thanks in advance for your advice and encouragement! I loved reading about no-dig growers in Iceland, how fascinating! It’s cold and dark here in Lancaster still but our Local potato day and seed swap is on Saturday and that’s come around so quickly! Good luck to everyone in their no-dig adventures this year, Best wishes, Nina
How lovely, thanks Nina and may your 2023 harvests be good
Thank you, Charles, for an inspirational first year on my No-Dig journey. Not everything has been brilliant but I can see a lot of improvement and productivity. It’s certainly easier being freed from the constraints of rotation and digging. Getting excited about a new campaign and looking forward to using my new module trays.
Thinking of compost, our lane is transversed by farm vehicles transporting silage. Inevitably, some falls off. Can I put some in the compost bin? I would have thought it was good to use but think I should check. Green or brown?
Many thanks
This is good to hear John and I like that you are feeling excited!
Yes, what a good idea to scrounge that silage and it’s more green than brown for compost. There should be no weedkiller worries because farmers cut grass for silage before weeds have much chance to develop, so they don’t need to use herbicide.
Thank you Charles for sharing with us your experience and knowledge. Lovely to read and plan no dig during these dark months. Still on the hunt for cardboard ..
Hello Deborah,
In your search for cardboard, have you tried your local supermarket? My local Tesco store are quite happy for me to take what I need.
Andrew
After asking for cardboard in local businesses, one of my local shops has now started putting their cardboard boxes outside on a pallet so we can just help ourselves, we have to flatten the boxes but that’s no hardships for free cardboard 👍
I’m glad you had the chance in this quieter growing time to look at how you want to take things forward. Thank you very much for your blogs which I shall miss as they’ve been great companions in my no dig journey but I enjoy the newsletter very much too. I love the photos and the tales of success and failure and possible redemption! Best wishes for 2023. And finally, have any of your stored potatoes sprouted prematurely like some varieties of mine?
Hi Sheridan
Thanks for your kind words, I’m glad to help. The blogs won’t exactly disappear, because I shall increase the amount of gardening information in the newsletter.
Regarding potatoes, it’s quite normal for them to be sprouting now. We shall be sorting through some today and rubbing off sprouts, which helps them to store for longer. They just make new ones but smaller. And we shall also separate out smaller potatoes for seed, put them to chit in a windowsill
Hi Charles, I am sure that you are aware of the content of the following, but it may be of interest to some followers.
I came across this article when I was researching the old saying “The answer lies in the soil”.
Search: openaccessgovernment.org
Providing food: The answer lies in the soil.
This saying was the 1950’s mantra of a panellist on the long-runningBBC radio show Gardeners’ Question Time. The saying became part of UK folklore, trotted out at will in response to almost any question.
Fast forward to 2021 and the global focus is very much on the soil being the answer to feeding the world. Increasing urbanisation, erosion, nutrient imbalance, intensive farming and climate are placing huge demands on the availability and health of the world’s earth.
It goes on to mention – ploughing and tilling, loss of vital soil bacteria and fungi and the release of glomalin, a carbon based “glue” that binds soil particles, into the atmosphere.
Farmers across the world, mainly in developed countries, are changing cropping practices to improve their soil by increasing organic matter, reducing tillage and minimising chemical inputs.
The full article at website shown above.
2022 was also my first year of no dig. I have been a keen gardener all my life and when I came across your YouTube videos decided to give it a go at age 79. I only have a single bed in my back garden but my harvests were varied and bountiful. My neighbours were astonished and grateful that I grew so much! I have subsequently bought your new No Dig book and sowing calendar. I am looking forward hopefully to many more years without digging. Thank you Charles.
Hello Andrew, I am delighted to read this, and wish you many more years of cropping!!
Thanks also for the reminder of soil’s importance. When I started growing in the early 1980s, hardly anybody mentioned it, but now it’s there in force! Fingers crossed for our soils.
2022 was without doubt my most successful year (and my first year in Somerset) with over 74 kilos of food harvested and self-sufficient in potatoes from June through to November (and had my own Brussel Sprouts for Christmas dinner). Thank you for your informative website, newsletter and videos. Wishing you a productive 2023.
Well done David, thanks for sharing, I wish you a bountiful 2023