No dig early spring March 2023, sow under cover
No dig early spring March 2023, sow under cover only for now, using the dates I suggest and sow tomatoes 10th March.
Sometimes it said that the first day of spring is the equinox. In many ways, this is true because it can be pretty cold until then and it looks like that will happen this year.
On the other hand, daylight levels even at March 1st, are equivalent to the middle of October. And by the equinox, days are as bright as six months ago and six months ahead. In other words, decent amounts of daylight, just lacking in warmth. That’s why I recommend you sow nothing outside until the equinox. In cool March, later sowings are more likely to succeed.
For gardening, I feel that spring happens from early March. However, you need to work out how to use the extra light, even when it’s cool. Hence my recommendation for covering all new plantings with fleece.
See my newsletter of today 28th February, for more information about all of these aspects of winter converting to spring.
Sowing reminders
Good to sow now – see Digital Calendar
Any or all of broad beans, peas (for shoots, and early varieties for pods), true spinach, lettuce, onions, salad onions, cabbage, calabrese, kohlrabi, cauliflower, turnips, radish and Florence fennel. Also asparagus, globe artichokes, parsley, coriander and dill.
- For salad rocket. mustard greens, spinach, turnips, kohlrabi and fennel, sow asap. The idea is to have them harvest just before they flower in June.
In suitable warmth, night temperatures above about 10°C/50°F, you can sow aubergine, sweet peppers and chillies. Sow in a seed tray for later pricking out. This allows you to germinate a lot in any small and very warm space in your house.
Timing to emergence
Depends on temperature. Up to 30C is possible.
Fastest are brassica such as radish, turnip and cabbage, mid range are lettuce, spinach and beetroot, slowest are onions, globe artichoke, asparagus.
Wait a little before sowing
Tomatoes, from second week of March.
Celery, celeriac from mid March
Leeks from early April, unless you want leeks in the summer
Chard, because it’s less likely to bolt when sown in April.
Hi Charles,
Thank you for sharing your knowledge with us once again this month, it really is inspiring!
Thanks to your help, I am no longer so worried about rotating my crops and have found that by feeding and caring for the soil as you have taught us, that is really doesn’t seem to make any difference.
My query is to your experience of growing carrots in the same space – does carrot fly and or their larvae remain in the soil, affecting the following year’s crop? Last year I covered with fine mesh and only had very minimal damage.
Thank you for your time and your help in advance.
Hi Matt
That is nice thanks.
I am not sure about this. As far as I understand, the maggots need some roots to live in over winter. Therefore, if you cleared all your carrots including little ones, there should not be any extra risk from sowing in the same place. I’m not hundred percent certain though, do share your results?
Hi Charles,
Thank you for your time and kind reply – I plan to sow carrots in the same bed this weekend and will use it as a study – I will definitely feed back. Could be an interesting experiment. I seem to get fly damage early on, but then the carrots remaining grow on really well without any damage at all.
Thanks again and best wishes, Matthew
I have access to wood chip which I have used to mulch paths on my allotment. I was going to use some to mulch asparagus (already has some compost and manure), but my neighbour says he killed a mature asparagus bed by mulching with bark! Any thoughts. Thank you
Hi Debbie. I can only imagine that the bark he used had something in it. Or perhaps that he put on a very thick layer which would certainly not be good.
All wood mulches are best no more than one to 2 cm on beds, and I prefer not to use them there at all, just on pathways.
Because plants in my experience grow better when the wood on beds is more decomposed/like compost, and not thick.
So I’m experimenting. On my allotment there are literally hundreds of volunteer onions – the previous tenant must have really liked onions. I always leave some to flower for the bees and, in the past, I have weeded others out. However, composting them always irked me as there’s nothing wrong with the plants – they have survived a toughish winter and have good root development (I’m guessing they’re winter White Lisbon or similar). So today I dug some up carefully, separated them out, replanted them in dibbed holes 3cm apart and topped up the holes with water. Have you had any experience of doing something like this CD? In some ways, I guess they’re just really fresh onion sets…
I have not done this and would not do it actually because you don’t know which type of onion you are transplanting.
Onion sets are not as I understand it the same thing. They have somehow been matured from a specific sowing date. Whereas yours are seedlings which have overwintered in a live state, and I think they will flower by the end of May. Hope I’m wrong!
Hello, Charles. I have bought some of your new module trays and been watching your sowing videos but can’t work out which size cells you use for multi sowing! . I am wanting to multisow radish, onion, beetroot, kohl rabi, turnip. Will they all be ok in my new modules, esp beetroot with their larger seeds? Many thanks
Hello Pauline, yes, I use these quite small cells for everything you mention. Including beetroot which we are currently transplanting quite small, 3 to 4 in a clump. It works totally fine.
One understanding is that you transplant small rather than large plants. They establish more quickly, with less transplant shock.
It’s so heartening to have plants grown from seed. Your sowing timeline and diary have been so usefulover the last few years. I used your module trays last year and again this and I have really found them to make a marked difference to the ease of sowing (cutting down on compost) and the seedlings are so much easier to manage. I have lost none to ‘rotting off’ since having them. I’m beginning to wish I had more staging space in my cold greenhouse but thankfully the seedlings grown using your timeline soon get to the stage where they can be put out into beds outside. Today I made sure the beds for my lettuce, beetroot and spinach were checked for weeds and get fleece placed ready for planting in the next week or two. Thanks Charles, for all the support and advice you provide. It really makes a difference.
This is so nice to see Rob, thank you very much.
This spring I’m afraid could be more difficult and we all need to be at the top of our game!
Hi Charles,
I looked at the sprung steel hoops but I looked for a cheaper alternative. I think I have found a good solution that your followers may be interested in (you may even consider them yourself). In short:
Stainless Steel Structural Bed Joint Reinforcement
The ones I have ordered from Tool Station on line are stainless steel 100mm x 3mm x 2.7m. When cut in half they will provide 4ft wide tunnel supports. Being a ladder form I think that they might be even more secure than the single wire hoop. They are due to be delivered on a next day delivery tomorrow. Happy to update you once I have them in.
Hi Rob, sounds interesting.
I use 2.5m length to span 4ft beds. Do keep us informed.
Hi Again Charles.
I have found that the half lengths are ideal for using to raise covers off leaves (a bit like you did by using wood alongside the beds). I will get some photographs at some point. The whole length will be used to make high tunnels for netting my tenderstem broccoli, which are small and aren’t quite ready to go in yet. Calabrese is planted out under fleece inside a netted aluminium hoop tunnel which I had already purchased for last seasons kale. I am hopeful that the new Stainless Steel Structural Bed Joint Reinforcement will be a cheaper solution for expanding tunnel protection for taller crops. Again I will send pictures when they are in use.
Thanks for sharing this with us Charles. You are inspiring my homestead – vegetable garden – and I’m still trying to spread the word about no-dig, here, in Romania. Maybe my crops will speak for me this season. I just bought a new aluminium polytunnel, 4/14 meters, putting cartboard now on the ground and old hey plus compost on top. Only true problem about no-dig is that compost is never enough, dear God! A good compost accesible here near us is the soil from the forest which can be helpful and also the cow or horse manure. Still, it is tricky to carry that much with a wheelbarrow 🙁 Would love to send you pictures when the tomatoes and melons will be ripe 🙂 … oh, and, please don’t stop sharing what you do, will ya? 😀
Thank you for your lovely comment. And that is nice to hear!
It’s actually not the case that you need more compost for no dig. It’s more that it really pays to start with a thick dose. After which, you really don’t need a lot, in comparison to the harvests which are possible.
So look on this phase as an investment, and as a chance to build up your body with lots of wheelbarrow trips!
Animal manoeuvres are totally fine then after about a year, they are compost, so it sounds like you have plenty.
Thank you for the kind advices Charles! God bless you!
Hi Charles
I found this petition to ban pyramids. Looks like it needs a shove to get it over the line. With all your followers, you’re in an ideal position to help, perhaps you can help promote it
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/622535/signatures/new
Thanks so much for sharing this Geoff. I’ve put it on Twitter and the signature number jumped through 41 to 192! However, that’s a long way to go until 10,000 and I shall continue to promote it, fingers crossed.
Excellent. I’ve put it in a couple of other gardening/composting groups. Maybe I’ll repeat as well to keep bringing it to peeps’ attention
I have transplanted broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage into no dig beds under fleece as you suggest, I never tried to plant this early and was worried but to my surprise all is growing well with minor frost damage. We’ve had a few nights in the 20s f. As well. I also transplanted multi sowed beetroot, radishes and turnips. So excited to be year round gardening!!
Hi David
Fingers crossed! I never take anything for granted, but usually this works!
Been to the allotment every day this week and it’s amazing how few weeds are around, not to mention that the soil texture of beds not dug for 3 and a half years now is so amazing. I was hoeing and raking all the growing beds in preparation for the sowing/transplanting season and it was truly effortless. With little being planted out before the Equinox, it’s a time of putting down woodchips on paths between beds, putting down the compost which matured over the winter, sawing off the Hazel branches and digging out raspberry canes which are trying to double the size of their alloted area!
It’s also a time to remeasure the beds and to note ruefully that exactitude is rare where no-dig beds are concerned. As the woodchips on the paths rot down, it becomes more difficult to distinguish between path and bed and a few minor surprises occurred as I got the tape measure out again! It doesn’t have a major effect on yields, more a minor irritant to my sense of efficiency and exactitude.
I don’t know if a winter with many sharp frosts is good for apple trees, but the trees at home seem to have more fruiting buds on than ever before. Plenty of thinning going to be required this summer, me thinks.
It’s good to see this Rhys and well done on that new allotment. It feels like the cold has been good for promoting fruit buds, although actually I think they develop in the autumn so maybe it’s a coincidence.