We transformed a weedy pasture into an easy-to-manage market garden. Here is how.
It can be hard work at first, removing regrowth of perennial weeds with a trowel. After two years, we have clean soil and productive beds requiring little management time.
See this playlist of the first year in 2021 https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7WDfop74y-k1a3lMA0ooD5m8bhiKu5sR
Filmed at Homeacres, Somerset, UK by Edward Dowding 24th May and extensively edited by him.
https://edowdingfilms.onfabrik.com/portfolio
Adam Wood has a channel, https://www.youtube.com/@UCEnZhVRxqcZK_-jPQTh69pA
00:00 Introduction
01:15 I explain the ‘new area’
01:47 First work done on the area - a new bed
01:55 3-pallet compost bay
02:25 How we cleared the wild growth
03:00 Apple trees
03:17 A rosemary hedge
03:48 New pond, just made
04:04 A sunberry
04:29 Apricot tree, and how to protect from frost
05:05 Main garden area from the land purchased two years previously
05:44 I demonstrate removing field bindweed
07:14 A bed with mustards just finished, soon to have beans, plus overwintered spring greens
07:25 Broad beans soon to finish, to be followed by purple sprouting broccoli - some spottiness (Botrytis fabae 'chocolate spot') on the leaves - plants were covered with mesh
08:16 Fleece over ruby chard, very few weeds, homesaved seed
08:55 Purple sprouting broccoli just cleared
09:22 Another type of cover - Thermacrop over celeriac and interplanted spring onion seedlings
09:59 Wood on the beds - from homemade compost, not woodchip
10:39 Courgettes/zucchini, survived a slight frost (covered with fleece)
11:22 Polytunnels with tomato plants (was winter salad)
12:04 Sideshooting a Sungold tomato - how to know which are sideshoots
13:03 Garlic interplant, and when to harvest
13:23 Changes made to one top the Homeacres boundary edges - a bed, a cabin and a new hedgerow with ornamental seedlings
14:14 Veg that were under Thermacrop – peas for shoots, overwintered spinach Medania plus new plants – I harvest some leaves
15:20 Lettuce – plenty of cropping
15:54 Beetroot Boltardy transplanted end of March, fleece removed a week previously
16:58 Asparagus, planted in a bed originally full of perennial weeds, and a newer planting of asparagus - great results from the plants grown from seed, Ariane F1
19:!4 Rhubarb in area originally mulched with black plastic and woodchip, an experiment
20:07 An area of bed with woodchip removed – was cabbage, now potatoes
20:24 Trees - grafting on rootstock, I explain the process
21:45 Kale gone to flower – stem covered in aphids
22:10 A compost corner – cow manure, mushroom compost and green waste compost - I explain how much compost we use at different times
23:15 An experiment to protect against carrot root fly (and removing bindweed), and advice on filling a deep bed
24:53 New beds, made last spring – I describe the dimensions
25:22 Kohlrabi and cauliflower – growth affected by nearby ash tree, lack of moisture
26:02 Rye plants for making bread
27:31 Flowers – ornamental alliums and lupins
28:10 Potatoes in ground that was covered in black plastic last year - how we use plastic repeatedly – squashes grown here previously
28:54 Potatoes earthed up with cow manure because of late frost – wood in the manure from bedding
29:54 Area currently under plastic, with squashes and sweetcorn growing
31:32 Another new bed, mulched with cardboard and compost
32:23 Other new plantings in this area – hazel and birch saplings, wild flowers, willows
33:17 Hawthorn, also called ‘may’
33:47 The old pond, and bees
34:31 The wormery, and new shed
33:25 Outro
See my web shop for new offers on bundles of my online courses https://charlesdowding.co.uk/product-category/online-course-pacakages/
#weeding #nodig #nodiggardening
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