October '18 vegetable beauty, last new plantings, Q's answered on no dig beds

Quite soon the switch flicks and the last joys of summer cede to cooler and above all darker days. We have had many cool nights already and some ground frost, then many days of sunshine and temperatures 16-19C/sixties F.No dig means you can quickly clear and replant all through summer. I add no compost for second plantings, and now it's time to clear the last summer crops and make some last plantings.For more advice of the season, check out Steph's blog as well.

Every bed except one (frosted French beans) still has veg growing. No compost spread since December, no fertilisers.

Black Pearl plants have reached the top, two stems per plant

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Advantage of height

I welcomed Robbie Labanowski and his drone for some aerial shots, on 16th September. What a joy to see from above, growth is so much easier to assess, compared to my stepladder images.The dig bed has so far yielded 50.5kg of harvests, the no dig bed 66kg, find out more on this page.

Dig bed left, no dig right, from my stepladder

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Dig bed left, no dig right from Drone

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Seasonal plantings (not sowing)

White Lisbon spring onions are a September favourite for me. They give harvests of salad onions from April, growing even to bulb onions by end June. We spread some compost before planting them.Now is time to plant garlic and this video shows you how.

Spring onions multisown 9 days earlier, 8-10 seeds per cell

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Same seedlings just 13 days later, can be planted at this stage

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After clearing sweet peppers & French beans, in the small garden

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Early frosts

In the cold nights recently I worried about my Czar & borlotti climbing beans, which have more growing to do in order to fill more pods with beans for drying. Already we have harvested many Czar pods, and no borlottis. We wrapped three teepees in fleece, although as it happens I think they would have survived the slight frosts.Meanwhile autumn and winter vegetables such as kale and spinach simply grow sweeter after some frost.

24th September before a slight frost

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Five days later, all fine

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Spinach 29th September, sown 50 days earlier after harvest of Kuri squash

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Beauties of autumn

This season sees brassicas and leeks come into their own. During the heat of summer they struggle for moisture and suffer from insects, but now they are showing lovely new growth, with leaves even glowing.I do have some damage from leek moth, only on plants that were not covered by mesh. For caterpillars on brassicas, we shall do one more spray of Bacillus thuringiensis in mid October: butterflies and moths are still busy. More on pest protection here.

Romanesco broccoli planted July after last harvests of spring onions, no new compost, may not crop until November

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Savoy cabbage planted late July after broad beans & onions, these are for hearting in late winter even until April

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Multisown leeks planted after peas, one module gave 620g leeks

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New lettuce for planting under cover

My own seed of Grenoble Red lettuce has grown super fast: fresh seeds have extra vigour, see this video on seed saving.We shall plant them over the next two weeks, after clearing tomatoes, cucumber, aubergines, peppers.

Grenoble Red lettuce sown 8 days earlier, were pricked out at 4 days as tiny seedlings

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Same lettuce 11 days later, now 19 days since sowing

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More beauty

On yesterday's course here, many participants were commenting on the gorgeousness of all the different vegetables, their fine colours, shapes and leaf lustre. It's a bonus of grow your own.

Summer plantings of chicory Palla Rossa, endive Frenzy, fennel

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Palla Rossa 506TT from Bingenheim Saatgut

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Crown Prince and interplanted Cape Gooseberry/Physalis

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Red cabbage sown 10th May and spring onions just planted, chervil at back

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Late & speculative planting of Brokali, plus Red Carpet mustard & others

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Fruit mixed results

High winds of the equinox blew many of my fruit onto the ground, so they are bruised and will store less long. Homeacres is not very sheltered.Pears and apples had swollen nicely in just-sufficient rainfall, but there is a lot of damage to apples from codling moth. Next May I plan to hang pheromone traps.

Concorde pears, 6 year old tree

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Six year old apple trees, 6th September

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Red Windsor on M26 rootstock

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Q/A Cardboard or not

Question from a viewer on YT:

We were planning to cover the ground with about 6” of rotted horse manure this fall and leave it over the winter. Is there a use for cardboard in this situation, perhaps on top of the manure during the winter? Or do you think it would be unnecessary?

A  Whether you lay cardboard first (or not) depends on weed pressure. If there are loads of weeds, I would cover with thick cardboard, then compost on top.

If few or no weeds, there is no need for cardboard. Just cover over with compost, which in your case is well decomposed manure. Also there is no need then to cover the compost. See photo below.

Filling new raised beds (forum)

Q  Please advise on what to fill our new raised beds (about 6 inches deep) with, we need to order a delivery from local suppliers. We are on heavy clay and we could have either compost (horse,cow,mushroom) or "soil improver" which is a mix of grit, soil and compost.

I don't think that they have heard of No Dig as the receptionist foretold dire consequences of using pure compost!

A  Lottie, avoid soil-grit at all costs, soil is full of weed seeds and grit has no goodness. Compost is what you need, anything decomposed.

I should like to spend five minutes explaining things to the misinformed receptionist. Homeacres garden is planted into compost, it appears to work!

My FAQs page has answers to these questions, see no.'s 15.16 on bed filling, & 23,24 for planting into compost.

REPLY from Lottie:  Annoyingly I caved in to their pressure back in the spring this year when we were filling the first set of beds. You would have thought I was planning something truly outrageous from their response!

The so-called soil improver isn't weedy but it is very gritty. I think I will remove some of it from these first beds and replace with a thick layer of compost this Autumn

Filling a bed with horse manure as bottom layer then green waste compost, 6in/15cm depth

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Filling first bed Homeacres 2012, compost on weeds. For this one I used no cardboard

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Homeacres no dig garden, veg all planted into compost

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Prepping beds for winter, from course enquiry

Q information about getting beds prepped for overwintering

A  You can mulch at any stage and if beds are weed free, simply spread compost on them.

If many weeds, lay cardboard first then compost on top 2in or so. Think in terms of feeding all the soil life, once your ground is cleared of veg.

Autumn at Lower Farm 2010, compost mulch after clearing beds

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Membrane, question on a course

Q  (New beds made before coming on the course). Unfortunately, I can't now remove the mypex membrane due to about 2 tonnes of earth/compost on the top, this is how I was told to construct the raised beds.  I could if pushed, put a fork down and 'pop' the membrane - but wondered if it would be easier to just buy in some earth worms and introduce them into the raised beds?

A  Ah what a shame. Whoever advised you on that knows not a lot and this is often the case. I would pop the membrane, otherwise it’s a horrible negative. And worms can then rise.

Apply to be a smallholder

The Ecological Land Cooperative have obtained planning permission for smallholdings in Sussex, on bare ground: find out more here - you can apply.