Late autumn 2025

Written by

Charles Dowding

Last Updated

October 27, 2025

No Dig Day

A chance to celebrate, 3rd November every year. We're running great competitions for children and adults, please see this webpage.

Rapid growth thanks to no dig. These cabbage on 23rd October, Golden Acre, were sown 20th July and transplanted 13th August, 93 days since sown and mesh covered throughout. See my short video for details.

Spanish course

A reminder that No Dig for Beginners is available to buy, all in Spanish.

Clearing some misunderstandings

Mulch means what?!

Q Why don’t you cover your amazing soil with a layer of mulch such as dried leaves? It should help the soil stay moist for longer.

A No. For many reasons, I don't use undecomposed materials. They would get in the way of new sowings, such as carrots, and the mustard you see in the foreground here.

This would increase slug populations, even if by only a few that can make a difference.

And most importantly, the compost mulch (yes, compost is a mulch) does a great job of retaining moisture and is quick to absorb and hold on to any rain. But if there were leaves or straw on top, light rain showers could not enter because the leaves and straw take the moisture of light rainfall.

Kohlrabi Noriko F1 on 24th October, mulched with my home-made compost and you can see the woody bits it still contains when we spread it. It looks more wood than it really is because the dark and decomposed compost has been taken into the soil by organisms such as earthworms. I'm very happy to have this light mulch of small pieces of wood. Compost need not be perfect.

Q I have some green manure packs and wondered if I could plant with my onion sets ?

A That is a vague term, 'green manure', and I would be careful, in fact, I would not do it, unless the only seed was mustard, perhaps phacelia and buckwheat too, which would be killed by frost. Propietary mixes often contain grasses and clover, which you would not be able to get rid of when growing next spring around onions. There are 100 types of green manure, please check the small print.

Or grow vegetables instead. They are a kind of 'green manure' because their leaves are converting carbon dioxide, into carbon for the soil and oxygen for the atmosphere

The middle two beds have mustard *Sinapis alba* which I sowed 7th September after a squash harvest, so that's just seven weeks of growth. This mustard is killed by frosts below about -3 to -4°C, mid 20s Fahrenheit. This makes it highly suitable for no dig. Also during the short time it's in the ground, it's not attracting brassica diseases or pests, because they are much less with no dig, compared say to allotment soils where repeat digging and lack of organic matter has caused buildup of soil diseases, and pests.
In the front is a cauliflower bed, where we sowed broad beans on 10th September, between the cauliflower. The latter have mostly been harvested now, leaving the beans to grow as a green manure until they are killed by frost. See below.

No dig 'hard' soil

Q I would like to plant broad beans and garlic, but the ground below my gently applied mulch of old horse manure is hard.

A Ground being ‘hard’ is no problem, and it may be because it’s dry. No dig is all about firm soil, so plant whatever you like and whenever appropriate.

Chard 6 months since sown, has cropped hugely with little weeding needed, and it's from homesaved seed

Root veg sown late

Q Will my carrots carry on growing through the colder months? My later sowings are still tiny.

A Unlikely I'm afraid. See my Calendar for best dates. Carrots stop growing at the beginning of winter, and then a switch happens with new growth being mostly in the centre of each carrot, where a stem develops which will turn into a flower stem for seeds in the spring. The carrots then become tougher and fibrous, so you have about six more weeks when they can still grow a little.

Tokyo turnips F1 24th October, at only 10 weeks since multisown. If you miss the last sowing date for carrots (around 25th July), these are so good instead.

We did a taste test on these turnips and selected the largest ones, to compare with much smaller ones. To our surprise, the large ones were sweeter and equally tender, when cooked for the same amount of time.

Tokyo turnips for the taste test, large ones cut into pieces the same size as small ones, all boiled 15 minutes

Sow broad beans

In milder climates such as here, this is the last sowing from seed of the year. You can also still plant garlic cloves, even until the end of December.

Whereas broad beans need to establish before winter, so this is a really good time, because also they do not want to be too big. I notice that taller ones such as in the photo above, are killed by frost. Shorter ones are more hardy.

Broad beans right in December 2024, six weeks after sowing, to show spacing of two rows along 1.2m wide beds, 15-20 cm between seeds in the rows. Beds are recently mulched with compost of different types, and pathways have new woodchip, no more than 2 cm deep.

It's sometimes claimed that you can sow peas at this time of year, but only the first early types with round seeds. I have tried this several times, without worthwhile success. I advise to wait until you sow mid February under cover in module cells, for transplanting around the middle of March, and look at the result in the photo, from June this year.

Hurst Greenshaft sown February under cover gave a huge crop by 11th June; with Minty

Interplants

I love to experiment with starting small transplants between, or close to, existing and much larger plants. The new seedlings establish while the larger and older plants are finishing, so it's not a problem with competition at this stage. Then you clear the first planting and suddenly see that the new seedlings are on their way to cropping before too long.

Florence fennel Rondo F1 sown 24th July, planted 13th August between cucumbers which cropped for another four weeks. Seeds from Premier Seeds Direct.

Spinach Medania was transplanted either side of tall asparagus on 5th September. Last week, the asparagus was turning yellow, so Adam scythed it and mowed the stems for adding to compost. The spinach should survive winter and give decent harvests in March and April, even while the first asparagus spears are growing. I may cover the bed with fleece from mid-February, especially if rabbits show an interest.

Many of these interplant / overlap, and companion planting ideas are in my new book, Growing Together, published by Dorling Kindersley in March 2026.

Reaching up

11 weeks growth in this double-barrel tower from @gardenscapes_uprooted. Plants are so adaptable and I did not think the Florence fennel would thrive on the vertical, as have radicchio and kohlrabi. The filling is 2/3 homemade compost, 1/3 soil from here and some seaweed plus rock dust.

Next year I shall plant more strawberries in the 5cm holes.

And sadly for us, Anne has returned to Denmark. She has worked in the garden since late March, making a huge difference because I've been able to crop more and be less stressed about it, especially on harvest mornings. Minty is missing her as well!