November 2021 make compost, sow broad beans, soil and compost biology and weed mulch, clean brassicas

Written by

Charles Dowding

Last Updated

October 28, 2021

The change of clocks is matching a change of weather, and in both senses it’s now wintry more than autumnal. Follow my tips below for a last few sowings, making more and better compost, and enjoy the photos of soil microlife. So much life, and we increase it with no dig.

Maybe you can make it to Street on Saturday, for my latest talk about no dig. And I am speaking at the Agri Festival of Mauritius, November 11th-12th.

Mars celeriac no dig fed with compost only, also had card mulch against bindweed, was weedy pasture 8 months earlier

Strode theatre no dig Charles Dowding talk 30th October — Do come along if you can, this is near Glastonbury at Strode theatre on 30th October

Charles with no dig parsnip Gladiator, photo by Alastair Laing — I grew a few varieties of parsnip and Gladiator F1 always excels, both for length of root and lack of canker, which can be such a problem here on heavy soil

Making compost

It’s fantastic how much interest there is in making compost. They are always popular videos, see my latest one and also you can access them all in this compost making guide of all my videos on the subject, from Retrieve.

Autumn sees a nice balance of green and brown materials. Often it is too wet and we add a few extra woody materials to balance that. Tree leaves are good, especially if you can chop the with a lawnmower. Adding dry paper helps too.

First materials were added on 4th October and I took this photo 27th, the temperature has been 55 to 60C over the last two weeks. This is after I unscrewed the boards holding the heap shape at the front

frog in the compost is one of many — The heat is a hive of activity and we found five frogs while loading a wheelbarrow, and a mouse! Plus loads of woodlice.

3 month old compost in pallet heaps — Three to six month old compost in pallet heaps, was the bay from both sides so it’s two heaps in one, is full of wildlife and has been covered by corrugated iron to keep out the rain.

Propagation

The years last sowings, or perhaps one should say they they are the first sowings of next year. Some people do say that the gardening year finishes in September. There is still the chance to transplant vegetables for salad leaves which you sowed earlier. You can also sow garlic still, outside or undercover.

My main sowings now are broad beans to transplant after a month, and peas to transplant under cover, for harvests of pea shoots through winter into spring. The pea photo below was taken in March, not now, we are sowing today into my CD60 trays, more details about them here.

Last salad plants in CD60 module trays, showing how they can grow large. Mostly we plant them smaller, at three weeks old on average

Peas in CD60 planted following day — My CD60 trays work well for peas and you can sow say two on average, then plant them out before they are too large. Maybe set a mouse trap close to the sown tray.

Pests and weeds

We shall soon see extra damage as pests grow hungrier. I have bird netting in reserve.

One good thing about winter is that bindweed does not grow. Hence there is no point in mulching now with say cardboard against bindweed, although now is a good time to cover other weeds such as grasses, chickweed, bittercress and nettles. See my no dig online course and also my no dig book.

Chicory 206TT for a Treviso-type heart, ready now. This is probably damage from pecking by a pheasant – I see them occasionally.

In the summer, bindweed grew so fast and we laid cardboard between celeriac as a mulch. Sure the weeds grow out its sides, but were easier to manage, and the roots swelled more, as in first photo above.

Bindweed between fennel, a new no dig bed this year with cardboard laid 14th April, 15cm compost on top. Since late June we have removed a lot of bindweed, to the compost heap

Multisowing

Many of you now know these wonderful combinations and possibilities.

I was amazed on Twitter to see photos of celeriac grown three in a clump, and they were of respectable size. There is more to discover!

Second planting with no new compost. Multisown beetroot Robuschka was transplanted 1st July after potatoes

Second planting after peas, multisown Philomene leeks sown April, transplanted four months ago

Third planting after calabrese then lettuce, turnips Sweet Marble F1 multisown 13th August and grown under mesh against root flies. plus the many mycelia are fruiting now

The world under our feet

When I see these photographs of so many micro organisms moving around in the soil, it reinforces my desire to interfere as little as possible. The photo on the left is from the bed I dig every December as part of my two bed trial. Its contents are well separated, compared to the photo on right of the no dig bed. You can see aggregation of soil into small lumps (soil structure) which ensure drainage and aeration. The glue for these lumps is based on carbon and originates I believe with the sheaths of old mycorrhizal fungi sometimes called glomalin.

The difference in growth between these two beds is less this year than previously, and I think it might be to do with having removed the wooden sides. Possibly this has allowed more fungal reinvasion of the soil, from pathways where the soil is super healthy thanks to mulch of old wood chip.

The beds are 1.5 x 5m and see details in this page of my website.

DIG BED - Few macro-aggregates or microbial volume or diversity — DIG BED – Few macro-aggregates or microbial volume or diversity, photo Eddie Bailey x 400

Trial beds late October with no dig on right, both have given over 80kg vegetables so far in 2021

NO-DIG - Diatom with Testate Amoeba to its upper left - note humic-fulvic aggregates — NO-DIG – Diatom in the middle with silica shell and cucumber shape, also a Testate Amoeba to its upper left – note humic-fulvic aggregates, photo Eddie Bailey x 400

Autumn vegetables

So many plants are coming to fruition. Fennel is just three months since sowing, see my online lesson about that, the cabbage are five months. Endives are star performers at this time – we pick some of outer leaves and leave others to make lovely hearts. Links are to lessons in my online Seed to Harvest course.

Florence fennel third crop after beetroot, cucumber, trans and interplanted 66 days — Perfektion Florence fennel third crop after beetroot then cucumber, trans and interplanted 66 days earlier, cucumbers removed when it was four weeks in the ground

Savoy cabbage Jade F1 transplanted 4th July, deleted every two weeks or so, sprayed Bacillus thuringiensis

The small plants are Diva endives which we pick every week — 25th October – the small plants are Diva endive which we have already picked for ten weeks, while others from the same planting now have beautiful hearts

Le Manoir

It was a pleasure to catch up with old friends at Raymond Blanc’s hotel and restaurant in Oxfordshire. The occasion was a launch of Anna Greenland’s new book, Grow Easy which is excellent for container growing and small plots, using organic methods. She was head vegetable gardener at Le Manoir for three years. I also met her successor John Driscoll, who showed me the results of the rocket composter. It’s not working brilliantly, partly because of the large amount of oil in kitchen wastes which emulsify particles in the compost, reducing flow of air.

It was great to have a chat with Raymond, who explained about his new courses next spring: maybe I shall be teaching about no dig on one of them. He is passionate about soil, I respect him for that alone, not to mention cooking!

Anna Greenland, Raymond Blanc and Catherine Chong of @farmstofeedus, she’s a scientist and keen on no dig

Me with RB. He is so animated. Photo Briony Plant

With John in front of the compost maker, checking the black results.

Grow your own #nodigforlife

It feels like I’ve spent my life around the edge of things and not done enough to prevent environmental destruction. We campaigned in the 1980s against use of poisons in farming, thought we could make a significant difference. But look now at the amount of stronger chemicals being applied to farms and gardens.

Then last weekend we saw this comment in the Financial Times and it helps me to see that more is happening than I realise (this is his wildfarmed project). And now it absolutely needs to happen because for example of the massive increase in fertiliser price. We are starting a campaign with this hashtag #nodigforlife, wanting many to make the small difference. Do use it. No dig keeps carbon in the soil for example. which makes it interesting for teenagers I hope.