No Dig

Back cover description:

‘Stop digging and start to truly understand the needs of your soil, for bumper harvests of healthier crops. Charles Dowding has spent a lifetime perfecting his no dig system of growing. At its core is an awareness that soil vitality is a dynamic process, involving a web of organisms which we can easily feed and support, enabling our plants to grow strong and healthy, in a weed-free environment. With clear step-by-step instructions on how to set up a no dig plot, and detailed cultivation advice for over 80 crops, this book will revolutionise the way you grow.’

The book is made up of four chapters:

Chapter 1 – It all begins with the soil

Discover how no dig helps the soil, and you in the garden. I explain the fundamentals, the importance of compost, why weeds don’t grow, and the extensive other benefits of no dig beds.

Chapter 2 – Getting started

I give advice on deciding what to grow, planning your beds, controlling weeds, and the tools you may need.

I take you through creation of a no dig bed using cardboard and compost, then planting it on the same day in spring. We revisit it through the year.

You see how I make compost and I share many ways of doing this. It’s not difficult when you understand the few key principles and methods.

Chapter 3 – The principles of growing vegetables

The bigger picture behind growing success, and the reasons why these understandings work so well. Especially in a no dig garden where soil is lively, and weeds are few.

You learn about timings of sowings, succession planting, propagation, how to sow, caring for seedlings, transplanting, spacing, watering, using crop covers, controlling slugs and snails, growing under cover, harvesting, storage and saving seed.

Chapter 4 – Vegetable and herb directory

This chapter makes up the largest section of the book. I give detailed information on growing over 80 of the main vegetables and herbs, categorised as follows:

• Pea and bean family (legumes)
• Cabbage family (brassicas)
• Onion family (alliums)
• Cucumber family (cucurbits)
• Carrot family (umbellifers)
• Beet family
• Leafy salad crops
• Solanums, basil, and sweetcorn
• Perennial vegetables

For each category I give general information on choosing what to grow; sowing, growing and harvesting; and common problems.

Then, for each vegetable/herb within the categories, I explain in detail sowing and transplanting, care and protection, harvesting and storage, and finish with a useful summary of key growing information. I also share my recommended varieties.

The book is beautifully illustrated throughout with photographs by the excellent Jonathan Buckley. He visited Homeacres on 12 days over the course of 2021, capturing the growth and methods of each season, and the beauty of my vegetable garden.

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Vegetable Garden Diary

A manual of gardening to inform and inspire you, packed with illustrations – introduced by Darina Allen.

Three quarters of the book is my advice on how to grow great crops. One quarter is diary space. Use it year after year –  it has an ‘any year’ format.

Advice in the diary section is linked to each week of the season, and includes:

• The advantages of no dig, for less time needed
• Sowing seed at the best moment – seeds will neither fail in cold nor start too late
• Sowing and planting methods, plus raising plants at home
• Maintaining control of weeds through timely mulching and hoeing
• How to feed soil, for strong and healthy growth, more easily
• When and how to make all the harvests, with advice on storing produce

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This is a garden companion of seasonal prompts. You can add your own additions, all in the context of precise information about how to grow great vegetables, and then keep this valuable information for future reference.

The diary is wire-bound for easy use, and the cover is laminated on both sides for greater longevity and to prevent curling.

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The diary was one of six finalists for Practical Book of the Year at the GMG Awards (Gardening Oscars) in London, November 2017. The winner was my joint book, No Dig Organic Home & Garden.

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Very easy to use on a day-to-day basis when looking for information about no dig. It is suitable to use outside when gardening and there is room to make your own notes. I have found this very helpful. Annabelle Harrison, April 2021