No-Dig Gardening Masterclass with Charles Dowding — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00Today I'm at a garden I've been  looking forward to visiting for years
2. 0:04and I don't think it is an exaggeration to say
3. 0:06that this is one of the most highly  regarded vegetable gardens in the world
4. 0:12and it's all down to the  humble yet famous gardener
5. 0:15who's created it over the  past decadem Charles Dowding.
6. 0:19Charles hello
7. 0:20Oh hi Ben.
8. 0:22For those of you who don't know him,  Charles is the absolute granddaddy of no dig
9. 0:26or no till gardening, which is the  very simplest, yet most effective way
10. 0:31to grow vegetables that more  and more gardeners are adopting.
11. 0:35This guy has a wealth of knowledge and  experience built over years of experimentation
12. 0:40so I think we're going to  learn a few things today.
13. 0:43I can recognize this straight away,  this is the dig and no dig bed
14. 0:46which is kind of the hub of proving your  point that you don't need to dig the soil.
15. 0:52Why no dig for those who  might not appreciate that?
16. 0:55Well it's partly why I've got this experiment  here, it's for me to learn more about soil
17. 1:01and about digging actually  cause I don't do it much,
18. 1:03this is the only dig bed in the whole  place and it's teaching me a lot
19. 1:07about why I do no dig which is that  we get earlier, more abundant crops
20. 1:11as you can see this is no dig here, dig bed there.
21. 1:15We get better drainage in wet  weather, we get fewer slugs
22. 1:19and also I had to replace quite  a few lettuce on the the dug bed
23. 1:23cause the slugs have been much more  damaging there compared to here.
24. 1:27So do you think by digging the soil  you're creating more crevices and cracks
25. 1:31for the slugs to hide in, is that the theory here?
26. 1:34I think it's more to do with biology
27. 1:35that you're damaging things like the  ground beatles, which eat slug eggs.
28. 1:39I mean I've only learned that  myself in the last few years,
29. 1:41you know I've kind of done this without  necessarily knowing all the details why
30. 1:45but I discovered more and more of the reasons
31. 1:47and soil analysis showing how  you get a better crumb structure
32. 1:51so that's why rain flows through better
33. 1:53but why it also holds moisture better  and roots can get in there more easily.
34. 1:57And I guess adding all the organic  matter on top not digging it,
35. 2:00you're getting a lovely kind of  rich spongy texture aren't you,
36. 2:05that sort of drains better I guess in wet  weather, but also retains the moisture better.
37. 2:10It's fantastic for clay soils you know,  people often ask, oh does no dig work on clay?
38. 2:14But actually that's the best soil for it  cause it makes life so much easier for you
39. 2:18and actually clay soil is really  good it's just difficult to work.
40. 2:23[Music}
41. 2:26Charles I can really see the difference here  with these luscious kind of fullsome onions here
42. 2:31and these guys which will catch up I'm sure,
43. 2:33but you reckon that's obviously  cause you've not dug this bed
44. 2:38and the organic mass is just added on top in  what, the autumn or winter for these beds here?
45. 2:43December. December okay. It's  kind of copying nature you know
46. 2:46how you've got a leaf fall or plants  dying, but it never gets dug in.
47. 2:51It's the same amount of compost in both  beds, so that one has the compost dug in,
48. 2:55two wheelbarrow fulls for this  much and that one has it on top.
49. 2:59But I had a PhD researcher here recently
50. 3:02and he was looking at the  carbon content of these two beds
51. 3:05and guess what that one has a lot - 14%. 14, wow!
52. 3:09Yeah compared to farmland would be  about 2%. Wow! that's incredible!
53. 3:14Maybe pasture land might be 5-6%,  so 14 there, but this one has 18%.
54. 3:1918%! that's crazy! That's from the  same amount being added every year.
55. 3:23So what's happened to the 4% difference  just could have gone back into the ...
56. 3:27I think it's lost in oxidation  through the digging process.
57. 3:31So I suppose carbon is the biggest  visual sign of how well this is working
58. 3:37because it's staying in there,  that carbon staying in the soil
59. 3:40and that's obviously helping with  all the soil life and and so on.
60. 3:43Yeah exactly, carbon is the building block  of plant growth, of everything in the soil.
61. 3:48It's the fuel for soil organisms so  the more we can have in the soil,
62. 3:52as I understand it anyway,  the better. Makes sense!
63. 3:55These beds here pretty much sum up the  entire case for no dig or no till gardening.
64. 4:00Charles you were telling me that  this row here is forked and disturbed
65. 4:05to help aerate it, the traditional kind of  folklore if you like, and then the rest is no dig.
66. 4:10What's the difference here between yields?
67. 4:12Ah well, in the first 10 years of  doing this, we've harvested 8% less
68. 4:19from where we fork the soil, just putting  in a fork once a year to loosen or aerate.
69. 4:23Isn't that funny cause you feel like your gut's  telling you, well that's the right thing to do
70. 4:26you're introducing air, you're loosening  it up, that has to work surely.
71. 4:29Probably breaking the mycelial network.
72. 4:32You know it's it's shattering a lot of fungal  threads that we now know are really important.
73. 4:36You say that vegetables like growing in little  groups together don't they, like companionship
74. 4:42Yeah they're like friends, and for me that's  companion planting if you like, you know,
75. 4:45companionship of being close  to another. Absolutely yeah.
76. 4:48You're a bit of a troublemaker  in the vegetable growing world
77. 4:50cause you like to blow up myths and all  sorts, and one of those is crop rotation
78. 4:55which is a little bit controversial.
79. 4:57These potatoes here, they've been growing in  the same piece of ground for how many seasons?
80. 5:02This is year 10. Year 10, that's insane!
81. 5:05I grew up on a conventional dairy farm and and  I have to almost fight myself a bit every spring
82. 5:10I'm planting the potato in the same  place and yet over 9 years of doing that
83. 5:14the health of the plants has not  deteriorated at all. I mean great harvests,
84. 5:18the harvests haven't gone down, and I even keep  my own potato seed from the harvest to replant.
85. 5:24I'm a bit concerned about alium leaf  miner which has only just arrived here
86. 5:27and I don't quite know, what do we get, a new  pest you know and how does one adapt to it.
87. 5:31In fact the lettuce beyond there, that's the  eighth year in a row of lettuce in the same place,
88. 5:36They're super healthy plants. Last year we  got 62 kilos from that amount of plants.
89. 5:4262 kilos! That's like, that's the weight of,  it's the weight of an adult isn't it! That's mad!
90. 5:53This is the hub of the garden obviously and  look at this thermometer it's at 65 celsius
91. 5:59What's that in Fahrenheit? Well  it's very hot that's what it is!
92. 6:02One of the questions I want to ask, this  has got so much organic matter on it
93. 6:06and you add what, sort of an inch or 3cm  every year, do you produce all of it yourself?
94. 6:10Because obviously a lot of the foods being  eaten and going off site with people.
95. 6:14How much of it is created here and imported?
96. 6:18By volume it looks to be about two  thirds I reckon that I'm making.
97. 6:22Of that I'm actually importing  some wood chip to make it as well,
98. 6:26so the materials, it might be about  half the materials coming from here,
99. 6:29which is not coming only from the  vegetable garden, but hedgerows that we cut
100. 6:34and also Ben, I'm totally happy to put weeds  on the compost heap like docks, buttercups,
101. 6:41I guess when it's getting up  to that sort of temperature.
102. 6:44Well that helps but actually I've  done bindweed in a cold compost heap
103. 6:47and it's not Invincible you know, it  will if you keep putting new stuff on top
104. 6:51even if your heap's not hot  eventually it runs out of juice.
105. 6:54I guess so yeah. But that's pretty  good though, like half the material.
106. 6:57And yeah I'm happy and I'm selling a lot
107. 7:00and you know my customers don't  return their their poo obviously.
108. 7:04What I find with these heaps here  cause this is quite a big operation,
109. 7:08bigger than most people  might want in their gardens
110. 7:10and these get a bit too hot and  a bit anaerobic in the middle
111. 7:14and that's why I got this pipe  here. I see get some air in there.
112. 7:17Yeah particularly once we finished  adding which will be fairly soon.
113. 7:21I don't know if you can see it  look, steam coming out there.
114. 7:23Cook your porridge in there I'm sure!
115. 7:25We use the same principle and we turn only  once but that helps to get a bit more air in.
116. 7:32But I've got the pallet  bays up there. Oh yes, yes.
117. 7:34We line the sides with cardboard that  helps to keep the warmth and moisture in.
118. 7:39It's beautifully low tech isn't it cause  these you can pick up pretty cheaply,
119. 7:42pretty widely available just  about still, cardboard obviously,
120. 7:45plenty of Amazon deliveries  and then you've got your stuff.
121. 7:49The only difference, well it's smaller, but also  it hasn't got a roof over while we're making it.
122. 7:55I really value the roof to keep the rain out. I  see, so once you filled it then the roof goes on.
123. 8:01Exactly. So how old is this stuff in  here then? This is six or seven months.
124. 8:05Right, wow! Look at that. Is it weird to say  it just smells so beautiful. Look at that.
125. 8:15And some worms in there. Yeah they're  turing it into worm cast. Properly alive.
126. 8:19So that's what we turned into here,  from there, about two months ago
127. 8:23and this one was the heap that was  being made while that was happening
128. 8:27and has now been maturing for about  six weeks since we finished it.
129. 8:32We'll turn that from here on to the middle.
130. 8:36[Music]
131. 8:38What's under here Charles? It feels like  we're unwrapping a beautiful present.
132. 8:41This my wormery. Oh yeah,  wow! Anaerobic coming in.
133. 8:47So I'm giving them anything really,  stuff which is half decomposed,
134. 8:51The result I want is the worm cast  cause I've noticed with potting compost
135. 8:56it really improves if you can get some. I see,  so this is super, super concentrated compost.
136. 9:02Full of enzymes and you know when  you're making potting compost
137. 9:06you need it concentrated  cause you're not using much,
138. 9:08and one little cell is growing amazing plants,  so the worm casts are brilliant for that
139. 9:12but only about 10%, I just keep  it in balance as far as possible
140. 9:17and actually here in this bin  we've got some of this compost
141. 9:21as well as some of our other  homemade compost. Oh wow!
142. 9:26And apart from being a bit wet it's  looking pretty nice. Looks gorgeous, wow.
143. 9:33I see you've obviously had to put up the  armory like everyone else against pests
144. 9:37and you've got this here for what carrot  fly obviously? Also rabbits actually.
145. 9:42I've got rabbits here and this is  definitely one of their favorite foods
146. 9:46so it's standard Enviromesh and before that  I lost the first showing here to slugs.
147. 9:53Oh really, it's reassuring to know that  you lose crops to pests like that as well.
148. 9:59I see very few, but I do find carrots are the  most difficult aren't they, the seeds are so tiny.
149. 10:04Sometimes you have to resow a few times to pick  that window of when finally they'll take off.
150. 10:08Absolutely and as you can see  it's mostly successful this time.
151. 10:11One of my big problems is leaf miner.  My chard and beetroot every year,
152. 10:15it's more cosmetic but it is just relentless.  Yeah, I don't have an answer for that.
153. 10:21But I do find here, maybe because it's a bit  bigger garden, it kind of dilutes the pests.
154. 10:28Do you think a bit more air flow as well  helps, blow them through? Absolutely,
155. 10:32and the same with carrot root fly even,  actually I think more wind blowing through
156. 10:35can be good, so in a small  garden it's more difficult.
157. 10:37Mine's very sheltered so I  think that's the problem.
158. 10:40[Music]
159. 10:43Charles, I see we've got  some rust here on the garlic,
160. 10:46do you think these will come good? They're  pretty healthy plants otherwise aren't they.
161. 10:51They've grown very well yeah, they went in  the ground on the 30th September actually
162. 10:55and I sowed mustard at the same  time which grew up really fast
163. 10:58You can see kind of residues of it here  can't you? Yeah that's it, killed by frosts.
164. 11:01And you've also got celeriac in there as well,  it's really cramming so much in, this is amazing.
165. 11:07Yeah absolutely pack it in. But the rust, I was  stripping a bit off here, horrible isn't it?
166. 11:11Yeah. But it's just depressing the final harvest
167. 11:13cause it means there's less  green leaves on the plant.
168. 11:15But because they've had a long time to grow
169. 11:17and they've got quite fat  stems, so I'll get a harvest ok.
170. 11:20But I've got some in the  polytunnel which I do deliberately
171. 11:23cause it doesn't get so much rust in there
172. 11:24and they're definitely bigger and  stronger and they'll mature anyway.
173. 11:27Its just the sheer moistness of  the air out here do you think?
174. 11:30It's something like that actually yeah, constant  rain in the spring seems to make it worse.
175. 11:36At least we'll be getting a good  crop from them nevertheless.
176. 11:39Charles this is such a beautiful area,  but you're telling me this was pasture
177. 11:44just, what, three or four months ago?
178. 11:46Yeah late January, now it's 20th May. So basically  what we do is actually mow it a bit first
179. 11:51that's just to make the ground  easier to level out the compost.
180. 11:56I got a two ton lorry drop two tons of  green waste compost in the middle there
181. 12:00so actually that made it quite quick to spread  maybe just over an inch or so, inch and a half
182. 12:05and then another lorry came along with  two cubic meters of mushroom compost
183. 12:09which also is spread on top.
184. 12:11Which one's superior in your  opinion and and why the mix?
185. 12:14Well I prefer the mushroom compost  it's got a bit more nutrition
186. 12:17but green waste compost varies so much  and actually the guy who brings mine
187. 12:20is pretty good, very little plastic.  It's seived to 10mm so it's quite fine.
188. 12:25Then we put the plastic on top but because  even in February in the warm February
189. 12:30the weeds were growing through that much  compost which is about 3 inches maybe
190. 12:34and so already you could see  they were just reestablished
191. 12:37cause you know we're going from a really  weedy parcel of strong plants to this
192. 12:42and so the plastic is just  making sure the weeds die.
193. 12:45Earlier this week, I have help here, I got a  full-time guy and and another helper some days
194. 12:52so they rolled back the plastic and what did  we find? just like tons of slugs and snails.
195. 12:57Oh no! So there was a big harvest  of those to get it all cleared up.
196. 13:01You're literally walking through just  handpicking them to kind of clear it a bit.
197. 13:05Yeah, yeah. This is old  plastic, this is four years old
198. 13:08and it's got the planting holes  from the previous years already,
199. 13:11so we we've got another sheet on top  to cover the holes in the plastic.
200. 13:15And it was between the two plastics, tons  of these slugs - anyway they sorted that out
201. 13:19and put the single sheet back and we've used the  same holes, put in these plants five days ago
202. 13:24so these these plants are only  three and a half weeks old actually
203. 13:27the squash and the the corn which is for dry corn  in fact. Is it? All right, like so dent corn.
204. 13:33So what squash variety is it? This  is Crown Prince and Kuri up that end,
205. 13:39so early harvest there and later harvest here.
206. 13:43I mean I'm no fan of using plastic more than I  need to, but this being like a four-year-old sheet
207. 13:49I mean you can see it's got  plenty of life left in it yet.
208. 13:52Yeah, it's UV treated so it doesn't degrade fast.
209. 13:56And what will you be doing with the dried  corn, grind it up, make your own polenta? Yeah.
210. 14:02It;s Painted Mountain so it's ...Oh it's  the pretty kind of glass gem one isn't it?
211. 14:06The kind of colorful one. Yeah.
212. 14:08I mean normally I start no dig with  cardboard on weeds and compost on top.
213. 14:13So accessible to everyone,  everyone's got cardboard.
214. 14:16And the cardboard decomposes within about  two months, so here just for example
215. 14:19four months ago, this was just for  a demo, I got this little patch
216. 14:23and I put cardboard on and only 2in/5cm compost.
217. 14:27We did need to remove two or three  dandelions cause they're so vigorous here
218. 14:31and they were growing through. Using a trowel  get out most of the root, but not all of it.
219. 14:35And the other thing I'm  noticing Charles is down here,
220. 14:37that's an incredibly attractive  edge you've got here,
221. 14:40how do you keep these all so  clean like that those edges?
222. 14:43Okay well, firstly it does help to keep  the grass short, so mowing once a week
223. 14:47reduces the vigor of the plant  roots trying to come in but yeah
224. 14:53they're always moving aren't they, so either  long handle shears every two weeks say
225. 14:58and then maybe every month, using the half moon.
226. 15:01So it's just a question of getting the  half moon out and just being meticulous.
227. 15:04You can go along almost at walking speed you  know just it's not a deep cut it's just a sliver.
228. 15:12[Music]
229. 15:15Wow. Charles I've seen this  from so many of your own videos,
230. 15:19this is really the nub of it all and  you've got so much in here. Look, oh wow.
231. 15:24Well I'm really aware of the importance  of space management in propagation
232. 15:30and how I think many module trays  and cells are too big actually.
233. 15:35Cause look at this, this is French beans  they were probably sewn about two weeks ago
234. 15:39there's 60 cells in that plug tray.
235. 15:42Many people think that's way too small  for a bean seed but yeah obviously not.
236. 15:48These are pretty much ready to go in. Yeah  they've got a great root system haven't they.
237. 15:51Just about two weeks old. Lovely  stuff. And they pop out easily
238. 15:55this a feature of the tray I designed you  know, I want this to be just totally practical
239. 16:00I never wash or clean them between  uses, use them many times in a year.
240. 16:03See that astonishes me, I've heard  you say this before - I never clean
241. 16:06and there'll be people there with the  cleaning fluid, the Jeyes fluid or something
242. 16:10washing them out and making  sure there's no disease left on
243. 16:12but you're breaking another rule aren't you.
244. 16:14Yeah, microbes are good they all  inter-relate and everything like that
245. 16:17and big seeds, so peas, we are  doing, we do multisown beetroots,
246. 16:21multisown onions in these  as well and I overfill them.
247. 16:24You can see that see it's really  overflowing, you don't brush it of?
248. 16:27No, it was so funny I was teaching  a group last summer and one of them
249. 16:30was doing one of the trainings in  horiculture, the qualification,
250. 16:34and she said oh I'd be failed  for filling a tray like that!
251. 16:40But I want to get more compost  in there. Makes sense doesn't it.
252. 16:44What are these here? What's here spring onions?
253. 16:47Well leeks actually, look  very similar, multisown leeks.
254. 16:50There's another great example of multisowing,  you've got sort of up to what, six seedlings there
255. 16:54Yeah, I'll thin them out a bit. I want four.
256. 16:58So it's about at this stage I'll take a  few out like that and get down to four
257. 17:02but on anything between two and four, but  that means in there, say on average three,
258. 17:06You've got 180 leaks. Wow. In that  size of an A4. Amazing isn't it
259. 17:11when you put it like that and how many  individual plants must we have here
260. 17:16do a spit of maths quickly at least  what 2,000 maybe, approaching?
261. 17:19Yeah at least, at any one time.
262. 17:21Almost everything else you see in here goes  straight from these module cells into the ground
263. 17:25and that makes it really quick cause  I've also designed a long handles dibber.
264. 17:31This is the famous dibber! Yeah I love this. So  that makes it really quick to make a little hole.
265. 17:38I see you've got some vintage plug  trays here as well, these guys.
266. 17:41Can you show us like some of your oldest ones?
267. 17:44They must be like old friends that  kind of come out year after year.
268. 17:48These ones this one dates back to  the 1980s. What! you're kidding me!
269. 17:52Yeah. Look at that! Cause in the '80s it  was pretty standard to use polystyrene
270. 17:56and it was a 40 cell and it's lost  bits over the years I still use it.
271. 18:01That's as old as me, almost!
272. 18:05Fundamental design that is so good  of these is the size of the hole.
273. 18:10Yeah, so easy to get them out  aren't they. Yeah but good drainage
274. 18:14and people who've never done this think how come  the potting mix doesn't all fall out the bottom
275. 18:18but once you've done it you  realize it all sticks together.
276. 18:211985 guys! Wow!
277. 18:25You are continually trialing things, you  never get bored of it and I love that.
278. 18:30And you're doing a little comparison  here of potting mixes or composts.
279. 18:34One's clearly doing better than the other  isn't it, what's going on here Charles?
280. 18:38This is from the same makers and  this is their normal, quite cheaper
281. 18:43and what I would call chemical compost  - so it's got chemical fertilizers in.
282. 18:48That's standard practice, so this is  the one that's most widely available .
283. 18:51This one is the from the same  company, but it's organic.
284. 18:55Yea, look at the difference in  those roots as well, it's so even
285. 18:57and you see that one's clearly  struggling for some nutrients already.
286. 19:03Exactly well I think it's a bit the issue  with the peat-free thing and you know
287. 19:06I think there's a limit to  how far we should go with this
288. 19:08because we definitely want to go in that direction
289. 19:11but for for many people it's  tying one hand behind the back
290. 19:14and if you've done all your sowings and  plantings this year using this compost
291. 19:17you would have lost a month, you you  might have even compromised some harvest
292. 19:21and not got them all together.
293. 19:22I guess if you're a new gardener, you'd  think oh this is a bit rubbish isn't it,
294. 19:24you could be really put off.
295. 19:26What sort of temperature does this  get to? I suppose it gets really hot
296. 19:29you have to let it cool down and  then you put your seedlings on
297. 19:32or do you kind of push your luck?
298. 19:34Maybe the first few days it does off  gas a bit - a bit of ammonia gases
299. 19:38That's on 20th of February we filled  it and that's fresh horse manure
300. 19:42it's got this rack on top so actually  that stops the seedlings getting too hot.
301. 19:45I guess so and I guess you could always  raise them up a bit if it was too hot
302. 19:48so do you dig get all out at the end  of the season and completely refill?
303. 19:52Yeah, well in about two weeks, so  early June, it's done its job actually.
304. 19:56So it goes out to a pallet heap  back there, finishes fermenting
305. 20:00we'll use it next year in the  polytunnel for tomatoes and things.
306. 20:05There's a bit of talk of herbicides that the  horses ingest and that killing off things
307. 20:11you just have to know the  the owners of the horses.
308. 20:15Absolutely, I quiz them as much as  possible but you still can't be sure
309. 20:19and so what we do out there is actually grow some  tomatoes in it like a test run, just to check.
310. 20:26That's a good idea isn't it. So I'm sure  before I spread it in the polytunnel.
311. 20:30In here, the tomatoes growing in here, they've  got some of that horse manure from last year
312. 20:38[Music]
313. 20:42You're really cramming things in here Charles
314. 20:44you've got garlic and then what, cucumbers  here and all kind of interplanted.
315. 20:49And the garlic went in in October and it  just grew slowly between winter salads
316. 20:54which is really my main crop here  because they they're more profitable
317. 20:58than some summer cucumbers and tomatoes.
318. 21:01But we pick the winter salads all all winter long  and then they rise to flower during April roughly
319. 21:06and then we have got a bit of time to put  on the compost. Okay that's when it goes on.
320. 21:09Yeah, here we put it on in early May as  compared to November/December outside
321. 21:14and then plant everything you see  here now, including the marigolds
322. 21:16which have been eaten quite  a bit by woodlice I reckon.
323. 21:21Bit of basil, celery, that was  a sort of bit of a catch crop.
324. 21:24So celery needs really, really moist  soil but you've got it undercover here
325. 21:28so is that kind of watered, you  have to water that especially?
326. 21:31I have to water that a lot. Of all the vegetables  I grow it's the one I water the most by far
327. 21:36if you want to get good celery. Basically a  bog plant isn't it - that's the thing. Exactly.
328. 21:41And then just a few french beans for early harvest  which this year I think might really pay off.
329. 21:47And what are these these? Welsh onions? No  that's onions, that I selected my best ones,
330. 21:54put them in the ground, that's  for seed. Oh! okay yeah.
331. 21:57So that temporary shelving  there's for the leek plants
332. 22:00but that will come and they're beautiful.  They are stunning, I do love onion flowers.
333. 22:07And because it's undercover,  I've got some outside as well
334. 22:09but the thing about raising your own seed is  often they're seeding quite late in the summer
335. 22:14and it's quite wet and you can  easily lose the quality of the seed.
336. 22:19And you're not just growing one or two  plants, so you've got about ten there.
337. 22:24Yeah - ten I would say is minimum really to get  the the cross pollination, a strong gene pool.
338. 22:32And home saved seed like you're saying lasts a  bit longer, you know when it's been harvested
339. 22:39It's fresh. You know it's fresh, because when  seed is sold to you and you think it's fresh seed
340. 22:44but it's packeted year ending,  that's what they put on the label.
341. 22:50Chard is always like the poster boy  of the vegetable world isn't it.
342. 22:54These beautiful stems and all of this is  because essentially you're feeding the soil
343. 22:58rather than "junk food" if you like  of sort of artificial fertilizers,
344. 23:02is that kind of a fair statement?
345. 23:04I think that's a spot on comparison  actually and I think plants like us
346. 23:08they're healthier for being fed  naturally, not with synthetic anything
347. 23:14and behind me here, that's what I call the  annual dose of fertility we're putting on
348. 23:20and it's sometimes called feeding soil,  it's better called feeding soil life.
349. 23:26And so there's some nutrients in the compost
350. 23:28but also there's a lot of organic matter and  microbes that are feeding all the organisms>
351. 23:32And really this is all your vegetables are  getting, this annual top up and and nothing else
352. 23:37Yeah, I don't give any feeds or fertilizer.  I do use a bit of seaweed though
353. 23:42and and I think that has a place cause  trace elements maybe, we don't know,
354. 23:46I never know for sure. Mostly we're  spreading it here in November/December
355. 23:50and then the rain is washing through,  like this year we've had so much rain
356. 23:54so all of the compost we put on before  the winter has been thoroughly washed
357. 23:58and for me that's one of the big  differences between fertilizer and compost
358. 24:02that fertilizer will leach away mostly,  but compost it doesn't, it clearly doesn't,
359. 24:07look at this and we don't put  any more on in the summer either
360. 24:10cause you know we're doing second cropping,  so like this chard already has some
361. 24:13we put it between the plants and then  in two weeks time I'll twist it out
362. 24:17because it's it's finishing, it's going to flower  and I've got the new chard ready to come on,
363. 24:22but we'll put a second planting here  it might be French beans or something
364. 24:24but no new compost.
365. 24:33[Music]
366. 24:34I am really keen to encourage anyone,
367. 24:37if there's anyone watching this video  who's never grown a plant in their life
368. 24:41have a go and you might have some  failures, but don't let that put you off.
369. 24:45It's a bit of a cliche, but it is so true,  every failure is genuinely a lesson isn't it.
370. 24:49We're growing on a third of an acre here  about £35,000 worth of food in a year
371. 24:54so you know that that's a nice number,  but I did use to get a lot of questions
372. 24:59like people would say, well  why bother growing your own,
373. 25:02I can just go down the  supermarket and buy it so cheaply.
374. 25:04There's a lot of research from  nutritionists isn't there, coming out about
375. 25:08the supermarket food doesn't have  the biome, the microbes that we need
376. 25:12it's not only about what it looks like and  sometimes it looks better in the supermarket
377. 25:16but your own food, that might  have a few imperfections.
378. 25:20You know I was giving a talk to a  group of primary school children once
379. 25:23and I said so actually one of the best  things you can do is eat a bit of soil
380. 25:28and it's like wow! They all erupted  and the teachers were saying oh!
381. 25:34I love it. Charles I feel like  we've all learned so much today
382. 25:38you're very generous with your  knowledge and time I have to say
383. 25:41So thank you so much. It's my pleasure. Thank you