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I have tried to grow this in pots for clients who wanted to grow some. So far it has been a lot of faffing about with no return. Several of them died too – I had 5 plants.
I have read what you posted of course as I have been responding to some of your points, in particular that no dig is expensive and time consuming, and that far from being zeroed into managing land full time, my life is as full of other commitments as those whom you rightly suggest don’t have much time, DigW.
You said:
However most people do it in addition to a seperate full time job, bringing up children, etc.
whereas I do all of that too and I am on a low income.
As John says above, your posts seem to be perpetuating the myth that no dig is time consuming and expensive, where as the contrary is actually true in my experience.
I do see your point but there is also the old saying that the shoemaker’s children go unshod!
So after gardening/other work all day for other people and then having the whole children/home/housework thing to do, quite often the last thing one feels like is gardening! I often feel more zonked out than zeroed in!
I haven’t a clue what it must be like to be able to manage land full time, I have so much different work to do.
I am puzzled why you think it takes more time when in my experience, at home/my allotment and also at work (the gardens I have created and run) it takes incredibly less time than digging. I am dealing with significantly fewer weeds than my allotment neighbours, for example. It took two of us one afternoon to do a big mulch of my allotment 6 or 7 years ago, that is a lot less time than it would have taken to dig it over and the cost was a one-off of around £120, then the subsequent £30 p.a. for the allotment and my gardens.
I watch the diggers on my allotment every year, it is a serious commitment to do all of that and then there are so many weeds to sort out… So I absolutely agree that dug allotments take a huge amount of commitment.
I think you (quite understandably) may misunderstand my situation, it is quite different from Charles in some respects (who incidentally has loads of different work, it isn’t all outside gardening) – I’m a single mum and have been raising three children on my own whilst working for the past decade, on a pretty low income, scarily low sometimes … so I totally understand how much £120 is to most people these days – however I certainly recouped that in savings to my domestic budget feeding these three children with hollow legs during that year and beyond! And the amount of time it saves is incredible.
When I converted the allotment I had been working as a gardener for little more than 6 months, so was not experienced by any means. Before that I was making and selling arts and crafts, my qualifications are in English literature and education, not garden-related at all although I’d always enjoyed it as a hobby.
When I talk with other working parents, they are thrilled by how much time no dig saves and how their domestic budget benefits.
digWinstanley – it wasn’t all directed at you, just the part I wrote in reply to your comment that it would be difficult to maintain no dig and work full time, as I do both 🙂
Interesting to read about your name!
I have written something of my experiences of the cost of no dig in the Cost of No Dig thread, which might be of interest.
It costs me about £30 a year in mulching compost for my back and front garden and my allotment which I think is half a standard size (although here it is called a full sized allotment). The back garden is around 30 x 100 ft and includes a 12×40 ft polytunnel, the front garden’s growing area is mainly three raised beds of 4 ft x 8 ft)
I also have home made compost.
My allotment is very easy to maintain, DigWinstanley even though I don’t have much time!
Until a month ago I was not only helping Charles with the picking in his garden and the courses but also running a large no dig kitchen garden on a private estate single handedly – even though my working days often started at 5 am it was still possible to keep my allotment, beds and polytunnel full of abundant veg because it is so simple and effective.
The only bits of my garden that did not fare well thanks to my very long work and domestic commitments were existing borders which were not set up no dig, where perennial and annual weeds had a bit of a party. That is a job for this winter!
Sometimes people say that no dig is expensive because you may buy well rotted compost to spread on the beds every year, as realistically many people can’t produce enough well rotted compost/manure every year to meet their needs and so have to buy some of it in.
I think there can be a misunderstanding about how much compost is used each year after the initial big mulch on weedy soil. I spread about an inch or so on my beds at the allotment, which provides food all year round. I also use my own homemade compost, of course.
There are many ‘diggers’ at my allotment, all of whom buy well rotted manure every year for their plots (we live in an area surrounded by dairy farms and there are also a lot of stables, so manure is quite cheap and plentiful). One allotment holder, who grows in wooden sided beds, has added a good 4 inches or so to each bed, much more than I’d use. The big difference of course is that after spreading it all over his beds he will then spend more time double digging it all in this winter, whereas I will spread mine and that will be it for the year.
So in my experience, no dig isn’t more expensive year-to-year in compost as we all, diggers and no diggers, at my allotments use about the same.
Obviously I am not comparing with people who use horrible chemical fertilisers as they are ghastly and should be avoided!
No dig is a lot cheaper if you value your time! I’m a single working mum so don’t have much spare money or time 🙂
You save time by not digging all of the compost in. Spread it across the beds and you are done.
You save time because you have far fewer weeds to deal with, both annual and perennial. No dig beds are so easy to hoe, I can do the whole allotment in high season in less than 15 minutes.
You save time harvesting roots as they tend to come out a lot cleaner (ok, that takes just a few minutes but it feels a long time when you are washing parsnips in a bucket on a cold day!)
You save time after cropping because you can simply remove the previous crops and replant with the next veggies, without having faff about.
You save time planting as with a clear bed you can see exactly where everything needs to go and crack on with it. It also makes planting easier in the driving rain, as I was doing yesterday – the weather was horrible but at least I could get the job done , even though the soil here is very heavy clay: because my allotment is no dig it doesn’t stick to my boots or get churned up. I could walk on the beds as well as the paths.
You save time watering, as undug mulched soil conserves water much better.
I’m sure there are many other “You saves..” I haven’t mentioned!
That’s lots of time to do other things, whether paid work or recreational activities or sitting at the allotment for a few minutes enjoying your lovely growing. Not to mention the money saved by being able to grow a lot of healthy abundant veg, all year round, so simply and effectively.
I’m afraid it isn’t possible for me to write the recipes of everything I make for the courses on my website as there’s usually 10 – 12 different dishes each time.
I’m not sure which beetroot salad recipe Charles mentions in the video, there are so many variants! Is it a cooked or raw one? I can give you an approximate recipe if you like?
Charles and I are writing a book this winter which will be published next year which combines our gardening and cooking 🙂
I don’t remember where I bought the Kaffir lime, it was a couple of years ago but if you Google there are lots of other suppliers.
I have two Kaffir lime plants which I grow in pots, one grows on a windowsill at home – outside in the summer – and the other in a heated greenhouse at work. They are very easy, still fairly small plants but producing lovely fragrant leaves.
I had some trouble with the James Wong Suttons collection – I bought some of their plants last year and they were terrible. Even the replacements were ungrowable. They refunded me fully and perhaps this year their plants will be healthier.
Lemon grass is easy from seed. Haven’t tried fenugreek, have some seeds but may grow them as sprouts/microleaves rather than plants
I’m happy sowing into compost and then pricking out the strongest plants, or into modules (depending what the seed is). Glad this one works well for you
This sounds an uneccesarily complicated way of germinating – I start everything off in compost – seed trays, module trays, etc – except for those seeds that I sow direct.
Surely they will dry out far too quickly germinating in some kitchen roll?
I have it in my polytunnel at work, trowel it out once a week to stop it becoming too enthusiastic (the tunnel has only been there a year, the horsetail decades longer – excellent crops so it doesn’t bother them).
I do use it to make all manner of interesting hippy potions including a floor cleaner but would prefer it to be growing somewhere else!
George Oram is excellent. I will message you the number via Facebook.
It is amazing how critical some people can be when they see a person doing things differently to them! It isn’t nice to hear it, but one just has to smile cheerfully, ignore the comments and get on with good gardening.
I have set up two polytunnels on horsetail, bindweed, silverweed, nettles and dock this year. I used a deeper mulch than usual, probably 7 or 8 inches, on the beds because horsetail is so invasive and powerful. This has been very successful, the other weeds have gone except for the odd bit of bindweed creeping in and the horsetail which has diminished significantly and is easily removed with a trowel
I don’t know how long it will be before the horsetail gives up completely!