Join no dig pioneer Charles Dowding for an introduction to this transformative gardening technique.
Charles Dowding has over 40 years of growing experience using the no dig method. Over the years he has run many trials in different gardens and on different soils. In this talk, Charles will show us some of the results of these trials and give his expert tips on composting, succession planting, interplanting, multi sowing and much more.
He also talks about the wonderful soil life which allows plants to thrive and grow into a healthy and abundant harvest. Charles is on a mission to share this beautiful way of growing, it’s kind to the environment and has the wonderful bonus of giving less weeds leaving you more time to be creative in your garden.
Bio
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Charles Dowding
Charles Dowding
Charles has made no dig popular and widely used. He develops and explains other time and labour saving methods of gardening, high yielding and nature friendly. Including quick ways of growing and picking salad leaves, multi-sowing vegetables to grow in clumps, making and using compost.
Since 1982 he has created and cropped four no dig market gardens on different soils, from stone to silt to clay. In the 1980s he cropped 7.5 acres (3ha) of no dig beds. In the 1990s he farmed in France.
Currently he grows vegetables on a third of an acre in Somerset, SW England zone 8. He sells £20,000 of harvests locally, mainly salad leaves, and the vegetables are a key part of course lunches at Homeacres.
There are two crops a year from beds which are cheap to establish and quick to maintain. Charles’ methods are easy to understand and work on small areas as well as large ones. No dig scales up and down easily.
Charles' mission is to encourage as many people as possible to grow their own. Gardening with the no dig method is beneficial for a healthy mind and body, and protects soil life. Carbon is trapped in the ground so there is a general benefit too.
He has written fourteen books and an annual calendar of sowing dates, runs a You Tube channel with 68 million views and over 630,000 subscribers, writes for national gardening magazines, and gives talks and courses at home and abroad. He has created three online courses, No Dig Gardening, Skills for Growing and From Seed to Harvest.
