It does not feel like it right now, but spring really is just around the corner.  The days are getting longer, and some of the buds are fit to burst.  We still have time to get the compost and paths in place, and there are seedlings of lettuce, radish, spring onions, cabbage, calabrese and spinach on their way, filling up window ledges.  The aim is to be planting these sowings in mid-March with any luck.

Still lots of work to be getting on with, and in fact we have not stopped over the winter period at all – take note all the fair weather gardeners out there!

I have only just come back from a course with Charles Dowding, the guru of ‘no dig’ gardening.  There were people on the course from all over the UK, and also from Europe and America.  I have practiced ‘no dig’ for some time, and I know it works, but Charles also has some very interesting methods of sowing, planting and harvesting, for maximum cropping and higher yields for the available growing space.  No dig is about feeding the soil, not the plants, as they take what they need from the soil.  So, keep an eye on the garden to see what we get growing this year.  The trick is to be able to time when replacement plants or seeds are needed, and to avoid empty spaces during the faster growing seasons.  From the pictures you can see he keeps a tidy, orderly garden, and attention to detail is second to none.  However, it was also good to see that Mr Dowding is not perfect either and has disasters just the same as everybody else! If you are interested in ‘no dig’, there are many instructional videos to be found on Youtube.

What’s next?

• Keep weeding

• More paths to finish

• More compost and wood chips to move to the garden.

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Storm Ciara rip roared around last weekend, and we seemed to get away with just shredded fleece cloches, we were lucky.  Let us hope we get through Dennis paying us a visit this weekend!

More barrowing of compost and wood chips has been the theme this week.  It should certainly help to define where it is safe to walk, as most visitors manage to trample over the onions at some point or another.  Unless storm Dennis obliges and blows the rest of the compost and wood chips up the hill to the garden, we will be repeating the action into next week and quite possibly the week after.  One of the Saga gardeners took pity and brought some of the compost up to the garden on the tractor trailer but that was before they became preoccupied with fallen and falling trees in the park!

Believe it or not it is time to be sowing seeds, and the window ledges are filling up with all sorts of seed trays and seedlings.  We aim to grow as much as we can this year.  We are on the verge of announcing lots of other plans and ideas, but all that is for later.

We had the welcome gift of six bags of manure to add to the compost heap from Jill, a good friend of the garden – it will do the world of good, thanks Jill and indeed, all donations of horse muck, seeds, plants and tools gratefully received.  

The area around the pond has had the ‘no dig’ treatment, and is starting to look better, but there is much to do on the path side, where some of the earth needs to be pulled back so as not to show so much of the liner.

If you get this newsletter on a Sunday morning, it will not be appearing until Sunday night next week the 23^rd, as I will be on a course with none other than the world famous guru of ‘no dig’ himself, Mr Charles Dowding.  He has a market garden in Somerset, and is totally inspirational in how he grows and harvests organic food.  I am so looking forward to seeing his garden, which is already in full swing, providing plenty of salad leaves and vegetables to the locals.  So hopefully I should be bringing back lots more ideas and techniques to ours.

What’s next?

• Check for storm damage

• You guessed it – more barrowing of compost, and making of wood chip paths.

• Much is starting to sprout in the garden, and so are the weeds which need hoeing again.

• Collect more coffee grounds/cardboard

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