Prep time | No Dig Garden

Be Ready!

It’s still too early for much sowing, but it’s fun at this time to try the odd few seeds. It’s a way of learning how they cope with cold and dark conditions, and one of the easiest is Tokyo turnip, closely followed by spring onions, radish and spinach. The links all go to videos I’ve recently released, which have the whole life-cycle of each different vegetable.

White Eye broccoli on 30th January, is promicing good harvests, strangely no pigeons so far

Even at this quiet time of year, gardens can have a range of crops to mature at different times. The sprouting broccoli above was sown at solstice, transplanted after overwintered chard, and has been quietly growing until its moment of glory arrives.

Summer sowings need to be more on time than spring ones, which often catch up. My Calendar of Sowing Dates 2026, has plenty to keep you busy, right through until next autumn.

Normally at this time, we need to fence against pigeons, but not this year for some reason. It’s one job less, but I feel uneasy when things don’t happen that normally happen!

Aquadulce Claudia from homesaved seed is looking strong just now, with 12 mm sieved wood in the paths. beds are 1.2 m with two rows each, sown just before November full moon

Broad beans at the stage you see in my photo are about right for early February. We want them not too big at this stage, so that the stems are compact and frost-resistant. Even so, within six weeks, they should be twice the size and almost ready to be given a supporting string.

I love to grow Aquadulce Claudia.

Sow broad beans now, direct in the south and in pots further north, for cropping two to three weeks after the plants sown November. There are many wonderful varieties you can try, but I do all of mine the same, the good old they have been my staple greens of the winter, so convenient to harvest fresh when I want them. Likewise, the lambs lettuce below is beautifully large and healthy, so it’s reasonably rapid to gather enough leaves for salads. In late April, I shall leave some plants to flower and then keep the seeds at the end of May.

Homesaved seed of corn salad, sown 15th September, with new compost

Fresh greens are now very precious, and in this climate we are fortunate to still have salads, kale and salad onions outside. In store we have celeriac, carrot, onion, garlic, squash, parsnip, potato and beetroot.

We’re running an offer on the Seed to Harvest online course. It has details of how to grow 40 different vegetables and often there’s a video as well. For every vegetable you learn:

1. Conditions for success

2. Suitability for containers/shade

3. Sowing and propagation

4. Transplanting

5. Spacing

6. Watering

7. Harvesting

8. Potential problems

9. Clearing

Late January

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No dig is a simple method, made more difficult by overthinking it. Such as this question:

“We have a garden of 750 m2 in the mid-hills of Nepal at 1500 meter altitude. Some of the beds have had compost dug in 🫣 3 months ago and others only a month ago. We are transitioning to no-dig.

Would a new 3cm compost layer lead to too much nitrogen for the crops?”

Compost is not a nutrient food and certainly not a ‘nitrogen food’. The nitrogen in compost is not water soluble, and releases to plants only when they need it, and as requested then made available through the biological networks. Adding a little extra compost will not flood your plants with nitrogen. Whether you need to add extra is more a question of soil quality, and whether you can make enough compost.

Feb. 2025 radish three days after sowing, need full light very soon

Late winter to early spring sees a trade-off between warmth for germination, and light for growth. The radish above had three days at 20°C and that was enough to stimulate all the germination you see. Beyond that point, the windowsill they germinate in has too little light for strong growth, resulting in weak stems, as in the photo below top left.

You can rectify this at planting time by popping them in deep, with a cover on top so that birds don’t fill the hole. Where possible, I prefer to grow plants with strong stems, strong growing and easier to water

Seedlings 2025 were growing leggy after nine days on my windowsill

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The Kings Cross event on 1st March is I feel really worthwhile if you’re interested in health from the land and nature. Philly J puts so much into these events and it’s often a close run thing whether they pay for doing. This one is at the College of Naturopathic medicine.

While for us attendees, there is much value. Use the coupon CHARLES20 at checkout for a 20% price reduction.

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Especially if you are new to growing vegetables, the resource we’re offering through Premier Seeds Direct of monthly packs, is a full-harvest way to navigate the season as a whole.

Some of my selected varieties, seeds from Premier Seeds Direct

Be prepared in mid-February to sow spring onions, onions, radish, turnips, broccoli, lettuce, cauliflower, cabbage, beetroot, spinach, and more. Not all at once, but these vegetables all thrive in cooler and darker conditions.

For compost potting-mix, I recommend Black Gold organic peal-free, from Gro Worm (new name for Pete’s compost.).

For module trays, I shall say more about my range, and why I recommend them, in a newsletter about propagation next time.

With only eight hours between sunrise and sunset, and the sun always staying so close to the horizon making it weak, I’m impressed how much salad we are picking from undercover spaces. Much goes to Bruton Spar shop.

January was a lttle mild, with temperatures averaging 8.5°C 47°F by day, and 1.5°C/35°F at night. There were a few frosts but not too many, and again no snow. Unless there is significant cold. the above salad plants will now slowly ramp up for spring.

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No Dig was the first of a DK Trilogy and Grow Together appears 9th April £15

I was thrilled to receive my new book and love its stand-out cover. You can pre-order, to have it in time to add huge potential value to summer plantings and sowings.

When DK suggested that I write it last summer, in order to have the release in spring, I was hesitating because that gave me just 2 1/2 months from scratch. Somehow we managed and partly because I had a lot of the material and photos brewing. The combinations are tried and tested in my garden over years, even decades.

Mustard Sinapis alba was killed by frost two month ago, and that leaves just some straw-like stems on the surface. You could leave them, but usually I rake them off and spread a little compost before starting again.