Is Bare Soil Okay

The Beet: A Podcast For Plant Lovers

Epic Gardening

Home & Garden, Education, Leisure, How To

4.8 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 2 August 2023

⏱️ 9 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

With the no dig method, you always have the ground covered, even if it’s just a thin layer of compost. EG shop homepage: https://growepic.co/43PkmQt EG book collection page: https://growepic.co/3rLcXnT EG homesteading book: https://growepic.co/44J258T Connect With Charles Dowding: Charles Dowding has made no dig popular with millions of readers and viewers. They love how it’s good for the soil, healthy for plants and easier plus time-saving for them. His growing methods are applicable for small areas and large ones, and are used worldwide. Since 1982 he has created and cropped four no dig market gardens on varied soils from stony to silt, and on two types of clay. Currently, he grows vegetables on 0.35 acres/1300 meters 2 in Somerset, SW England, for local sales of salad leaves and vegetables. He has written 14 books, runs a YouTube channel and Instagram account, has created and sells online gardening courses, writes for gardening magazines, and gives talks plus courses at home and abroad. Instagram YouTube Facebook Twitter Pinterest Website Online Course Buy Birdies Garden Beds Use code EPICPODCAST for 5% off your first order of Birdies metal raised garden beds, the best metal raised beds in the world. They last 5-10x longer than wooden beds, come in multiple heights and dimensions, and look absolutely amazing. Click here to shop Birdies Garden Beds Buy My Book My book, Field Guide to Urban Gardening, is a beginners guide to growing food in small spaces, covering 6 different methods and offering rock-solid fundamental gardening knowledge: Order on Amazon Order a signed copy Follow Epic Gardening YouTube Instagram Pinterest Facebook Facebook Group Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	When I first moved into my home, that is now the epic homestead, it was basically barren.
0:19.0	There was almost nothing in the yard at all, maybe one tropical tree, which was great.
0:24.0	It's still here on today, but really it's just a very light layer of wood chips and nothing.
0:31.0	So I had a lot of work to do and we have Charles doubting back on the show.
0:36.0	Charles, what would you think if you saw that property as it was?
0:42.0	I would want to bring that soil to life by launching the surface spreading organic matter on the surface.
0:51.0	Then I would go some plants as much as I could according to the state of the soil underneath them.
0:57.0	How much organic matter I could get hold of in what state it was in.
1:00.0	If it was compost, that makes it a lot quicker.
1:03.0	It's not necessarily better in the long run.
1:06.0	But yeah, best sort for me doesn't mean there's nothing growing.
1:10.0	It means that my bed's in the winter here.
1:13.0	For example, when nothing is really growing, we have quite a dormant winter.
1:18.0	Some of the beds are empty of the plants growing, but that's normal.
1:23.0	It's like they don't grow in the winter.
1:26.0	It means they're really as soon as it warms up in March.
1:30.0	We could go out planting and there won't be any soil-pissed slugs that would have been hiding in say organic matter
1:36.0	that plants that might have been growing up or trying to grow up winter.
1:40.0	So basically, with no dirt, you don't have best sort.
1:43.0	You've always got some natural cover on top.
1:45.0	I'm putting roughly an inch a year of compost in the late autumn on all beds
1:50.0	and roughly an inch or so of your chip on all pathways.
	...

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