Charles Dowding
Discover and enjoy these quicker and easier ways of growing and harvesting vegetables, based on my 42 years of growing experience.
My speciality is the no dig method, suitable for all soils. It results in fewer weeds, and vegetables plus flowers grow as well if not better than when soil is tilled or dug. And it's good for climate change because no soil carbon is lost in tillage.
Decades of trialling methods and sowing dates have led me to a fine knowledge of best practice, in time-saving ways. My advice in these videos brings you harvests and pleasure in equal measure.
I wish you success in growing and want these tips to be more widely available, so that everyone who wants to grow great food can do so, without unnecessary work.
Charles Dowding
Harvests of 5th November, with higher than usual leaf quality for the time of year thanks to drier and brighter than normal conditions here. Although now it's cold and grey!
Top right are collards from a mid-August sowing, when I also sowed the Chinese cabbage Yuki. Fennel was sown in modules mid-July, while the tomatoes were picked three weeks ago at breaking stage. The spinach is Medania, sown direct on 19th August.
All for The Three Horseshoes pub in Batcombe, Somerset.
2 hours ago | [YT] | 63
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Charles Dowding
🎉 Our No Dig Day Caption Competition Winners! 🎉
A huge thank you to everyone who took part in our No Dig Day caption competition!
We received an incredible 989 entries across YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok, with so many wonderfully creative and amusing captions. You certainly made choosing the winners a difficult task!
After much deliberation, we are delighted to announce our winner! 🏆
🥇 Winner: @RogueMaverick_
Winning caption: "This is what happens when you tell people 'just lay compost on top' one too many times."
Congratulations! You've won £50 and access to my Greenhouse & Polytunnel Online Course.
To claim your prize, please contact Nicola at admin@charlesdowding.co.uk.
Thank you again to everyone who joined in and helped make No Dig Day such an enjoyable celebration. It's wonderful to see so much enthusiasm and humour from our no dig community. 🌱
22 hours ago | [YT] | 92
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Charles Dowding
Write a caption to this photo and post it in comments. If we find yours the funniest, we shall send a prize, and we'll need to ask for your coordinates to do that.
🏆 The prize: £50 cash and free access to my Greenhouse & Polytunnel Growing – Online Course.
📅 Closing date: Wednesday 4th November 2026 at 12 noon GMT.
Open to ages 16 and over, with parental or guardian permission required for entrants aged 16 or 17. Entry is free, with no purchase necessary. Eligibility restrictions apply.
See more details and the full competition terms and conditions here:
charlesdowding.co.uk/pages/no-dig-day
See my No Dig Day video:
youtu.be/YkTRLC9kdH-E
This competition is not sponsored, endorsed, administered by or associated with YouTube.
1 month ago (edited) | [YT] | 705
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Charles Dowding
From the greenhouse, garlic planted in October between salads which cropped all winter, until mid-April. Then we removed those plants, and the garlic has grown enormous, very quickly to harvest 22nd May. Before that we spread compost, and transplanted tomatoes either side of it, and dwarf French marigolds between the garlic, which you can just see in this photograph.
The garlic is a 'free crop', needing no extra space and it suffers less rust than outside. Also, it's the 14th year of growing garlic in exactly this same space, no rotation, see my book Grow Together charlesdowding.co.uk/products/grow-together-50-pla… - also it's on Amazon, and please leave a review if you like it!
5 months ago | [YT] | 910
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