Charles Dowding's Veg Journal: Expert no-dig advice, month by month [Paperback]

This book uses the seasonal checklists, advice and hard-won experience of the UK's best-known no-dig gardener to plan a year's worth of vegetable growing. The information is taken from the author's successfulCharles Dowding Vegetable Courseand arranged in a useful monthly journal so that no activity is overlooked and readers can follow his mantra of little and often. In this book,Charles Dowdingproves the efficacy of no-dig gardening and, using step by step guidance with photos, shows how to plan a vegetable garden, construct a raised bed, sow seed indoors and outdoors in spring, protect plants from the weather and pests through the season until the joy of harvesting is celebrated. The information is organized monthly from January to December, with key crops, key activities and essential reminders so nothing is missed.

CHARLES DOWDING grew up on a dairy farm in Somerset. After graduating from Cambridge he worked for a hotel in the Inner Hebrides before starting to grow organic vegetables commercially on the family farm in the early 1980s. In 1990 he left behind what was by then a large market garden to live in France and Zambia. Returning to Somerset in the mid 1990s, he established a bed and breakfast and vegetable growing business at Lower Farm in Shepton Montague, Somerset. There, Charles's salad bags were the main output from his two-acre garden of permanent raised beds and fruit trees. Charles runs vegetable-growing courses and lectures and writes books on his unique growing techniques. Since 2012 Charles has begun a new garden at Shepton Mallet in Somerset which he has designed using no-dig principles.

‘ Charles’ journal is a good aide memoire, peppered with tidbits of useful information and a blank, lined page per month encourages you to use the book as a diary. We always assume it’ s our fault when we have a failure, but this might l³Y