How much, how little compost do you need to grow great vegetables?

I am so grateful to you for sharing your knowledge. I live in the Central Australian desert and grow fabulous vegetables using your methods. Food is incredibly expensive here, and food insecurity a real hardship for many on limited incomes. In remote Aboriginal communities they can pay up to $30 for a cabbage. This week I did a workshop with Aboriginal women from across the desert and part of it was teaching them what I know about no dig vegetable growing. We talked about camel manure instead of cow or chicken though! LOL I am on a mission to try and support people to be food secure, and Charles you are a big part of that because of your generous sharing of knowledge. So thanks.

I so appreciate you doing these trials, Charles! By doing so and sharing it with us, you have made us all better and more productive gardeners.

While I bought compost the first year then first winter between my household compost and now I have chickens and compost it in another spot I will have more than enough to grow in my 20 X20 ft garden. My yield are higher the plants are healthier. We have such a short growing season here in Ontario Canada (may to Oct). Watching you has given me the confidence to try new things. Started all my own plants this year. Saved a bundle with inflation this has reduced my grocery bill a lot. I spend less if I need to buy any compost it is cheaper than trying to "fix" my clay type soil. 10 LBs of raspberries just from 2 spots on my small plot. I would never go back. In fact the tiller I once used is up for sale. You channel is just the best. Anyone any where can do no dig. Not to mention less weeds easier to get rid of it, and less time spent doing it. Win Win for me. While we do need to water not nearly as much when I was tilling and digging. Rain water only with just 2 rain barrels.

No dig is the reason my crops have survived the complete lack of rain this season, I've watered them once during the dry spell and they have flourished. The lack of tilling has prevented water loss and not overwatering in the first place has forced them to grow strong, healthy, and deep roots. Anyone considering 'no dig' should just do it, you will not be disappointed!

Thanks Charles. Respect from Africa 🇿🇦

I feel like I’ve already learned SO much from you via your videos, but I cannot WAIT to purchase the book both in support of you/what you’re doing and to dig a little deeper (pun intended) into the concepts! 📖 🌱

ALL WE KNOW IS THAT AFTER ONLY ONE YEAR OF APPLYING OUR OWN HOMEMADE COMPOST, OUR GARDEN IS SO OVERLOADED WITH ABUNDANCE THAT WE TRAMPLE HALF OF OUR HARVEST JUST TRYING TO TREK AROUND AND GET THE RIPE VEGETABLES !!!!!!!!!! AND WE STILL CAN’T EAT EVERYTHING THAT NO DIG HAS GIVEN US !!!!!! IT’S A GLORIOUS THING !!!!!!!!!!!!

My 9 month old compost is ready, and It is soooo nice. I have completely fill another 2 bins with Monsoon rain foliage, which seems to grow centimeters daily. I am really on a compost kick these days :) Wonderful video Charles.

I have been following the channel for about 18 months (Thanks Charles). I did not grow any veggies for the first 12 months, just made a huge pile of compost from greens and browns from the garden. Starting to harvest the first lot and the results are great. I plan to make a couple of new beds each year and see how much I can grow. I enjoy the alchemy of making compost more than gardening.

Always love your videos Charles. This is my year 3, I have been Journaling with pictures each year. This year I looked at July pictures of this and last year and my plants are approximately 3x the size and much more harvest! So very grateful for your help! Hagd.

Not only have you proven that no dig works, you continue to inspire. Thank you.

Thank you, for all these years of trial and error! Difficult to find substantiated feedback that can actually show results not only in yearly growth but also in kilo’s on average. Much appreciated!! Love watching your content and hope you make many more videos!

I've learned so much from you and other You Tubers Charles. Gardeners are incredibly generous sharing their knowledge and I'm so grateful to you all.

Hi Charles; I am in the midst of canning and saw your compost video so I had to watch. Last fall I placed grass cuttings and chopped leaves over lawn and covered with a tarp + bought a truckload of compost. As soon as spring came, I put about 6 inches of compost on (it was my exercise program) and covered with the tarp again until I rolled back each row when I was ready to plant. Wow, what a difference. I have a gazillion tomatoes with some 2 pounders, giving a bunch away to family and friends, and canning a few times a week to stay caught up. I was not scientific about the numbers, but my yield is 3-4x more than other years. Everything is bigger. One main variable different than other years... COMPOST, COMPOST, COMPOST. A couple of inches per year hereafter makes sense.

Trying to follow your footsteps all the way in Brisbane. Thanks for sharing your knowledge and experience 🙏

I don't turn my compost. It just takes longer. The unfinished material from the top and sides goes into the new pile. I used to screen my compost. Then I did an experiment comparing the screened compost to planting in the tailings. The plants grew equally well in the coarse tailings.

In the city im living compost is hard to find, im making it by composting coffee grinds and home residues in homemade bockashi bins ( i have like 10) and the final composting right over the ground ( i double dig it first) and i covered later with cardboard and mulch, i got very good results until now, but its all an experiment, great video, im learning a lot, greatings from Argentina

Besides having 6 compost bins (most the dalek kind) we have a donkey sanctuary just up the road from where I live, so since the spring, I have been hauling bags of donkey poo to my allotment and allowing it to rot down. She uses no pesticides on her grass, so I know it is free of any weed killers. It has saved me a fortune as I have purchased in spent mushroom compost the last 2 years. I am away for 6 weeks from the beginning of November so compost spreading probably wont get started until mid December at the earliest. I've had my allotment for 10 years. I moved to completely no dig 2 years ago because of a bad back and being unable to dig. The results have been outstanding. I remember a previous hot summer we had when my sprouts were weak, covered in white fly because of stress and the sprouts themselves grew no bigger than peas, even though I watered as much as I could. Both last year and this year, my sprouts are standing proud, really healthy plants, no whitefly. I have done much less watering than my fellow plot holders but have way healthier looking plants. I always recommend no dig to anyone new who joins our allotments.

Very interesting, thank you! I'm new to gardening so it's great to learn from your experience. I'd have started years ago if I knew I didn't have to dig!😂

One thing that surprised me this year that two new patches with no dig really had almost no weeds, just perfect healthy plants. I am thankful for finding this channel