For ongoing beautiful harvests
61,266
Published 2024-08-02
I hope that your plot is looking beautiful and I want to inspire you in that direction as well.
1 Watering may be a big job this month, we look at which vegetables need extra water.
2 Weeding is important, even if they are small! If you don't deal with them, they will take over a lot of space and more time is then needed later on. Remember to weed, small and also keep edges under control!.
3 Tidy! General tidiness makes a huge difference such as removing older leaves of any plants. Plus diseased leaves. This also reduces slug habit and creates beauty.
4 Compost. All weeds, crop residues and diseased leaves can go on the compost heap, and this is a month when you could make a lot of new compost, possibly ready by winter. Work at finding lots of materials, even from other people. The proportion of ¼ brown to 3/4 green means you may need to search for more browns, anything of woody origin.
5 Picking is one of the bigger jobs and can result in more material for the compost heap. I use chard as an example to show nice ways to harvest leaves.
6 Fruiting vegetables. We look at tomatoes in the greenhouse, and melons too. Pick at breaking stage. Also holy basil.
7 Be ready for pests. I show some sad slug damage to new broccoli plants, and the beetroot I planted to replace them.
8 Use covers where appropriate. Such as young carrots will soon need mesh over, against root flies.
9 Sow and plant. There are many sowing and planting opportunities, especially spinach and oriental leaves plus salad rocket in early to mid-August. Then spring onions and spring cabbage in late August. It's good to have transplants ready, for gaps which keep appearing at this time of year, after harvests.
See my website blog for more details www.charlesdowding.co.uk/blog
And my Sowing Timeline www.charlesdowding.co.uk/resources/sowing-timeline
My new Compost book:
1 pre-order geni.us/Compost
2 signed copies www.charlesdowding.co.uk/product/compost
Filmed and edited by Carly Dutton-Edwards 26th July 2024 at Homeacres garden, Somerset UK, oceanic temperate climate 51° north.
00:00 Intro
00:56 Lack of sunshine and rain - signs a plant needs water
01:42 Plants that survive well without water
02:15 Plants that need water
03:25 Weeding, and how no dig keeps moisture in the soil
05:00 Edging and tidying, removing decaying leaves
07:02 Adding these leaves to compost, and crop residues, eg potatoes
07:37 Blight in compost heaps, and weeds
08:05 Adding material to heaps - greens and browns
09:36 Picking when there is excess growth, eg chard
11:02 The benefits of regular picking
13:40 Warmth-loving plants in the greenhouse
14:09 Tomatoes - 12th year of growing in the same soil
15:00 Maintenance of tomato plants, and when to harvest
18:05 Melons Emir - how to tell when ripe, and some anthracnose disease
19:27 Holy basil Ocimum tenuiflorum, also called tulsi, and its amazing flavour
19:56 Slugs, damage caused
21:25 Carrot root fly, cover by 10th August
21:58 Mildew on cucumbers
22:19 Outdoor tomatoes - slow growth of fruits, how to manage
22:54 Sowing and planting in August, thinking ahead
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All Comments (21)
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I seriously love your videos of gardening information Mr Dowding. You are wisely seasoned, & such a treasure to listen to. Deeply appreciate your information, & embraced "no dig" 6-7 yrs ago, thanks to you
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Living close to nature is always the best. The days I cannot get away from the tedious tasks of life I come here and experience the splendor through Charles. Thank you ❤️
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I tend to listen to you in the morning as part of a pleasant way to wake up and get started. Sometimes I get distracted but I can still hear you in the background. A lot of what you say goes into my subconscious, and consciousness too as a collection of things I think about. Standing out amongst it all going around in my head I have - ‘cabbage root fly’. I'm wandering around my apartment going ‘cabbage root fly’.
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Mr. Dowding, Last year I implemented your methods in my 15 x 25 foot Garden, as of today, I have harvested 192 lbs. so far this season and I anticipate come fall I should be close to 300 lbs. Thank You for your wisdom. South Central Pennsylvania, US Zone 7.
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The details about Swiss chard was very helpful - I also love this plant because of its versatility. I guess it is drought tolerant. It’s especially useful because it is not chewed up by so many pests and it is so prolific. I’m glad it’s getting the attention it deserves.
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Thank you Charles for another inspiring videos. Your passion for gardening is contagious and your charm makes me look forward to the next posts!
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Always learning from you -thank you so much! AND thank you for mentioning we should take time to enjoy the beauty now, also. So easy to forget that when there is so much hard work to complete that isn't fun. But we CAN make it enjoyable!
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What an encouragement it was to watch this video. Thank you very much.
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Thank you, Charles, for all your advice. What a gorgeous cat! ❤
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Such a great teacher for quality gardening 😊
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Perfect timing for this video. We have been experiencing extremely dry weather and constant heat waves here on our homestead (in New York State in the U.S.), and we have had to decide what to water and what we just don't have the water for. We have a well, and it is getting low. With five small greenhouses, and a lot of outdoor plantings it has been tough to make those choices. I did build a greenhouse with a living roof this year (the roof is purple pole beans), and the tomatoes, peppers, and watermelons inside are doing well mostly because of the shade the living roof provides. I think we are all going to have to be more creative with our growing as we experience changes with our climate. Another great video, Charles. Always so much excellent information.
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Thank you Charles, enjoyed the visit. Your garden is beautiful
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4:20 Yes in your climate along with considering the amount of cloudy days you've said you have then bare soil that's already a good percentage of organic material drying out is a non-issue and frankly I'd want it to dry out some. Context is everything. When we have a string of 100 F days and clouds are sparse and the air dries out and the organic material in the soil isn't as high that's a very different context and I'm going to have everything covered with straw which is very effective in this environment.
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what a great lot of produce well done charles
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I think there is always a bright side to the weather being so changeable when it comes to the garden. (Not that I am a fan of climate change at all) Where some crops fail, others excel. Not great for the market gardener for sure but like you showed with the extra beets, we just have to see what is doing well and plant more of it for the second part of the growing season. While my Nightshades (eggplant, tomatoes, potatoes) are not liking the excessive heat we are having, there is still something there to harvest. I planted less bush beans this year but we have had a bumper crop of green, yellow and purple varieties. My cucumbers seem really happy but I planted them in part shade to shield them from too much heat and that has been quite successful. My cabbages were also planted in part shade and are early and abundant. I am making some sauerkraut today. I just wanted to give people hope and leave some positive encouragement to off set the despair. Take heart people, the garden can be forgiving and there is food to be found when you least expect it. ☺
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We use organic soap so we can use bath, dish and laundry water for the flowers and grass . That way we have plenty of clean water for the veggies. Just a way we try to conserve
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Love to see the garden thriving. In arizona we are thankful plants are still alive in the 110+ Fahrenheit weather I can’t wait for mid august to start planting againg
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The sunflower at the beginning reminds me of the varieties that Sunflower Steve is developing here in the states. He has so many beautiful forms he’s working on.
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I have chickens and sheep. I grow extra to feed them in the summer when things get brown and dry. They love it. I can't free range my chickens because of the bald eagles snatching them. I only let them out in the field and animal pens when I'm out there with them cleaning up the pens for the compost pile. So, they love the greens and extras from the garden 😊
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Fantastic presentation, Charles. Thank you for your generosity.
