6 vegetables to grow during the winter for an early harvest in spring, long before spring sowings are giving food. I show results of growth from varied yet also precise sowing dates in late summer and autumn.
The 6 vegetables include a herb, coriander 😀
00:00 Intro to small plants overwintering, sown modules & transplanted 2-4 weeks later
00:49 Spring onions multisown 27th August, and this date is good for bulb onions too
02:12 Spring onions multisown 20th August, big difference
03:05 Perfect dates for spring onion and
03:20 Coriander overwintering nicely
04:10 Spinach Medania sown 10th August + difference between 2 years of home saving Medania seed, and buying it in 2021
05:22 Spring cabbage mostly Wheelers Imperial sown 26th August and a few Duncan F1
08.40 Removing eaten lower leaves
09:14 Cauliflower Aalsmeer sown 25th August, mesh has not kept out all the moths
11:06 Broad beans Aquadulce Claudia sown 20th October and transplanted after cabbage
12:38 Results of using different composts for 8 years
13:02 Results of no rotation for seven years so far, see this 2019 video for 5 year results from same beds https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpFZrLP8zAs
13:50 Broad beans direct sown 5th November foreground and 13th November far end
You can buy signed Calendars from us, for 2022 with first sowings from mid February, and they have information about no dig and seeds https://charlesdowding.co.uk/product/charles-dowdings-vegetable-garden-2022-calendar/
I have written a no dig book based on my forty years of growing, and it’s available from us: https://charlesdowding.co.uk/product/charles-dowdings-no-dig-gardening-course-1-signed/
In North America you can buy it from Chelsea Green https://www.chelseagreen.com/writer/charles-dowding/.
In addition we created an online course No Dig Gardening and until 31st December 2021 you can buy it half price from my website https://charlesdowding.co.uk/product/online-course-1-no-dig-gardening/
Filmed and edited at Homeacres no dig market garden on 11th December 2021 by Alessandro of @SpicyMoustache , whose excellent You Tube channel is about no dig gardening in suburban London https://www.youtube.com/c/spicymoustache
Homeacres is in Somerset, SW England latitude 51N, zone 8 climate / maritime temperate, lowest winter temperatures -7C 19F.
This page of my website has both current weather data and past records since March 2020, from my weather station, you need to refresh the pages because they do not update automatically https://www.charlesdowding.co.uk/weather/today.htm
See this video for information about some of the products I use and recommend https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1Sd2czGDBI
For my CD 60 Module Trays, used to raise the transplants for these vegetables:
In the USA, buy at https://allaboutthegarden.com
In the UK, buy them via https://containerwise.co.uk/product/charles-dowding-60-cell/
or via https://www.refillroom.com/product-category/garden/
In Europe, buy them via https://thefarmdream.com/product-category/propagation-trays/
To buy my collections of super informative video garden guides with a unique search function https://charlesdowding.retrieve.com/store/#/
To buy any of my online courses https://charlesdowding.co.uk/product-category/online-courses/
To buy a signed book https://charlesdowding.co.uk/product-category/books/
To join an in person Day or Weekend course at Homeacres https://charlesdowding.co.uk/product-category/courses/
This is the dibber I use for transplanting https://www.gardenimports.co.uk/product/charles-dowding-long-handled-ash-dibber/?v=79cba1185463
To buy t-shirts and hoodies with my exclusive no dig designs, use this link https://charlesdowding.teemill.com
You can join this channel by paying a monthly fee, to support our work with helping gardeners grow better, and to receive monthly videos made only for members:
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36 Comments
Learning so much. I planted in July a variety of early cabbage, no idea what its gonna happen. Hoping for a small head cabbage by october/nov. Tomorrow I will seed cabbage again and plant under my tomato hoop when the tomatoes are done and maybe I can have a cabbage before its time to transplant the tomatoes. I am pretty much applying a lot of your system and getting so much more out of my garden this year. Always something ready in the cold frame to take the place of a plant that its done supplying produce. I might go ahead and seed some collards to go where my green bush beans are living right now. This is so fun! Can’t thank you enough
Hi Charles, I was wondering when your next open day is at Homeacres?
Hi again Charles still waiting for delivery of my calendar, now been three weeks, yes postal strikes etc but still not acceptable. If I have not received it by Tuesday 20th September 2022 then please kindly refund my money. Oh and could you please explain why none of your team answer email queries?
I’ve had a good first no-dig harvest and have just cut off the broad beans. Now I’m faced with grass, nettles, a bramble and a forget me not! If I can’t dig them out, what do I do?
Just reading your excellent "How to Grow Winter Vegetables" and this video was recommended by YouTube. Great stuff, thank you for sharing and your awesome books!
I’ll be sowing autumn seeds this weekend
Hi all. Anyone got any tips for some cloche hoops? Not sure what to look for. I have netting already. Thanks!
I will set hardy Valdres garlic cloves in Oslo in a few weeks. I'm wondering if it's a good idea to seed a cover crop, like crimson clover, at the same time. What do you recommend?
Loving your vlogs and load of useful info – Where can I get one of your Calendars please for 2023
I tried to sow stuff in late August but it was still far too hot and they did not come up – I am in S France; I have now sown again in early October and hoping now they will show. I have sown spinach, chard, turnip, navette and black radish. I had trouble growing spinach and chard last year but the others are never a problem!
It would be good to say where you live. I think it's England..
Thank you for this. I am so confused trying to count to the right months for us in SouthAfrica. Are your dates to plant for when the seeds must be started or for when the seedlings go into the ground about 3? weeks later?
Charles Dowding is a national treasure. Wonderful wisdom and experience. Thank you for sharing.
where can i get wires like the ones u r using for your fleeces
Must over-wintering crops be seeded in greenhouse and when big enough transplanted outdoors for the winter? Which plants might be direct seeded in zone 6?
Our Dutch government has FORBIDDEN farmers to have plants in the ground after October 1st. Too much nitrogen. Bad for the environment.
But what are we going to eat then ?
I’m a bit late to the part my spring onions are only couple of inches big in module trays do you think I’m too late to get them in the ground?
My favourite winter crop is Russian Kale. I have some self sown weed plants which are doing well and should crop early and a couple of later sowings. I eat the flower heads like broccoli. Delicious steamed. Very winter hardy.
Hello Charles, Thank you for sharing your experiences and wisdom of home gardening, really amazing. I wanted to ask you where did you purchase those metal flexible rods for the vegetables hoops for salad or vegetables, please? Thank you in advance
That beard is definitely giving me Roman Abramovich vibes😁
I like your channel because in Oregon we have a very similar climate to yours. Do you have a calendar with planting dates?
I always do them in the fall. I just have way more time! So we sow them then we move bed to bed refreshing the soil and weeding etc
Charles, do you have any issues with raccoons, deer, moles and voles? If so, how do you prevent them from destroying your plants. Thanks charles.
Been sowing broad beans phased since mid October. Some started inside (those are the biggest), some outside. No bird or mice damage yet. Will not eat them, they are purely for cover and manure (as inspired by yr videos). Plenty of pigeons around but they may still have other things to feast on (cabbage) in surrounding plots. May need to cover them, while autumn progresses
I wonder where his garden is this is incredible I know I can do this in my little Suburban backyard right now in Canada there’s no romaine lettuce if you find it it’s crazy expensive best thing is to grow your own food
I wonder how well your stuff has done this Winter with the big freeze we had in Nov/Dec. I planted some Cauliflower Skywalker in the PT, they all died when the temps got down to nearly zero. The Broccoli (also in the PT) flagged in the big freeze and looked sick, it's just about hanging in there though. The most successful so far this Winter has been Winter varieties of onions, lettuce and normal beet spinach and Beetroot.
I want to grow more veg in wonter
Do you have any issues with rabbits and how do you tackle them
Love watch this guy
Seems high as hell to me 😂
i assume this is unique to england? the 12-18 inches of snow and 2 or 3 weeks of 30 to 40 degrees Celsius below zero we get here in british Columbia canada would destroy the seedlings.
Hello sorry but are you sell some vegetables?😊
Charles, this is my first time growing broad beans and I'm seeing dark spots on the first leaves in many of my seedlings. They are in trays and had a plastic dome over them in the first week. Do you have any idea what this could be? I know it's difficult to diagnose without seeing it, but I'd be grateful for any tips or ideas. Thank you!
Thank you Charles, this info is invaluable. I live in New Zealand, and I'm wondering if England being a similar climate, could I invert the months with the same sowing dates down here in the Southern Hemisphere? I live in a 9B zone… or a cool mountain climate as they call it here.
Wonderful garden…you’re not wearing your watch?
If I stick to the sowing times (slightly adjusted, since I'm in Scotland), but put half the plants (mainly spinach, beans and cauliflower) in the greenhouse, do you think they would continue to grow so I can harvest them over the winter? Or have I already missed my last sowing date to get cauliflower before the spring, even in an (unheated) greenhouse?
Just moved into a bungalow, raised bed and compost bin, your videos are brilliant, 63 trying cauliflower over winter (first time) I’m in the UK midlands, will they survive over our winter ? Raised bed is empty, waiting for tomatoes next spring! Thank you