No Dig gardening | Llanfrechfa Grange Walled Garden Community

At the end of June the No Dig course officially ended. However there are still lots of veg in the demo bed which we will continue to grow on and harvest. In addition the no Dig course participants will continue to receive updates and advice from our course tutor, Cherry Taylor, who will guide us through the remainder of the growing season. We hope also to stay in touch with our fellow course participants so that we can continue to grow and learn together. It has been great fun and very interesting.

No 3 bed after lifting of the broad beans and mangetout.

Here then, is a round up of where we have got to in Bed #3!

The Spring blush sugarsnap peas have grown to about 7 ft; pretty flowers gave way to lovely juicy peas, which we began harvesting in early June. They are nearly finished though so will be pulled out in the next week or so.
Courgette ‘Genovese’ was planted out under fleece in May. The fleece was taken off after a couple of weeks but the plant was slow to get going. With the warmer weather it is now picking up.
Two rows of ‘Czar’ runner beans were supposed to go in next to the courgette. However they mostly failed to germinate so were sown again in modules and also in the ground. Even these rotted off and in the end we only have 3 plants developing. This turned out to be a problem across the learning set. We think it must therefore be a result of the difficult growing conditions this year and perhaps also poor quality seed from the supplier. (We all used the same). Disappointing!
Next is a row of dwarf french beans, all doing well. They went into the space vacated by the spinach. The spares have been planted in the bed next door.
Beetroot and leeks are coming along from our module sown seed. Ours are quite small still while some course participants already have whopper beets!
The Oregan Sugar Pod mangetout peas have all been harvested and were taken out today. They were delicious and prolific, a great success.

Mangetout in productive mode behind the leeks and beetroot.

The broad beans have also finished and been lifted. They had quite a bit of blackfly in the end stages but interestingly when pulled out, there were quite a lot of ladybirds feeding off the bounty.
Our first lot of carrots are doing well and have just been thinned out. The second row were sown between the mangetout and broad beans but failed to germinate. Lesson learned – not enough light and space.
Today we transplanted 3 kale ‘Midnight Sun’ where the mangetout and broad beans were. These were started off in a seed tray in the greenhouse.
Carrots, baby broccoli (currently being harvested), parsnips, celeriac and onions are continuing to grow under ultrafine mesh to protect against flea beetle, carrot fly, butterflies etc.

We will continue to post updates on our demo bed. We will also start to think about what we might grow next year using this method. Indeed we have already been applying the principles to the rest of the productive garden in the north east quadrant.

We would like to share the learning and would be interested to hear from our readers and supporters about how we might go about this. If you have any questions about No Dig or are interested in getting involved in this project at the Walled Garden, please contact us using the ‘Leave a Reply’ box below.

	Jennifer Kear on Visitors – We Are O…
	Jennifer kear on The Walled Garden Newsletter…
	Emmy Chater on Llanfrechfa Grange Walled Gard…
	a.jones44 on Llanfrechfa Grange Walled Gard…
	Annette on Can You help? Working Party…

Llanfrechfa Grange Walled Garden Community

A project to restore the old garden

Tag Archives: No Dig gardening

The Walled Garden newsletter – Summer 2022

The Walled Garden Newsletter – Winter 2021-22

No Dig Organic Veg Project Latest

The Walled Garden Newsletter – Winter 2021