I'm sharing some advice with you here
about sighing and planting and getting
brown ready and the size of plants and
how to get them in the ground just to
clear up a few misconceptions because I
think it's often made some more
difficult than it needs to be actually
it's a few key points that once you
grasp it that make it very simple like
preparation of the bed for example
particularly when you go no dicket like
this this is all know dick garden so
does never disturb you don't get many
weeds however you still need to be a lot
to ease making sure that you catch them
before they get to any size at all so
like there's a little weed here I just
spotted and I'm pulling it out as you
can see it's got quite a bit of root on
it more than you might expect from the
size of the weeding and that's the size
of weed that I like to be dealing with
not big ones it's much quicker so I'm
looking at my bed surface if there were
a lot of weeds at this stage this is
where a hole can be really useful
because a hoe is amazing how it it can
just tickle the surface like that very
shallow very gentle it's not hard work
at all how should if how inside work
there's something wrong with how you're
doing it be easy I'm just moving it a
little bit the top centimeter or half
inch and that if there are any weed
seeds germinating this is the time to
catch them now in early spring is when
you can do a lot of weeding like that
very quick very simple hardly any ways
actually visible but you just open them
before they really get going and another
tool which is superb for similar job
where you've got the surface of compost
so this is compost from mostly homemade
it's got little bits of wooden things in
that's fine but it's mostly compost
my bins here and we put it on last
December after clearing some beetroot in
the spread and the compost then sits on
the top over winter and it sort of
States rather wet and lumpy but as it
dries out in the spring and after a bit
of frost you can run a rake through it
and it just tickles the surface again
very shallow breaks up any lumps levels
it out and gets it in a nice condition
ready for sowing and planting one other
tool I use is my foot so if you've got
lumps you know what this is with no dig
you can walk on your beds but the feet
like this do you see how that's breaking
up lumps and it's going finer north I
want it to be especially fine but if you
had big lumps that were kind of in the
way of it you can just do that
so yeah feet feet rake and hoe and then
you're there ready to go more or less
level doesn't have to be a billiard
table level but you know smooth and even
makes sowing and planting a lot easier
I'm not actually gonna be sowing any
seeds in this video but I will just show
you if I was gonna sow seeds you know
again though different ways of making
what's called a drill this might be one
of the easiest ones actually it's the
wooden dipper because you can just do
that you can even use your fingers and
I've done that as well sometimes that
could be for sowing carrots eats a drop
in the current seeds close it over that
would be the rake I just run across the
top actually like that that doesn't
scatter the seeds and if this was
carrots I doubt sheep walk on it like
that
to throw in the damp because it's late
March now starting to dry up as you're
noticing this compost surface is quite
right plenty of moisture underneath so
mostly I recommend raising transplants
if you can do that because you're
gaining time everything in that tray for
example is about four weeks old and it's
already grown that much this year
whereas if you know it was frosty this
morning and it's not warm yet so if I
certain the same seeds directly
to be coming up so I've gained three or
four weeks of growing season by doing
this and I'm confident when putting out
transplants that the beds stateful you
know these plants are more resilient
than tiny seedlings if something is
going to try and eat them like a slug or
something and you can get the spacing
just nice
so the beds are really full so let's
have a look at doing some first of all
doing some dipping like and spacing you
need to do a bit of homework on best
spacing for each vegetable and then once
you got that you need to decide what
area got a flat
so this bed you will notice has not got
wooden sides that means that the side is
a bit vague where is the side and
where's the end that's why I'm drawing
lines in the compost because that is
telling me roughly the edge of the bed
normally if I was going to plant this
whole bed I do I'd walk up like that
right the way long and just draw out
those lines and then use your eye look
along you can see where you've got a few
kinks and things get a nice straight
line but for demo purposes here I'll
just do it like that for now and then
you've got your two edges then you need
to draw a middle line you can use the
dipper actually to check at the distance
like that that's about the same that's
good so there's the middle line this is
just to get spacings nice and even
it makes ever such a difference if you
get all your plants more or less at the
same distance apart because then they're
all going to grow back the same speed
same size it will make picking easier
and general management and use of space
is more efficient what do we get a plant
will say we will get a plant lettuce and
they're in these little modules here I'd
make holes that are not too deep and 22
centimeters apart roughly 9 inches
and I'm getting a spacing here which is
going to be seven rows in the bed
altogether because by the time I've made
them all you'll see that this is row
number six if you like in row number
seven seven six five four three two one
going that way all the plants are
equidistant that would be really nice
for lettuce it would also work actually
for dill here or bulb fennel a little
bit tight on the bow fennel with it
it can still work whereas for plants in
this tray they need a bit more space so
there's onions beetroot peas and I'll
just show you some different size holes
here so they're in slightly bigger
module so what I do is go in a bit
deeper and give the dipper a bit of a
wiggle and that makes both a wider and a
deeper hole if this was say be true or
onions I could either have five rows or
six six would be pushing it I think five
would be good in this case for this
width of bed this bed is about one point
one meters three and a half feet wide
and so the plants on my spacing here now
around 30 to 35 centimeter 12 to 14
inches apart that's not quite deep
anything and yeah that's plenty of room
actually this would be now if it be true
an onion would be for seedlings per
clump going in altogether they go in
with their mates but it means that if
you think that's four that's four that's
four that's actually quite a lot of
vegetables growing in a fairly small
area so it's maximizing space again
without crowding too much and one more
I'll just mention mo I'm not going to
plant them now as peas if I was doing
peas in a bed like this like a nice Rove
say medium or tall peas maybe three to
five feet 75 to just over a meter high
and they they could be two rows like
that by the side of the middle so peas
their pea
and then put sticks in the middle to
support them so that's another spacing
option there no just to finish I want to
show you the plants and popping them in
and stages of maturity is a
consideration like these lettuce really
beautiful little plants this is a la la
raza and this is absolutely big enough
to go if anything it would have been
better a couple of days ago if you want
to be really precise these roots
starting to really pack in there into
that little module and so that's a
plenty big enough lettuce to go in the
ground and it goes and then push it down
so the hole I made was deep enough that
the plant level if you like is below bed
level now and this for me is really
works well I find when planting put your
plants in deep this is a Batavian
Saragosa and push finger on either side
of the module into that little horsie
getting nice contact with the roots
here's a little gem type called Maureen
and again same story cause lettuce and
you know if you won't use this you might
worry that's too deep but I can assure
you that works really well particularly
because we're gonna but this time you
put fleece cover over like you can see
here and that means that the plant being
set deep is nestling more at ground
level and just tucked in there nicely
they love it then other options for
example this is dill oddly enough some
people say you shouldn't transplant dill
and I do know where that comes from but
it certainly transplants well now this
one has a longer stem so you could put
it in deeper
wouldn't hurt that's a nice deep one I
wrote coos so again by the time that
holes filled in that all the stem of the
dill will be buried and that's fine all
stems are good and buried they don't
mind that at all
this is bulb fennel doing similar is
same family as dill and same story so
when I'm planting basically it's going
to that depth all of that stem is below
soil or compost level it's one thing
I'll mention here I see it always makes
me smile it a lot of people are
convinced you can't plant into compost
because it'll burn the roots so worry it
obviously take it from me it's not a
problem it's really well simplifies
things a lot and one more we got here is
radish so multi stone so we're coming on
to Marty so now we're you so several
seeds the right number you want for the
clump that's a sowed 5 C's here thin
two-for-one little wheat one came out
for radish perfect number for a clump
and again you can plant that deep so go
like that and I must mention the age of
that seedling 11 days that was sown 11
days ago so you can see it's quite small
going in the ground whereas this one
this is a turnit which was sown three
weeks ago I would say that's really
would it be better in the grand a week
ago we did plant some of these a week
ago this is a leftover one so this is a
stage of plant where you've lost a bit
of time actually by letting it sit in
the module for too long because it's
going in the ground now it's going to
have a check it's gonna take a while for
it to kind of reorganize on oh god I can
start growing again where as that radish
it's almost seamless you know it's like
nobody told it it would be moved kind of
thing and it's just gonna carry on
growing so get them in as early as you
dare really and that comes back to the
soil preparation you know starting in
December with marching with compost
that's ideal preparation for saw feeding
the soul life all the fertility is there
and you're ready to go in the spring
nice and early no wooden size to the
beds so there's no slugs hiding here
there's very little slug habitat here in
our climate that can be a real problem
I get very few losses from slugs because
the garden is properly set up you know
I'm on it all the time basically just
thinking about what's the best way to do
things
and not literally being out here all the
time but what I mean is that being up
being thinking all the time you know how
you want it set up for the best result
and yes just to finish what one or two
things other possibilities multi sown
onions so you can see these slightly
bigger cells and I used them in
propagation for slightly larger plants
or more demanding plants that take a bit
more moisture and nutrient and you want
them a slightly bigger stage at
plantings that's before we call roughly
onion multi so in four or five in a
clump and she goes beetroot same story
yeah same again so again planting like
that in the ground push down spinach I
don't do a lot of spinach in the spring
because mainly I saw them in August but
that's a nice stocky plant if you had a
more leggy plant which would happen if
you'd propagated on a windowsill say
because that means less light means it
draws up and you get longer stem if that
happens you just plant deeper but this
one doesn't need to go to tea and it
goes there plunk and finally an example
again like the turnip of a plant that's
a little bit too big really what not too
big but it would have been better in the
ground even a week ago that's pea
multi-zone pea again it could be buried
up to their if I was doing that I didn't
use my fingers just to enlarge the hole
a bit and pop it in and really push it
down maybe this is just to give me an
idea of plant size of planting making
the holes and preparing the ground
keeping it simple well it could bit of
practice all these things you'll find
you can get pretty quick actually and
the beauty of no dig is the minimal
weeding here I do not expect to be
needing to do much weeding but I will do
it if I see them so stay on it with the
weeds but you know it's more fun going
oh dear then you won't have to do too
much