Small garden is having a good spring

I love to see all those green leafs.❤️ Can you eat the leafs from purple sprouting broccoli as a crop when you take them out?
What a delightful ending with tomatoes✌️👍

Really good to see how the small garden is going. Thank you for all these tips & updates, to keep small spaces productive. From little acorns.

No rain forecast in Sussex for 3 weeks, Just had a dry April. Having to water.

I found last year the slugs and snails only ate my green lettuce and left any with red in them alone! I've been lucky so far this year and not had any damage on any of the plants outside.

I used your seed trays for the first time this year, for my cucumbers and tomatoes, very pleased with them! 😊

I’m sorry you didn’t get any cauliflower heads , but also quite pleased because I really struggle to get any cauliflowers to grow so I don’t feel such a failure now . If the gardening guru has failures too we mortals are not to blame 😂❤️

When broccoli is old and thus you aren't worried about hurting their production, you can eat the leaves, preferably the younger ones (for taste). They will be indistinguishable from kale leaves. In fact, an untrained eye might mistakenly harvest your broccoli leaves and serve them to you as kale leaves … don't ask me how I know 😂

I just picked my first small bowl of strawberries today in Virginia🇺🇸 delicious May 7th

Charles, any idea what Jacks Magic compost is? it doesnt really give much info on the bag other than it says 'traditional compost' peat reduced, with seaweed.

Hello Charles,
Ce n'est pas toujours évident avec les choux,jai toujours des problèmes avec une certaine variété de choux fleur 😟
Cette année, j'ai décidé d'utiliser 2 parcelles de 9 m2 afin d'y installer mes propres boutures de patates douces.
J'ai réussi à trouver près de chez moi,la variété Beauregard en bio qui est très prolifique.
Jeudi 1 mai, j'ai déjà planté 26 boutures que j'ai recouvert d'une toile de forcage P17.
Le 2 mai, j'ai refait 61 boutures et mises dans des godets de 7 x 7 ou 10 x 10 transparents comme celà je peux observer l'évolution des racines 😉
Je pourrais les implanter d'ici 3 semaines voire 1 mois.
En ce moment,il y a beaucoup de vent frais ( vent d'est, voire est-nord-est ) malgré le soleil donc il faut vraiment bien faire attention à ce que l'on plante et surtout de bien les protéger !
Bonne semaine Charles
Pépé JP du nord de la France

Es un espectáculo magnifico ver tu pequeño huerto en ese rincón de tu terreno.Como siempre te digo,aprendo mucho de tu experiencia y acierto más en las decisiones que tomo.Saludos desde Tenerife !!

Hello again Charles, I have contacted youtube about my vanished comment, can I ask if it was you who deleted it please? They can't see a technical problem yet, and they suggested it may have been deleted by the channel owner.
Thanks.

Wow nice garden and thank you for sharing your tips. Cheers from your new friend. 👍👍👍

Thank you Charles for sharing…. so enjoy your videos. Have a great week!!!

Hope it’s not two months! Look forward to hearing your updates.

Something so strange, I’m subscribed and should be getting alerts to your videos but, I’m not. YouTube isn’t showing me your videos. I’m going to just search for you when I think of it to see your videos!

I’m starting on making a veg garden this spring, and am learning a lot from all your videos (I also have two of your books, including ‘The Natural No-Dig Way’ bought way back in 2008!).
I don’t suppose you have a link to the slip-on boots (with green lining) you’re wearing – they look like the type I’m searching for. A close-up at 16:29 shows the maker, but I can’t read the lettering!

Charles, I recall you talking about the cauliflowers that wouldn't head up last spring. I had the same issue with one plant, in the ground from end of summer 2023 and didn't head up in the spring/summer of 2024. I did have space to leave it in though, so just ignored it, but was finally about to give up on it come this spring (2025) and compost it (after pigeons had had a go at it too), when I noticed that it was heading up ! By that point, the stem was the thickness of my underarm . I've had the same with a PSB once, didn't come to anything in its first spring but I left it and had a PSB tree the following spring instead. Plants are curious like that.

Dear Mr. Dowding, I have wonderful no dig garden thanks to you here in Zagreb, Croatia. I see you as my mentor because I learned so much from you. I have a question for you if you'd be so kind: do you ever freeze your vegetables or do you think it's not healthy. Also, I was wondering, what is the effect of chemtrails on plants and our health in your opinion? Thank you so much. Best regards from Croatia

I have the Charles Dowding cells, having slight issues with getting the rootball out without it crumbling. Could anyone advise? My differentials would be 1)using seed compost 2)under/overwatering 3)transplanting seedlings too early they havent developed a root network

Para proteger las habas de las heladas las protejo con plástico en la parte superior, si cortas las puntas de las habas también es un método fácil y sencillo contra el pulgón, y funciona. El éxito de los espacios pequeños son la variedad e intersiembra. Enhorabuena!

Is that the White Nine Star broccoli Charles. Mine has been gorgeous.

I hear you say you’re not a good planner but you’ve done this for years! I’m interested to know if you have a growing planner/ journal. I’d love to see a video on that.

P.s I love what you do, followed you for years and I follow your techniques. Thank you CD!

I'm.learning so much from you Charles. This year, im trying to not plant out later than need be, afraid of the weather. Thank you.

It looks nice. I really like that garden. It has so much character. Thank you 😊

i believe slugs and snails will one day be the death of me. I'll trip and fall in some overgrown corner of the yard searching for them with a flashlight and it will be days before someone finds me half-composted and overgrown with lupines.

I've decided to cheat death and get Indian runner ducks as soon as I build a coop. I'll still have to look for slugs, but I'll have company and I'll turn them into eggs instead of just squishing them.

Can you provide your opinion about whether it is good or bad to have the garden soil covered in plants. I have heard that it is very beneficial to the soil and therefore all the plants in the bed and then I also hear that these other plants compete for nutrients needed by your vegetables. I don't know which is correct anymore.

I had a funny thing happening: Peas did sow themselves by accident inside my greenhouse, but I din't see any green sprouts in October. They never got watered because I am not around in winter time, but keep the door open. When I arrived back 19th March, they did flower already and I had my first harvest on 2nd May. Winter minimum temperature in there was -7° Celsius. Will try this again next winter, gardening is always full of surprises!

Great to see how you set up your hoops and fleece cover. I've seen your hoops source, thank you. Just wondering which fleece type you use?

More thanks Charles. I've a new modified plan. Your small garden x 10. And more flowers.

I’m not sure if it’s just me but when watching your videos on my TV I get terrible visual feedback from the white sky and white cover cloth and just background in general. Looks like a high frequency shimmering. I do not get this while on my phone. I think it may be a problem at the source of recording. Yours is the only YouTube channel I get this on. I feel like I’m going to have a seizure sometimes watching lol

is it time to plant tomatoes

I've almost filled up my garden with beets, beans and brassicas, although I still have room for some tomatoes, courgettes and a few more brassicas. I'm trying out your modules for this month's sowings, so far it's all coming up nicely – I found a kitchen salad sprouter works well for germinating beans! This is the first year I'm watching your small garden and not thinking "wish mine looked as good as that"!

Really enjoy these videos as my veg patch is about this size; helps me plan mine a bit 😊

Another great video! Would you leve the fleece on the tomatos in a sunny day?

You can eat broccoli leaves! If you pull them out harvest the leaves for a great greens option for cooking, smoothies, or juicing.

1 videoda birden fazla bitkinin bilgisi 🥰 bu harika charles bu senin en güzel özelliğin👏👏👏

Where in the country are you? As you said there hadn't been any warm weather! When in southern England it has definitely been warm! 28°C is pretty warm for the 1st of May!

Great.

I noticed a couple of ollas at the beginning of the video. Do you use them for irrigation?

Hi Charles, have you experimented at all with biochar? What's your experience? Thanks 💚🌿

🥰👍

What metal wire/tubing do you use for the hoops at the end for fleece/netting?

I love the small garden because mine is about the same size and you give me so many ideas. You are such an inspirational person Charles. Thankyou so much for sharing your knowledge.

Greetings, Charles! My wife and I are in central British Columbia, Canada and, although sunny spring weather is here, it snowed a bit this morning (May 3, 2025). We'll be having our first taste of asparagus in a couple of days. It appears our planting of Martha Washington, now about ten years old, may have been hit by phytophthera asparagi, a fungal disease that sometimes appears in poorly drained soils like ours. It causes crooked, shriveled spears. We just ordered twenty-four new Guelph Millenium asparagus crowns as replacements, just in case. We'll try to find a drier area to plant them, and keep our fingers crossed! Do you encounter this disease in your area?

Wow Wonderful Garden ~
Thank you for good sharing LIKE 767
My friend, have a good relationship 😊