I feel so excited in late May!
Many vegetables I’ve been watching for months, suddenly are ready to harvest. The warm spring has given us a wonderful start, and I’m seeing the rewards now — from multi-sown beetroot, lettuce and overwintered broad beans sown 26th October, to the ninth year of no dig potatoes in the same beds. See here for succession ideas.
No dig means you have easy possibilities for freedom of planting, almost wherever you want. I have no fixed rotation, moving new plants around a little without following a formula. This allows me easily to keep the garden full as we go forward through summer. It’s an easy and efficient way to keep beds full, simply popping in new plants as gaps appear after harvests of salad onions, beetroot, broad beans, lettuce, cabbage and fennel. Plus lots more to come soon. That’s succession planting in action, helping to keep harvests flowing right through summer and beyond.
See my free Quick Guide to no dig – and find my seed collections here –
In this tour, I show you the garden as it is now:
Succession planting of squash after spinach and turnips
Benefits of fleece for warmth and pest protection
Garlic harvest from the greenhouse — the biggest I’ve grown!
Composting with various materials
Interplanting, including beetroot with garlic, and cucumbers where spinach was
Managing pests like cabbage root fly and leaf miner
Seed saving from peas and lettuce
Growing under cover in the polytunnel and greenhouse — basil, cucumbers, tomatoes, and melons
The warm, dry spring has been a challenge for watering, but also a huge opportunity for early crops and planting. There’s so much to do and enjoy in the garden right now.
🔗 Helpful links:
🧑🌾 My seeds and varieties for succession planting – for succession ideas.
🌱 My seed collections –
📱 Garden planner app –
📘 Free Quick Guide to No Dig –
🛡️ InsectoNet mesh (as seen on the celery) –
00:00 Introduction, harvesting beetroot
00:42 Broad beans, when to harvest
01:17 Lettuce and potatoes, no rotation trial
01:43 Sowing for succession plantings
02:10 Squash interplanted with turnips, both covered with fleece
03:00 Surface compost from compost toilet, weeds on bed with cow manure
03:49 Plan to interplant squash with spinach soon to finish
04:30 Chard, flowering, soon to finish
04:49 Lack of rainfall, managing watering
05:20 Turnip plants under fleece lacking moisture, starting to flower, some damage from cabbage root fly
06:54 Asparagus, one left too long
08:23 Peas for shoots, and ideas for succession plantings
09:17 Garlic harvest, from greenhouse, very large – some rust
10:55 Old and new compost – solid sides around heap
11:58 A finished heap with some woodchip and cauliflower leaves
12:49 Courgettes, survived frost
13:48 More squash, and outdoor garlic with interplanted beetroot
14:48 More courgettes with fleece over
15:09 Dig/no dig trial beds – succession interplanting with spinach, cucumber, beetroot, potatoes
16:13 Onions and carrots under fleece
16:50 Insectomesh cover as part of trial – growing celery with/without cover – leaf miner damage to uncovered plants
18:44 Leeks, affected by leaf miner, now flowering
19:19 Celeriac under Thermacrop, against insects
20:11 Dahlias, agretti and sweet peas
21:03 More outdoor garlic, with rust
21:31 French beans, different types – need protecting from cold nights
22:44 Carrots not helped by having fleece cover
23:18 Broccoli and cauliflower under mesh cover, dill and broad beans
24:00 Polytunnel – basil, with mole disturbance!
25:04 Cucumbers with garlic interplants
25:56 Dwarf marigolds and tomatoes – cherry and beef
26:28 Melons watermelons and luffa
26:45 Plants for seed – mustard, onions, spinach, lettuce
28:34 Outside – peas from homesaved seed, Oskar variety
29:31 Fennel, spinach and spring onion – all in one small bed
30:17 In the greenhouse – basil and melon, how to care for
31:50 Tomatoes and celery, how often to water
32:43 Outro – keeping the garden full
🎥 Filmed 20th May 2025, at Homeacres no dig market garden in Somerset, UK. Filming by Nicola Smith on iPhone 14, and this whole video was in one take, so credit to her fitness as she followed me around holding the phone.
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#nodig #successionplanning #growyourownfood #healthyfood #springharvest #nodiggarden
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I love watching your garden grow. My broad beans have gone completly berserk. Ive never seen so many flowers. Hopefully there will be a bumper crop,
Very helpful video thank you. At last my garlic looks like yours, so happy! 😊
You are so great
The small garden veg rotation is so helpful to someone like me who only have a couple of small beds and multiple containers 😇👍 Thank you
no no and no…human waste is not my no 1 or even my no 2 choice..geeshhhhh
I'm in North Carolina, USA and we have both allium leaf minor as well as Onion Black Fly so we too now have to grow all onions, leeks and garlic under insect mesh for the entire growing season as its warm enough for them to have a 3 life cycles in fall, spring, and summer here.
You make it all look so easy😊
De ce nu sunt traduse filmele si in românește?
What is “water cabbage”?
I' don't like the "members only" concept but I do get it, and it's certainly within a channel's prerogative.. I subscribed out of curiosity and don't dislike the content per se. But don't notify me when it concerns a video I can't view. I'm only unsubscribing to avoid being plagued by notifications for content I can't view. Hope this makes sense. If not, good luck anyway.
The rain moved to Romania. We had massive amounts this May.
Charles I love your videos, so inspiring. Is it ok to plant cucumber next to potatoes, I read somewhere they don’t do well together but note you have them planted next to each other?! Thanks
I know I’ve commented on this video before
And yes I’m watching it again 😂
So much information communicated in an understandable way.
You are such a good teacher. Hope this is an encouragement 😇
Thank you 😇👏👏👏👍
Hi I have another question, what cover would you recommend to keep butterflies off my brassicas. My beds are looking great – 1st year of no dig. Having plenty of lettuce, spinach and broad beans. Lots coming too
Don't know how you do it Charles, i'm going crazy with pests this year. Last year Oktober i transformed my garden from dig to no-dig. Added a thick layer of compost, made beds with woodchip in between. It looked amazing. So was the start of the season. Everyone at my allotment was complimenting me on my plants, the lack of weeds, how it looked.
But now my broad beans have been destroyed by aphids, there will be no harvest this year. They have even started on my beetroot, which looked so good. And something is digging up my garden. Small heaps of dirt and tunnels everywhere. Sunday i trampled them down and today they're back twice as bad. I'm getting desperate really. Is it a mole, mice, rats.. Other plots at our allotment don't seem to have much trouble with it. So much for no-dig.
And something is in my garlic as well, but the bulbs are not yet big enough for harvest.
EDIT: Ok, i should first finish the video, haha. I guess i'm having a mole in my garden then. Sorry, got demotivated after seeing your wonderfull broad beans and beetroot. Now figure out how to catch it.
❤ So happy to find your channel. You are really passionate about gardening. You talk about gardening with all your experience and love for the vegetables you are growing. I learn a lot from the experiences you share, thank you for inspiring me to grow more gardening. I only have a small garden in VIETNAM and I am practicing to grow some vegetables. Can you tell me which country your beautiful green garden is in?
😇👍many thanks
Watched this video more than once and still learning.
I maybe a slow learner but enjoy your teaching in reality 😂😇👍
Thanks again ❤
Love the garden tour. Thank you. Our weather has been similar to yours here on Central Whidbey Island… mostly warm days, cool nights, and little rain. Happy gardening.😊
Weather is dry and cold in Kent…..
Dear Charles,
Do the allium leaf miners not bother your garlic? I see you covered the onions, but not the garlic. They infested my uncovered hoophouse garlic in the past. I cover all my alliums now in Spring and Fall because of this new pest. They started destroying my leek crops ten years ago but I didn't know what they were. I am in NE US zone 6. I have found the flies are pretty much not active any more by the time the garlic scapes start to curl (right about now), and I can pull the covers off then. Then the garlic harvest goes without a hitch at the mid-to-end of June.
I have a few sacrificial shallot plants that I monitor for new ovipositor marks on their leaves, to let me know when the coast is clear (I pick the marked leaves off when I find them and wait to see if any more show up).
I also delay planting my storage onions until about now for the same reason. The onions fatten up enough for me before harvest at the end of July. Terrible bugs, just hate them. Would much prefer planting the onions in the right season but this seems to work fine.
Hello Charles,
Tu es toujours très enthousiaste quand tu fais la visite de ton potager comme un enfant qui découvre pour la première fois ces légumes poussaient 😁
C'est trop amusant 👍
Sinon très belle vidéo comme à son habitude 😉
Il y a beaucoup de vent en ce moment,un peu de pluie et des températures pas très élevées 😟
Bonne semaine
Pépé JP du nord de la France
You’re honestly about failure and success is so helpful
Thank you 😇👍
So much information in your narrative you help us amateurs more than you know 👏👏👏👏😇👍
Thanks again 😂😇👍
Hi, it is always so interesting to watch and learn from your videos. Thank you! I planted garlic in the greenhouse for the first time this year, after your tip. And some onions.
In the spring, black aphids (or thrips?) appeared on the onions and garlic in the greenhouse. I think because of the onions (and the heat?). Also, most of the garlics started to hang in the greenhouse, but also outside (without pests). Do you have any idea what could be the cause of that?
Brilliant ❤❤❤
Thx for your dedication here really help to learn a lot every time watching your lovely video… how about gardening in a little container for every individual plant. would it work the same with no dig. I am in tropical country there's lots of rain and container really help to keep the nutrien from run out of the soil
The early harvests are very worrying .. and succession sowing will deplete soil nutrient levels. Professional Potato growers work on a 7 year rotation (to guarantee a quality product), the reason being that pest/disease levels significantly increase without rotation.
Hi Charles, I just want to extend to you my thanks again for helping us realise the important areas of growing we neglect…"the foundations" such as watering, seed nuturing and observation. A while ago I purchased "Rosa de Barbastro" tomato seeds and they failed to germinate until, I used a damp kitchen towel and whoa..the germinate! I have three plants which have really strengthened using "Growmoor Urban Wyrm Cast" compost.
With watering, it's paying off from your advice of checking weight and surface testing. I'm growing no dig spuds for the first time as well!! Charlotte and Maris Piper. The leaves are really healthy and medium deep green!
Our garlic has been not so fortunate but, I "never" avoid mistakes but "learn" from them.
Sorry for the long windedness 🙈 just a big thanks once again and, turning mainstream on it's side! 🤣
Lovely selection of veg there. Compared to last May this year has been completely different, we still had snow falling 2 weeks ago, everything is compressed, one day feels 3 weeks too early to plant things out and the next day feels 3 weeks too late 🙂 Moles have become the bain of my life this year they’re causing so much damage. I appreciate they’re coming because there’s food for them in the soil (especially since piling on composted cow manure to beds) so perhaps it’s a compliment.
Hehe. Here in N Germany, we had a warm March into early April, then average with frosty nights and no rain at all. No early harvests for me, but also seems my cabbages and broccoli etc surviving with what watering I can manage. So some bonus :-).
No beetroot yet, peas only just the surviving Frida Welten overwintered in the greenhouse.
Going to rain (lightly) all day today so I'm going to try to complete my planting out of all the stuff that's been waiting for frost-free nights (Friday night was down to freezing, have seen evidence too out in the field).
I feel fine about it all. I hedged my bets with starting both lots of brassicas and lots of peppers/chillies/tomatoes and other warm loving things. I hope my neighbours still need plants this week – they are looking very very good, be a shame to compost them all.
My outdoor softneck garlics are forming scapes already… Is this normal?
Fascinating to me but I plant the same things at the same time but my beets are still all leaves, my garlic has no bulb and my brassicas are barely starting to grow. I'm in zone 8b here in western Washington, same as Charles… Days have been around 60 and nights in the upper 40s but my turnips barely have leaves let alone something to harvest. One has to realize they just dont have the secret sauce. My peas and potatoes seem to be on par but…Amazing garden charles, thanks for sharing!! inspirational…
Thank you for the well done closed captions in your videos. I am not hearing impaired, but seem to be distracted from the great visuals you present. So I probably end up watching you twice.