Dig vs no-dig soil: a comparison in 2 pictures

A comparison of 2 images that show how and why no-dig works

Unfurling rose

A pale pink rose unfurling in the February garden

First week of February: seeds, seedlings and light

The days are getting noticeably longer and it is a wonderful, joyful thing. Today it was still light after 5pm, by the end of the month it will be light until after 6 (if you include twilight). There have been a few sunny and mild days over the last couple of weeks; yesterday it was […]

Book review: Gardening through the year

A review of Gardening Through The Year by Ian Spence

Sowing the first seeds of the year

Spring around the corner It’s been sunny and frosty for a lot of this week – weather that is beautiful in itself, but that also gives you hope and anticipation of spring just being around the corner. As a result I’ve been itching to get going in the garden and on the allotment, and that […]

Leafmould joy, a new growhouse and a new diagnosis

Leafmould joy We get fresh manure, woodchips and very occasionally leaf mould delivered to our allotment site. You have to be luck to be there when there’s still some left – especially during Covid where deliveries have been much less frequent than before. Today was a lucky day – there was a huge pile of […]

January cold blue sky

It was one of those lovely winter afternoons – a weak warm sun low in the blue sky, casting a beautiful golden light over everything. I took a walk to the allotment, listening to lovely acoustic guitar music on my headphones and occasionally stopping to drink in the big blue sky and feel the warmth […]

No-dig green manures

It was wonderful to get outside today in the warm sunshine. The snow has melted away, the sky is blue with a few clouds, and the temperature here in London is a balmy 16C, made slightly cooler by the cool wind. I walked to the allotment listening to the end of Mark Cocker’s book about […]

Spring around the corner

I’ve never been so happy to see the turn of January to February to and feel the first signs of spring. This was the first week when the light began to change, the sun felt a little warmer when it made an occasional appearance, the days became noticeably longer and something in the air proclaimed […]

Spring in sight

The snow cleared this week, the weather is a little less cold, it’s February tomorrow and out of nowhere it’s suddenly light until 5pm. The end of winter is in sight, at last. The bulbs are coming up. The earliest ones have started into flower this week, including a few lovely tiny snowdrops. I absolutely […]