Uploaded July 2025 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
It’s a dry July and I’m managing 1,800 m² of no dig beds with just one tap and a hose. In this tour, I show how I water by hand, interplant for efficiency, and grow healthy crops through a heatwave.
The unusually dry spring and summer offers a chance to show watering selectively, to much reduce the overall quantity used.
The potato plant I pull is a decent harvest in the 11th year of a no rotation trial. We watered earlier on, and this is the trial explained here:
charlesdowding.co.uk/post/three-strip-trial-2014-2022-no-dig-forking-different-composts
I show you how I interplant, to economise on all three of space, use of covers, and water. This video has more on that:
youtu.be/2GMc2GapDGo
Main subjects:
- Hand watering methods during a heatwave
- Interplanting carrots, beetroot, lettuce, Brussels sprouts
- Doubling up harvests from the same bed with no extra compost
- Compost heap structure and turning process
- Thriving crops like aubergine, sweetcorn, grapes, beans, and celeriac
- Propagating in heat, and why small transplants often take best
- Tomato ripening tips and harvesting at “breaking” stage
- A stunning 2 kg melon harvest — sweet and colourful, sugar content 9.7% Brix
- The benefits of no dig soil for deeper root moisture access
Harvest highlights include 39 kg of salad potatoes, 40+ kg of turnips before squash, over 11 weeks of lettuce harvesting (now interplanted with beetroot), and fruiting vegetables thriving in the dry heat. Some crops like asparagus and beetroot are managing with no extra water at all.
Water stretches further thanks to a MagnoStream device I use on my hose, which slightly alters the structure of the water. You can explore it here: abimax.com/pages/garden — and enjoy 10% off both MagnoStream and MagnoStream Pro with the code NODIG.
Thanks for watching. I wish you the best with no dig and good timing.
Filmed by Nicola Smith at Homeacres, UK 11th July 2025
Join this channel by paying a monthly fee, to support our work with helping gardeners grow better, and to receive monthly videos made only for members:
youtube.com/channel/UCB1J6siDdmhwah7q0O2WJBg/join
#nodig #charlesdowding #successionplanting #compostmaking #vegetablegardening #growyourownvegetables
00:00 Introduction - a heatwave
00:40 Carrot bed, interplanted with Brussels sprouts - using covers and watering
02:10 Bed of leeks that followed potato harvest - watering
02:57 Lettuce under cover, neighbouring squash bed taking water
03:41 Recently harvested potatoes, part of three-strip trial, Charlotte variety - using home-saved seed
04:37 No rotation trial - potatoes and lettuce, interplanted with beetroot
05:28 Cabbage that followed broad beans - under cover
05:34 Grapes, 3rd year, and chuckleberry
06:06 Artichokes grown from seed, Vert de Leon - when and how to harvest
06:42 I demonstrate pulling potatoes
07:56 Chicory, recently planted as small transplants - watering selectively
08:54 Parsnips from home-saved seed, not successful!
09:19 Asparagus - no need for water
09:33 Blackcurrants, and lettuce recently picked
10:07 Squash, rooting into neighbouring beds, including buckler-leaved sorrel
10:43 Raspberries, not watered, and some new strawberry plants
11:47 Compost in 7-bay system - newly started heap, with pipe to open up middle
12:35 Finished heap - temperature and turning, no sieving
13:32 Beetroot interplanted between garlic - not watered, discolouration of leaves
14:26 Sweetcorn, hardly watered and growing well - moisture retention with no dig, and best tine to water
15:17 Bed with courgettes, tree root invasion - little and often watering
15:58 Purple-sprouting broccoli soon to be interplanted between lettuce - white mycelia in drills
16:55 Celeriac, no water, wait until fruiting time
17:15 Sweet potato under fleece for warmth - advice on watering
18:16 Chicory/endive, and beans needing water - French and climbing, and white seeded runner beans for dry seed
18:53 Carrots, not watered - affecting taste and texture
19:28 Lettuce bed, watered regularly, good harvests - covered with Thermacrop for shade and against rabbits
20:46 Bed of carrots, just emerging
21:14 Area of new ground, bindweed removed
21:34 Teepee of peas, unpicked for seed
22:16 Cucumber disaster in polytunnel - a virus, and leeks planted after removal of some plants
22:39 Cucumber mosaic virus - first time in 43 years
23:11 Aubergines, growing well, de Barbentane variety
23:39 Luffas and watermelon
24:15 Melons - lateral growth, no sideshooting
25:39 Tomatoes, Sonnenherz variety - no feed or fertiliser, regular watering
27:04 Dahlias, not lifted
27:18 In the greenhouse - seeds germinating and transplants growing in module trays
28:59 Tomatoes at breaking stage
30:07 Harvesting and tasting a ripe melon, Malaga variety
It’s a dry July and I’m managing 1,800 m² of no dig beds with just one tap and a hose. In this tour, I show how I water by hand, interplant for efficiency, and grow healthy crops through a heatwave.
The unusually dry spring and summer offers a chance to show watering selectively, to much reduce the overall quantity used.
The potato plant I pull is a decent harvest in the 11th year of a no rotation trial. We watered earlier on, and this is the trial explained here:
charlesdowding.co.uk/post/three-strip-trial-2014-2022-no-dig-forking-different-composts
I show you how I interplant, to economise on all three of space, use of covers, and water. This video has more on that:
youtu.be/2GMc2GapDGo
Main subjects:
- Hand watering methods during a heatwave
- Interplanting carrots, beetroot, lettuce, Brussels sprouts
- Doubling up harvests from the same bed with no extra compost
- Compost heap structure and turning process
- Thriving crops like aubergine, sweetcorn, grapes, beans, and celeriac
- Propagating in heat, and why small transplants often take best
- Tomato ripening tips and harvesting at “breaking” stage
- A stunning 2 kg melon harvest — sweet and colourful, sugar content 9.7% Brix
- The benefits of no dig soil for deeper root moisture access
Harvest highlights include 39 kg of salad potatoes, 40+ kg of turnips before squash, over 11 weeks of lettuce harvesting (now interplanted with beetroot), and fruiting vegetables thriving in the dry heat. Some crops like asparagus and beetroot are managing with no extra water at all.
Water stretches further thanks to a MagnoStream device I use on my hose, which slightly alters the structure of the water. You can explore it here: abimax.com/pages/garden — and enjoy 10% off both MagnoStream and MagnoStream Pro with the code NODIG.
Thanks for watching. I wish you the best with no dig and good timing.
Filmed by Nicola Smith at Homeacres, UK 11th July 2025
Join this channel by paying a monthly fee, to support our work with helping gardeners grow better, and to receive monthly videos made only for members:
youtube.com/channel/UCB1J6siDdmhwah7q0O2WJBg/join
#nodig #charlesdowding #successionplanting #compostmaking #vegetablegardening #growyourownvegetables
00:00 Introduction - a heatwave
00:40 Carrot bed, interplanted with Brussels sprouts - using covers and watering
02:10 Bed of leeks that followed potato harvest - watering
02:57 Lettuce under cover, neighbouring squash bed taking water
03:41 Recently harvested potatoes, part of three-strip trial, Charlotte variety - using home-saved seed
04:37 No rotation trial - potatoes and lettuce, interplanted with beetroot
05:28 Cabbage that followed broad beans - under cover
05:34 Grapes, 3rd year, and chuckleberry
06:06 Artichokes grown from seed, Vert de Leon - when and how to harvest
06:42 I demonstrate pulling potatoes
07:56 Chicory, recently planted as small transplants - watering selectively
08:54 Parsnips from home-saved seed, not successful!
09:19 Asparagus - no need for water
09:33 Blackcurrants, and lettuce recently picked
10:07 Squash, rooting into neighbouring beds, including buckler-leaved sorrel
10:43 Raspberries, not watered, and some new strawberry plants
11:47 Compost in 7-bay system - newly started heap, with pipe to open up middle
12:35 Finished heap - temperature and turning, no sieving
13:32 Beetroot interplanted between garlic - not watered, discolouration of leaves
14:26 Sweetcorn, hardly watered and growing well - moisture retention with no dig, and best tine to water
15:17 Bed with courgettes, tree root invasion - little and often watering
15:58 Purple-sprouting broccoli soon to be interplanted between lettuce - white mycelia in drills
16:55 Celeriac, no water, wait until fruiting time
17:15 Sweet potato under fleece for warmth - advice on watering
18:16 Chicory/endive, and beans needing water - French and climbing, and white seeded runner beans for dry seed
18:53 Carrots, not watered - affecting taste and texture
19:28 Lettuce bed, watered regularly, good harvests - covered with Thermacrop for shade and against rabbits
20:46 Bed of carrots, just emerging
21:14 Area of new ground, bindweed removed
21:34 Teepee of peas, unpicked for seed
22:16 Cucumber disaster in polytunnel - a virus, and leeks planted after removal of some plants
22:39 Cucumber mosaic virus - first time in 43 years
23:11 Aubergines, growing well, de Barbentane variety
23:39 Luffas and watermelon
24:15 Melons - lateral growth, no sideshooting
25:39 Tomatoes, Sonnenherz variety - no feed or fertiliser, regular watering
27:04 Dahlias, not lifted
27:18 In the greenhouse - seeds germinating and transplants growing in module trays
28:59 Tomatoes at breaking stage
30:07 Harvesting and tasting a ripe melon, Malaga variety
