I was fortunate enough this weekend to be able to secure a last minute booking for a 2 day no-dig course with the man himself; Charles Dowding. The author of 9 books on no-dig gardening and vegetable growing, and with a successful history of running both organic and no-dig market gardens Charles is the champion of No-Dig growing and a tireless proponent of information sharing, with his blogs, website, instagram updates and much, much more.
Held at the lovely Homeacres, near Shepton Mallett, these courses offer a more in-depth understanding of the whys, whats and wherefores of this increasingly popular organically focussed horticultural approach. The No-Dig movement has been gathering a head of steam over the past few years, with a burgeoning group of disciples, due to the seemingly simple and common-sense natural approach to growing. As a new vegetable grower with a large plot it seemed the perfect opportunity for me to learn from the best, and so it was that I found myself booking on to his 2 day intensive course.
As the course is more than a 3 hr drive from home I decided to take the Friday off and take a leisurely pootle past some infamous sights on the way, to allow me to stay overnight fairly locally.
So I left around midday and once I had passed the M25 I had a choice of whether or not to stick to the M4, or take a slightly longer meander along the M3 then the A303 - driving right past Stonehenge. With time on my side, I took the latter and within a couple of hours I was admiring the giant circle from the comfort of my car in a slow crawl past. Naturally the traffic all slows to a virtual standstill as you approach the site of these magnificent stones.
Not a great pic, but if you've never seen them I thoroughly recommend taking this route into the west country.
So I decided to stop off in a town called Wells, nr Shepton Mallet as this was just a few minutes drive from the venue and would afford me a leisurely evening of drinking local ciders, and, more importantly, would mean a lie in!
While booking I happened upon a very old hotel called "The Ancient Gatehouse" which was basically the original gatehouse to the castellated section of Wells Catherdral's outer defences. Weird thing is, at the point of booking I didn't even know that Wells had a Cathedral - so Imagine my surprise when I saw firstly my hotel;
The staircase up, which I could imagine people swordfighting on in days of yore..
The olde worlde door, under which I had to bend double to get through!
Not a bad view from my room eh?
So with this lovely surprise in mind I had a few ciders with an old friend who lived locally and enjoyed some local ambience.
I hopped into the car and within 20 minutes I was sitting outside of Homeacres - situated in a small village, it's the home and market Garden of Charles himself.
At first appearance it looked just like any other period property in the area - nice stone, quaint roof and visibly well tended garden. It didn't take long to spot the signs of good organic practice however, with a compost toilet adorning a side lawn and every bed laying deep and rich with well rotted media.
After meeting a few fellow attendees we were taken to the rear of the property and sat inside a large rear facing conservatory which overlooked the greenhouse and growing beds. It was adorned with boxes of Charles' publications, large advertising posters, and strategically placed hanging vegetables of every desciption occupying pretty much every spare surface - assumedly curing.
What followed on, after introductions, was 2 days of detailed facetime with Charles, who took us through all aspects of his no-dig approach in a logical order - from the mechanics of running a plot, the financials and realities of modern farming, his soil health theories and experiences, bed building, sowing, planting, covering, outside growing, inside growing, species advice and failures, harvesting, pest control and composting. Each and every one of these topics was covered with a simple passionate elegance, with the host plucking specific experiences which instantly felt relevant and pertinent and helped to solidify a deep feeling of understanding of "why?" and not just "what?" - something which Charles himself appears to find effortless. Few lecturers, I suspect, would be able offer such a niche programme, and yet somehow identify and then cram in a such broad range of essential accompanying knowledge with such flawless credibility.
What struck me most about spending this much time with the man, was his seemingly unfazeable attitude; he laced his deeply engrossing dialogues with amusing anecdotes, and a quiet whimsical delivery which left you hanging off of his every word.
And yet there wasn't the faintest hint of arrogance or annoyance at the multitude of questions and specific topics which each of the students delivered while covering their own agendas. At times I felt like Harry potter when he first got to know Professor Dumbledore - he exudes a certain sagely charm which made you feel you had known him all of your life, and that you can trust his opinions implicitly.
So anyway....we were there for a reason. The topic of the weekend was in general; how to grow vegetables using no chemicals, and without digging! And what better way to see what was possible than to eat some of the produce which was grown on site at homeacres....
So anyway....we were there for a reason. The topic of the weekend was in general; how to grow vegetables using no chemicals, and without digging! And what better way to see what was possible than to eat some of the produce which was grown on site at homeacres....
This is where the delightfully amicable Steph Hafferty made herself known to us, by creating lots of wonderful cakes, home made breads and biscuits, and hot and cold vegetarian dishes of which Yotam Ottolenghi himself would be proud.
We were wowed at each break and lunch time by the incredible array of vegetarian pots and soups which came out in large quantities for the students and tutors to feast on together.
We were wowed at each break and lunch time by the incredible array of vegetarian pots and soups which came out in large quantities for the students and tutors to feast on together.
An incredible squash, red onion and toasted pumpkin seed dish!
More yumminess!
Steph was full of stories and anecdotes at the table, her obvious passion for organic and vegetarian/vegan growing and cooking spilling out during the meals. She was infectiously warm and a perfect accompaniment to an excellently produced series of meals.
When reflecting about this absorbing experience, I realise that I know very little indeed, yet now I feel not only equipped to handle a particularly broad range of techniques....I feel confident that I can give it a good go. And that is the knack in many disciplines of learning skills of technical nature I think; that knowing "why" we are doing something allows us to make educated guesses when the unexpected happens and we don't have the answer to hand.
This is probably the most important aspect of what we learned this weekend - that many accepted and indoctrinated processes that we follow in gardening are there arbitrarily and that often nobody can explain why we do it. With the No-Dig method you can control pests, feed and condition soil effortlessly, reduce workloads, increase spare time, increase health, increase cropping and give something back to the very soil which feeds us. It's a relationship of mutuality and reciprocity which I'm guessing "chemical" farmers can only admire from a distance.
If you were thinking about attending this course, but were unsure about what it could offer you or how relevant it might be, my advice would be to "just do it". As a complete vegetable novice I found it engrossing, enlightening and inspiring - and I know that others who also attended who come from commercial growing backgrounds feel the same way.
There's a wealth of information online and you can learn more about anything, faster and in quite some depth in a relatively short space of time. However, nothing is a good substitute for some face to face learning with a genuine master of his craft who is at the top of his game, and this course gives you exactly that. Attending was one of the better decisions I'll ever make, if not just to experience a true pioneer sharing a taster of his 35 years of experience in just 2 days, which was worth the entrance fee alone.
I feel that I now have a whole new understanding and respect of the details, which I am so incredibly excited to apply... and hopefully now an arsenal of enough basic information to make a real go of the new plot!
I feel that I now have a whole new understanding and respect of the details, which I am so incredibly excited to apply... and hopefully now an arsenal of enough basic information to make a real go of the new plot!
Thanks for reading
