Since March, sales of vegetable plants and seeds have been soaring. The demand has been so great that some online nurseries have had to suspend their websites at times to cope with the rush of orders.
One person who has been helping novice growers get to grips with their new-found passion for ‘grow your own’ – apart from Weekend columnist Monty Don, of course – is gardener Charles Dowding.
‘It’s been crazy,’ says Charles, 61, from his home near Castle Cary in Somerset, where he lives with his partner Steph Hafferty, a professional gardener and cookery writer. ‘The level of interest has been incredible.’
Although he may not be a household name like personal trainer Joe Wicks, Charles has something in common with him – they have both become YouTube sensations during the lockdown.
Charles Dowding, 61, (pictured) who lives near Castle Cary in Somerset, told how he became an online sensation with his YouTube ‘how to’ videos
In the last month alone, 2.8 million gardeners have viewed Charles’s ‘How To’ videos, and he has gained 38,000 new subscribers to his YouTube channel.
‘There’s an incredible thirst for knowledge when it comes to growing vegetables,’ he says.
There are many videos on the internet giving tips on vegetable growing, but Charles offers something unique: he is a passionate advocate of the ‘No Dig’ method.
Most people planning a new vegetable garden are told to begin by digging the soil thoroughly and removing stones and weeds. As anyone who’s ever tried it will know, this is backbreaking work.
With No Dig, all that digging and weeding isn’t necessary.
In fact, according to Charles, who has written several books on the subject, it’s not just ‘a waste of time’, it’s positively counterproductive because ‘digging over the soil damages its structure.’
He never uses chemical fertilisers either – instead, he recommends simply adding a layer of mulch to the soil, without digging it in.
Mulch – the name for a protective covering that nourishes and insulates your soil – can be the contents of your compost bin, or you can buy bags of well-rotted manure. This feeds the micro-organisms in the soil and will create a productive garden.
Spread the mulch over the soil to a depth of 10cm and plant your veg straight into the soil: the mulch will help suppress most of the weeds.
Charles revealed that the ‘no dig’ method he has been using for over 30 years has often been viewed with suspicion. Pictured: An aerial view of his plot
Although Charles has been using No Dig for over 30 years, the technique has often been viewed with suspicion.
Gardeners’ World, in the days when it was presented by Geoff Hamilton, devoted a whole programme to Charles and his vegetable growing, but it wasn’t until he started writing magazine articles about No Dig in the early 1990s that it slowly gained acceptance.
Today the Royal Horticultural Society gardens at Wisley and Kew, as well as the National Trust’s garden at Sissinghurst, are all using the No Dig method in their vegetable plots.
Having visited Charles’s quarter-acre market garden a few summers ago, I can vouch for the fact that it is amazingly prolific, with every centimetre filled to bursting with healthy veg.
He supplies salads and other vegetables to local shops and restaurants, and some of the produce is used in the cookery and gardening demonstrations that he and Steph give. All his YouTube videos are filmed in his own garden.
For new gardeners, Charles recommends keeping it simple and starting off with carrots, potatoes, tomatoes, broad beans and salad crops like lettuce and rocket.
Will the boom in veg growing continue once the lockdown is over? Charles believes it will. ‘Once people realise how easy and satisfying it is to grow your own vegetables, there’ll be no going back,’ he says.
Charles advises new gardeners to begin with carrots, potatoes, tomatoes, broad beans and salad crops. Pictured: Two of his no dig beds
For more information on Charles’s courses and books, and more tips on No Dig, visit charlesdowding.co.uk.