Latest News: Recent posts

Spring has sprung but with the chance of frost still lurking, what’s the best approach for your allotment or veg garden right now? Ecologist and gardener Becky Searle shares her expert tips in her latest blog - from planning your plot and tackling weeds to boosting your soil health...

It’s that time of year again, where, as Charles Dickens would say, it’s “summer in the light and winter in the shade”. That first tingle of sunshine warming our skin sets off a chain of events for gardeners. Not only does it give us the push we sometimes need to get out and start sowing seeds, it also triggers germination of those seeds and the beginning of a new cycle on our allotments. I have the pleasure of looking out at my allotment site from my house, and I see so many people going to their plots, because they are drawn outside, but other than sowing seeds, they aren’t sure where to start. So here’s a few things we can do right now to prepare for the coming season.

Get on top of your weeds

Weeds can compete with our plants for light and space, they can create hazards in our paths, and worst of all, they multiply at an alarming rate! Whilst it is great to leave some weeds for our wonderful pollinators – particularly dandelion are an important early food source for bees – we also need to be choosy about where we allow weeds. Clearing weeds from your beds and paths now can significantly help you in the months that follow. Large stubborn weeds like brambles will need to be dug out. Plants that spread underground like couch grass, nettles and bindweed should be pulled out. Rosette-forming weeds like thistle, dandelion and ragwort should be pulled out too, but carefully so as to not break the root. These weeds can all regrow from a fragment of root, so carefully does it! Other smaller weeds can be hoed out using a sharp hoe.

Plan

On those days where it is winter in both the shade and the light, take the time to do some planning. Planning your allotment can be the difference between a successful growing year and a terrible one. It will allow you to understand how many seeds you need to sow, and where you will be planting them once they’re big enough to go out. This also allows you to play with companion planting, and have a coherent vision for how it’ll all fit together. It’s a good idea to think about using larger plants as wind breaks, where you will put your supports, making sure not to cast shade on sun-loving plants, and how you will water particularly thirsty crops.
I am always surprised by just how many crops it takes to fill an allotment, especially one of a decent size, so planning can help you make sure you are making the best of your space.

Improve the Soil

Regardless of what type of soil you have on your allotment, or in your garden, it will likely be lacking in organic matter. Especially where we grow vegetables, we are continuously taking organic matter away so that we can eat it. We have to keep tidy beds so as to deter pests, and the net result is that the soil gets a bit hungry! The organisms that live within the soil feed on organic matter in two forms: the first is from dead organic matter. The second is from live plant roots, that actively pump carbohydrates and sugars down into the soil to feel the soil organisms. These are called root exudates. So, if you don’t have live plants in the soil, you should cover it with mulch. This will help to suppress the weeds too, keeping the balance of nutrients in the soil more in favour of steady growth than the fast growth we see in weeds. Utilising all the spaces in your beds is a great way to improve the soil, so bear this in mind when planning. Even if you just grow something like dwarf beans, radish, rocket or turnips in the soil and put them into the compost heap when they’re done, you will be helping to improve the soil and keep weeds at bay. Plus, you will be making more compost for next year’s mulch.
We recommend using compost as a mulch for one simple reason; it doesn’t create habitat for slugs and woodlice. Whilst these creatures are an important part of the garden ecosystem, they can present huge challenges for us gardeners when we are trying to grow things from seed such as carrots.
Minimising the disturbance to your soil will also help to improve it over time. The organisms in the soil take the compost, fallen leaves and root exudates and turn them into sticky sugars. These hold together the particles in the soil, creating good soil structure. The moment we dig our soil, the glues are exposed to the air where they break down. It also breaks fungal hyphae that are important for holding together soil structure. With this in mind, try to limit your disturbance of the soil to just when you need to plant something.

Leave some crops

Lastly, you may have some crops still left over from last year. Whilst many will be good to harvest for another few months until they go to seed, some are beneficial just as flowers. Kale is a great example of this. Their small yellow, star-shaped flowers are brilliant for attracting tiny wasps. Particularly the tiny wasp that parasitises cabbage white caterpillars – the very same ones that eat our kale and other brassicas in summer! So, leaving these to flower is a brilliant way of bolstering your defences for the summer months. Allowing radishes, rocket and other brassicas to flower will do the same.
Allowing crops to go to flower also has another key benefit; we can save the seeds. With the cost of living ever-increasing, seeds too are becoming more expensive. By saving your own seeds, you will not only save yourself money, but you will also allow plants to adapt to the specific conditions of your allotment or garden, allowing you to grow tailor-made plants. Try to choose the seeds from your best performing individual plants to save. If you want to know more about seed saving, I have written a box of cards called The Seed Collectors Kit. Each card is illustrated and has the details of different plants and how to save their seeds, and how to sow them the following year. There is also a booklet with information on seed saving and some envelopes to store seeds!

Becky

.............................................

About me:
Becky Searle is an ecologist and gardener best known for her Instagram account @sow_much_more. Her new book Grow a New Garden takes an ecological approach to planning, designing and creating a garden from scratch, or transforming your existing space. With a whole chapter on soil, and lots of information on balancing your garden ecosystem, this book is a mine of information for new and experienced gardeners alike.

Award-winning writer Steph explores this nature-based approach to growing, in the first in a series of four fascinating blogs for us:

What is Permaculture?

Permaculture is a word that is used and recognised across the world. You may have come across it in gardening books, or from TV programmes, or from contact with one of the many permaculture groups across the UK. Perhaps you’ve heard of the three ethics and twelve principles of permaculture, which quite frankly does sound a bit daunting!

In this series for Dalefoot, I’ll be exploring what permaculture is, and how we can use it in our lives in a practical way, that fits in with our budgets and busy lifestyles.

My permaculture story

I first came across permaculture when I was a student in Bristol in the 1980s, visiting the Green Fields at Glastonbury Festival. There I discovered pop up edible gardens created in beautiful designs, a respite from the mud and noise of the rest of the festival. Over the following years, I learned about using companion planting, comfrey for fertility and how to make a herb spiral, from other permaculture gardens at ecologically-themed festivals. I started to use some of these ideas in the edible gardens I was creating at home, and also at show gardens I created at eco festivals and RHS shows.

Reading Permaculture Magazine, and the writing of British permaculturalist Patrick Whitefield, deepened my knowledge of growing using natural, wildlife friendly methods - a journey originally inspired by Geoff Hamilton’s book Organic Gardening.

I have been using permaculture methods for a long time in my home and garden, and have been teaching and writing about permaculture for over fifteen years, including creating a show garden incorporating many permaculture techniques at RHS Hampton Court, which was sponsored by Dalefoot Composts.

Origins of Permaculture

Permaculture is more than gardening and a way of growing food. It is a way of living sustainably, working in harmony with the environment and designing a life working with nature, using fewer of the planet’s resources, and can include businesses, community, schools and education, how we design our homes, and much more.

The term was coined in the 1970s in Australia, from “permanent” and “agriculture”. The techniques and methods however are all drawn from ways of living and growing practiced by indigenous cultures for millennia. It is inspired by looking at how nature works, and adapting it according to your location, climate and circumstances.

How to “do” permaculture

There are as many different ways of “doing permaculture” as there are people, and no one way is the “right one”. Permaculture is sometimes referred to as a philosophy, or a design system, and it can look off-putting, misinterpreted as something with strict rules and complicated ideology. Indeed, like most things there are some who promote methods of permaculture which have a rigid framework, or an insistence that one must have a PDC in order to use permaculture methods.

A Permaculture Design Course, or PDC as it is commonly known, is a course of study with practical elements that leads to a certificated qualification. In the UK these can be accredited by the Permaculture Association. However this is an option, not compulsory. I have been teaching and writing about permaculture for years, and have not completed any kind of formal permaculture training. It is a choice, not an obligation.

The ethics and principles

The ethics and principles are not strict rules but rather guidelines and inspiration, things to think about whether you’re designing an edible garden, exploring a new business idea or a creating a community space. They are practical ways of working with nature and building more resilience into our lives.

I’ll be explaining these and exploring how we can use them in our own projects, to become a more resourceful, self-sufficient and self-reliant, and save money too.

There are three ethics: Earth Care, People Care and Fair Share

And twelve principles:

• Observe and interact
• Catch and store energy
• Obtain a yield
• Apply self regulation and accept feedback
• Use and value renewable resources and services
• Produce no waste
• Design from patterns to details
• Integrate rather than segregate
• Use small and slow solutions
• Use and value diversity
• Use edges and value the marginal
• Creatively use and respond to change

These might look a bit daunting, but really it is all practical common sense, and great fun too.

More about herb spirals…

Herb spirals are a way of creating a herb garden using compost, soil and other resources. They look beautiful. At the eco-festivals I was enchanted by the gorgeous designs made using old bottles and so, once I got my allotment, decided to incorporate a herb spiral into my design.

Once I had sourced enough bottles, I created a spiral, filled it with soil and planted my herbs. It looked lovely.

For a few weeks….

I had not considered weeding. The soil at the allotment site was full of bindweed, which had an wonderful time growing over the herbs and up, around and even inside the bottles. It was nigh on impossible to weed, and so that winter I removed all of the bottles, disentangled the herb roots from the invasive bindweed, and replanted them in a row in the ground. Not as fancy to look at, but much easier to weed.

A useful lesson learned. Always check the practicality of an idea for your location!

What has Dalefoot Composts got to do with permaculture?

As we’ll discover in the subsequent articles, Dalefoot’s composts fit well with permaculture ethics and principles.

Dalefoot’s composts are 100% peat free, organically certified, and use ingredients which are sourced from within the UK, including sheep’s wool, bracken and comfrey. The compost is 100% natural and sustainable. The composting process transforms waste products (sheep’s wool is often dumped or burned) and native plants (bracken, comfrey) into a nutrient rich product for sowing, potting and mulching.

Bracken has become a problem in many parts of the UK, spreading across the hills and decreasing biodiversity. Harvesting it in a manageable way helps to create compost whilst increasing biodiversity.

The composts are nutrient rich, requiring no additional feeds and therefore saving resources, and are naturally water retentive, reducing the need to water, helping to conserve natural resources.

Dalefoot are actively involved in supporting peat habitat restoration projects, and are a Living Wage company.

About Stephanie:

Stephanie Hafferty is an award winning garden and food writer, expert no dig gardener, homesteader, edible garden designer and inspirational public speaker. Stephanie is currently creating a no dig homestead on half an acre in West Wales, where she runs gardening and homesteading courses, at the homestead and online.

Her garden was featured on BBC Gardeners’ World in 2022. Her books include: No Dig Organic Home and Garden and The Creative Kitchen: seasonal plant based recipes using ingredients you can grow on an allotment.

Follow her journey on her blog, Instagram and You Tube

Website and blog : www.NoDigHome.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stephaniehafferty/

You Tube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/StephanieHaffertyNoDigHomesteading

A New Year, and at long last the days are slowly beginning to uncurl, as daylight begins to push back the darkness. Snow drops mark the occasion as they shyly emerge from the frozen undergrowth to reveal their simple beauty. However, with Jack Frost knocking on doors and rattling on windows, there’s no doubt, we’re still in the throes of winter. Although, there may be offerings of the occasional sunny crisp day, this isn’t the time to be outside tilling beds and sowing seeds. A sudden drop of temperature and a bruising sky, will have Jack’s icy grip quickly tightening around your beds and borders, undoing all your hard work. So, don’t play into his hands. Instead, take this time as a period of planning and preparing for this year’s growing season. Write your lists, draw up plans and mark the latest seed catalogues with your ‘must-haves’ and reliable homegrown favourites.

But for those, like me, who simply can’t keep out of the garden, here are a few jobs you can be doing this month to keep bodies warm and green spaces up together.

CHRISTMAS TREE

If you still have it, your Christmas tree will have seen better days, but there is still so much it has to offer. By shredding it as chippings, these can be used as an ericaceous mulch for acid-loving plants, such as blueberries, rhododendrons and azaleas. If you have an allotment, chippings can help create paths between vegetable beds. The branches also make useful plant supports for peas and broad beans.

BEDS & BORDERS

Remove all weeds and fallen debris, and cut away last season’s dead perennial foliage. Ensure you do not cut into new growth as not only will you lose vital young shoots, but you could potentially kill the plant. Once tidied up and cleared away, mulch borders, ideally to the depth of six inches, with Dalefoot Composts ‘Lakeland Gold’. This will not only suppress weeds; it will help protect plants root balls and slowly release vital nutrients into the soil. Be careful not to cover over emerging perennials, shrubs or protruding bulb shoots as this will prevent the sunlight and warmth reaching them, and could encourage rot. By doing this now, not only are you smartening up your growing area, but the mulch will eventually breakdown into the soil, improving its structure.

PLANTS

Prolong winter annual flowers by deadheading regularly. Remove yellowing foliage and keep their pots, containers or hanging baskets, looking healthy with a generous supply of Dalefoot Composts ‘Wool Compost for Potting’.

Ornamental deciduous grasses can be cutdown to a few inches above the ground, allowing new growth to come through. Evergreen varieties shouldn’t be cut until late spring, but you can give them a tidy. Using gardening gloves, simply run your hands through the plants like a comb, scooping up the old debris in the process.

Hellebores will now be making their annual appearance in gardens. To ensure no one misses their drooping blooms, cut away foliage. Not only does this reveal the flower, but old foliage can suffer from unattractive black blotches known as hellebore leaf spot.

INDOOR SOWING

A heat supply in your greenhouse will give you the advantage of making early sowings, for plants such as sweet pea and aquilegia. If you’ve been growing sweat pea since last autumn, then pinch out the tips, this will encourage side-shoots, and result in a bushier plant.

Chillies need a long growing season, so it’s good to get them going over the next few weeks. Using Dalefoot Composts ‘Wool Compost for Seeds’, fill small pots, modules or trays, then tamp down and sow across the soil’s surface. Cover them over lightly, label and sit them in a tray of water. This allows the water to soak from the bottom up, which leaves the seeds undisturbed. Finally, place them somewhere warm to germinate, such as a war propagator matt, a heated greenhouse or a warm windowsill. Sweet peppers and aubergines can also be sown as they too require a long growing season.

Onion sets are a great option to easy onion growing, however, there are more varieties to choose from if you sow from seed. Remember, your sown seeds will require somewhere warm to germinate, such as a heated greenhouse. Once germinated, they will need added sunlight to grow on.

Microgreens, such as mustard and watercress, are a quick-growing crop. Simply sow into a seed tray or pot, fill with damp compost and place somewhere warm. Once they germinate, place your tray on a warm, sunny kitchen windowsill to grow on. There, they can be easily harvested to be used in various tasty meals.

POTATOES

Whether you have ordered them online or bought from your local garden nursery, start chitting your seed potatoes as soon as you have them. Simply stand tubers in empty egg boxes with their eyes facing upwards, then place in a sunny, warm position. Once shoots emerge, keep numbers to three or four, as this avoids energy being lost on weaker shoots. Six weeks on, and tubers should be ready for planting out.

MAINTENANCE

Continue to harvest brassicas, leeks, parsnips and carrots. Once vegetable beds are empty, remove weeds, and add a thick layer of either Dalefoot Composts ‘Wool Compost Double Strength’ or ‘Wool Compost for Vegetables and Salads’. By doing this now, it will give the compost ample time to work into the soil and release valuable nutrients, making beds ready-to-go in spring.

Any fruit or veg currently in storage should be checked regularly to make sure they haven’t spoilt. Turn them over, and remove any decaying or damaged produce. Ensure fruit isn’t touching one another, as the unrestricted air supply will keep them from rotting. If storage space is an issue, wrap your apples and pears in paper and place them together in a box, storing it somewhere cool and dry.

If you can, keep off the grass. The freezing weather combined with your weight can cause permanent damage to your prized lawn.

Frozen water can expand, forcing taps and pipes to burst. Therefore, protect external taps and pipes from frost. If you can, turn off the external water supply altogether.

With the prospect of snow, it’s important to brush fallen snow from greenhouses, cloches, fruit cages and cold frames. The extra weight can break the glass, plus the plants inside need all the warmth and light they can get. Remove snow from delicate evergreens and tree branches to prevent damage.

WILDLIFE

Keep bird-feeding stations topped up and prevent their water supply from freezing. If you have a fish pond and it does freeze, avoid smashing the ice as this can shock and kill the fish. Instead, try to melt the ice gently with warm water. Don’t worry about harming the fish as they tend to remain at the bottom of the pond during the winter.

Gardening is a rewarding, therapeutic and creative pastime. But you don’t always have to be in your green space to get those gardening ideas flowing. So, make a cup of tea, retreat to a cosy nook and let your mind wonder.

Ade

....................................................

BIOG

I’m Ade Sellars the ‘Good Life Gardener’, and I’m am award-winning garden writer, gardener, presenter, and content producer, with a passion for growing my own food in my kitchen garden. As well as running my own gardening business, I design kitchen gardens, write for magazines, produce tailored video content for gardening brands, flower shows and outdoor events and I regularly deliver talks and demonstrations around the country.

Website: www.adesellars.com
Instagram: adesellars
YouTube: @TheGoodLifeGardener
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ade-sellars-the-good-life-gardener-7429ba42/

The storm of climate change has been steadily gathering over the past few decades, threatening to bring havoc upon our planet. In 2016 at the Paris Climate Agreement, countries pledged to do what they can to keep climate change below 2 degrees and preferably below 1.5. Now, less than a decade later, global average temperatures have risen by 1.3%, and nothing seems to be getting done by our policymakers to change this. The frustration and anxiety can be overwhelming at times. We can do a lot to help tackle climate change and look after our mental well-being during this time to ensure that we don’t shut down and become stoic. And, like so many things, it starts with a seed.

Resilient Gardens

Resilient gardening means building spaces that can withstand heat and dehydration in summer, and cold and wet weather in winter. Instead of cultivating spaces filled with finicky plants, prone to dying if conditions veer off the norm for more than a few days we need to start choosing hardy plants that are adaptable and strong. We can also build features into our gardens to help them cope. This can include drainage systems and rainwater harvesting systems, using permeable materials and building healthy soil.

Storing and saving our own seeds can also help to build climate resilience. By saving seeds, we can adapt the plants that we grow in our gardens and on our allotments to our local conditions. As these conditions gradually change, so too will the plants’ ability to cope with them.

Cultivating a garden that contains sturdy, resilient plants, produces and uses its own seeds, has healthy soil and harvests and uses its own rainwater builds resilience in other ways too by reducing our impact on the planet.

Resilient plants

Most of us don’t know a lot about the origins of our plants before we get them from a garden centre or online. Whilst having plants in our garden is undeniably better than not having any plants, some plants have a more positive impact than others. Plants that are sourced from elsewhere in the EU are still being grown in peat, which has a devastating effect on this precious natural resource and the climate. Some are also grown with systemic pesticides. These are soluble pesticides taken up by the plant roots, making the plant toxic to small creatures such as bees, butterflies and beetles. Then, of course, our plants also have a carbon footprint despite doing their best to counter it with photosynthesis. Plants shipped from abroad, packaged in plastic, and grown in heated, lit greenhouses using chemical fertilisers and pesticides will never be the best climate-friendly solution. The best thing to do is source your plants locally from places you trust. I highly recommend friends’ gardens for this. If you are able to join a local gardening club, you will instantly have a number of friends willing to share divided plants, cuttings, seeds and seedlings with you. This is by far the best way of sourcing plants. Better still, these plants will be suited to your environment. If you have to buy plants, do your research and ask questions. The simple act of being mindful about your purchases can help to quell anxiety about at least your own part in the climate crisis.

Building soil health

Soil health is one of the most important things in the garden. Not only does healthy soil support healthy plants (which means less need to source replacements), but it also helps your plants cope with extreme weather events and sequester carbon. Healthy soil will have a naturally built structure. This structure is perfectly designed to improve infiltration and store more water. This helps to reduce flooding in our wetter winters and improve water availability in the soil during hot, dry summers. The increased permeability of healthy soils means that we don’t lose as much water through run-off, we shouldn’t get so much standing water, and water will be available at root level most of the time.

Building soil health in your garden or on your allotment is also a really positive thing to do to help fight climate change. Soils are capable of storing an immense amount of carbon, so you can build your very own carbon sink simply by adding as much organic matter to your garden as possible through composting and growing.

Using Dalefoot’s mulches is a great way to naturally improve soil health. If you have sandy soil, Double Strength will add nutrients and improve water retention. If you have clay soils, Lakeland Gold will improve your soil structure, improving permeability and building organic matter content.

Using rainwater

This time of year, it’s difficult to remember a time when it wasn’t wet outside and underfoot. But in the heat of summer, rainwater reserves can become a lifeline. During drought conditions, extreme pressure is put on our natural waterways: streams, rivers and lakes, endangering the wildlife that depends on them. Reservoirs become dangerously low, sometimes even emptying. By collecting and using rainwater, we can all play our part in not adding to their stress. The more rainwater we can collect, store and use, the less impact our garden will have on the environment around it.

Looking after your mental health

We have long known about the effects of gardening on mental health. Unfortunately, in a changing climate, even gardening becomes more of a challenge, and we need to build resilient gardens that look after themselves and us. Spending time outside is known to calm us physically and mentally, and the effect is enhanced when the environment we are surrounded with is full of plants. Taking regular trips to forests, moors, and other natural environments can also help us to feel more connected to the world and relieve anxiety.

Doing something positive in the environment around us can help us regain a sense of control and calm. If you aren’t able to create a resilient garden, spending time outdoors and supporting green initiatives is a great way to stay positive and look after yourself and the planet.

When you have to make purchases, try to support ethical, sustainable companies like Dalefoot Composts. This will help you stay positive and connect with people who are making a difference in the fight against climate change.

Becky

About Me:

Becky Searle is a garden writer, kitchen gardener and soil expert. Her new book Grow a New Garden will be released in April 2025 and looks at how to start in a new garden or start over in an existing garden. It covers how to deal with poor soil and how to plan the space, along with easy-to-follow garden design tips. Available for pre-order now.

If you want to follow Becky's journey, follow @Sow_Much_More on Instagram or Sow Much More on Facebook.