We’re planting No Dig potatoes and making compost for our No Dig vegetable garden on our homestead in Portugal.
Here, living in Central Portugal, potatoes are traditionally planted in February.
We’ve successfully used the no-dig (Charles Dowding @CharlesDowding1nodig) method for 12 years with great results.
The no dig method requires lots of compost so we try to make as much as we can. This week we show you our compost and how we make it.
#nodig
31 Comments
So glad to see that you found some long handled garden tools. Potatoes are heavy feeders so they should get lots of nutrition from that great looking compost. Just a thought, would it have been better to let the rain get on the soil before covering it with the straw? I could not tell if the compost was already moist enough? Will any rain and you hand watering actually get down to the plants roots when they need it? My last season potatoes looked like yours with the drought conditions here on the west coast of Canada. I hand watered daily but the water just ran off the surface. The 1-2 inches of water required per week for potatoes may not be possible for any of us now, with droughts. A slogan that I saw last year fits with your no-dig method—Happy Soil, Happy Plants, Happy Gardners. 🥔🥔🥔
I would like to let you know how much I appreciate how polite you are with each other. I watch other channels and rarely do I hear people thank their partner, or let them know that they appreciate the work the person has done. It is wonderful to see you work together and be respectful, even if you don't agree on how something should be done. Not only do you have a wonderful property, you are a beautiful couple! I smile thru your videos watching you work together. Blessings.
Boa tarde e boas sementeiras.
Yummie in ya tummies potatoes
On my allotment the birds dug through the compost and the rats ate the shallow potatoes…..definitely plenty of water and only 2 nice tight chits per potato :o)
Lovely birdsong and great work. ‘Watch me onions’😅
For inspiration have a look if you can on YouTube for posts on Jim Kovaleski's veg gardens in Florida.
He is a market gardner, removed subdivision front lawns on his family property and turned them into a business. It is a no-till setup and he just continues to add layers of compost. He farms the land for six months in the Florida winter and then moves up to Maine to farm his land there from Spring to Fall.
See one of the videos at ..Youtube.com/watch?v=MSvwN4SlzeQ…of course he has water.
Be wary of commercial compost. I worked for a gardening maintenance company for ten years. Every scrap of garden waste including fertilized grass clippings, weeds, shrub prunnings, leaves, pine needles and anything else coming out of apartment and condo dwelling gardens went to a recyling facility. You would not believe what we saw being dumped and then ground up into so called compost. The waste came out of the shredders looking like soil. In only days it would be sold and heading back out to be put on garden beds. We not only paid to dump the waste, but paid to buy it back for our customers gardens! The goat manure mixed with your own land and food scraps is safer and more nutrious! I used to buy bags of mushroom manure, a mixture of differnt type of animals manures. I finally clued in, if it won't grown mushrooms any more, what good is it for my veggies? As my father used to say..Damn buggers!
what about the house ? is it finished yet ??
Hi, great video, learn so much about growing potatoes. Good luck..
You must have some very well-mannered boars in your neighbourhood! Where we are, they would jump for joy at that heap of compost and dig up every potato before it had time to sprout! 🤣Can only do (high) raised beds here for that reason.
You're both hilarious !!!
I love watching the two of you work on your land. It’s just heartwarming for me. I wish I could do the same.
Wow, people in Europe must be taller than here in the USA. When I pace off to measure it’s only in yards, yet you paced off and measured in meters! 😊
I have binged watched everyone of you videos and it was more enjoyable than any top movie that i have watched.
I spent many months in Portugal (Pererio. Areias. Ferreira Do Zezere) where a very dear friend of mine rebuilt a ruin and she had land full of fruit/nut/olive trees etc
There was two wells on the land too.
Being a very handyman, I worked my a** off but it never felt like work.
The sunshine really agreed with me and i got really fit. (i almost seen my six pack for the first time)..Ha.
I felt i was living in the last century when i was there and you two amazing people have brought that wonderful memory back to me.
Just looking at your land on your videos reminds me of a life i should never left behind me.
Now i am back In an large Irish town and missing the life i had over there.
Thank you both for the loving memories of Portugal.
Much love, happiness and success to you both.
You don't need to put the whole patatoe, you can split it…. That's how we do it
Love to see your videos
How far in the ground do you plant potatoes ??
I will be planting in pots so was wondering how big the pot needs to be 6 – 12 inchesor more
Wondering if you can order potatoes online in smaller quantities. Organic sellers would do that I guess – at least here in Belgium and The Netherlands.
Looking forward to the flowery spuds with good Irish butter……….
Good work 'Team Veggie'
Fingers crossed with those spuds.
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Não sabia que se podiam plantar batatas sem se cortarem. Aqui em Portugal todas as pessoas cortam. Qual é a vantagem de plantar batatas inteiras. Muito obrigada. Adoro ver os vossos videos porque aprendo sempre algo de novo. 😊
Thank you so much for sharing this video and your ideas that makes me added more learn from both of you… 🙂
Make sure you cover them with chicken wire or netting to stop the rats digging them up! I agree about no dig but if you don’t have good deep soil then it will make really good soil after time. My Allotments have been going for 25 years so all my beds are really about two foot deep.
I agree. You can never have enough compost! I only grow veggies in pots and on my windowsills (I don't have a garden). I just can't believe how much compost I need! And I make my own.
How amazing!! No dig soil is the best …Charles Downing is a master …and you are teaching others to do it, ❤❤
So do you remove the tarp from the heap on rainy days?
Love the simplicity of your compost pile I can’t wait to see how many potatoes you get in your no-dig garden beds 👍
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