Skills you need to make the most of your precious seeds and to elongate the growing season, through early sowing, overlapping crops and filling empty spaces at any time.
My tips cover where to sow, how to grow plants on and at what stage to set them in the ground. All with examples from my conservatory, greenhouse and garden at Homeacres, Somerset, U.K. Zone 8b climate.
My website www.charlesdowding.co.uk/ has time and money saving tips.
I have two online courses which include hundreds of photos and exclusive video content, for more information go to charlesdowding.co.uk/product-category/online-courses/
Filmed early April 2018 by Edward Dowding. Final edit on his laptop in my car on the way to airport for returning to university. edowdingfilms.onfabrik.com/portfolio
More info in my videos such as how to multisow in modules www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWUwS9P_GOs.
Also on my website is info on multisowing www.charlesdowding.co.uk/learn/multisowing/
This video shows me planting in early spring www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yl8LIs5t2A
Follow my progress on instagram charles_dowding
And Twitter @charlesdowding
This Old House landscape contractor Roger Cook resuscitates a dying lawn. (See below for a shopping list and tools.)
SUBSCRIBE to This Old House: bit.ly/SubscribeThisOldHouse
Shopping List for Fixing a Patchy, Weedy Lawn:
— compost [https://amzn.to/2Y70C9F]
— 9-3-4 fertilizer [https://amzn.to/2Wl2OcS]
— blended grass seed [https://amzn.to/2ZSBhC3]
About This Old House TV:
This Old House is the No. 1 multimedia home enthusiast brand, offering trusted information and expert advice through award-winning television, a highly regarded magazine, and an information-driven website. This Old House and Ask This Old House are produced by This Old House Ventures, LLC and are presented on PBS by WETA Washington, DC.
Each year we handpick the best Tall Fescue varieties for the Southeast creating our own special blend for planting new lawns and overseeding existing ones. This blend of three first-quality Tall Fescue varieties is specifically chosen for it’s dark color, disease resistance, and drought and wear tolerance. Today we are going to be looking at necessary steps for successfully planting a new Tall Fescue lawn.
1. The first step in preparing our site for planting our new lawn will be to eliminate any existing vegetation. One of the best ways to do this is by spraying the area with a concentrated weed killer containing glyphosate, something like Roundup. You want to make sure you do this about two weeks prior to seeding to give the glyphosate plenty of time to act on the existing vegetation. Remember safety always comes first. Make sure you wear the necessary protective eyewear and gloves when handling any chemicals.
2. Two weeks after spraying concentrated glyphosate, we use a tiller to remove the vegetation from the site. After we finish tilling the site, we want to look around to see if there are any sticks, stones, or other debris that have been left behind. You also want to try to use a rake to examine for any low spots, depressions, or possibly even high spots. This will help with irrigation and the water flow throughout the seedbed as you prepare.
3. Now that we have removed any existing vegetation along with any sticks or stones that may have been left behind, we are going to add an organic humus compost known as Soil3. Soil3 will actually add beneficial bacteria and nutrients to the soil, which will help promote a healthier and stronger fescue lawn. One thing you will want to do before this point is have a soil test done on your actual soil. A soil test will help identify whether or not you need any additional amendments added to the soil to help prepare the best seed bed possible. You may find that you don’t need anything. However, when testing our site, we found that we needed to add 50 pounds of lime per 1000 sq. ft. and in addition a 5-10-15 starter fertilizer.
4. After spreading Soil3 and any other necessary amendments to the soil, now it is time to plant the seed. A handheld spreader will help you control exactly where and how much seed you are actually putting out. The first thing you want to do is make sure the spreader is calibrated correctly, which means you have it set properly. Different spreaders have different types of calibration so you will want to follow the instructions for your particular spreader. We suggest and prefer that you take about half of the seed and walk in a North-South pattern then take the remaining half of the seed and criss-cross in a East-West pattern to make sure you have adequate and complete coverage over the entire seedbed area.
5. After spreading Tall Fescue seed across the seedbed area you want to make sure there is good seed contact. You may have heard that spreading wheat straw lightly over the Tall Fescue seed is one option for making sure that your seed are covered. We actually advise against that. Remember, we only sell blue tag certified Tall Fescue seed, which is 100% weed free, as is our Soil3 compost. Any time you introduce another element, such as wheat straw into the area, it’s possible that you will introduce foreign weed seed into the site. One possible solution to achieve good seed contact is to lightly rake over the area. When you do that the seed will end up just slightly under the surface. You don’t want to plant them too deep., about ¼ inch is about as deep as they should go. Another option is to use a soil compost spreader. This is really the best option. By using a soil compost spreader you accomplish two things, by rolling back over the entire area it presses the seed lightly into the soil making sure there is good contact. Also, by adding another light layer of compost, the seed will be just under the soil surface and ready for proper germination.
6. We are down to just the last few steps of planting our new Tall Fescue lawn. One of these steps involves using a roller to eliminate any air pockets you may have or smooth out any uneven areas that may have been left lingering behind.
7. The final step is to make sure you are prepared to water. We have said this in all of our other videos but we can’t stress it enough. One of the most essential ingredients for establishing your new Tall Fescue lawn from seed will be to make sure you have the proper amount of water. Water immediately after seeding. Then keep the area moist until germination occurs. Once the seedlings start to appear you can gradually decrease the water amount to 1-2 inches per week.
Thanks for watching and for other helpful hints and tips on how to establish your new Tall Fescue lawn as well as maintaining it please visit our website at www.supersod.com
In this Polytunnel Construction video we show you some of the later stages of building a polytunnel from Premier Polytunnels in the UK, including fitting the polytunnel cover using the base rail method (timber and aluminium options).
Our customers often ask: “Will I be able to build my own polytunnel?” The answer is yes, you will! Constructing an allotment/garden polytunnel really is a two person job, so why not invite a friend to join you and get stuck in. (Construction of larger, commercial polytunnels may take longer and require an extra pair of hands).
This video is just over an hour long, so find a comfy spot to sit and watch and reassure yourself that you can do it!
The polytunnel construction stages shown in this video are as follows:
0:00 – Staging Support Kit
2:33 – Hanging a Double Door Frame
5:41 – Hanging a Sliding Door Frame
8:17 – Timber Base Rail Kit
12:21 – Timber Side Rail Kit
17:00 – Aluminium Base Rail Kit
21:26 – Aluminium Side Rail Kit
27:00 – Forming a Door Rebate
28:31 – Side Ventilation preparation
31:18 – Covering your Polytunnel using Timber Side/Base Rails
35:52 – Covering your Polytunnel using Aluminium Side/Base Rails
44:09 – Ventilation Screen Kit (timber option)
52:01 – Ventilation Screen Kit (aluminium option)
1:00:45 – Fitting a Single Sliding Door
For individual construction videos, please see our Polytunnel Construction Videos playlist.
My «maximum compost» method for starting out. Add a lot to make new beds, then very little in subsequent years. The cardboard is only for this stage of smothering weeds — keep them in the dark and they expire! Then you dont need to lay any more cardboard, once there are no weeds.
For how to continue, see my Tools and Techniques video www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ic0LrNBuSi4
You can use less compost. Lay thick card on weeds then 2in/5cm compost asap in early spring, and wet the card if its dry. Then use a trowel to cut potato size holes in the card and a little into the weedy soil below, to pop in a seed potato. This can give some harvest by summer, while killing weeds too, but you must pull any weeds you see :)
Using less compost for no dig www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC6OBOyQ0mY
If you do not have access to any compost, use old leaves, manure at least half-decomposed — or at limit the one month old you see in this video. Results in year one will be less brilliant than in subsequent years, but you will be clearing weeds easily as well as having a harvest.
Vegetables like potatoes, squash and zucchini grow well though cardboard and less-perfect compost. After they finish you could plant kale or leeks etc.
POSTSCRIPT JULY 2020 the Charlotte potatoes from the two beds in the thumbnail photo gave 54kg/119lb. Then we transplanted looks.
Immunologist Jenna Macchiochi is here www.drjennamacciochi.com/
Find more information about no dig and my garden on Instagram charles_dowding and Twitter @charlesdowding
Filmed at Homeacres 18th March 2020 by David Adams.
To join my channel as a member, use this link www.youtube.com/channel/UCB1J6siDdmhwah7q0O2WJBg/join
As a member, you can watch a new video each month, which is exclusively for members. Your payments support my promotion and teaching of better, easier gardening. I can offer bursaries for day courses and online courses, through individuals in charge of community gardens/allotments and school gardens. Contact us through my website to enquire about bursaries charlesdowding.co.uk/contact-us/
All of my channel’s other YouTube content will continue as now.
You might think its difficult to fix an ugly lawn but in this complete step by step guide to overseeding your lawn, Ill show you it can be done much faster than you think! Overseeding is the process of adding new grass seed to your existing lawn and the transformation can done quickly and easily with simple lawn renovation. In the past I have done this with perennial ryegrass but it can be done with any cool season grass such as fescue or bluegrass as well. Pair this with dethatching and core aeration and you will fix that ugly lawn in no time!
Ryan Knorr Lawn Care is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program and other affiliate programs below. An affiliate advertising program is designed to provide a means for sites and creators to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com or other product sites. I receive a small commission through these links.
See the whole process from sowing to earthing up to harvest, by pulling not digging. Potato plants easily root into undisturbed, no dig soil, while developing potatoes need soft, surface material to grow in.
Its often assumed that potatoes just wont grow in soil that has not been thoroughly loosened, but this video shows the opposite.
Filmed at Homeacres April to July 2018, in a spring that started cool and wet, then turned hot and dry after 3rd May. South West England zone 8 climate, last frost mid May.
For updates on how the no rotation worked in 2019, see this link charlesdowding.co.uk/three-strip-trial-2014-2018/
My garden is no dig and you see how few weeds are growing. We spend most of our time planting and picking, about two hours/week on weeding a quarter acre/1000m2.
For more on the simplicity of no dig, see www.youtube.com/watch?v=NE6aVGnBDYs.
Read about no dig in our popular book double offer of Diary No Dig Organic Home
How to Overseed your Lawn — Tips from Pennington for Seeding
Seeding and overseeding your lawn is important for maintaining a healthy lawn. Paul James, The Gardener Guy, shows you how to overseed your lawn and keep your existing lawn healthy, season after season.
Be sure to subscribe to our channel for more videos on lawn care!