Here we bring all of the Pioneers in Agriculture together who have created modern ways of garden farming and community sustainability. We often say “The proof is in the pudding” and “If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it!” Due to chemicals, oils, and pesticides being sprayed on the land and our food it has diminished in nutritional value making the food tasteless and the soil depleted. We would like to show you alternative ways to gardening and farming the future.
The methods we present have been tried and tested which is all the proof you need. Plant your own food and connect with your community here!
A large part of no dig’s success is to do with the relative absence of weeds. You save so much time, and are free to be more creative, with less of the constant need to weed. Incidentally I love wild areas and buzzing wildlife, but am not a fan of weeds in the veg patch or flower borders. They can easily go from just a few, to swamping all other growth, especially new sowings and plantings. No dig makes it possible to enjoy a clean garden with mixed plantings, beautiful and productive, full of wildlife too – especially in the soil.
- Whenever soil has been dug, loosened or turned over, it recovers from the disruption by re-covering with weed growth – both from roots of perennial weeds and seeds of annuals.
- When left uncultivated/undisturbed/no dig, soil has less need to recover and grows fewer weeds, as shown by a look at Homeacres at any time of year. Check out the growing number of no dig gardens and allotments too.
- No dig soil is full of beneficial organisms and microbes, which help plants to find nutrients and moisture, and convey health to the gardener, for example by feeding his/her gut biome.
There are always a few new weeds, from seeds blowing in or brought in with composts, and they need removing by hand when small, or hoeing off as tiny seedlings. It is a little and often approach. Vegetable growing is bountiful and easier when weeding is just a small issue, still necessary but taking less time. Mulching to clear soil of weeds in polytunnels is the same story, see my early posts of 2013 for how I mulched a tunnel of weeds, starting here and scroll down halfway. See Ferryman Polytunnels for some ideas of structures and prices, and my article on this site. See this page in Italian, here.
A word to beginners, even gardeners with experience: be not daunted by what you read elsewhere, or what others say. For example, you can plant into compost. You might not believe how often I am asked if that is really true, which is silly because all propagation for example is seedlings growing in compost.
A fair amount of what you are told and read is inaccurate. Always ask for the evidence and experience which justifies any assertion. See my FAQ’s for more understandings.
Start small, even one bed of 1.2×2.4m can grow a lot of food. Cropping a small area well is more productive than having weeds and empty spaces on a larger area, and you will enjoy it more. Enjoyment is important and no dig is fun. I receive many comments like this:
Principles of rewilding – George Mobiot
Rewilding is all about people and natural processes working at scale for the long-term
We define rewilding according to five key principles. These principles guide our approach to rewilding:
1. People and communities are key
Rewilding embraces the role of people – and their cultural and economic connections to the land – working within a wider, healthy ecosystem. It’s about enriching lives and enabling people to reconnect with wild nature while providing a sustainable future for local communities.
2. Let nature lead
Rewilding seeks to reinstate natural processes – for example, the free movement of rivers, natural grazing, habitat succession and predation. It is not geared to reach any human-defined optimal point or end state. It goes where nature takes it.
3. Nature can support resilient local economies
Rural economies can thrive when they have flourishing nature behind them. In places where nature’s been lost, rewilding can create opportunities for resilient new nature-based economies.
4. Work at nature’s scale
Rewilding is restoring ecosystems with enough space to allow nature to drive the changes and the living systems, which provide the ecological functions on which we all depend.
5. Benefits are secured for the long-term
Rewilding is an opportunity to leave a positive legacy for future generations. The continued, long-term benefits of rewilding areas should be secured.
Why is this important?
Because reviving our hands-on knowledge of food is essential for all our futures. Because we can learn from each other; old and young, experienced and inexperienced, our neighbours and those from further afield. Where our food comes from, what it looks like before it hits the supermarket shelves and the amazing flavour of a freshly picked leaf should be understood by everyone.
But… what can I do?
Cook and share – get a tent that goes up and down fast. For quick cook moments, life’s too short for pegs. Next to your plot or at the community centre, use your crops to demonstrate a quick, easy, healthy meal to share with passers-by. Send them away with a new herb or a pot of chutney made from that glut of rhubarb.
Listen and learn – talk to sheltered housing residents and other older folks about the lost arts of pickling, bottling and preserving. They are the experts, record their story. Make their recipes and share the results – your cooking and their knowledge.
Show and tell – bring the local kids to your plot, show them the difference between a weed and a herb, let them get dirty, let them taste a fresh pea straight from the pod and send them home with a story to tell their family and friends about where carrots come from.
Swap those skills – do you know all about seed propagation but nothing about PowerPoint? Bring people together to learn from each other, over a cuppa or a plate of food. Sharing your knowledge and experience can connect you with new people, developing relationships and resilience in your community.
Breaking bread together – have you got an amazing recipe made from local produce that you want to share? Speak to neighbours about Come dine with me evenings, cooking simple meals in each other’s houses to share your hints and tips. Got a bit left over? Why not drop it around to someone who you know would appreciate a home cooked meal and a chat.
Learning can be formal, like in schools, or it can be from sharing and learning with each other. The formal learning might follow as your group develops, but we believe in the power of small actions and starting off with these small actions definitely contribute to learning about the power of food.
That’s how the learning plate spins.
Growing Communities
is a community-led organisation based in Hackney, North London, which is providing a real, practical alternative to the current damaging food system – changing what we eat, how we eat and how it’s farmed.
Over the past 20 years or so, we have worked to harness the collective buying power and skills of our community to reshape the food and farming systems that feed us. Our organic fruit and vegetable bag scheme and the Growing Communities Farmers’ Market aim to provide more secure and fairer markets for the farmers, growers and producers who we believe should be the foundation of a sustainable agriculture system.
All the farmers at our market are either organic or biodynamic. We’re the only UK farmers’ market where that’s the case. We’re easy to find and close to lots of bus routes between Dalston, Shoreditch, Stamford Hill, Clapton, and Stoke Newington. We also ask the stallholders to make processed foods to source most of their ingredients from the farmers who come. So not only do you get delicious food but you’re also supporting small, sustainable farms almost all from within 60 miles of London.
Excellent produce
Raw milk, butter, cheeses, yogurt, cream, eggs and meat from sustainable family farms
Fresh fish sustainably caught in the English Channel
Hand-made breads, cakes and chocolates
Fermented foods, kombucha, pickles and hemp products
Lovely organic veg from Kent, Essex and Cambridgeshire, salad leaves, seasonal fruit and exotic mushrooms
Local producers sell homemade cakes, Turkish pancakes and creole fritters to eat there or take away. Or you can enjoy a mushroom or bacon sandwich alongside a latte from the cafe. Read more about our producers.