No Dig Gardening
from our resident gardening expert, Nell Williams

I started writing for Connect magazine in January 2003. I had recently taken on my allotment in Tiverton, and only just given birth to my son.
Four and a half years later, and much of my life is still evolving. Okay I’m still a single parent but gardening, which had been mainly a hobby, has now become a living. I have opened my garden to the public for HDRA (now Garden Organic) and for the National Garden Scheme. I’m now running my own garden design and maintenance business, as well as growing and selling plants. I’ll never be a millionaire but when the sun is shining, the bees buzzing and swifts
swooping across the grass, who’d want to be in an office?
This is my farewell piece to Connect readers -for personal reasons and because I would like to read someone else’s take on gardening, I think it’s time to move on.
We live in a remarkably beautiful part of the country, but wherever you live it’s easy to get caught up in modern society’s way of living, sucked in to “keeping up with the Joneses”. For me a magazine like Connect helps remind us that there is an alternative out there, that living a greener life is a viable proposition. I must confess to not being from this part of the country (I was born in London but my dad is from Plymouth), but looking for a way to live a sustainable life has led me here (via Spain, Tanzania and Bristol). Whether you live in the middle of the city or in a little village, whether you have several acres or just a window box, its possible to grow vegetables or flowers, compost your veggie peelings, and help look after the environment. There are numerous organisations which can provide support and information to help get you started, or to motivate you to keep going. A greener lifestyle is never going to be the easy option but it is an incredibly rewarding one.
But as I know, if you believe strongly enough in something, you can make it work. However from time to time we all need a bit of inspiration, which I found recently when I was sent a copy of ‘Organic Gardening - the natural no-dig way’ by Charles Dowding (Green Books). Between setting up the business, running around after my son, and the general day to day stuff which takes over everyone’s lives, my allotment is not looking quite how one would hope. So anything which claims you can cut out the digging, I am all for. But I am also a bit of a cynic…
However this book doesn’t just claim you can cut out digging. Charles Dowding has done better than that. He established the first veggie box scheme in the 1980s and has grown produce for restaurants and shops for over 25 years, which - given how exacting restaurants are (as I know from my own experience of growing for the River Café in London)- proves that the techniques work. The book explains the principles, with sections on making compost and sowing seeds, as well as growing a wide selection of vegetables and fruit. Charles provides information on growing and harvesting the varieties, as well as on possible pests and diseases, and what to sow in succession in order to keep the ground covered. In addition there are lots of recipes to help you cook your produce.
My copy is now going to go into the selection of favourite books that I keep by my bed to dip into as reference material.
I hope that I have helped people to realise how enjoyable and rewarding it is to grow their own veggies during my time at Connect, and hope you will all continue.
Thank you Nell for your invaluable contributions over the years and we at Connect wish you every success with your flourishing gardening business...