Three Ladies, One Dog, No Dig.

Over the last year or so many of the Association members have contributed articles to the web site. Keeping up on the theme, three grow your own ladies from the original Marconi Belles have now expanded onto plot 111 and dare I say 112 such is the enthusiasm. Not sure if Emma-Lou (pictured under) is helping - maybe preparing the ground -, acting as a foreman or supervisor, soaking up all the friendly vibes or just relishing all the attention!

A big thank you to Jenni, Juliet and Kate who agreed to let us catch up with their exploits through the year - and hopefully beyond.



In addition to this, the ladies have drawn interest from further afield with the Westcliff WI visiting the site to film the group's exploits. Please copy this link to watch the ladies on facebook.

https://www.facebook.com/844805056/posts/10163596751110057/?d=n

Take 3 ladies from the WI, who each have an idea about growing safe vegetables and salad, plant the seed of an idea about how to go about it, step back and see what happens.

3 ladies: Jenni, Juliet and Kate
Method: Charles Dowding No-Dig
Plot: 111

We are all 3 very keen to grow our own food. We were given the idea by Foggy from our WI to try the Charles Dowding method of No-Dig so we could produce harvestable crops quickly. 3 of us actually met at the Plot and having been given an idea for layout, we set about clearing the plot and building beds. The original idea was to have 4 beds up and running this year....... however! That quickly turned to 9 and then the squash & bean bed also got started! (To say we’re all a bit enthusiastic could be an understatement!)

We all had different gardening experience, dare we tell you, one of us had never grown anything from seed before?! We all have differing tastes too, but it just works. Through taking on Plot 111 we have all worked physically hard, grown everything from seed and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. The friends we are making from other plots too have advised, cajoled & commented, but particularly through this current situation it has been an absolute joy so far.....



We know we have made some errors and we are learning that the method used may be better on pre-weeded/cleared soil (we all hate couch grass!) and we are preparing a plan for crop rotation and better companion planting. Watch this space