We had quite a stir in the shop this morning when Charles Dowding bought in his latest vegetable delivery: it included a parsnip that was over 3 foot long! This is all the more amazing when Charles explained that it was grown in one of the ‘no dig’ beds that he has pioneered.

Having loosened the parsnip by just a spade’s depth to release it from the soil, he managed to just pull it up, proving how loose the soil must be to quite deep down despite not having been dug for years (except by worms). Impressive!

If you want to read more about Charles’ no-dig gardening experiments you can do so on his website, or of course by buying one of his books (which we have in the shop).