2 x Bags of Dalefoot Wool Compost peat-Free, Sustainable: 30 litres

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Looking forwards, it is a good idea to mulch everything by the spring if you can, to help conserve moisture in the ground before the main sowing and planting commences in the spring. Tub and basket composts tend to be more expensive than multipurpose compost, but using a multipurpose compost with a Best Buy controlled-release fertiliser and regular watering will also give good results.

Comfrey now being grown sustainably at Dalefoot farm as company scales up peat-free compost production to supply many more garden centres and nurseries across the UK, plus online for home delivery Mycorrhizal fungi enter into the roots of plants, sometimes even going into the actual cells themselves. This connects the plant to the incredible web of hyphae under the soil, which acts like a secondary root system. The fungi can hunt down nutrients and water for the plant, using its tiny strands to penetrate parts of the soil inaccessible to plant roots. Plants can even make chemical requests to fungi for specific nutrients to aid their growth and health.Berries such as cotoneaster, holly and ivy, windfall fruit and seeds including teasels and sunflower heads provide much needed nutrition for many creatures. Teasels are a personal favourite, attracting gold finches throughout the winter months. Once established these striking plants will self seed freely (fortunately they are easy to weed out if they start self seeding too freely!) I decided to make the bed 1.2 metres wide, and covered that area with compost, raking it to level it. The problem for peat is that it comes out of the ground very easily and requires very little in the way of processing. It is clean and rich in organic matter, making it very easy to bag up and sell. Some large horticultural companies own vast swathes of peat bogs, which they drain and extract, simply scraping it out of the ground with diggers. No dig is not a new idea. It has been used by growers across the globe for centuries, as an effective way of growing abundant food in harmony with nature. Techniques vary from place to place. In hot dry climates a deep mulch of plant matter is often used to help prevent loss of moisture, but here in the UK that can create a habitat for slugs, snails and woodlice: not ideal next to your veg crops. In the UK composted mulches, which do not create this habitat, are mostly used.

Simon Bland Director at Dalefoot Composts, who runs the company with Professor Jane Barker, said: “We are absolutely delighted to have been shortlisted for this prestigious award, particularly given how testing the year has been for everyone. We’ve been so proud of how our small team has stepped up to the challenge over recent months, managing a huge uplift in sales, maintaining quality production standards and signing up lots of new customers, whilst often working remotely from home. No dig also reduces weeds because you’re not bringing up annual weed seeds by digging. It doesn’t mean no weeds, you still need to hoe and trowel out any weeds that blow on and germinate, but there are significantly fewer. It’s important too to ensure that weeds don’t try to sneak in from grassy paths and edges. I have creeping buttercups here in my garden which keep trying to colonise the veg beds by stealth so I regularly weed the edges.

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These beds were made with 5cm of compost (after the dance!) on top of the card, on top of the weedy lawn. During 2021 I harvested so many things, including carrots, parsnips, squash, sweetcorn, cabbages, kale and leeks.