Say goodbye to backbreaking digging and hello to a healthy, productive garden. Charles Dowding has spent 40 years honing his no-dig expertise in his Somerset home. His message? Instead of spending hours digging, weeding and dealing with slugs, you can grow nutritional foods using methods that positively benefit your health, your soil and the environment – and rediscover the pleasure of being outdoors.

After gaining a geography degree at Cambridge University in 1980, Charles spent a year at a Hebridean hotel growing organic vegetables for the kitchens. It inspired him to begin his own no-dig market garden in a plot on his family farm. “I saw the connection between soil health, plant health and human wellbeing,” he said. Today, he teaches, writes about and grows vegetables, expounding on the possibilities of creating beauty in a garden that can be ornamental as well as productive. Prepare to change your life and fall back in love with your garden, whatever its size and whatever your gardening experience.