Starting no dig method

[Two_Sheds]

I read a fascinating, and at the time I expect "controversial", book ...where the author moved from composting, ... to just putting the vegetable waste directly onto the beds.

My favourite advocates of the method are

Sepp Holzer

Fukuoka's One Straw Revolution


Very interesting reads

[Snadger]

Not so much as you'd think, in fact having a living mulch keeps the soil moist and cool ~ keeping water in the ground instead of evaporating, like it does when the sun hits bare soil.

I leave all my GMs to grow up around & among the crops*, I've never noticed anything failing due to competition.
My best-ever crop of onions was those smothered in a living mulch of chickweed.

* photos in the FB link below

Funny that, I had my best crop of onions grown in a chickweed mulch! I reckon it holds surface moisture under its canopy (you rarely see chickweed on parched soil) it collects morning dew and funnels it to the onions keeping the soil around them moist and fraible.
Even though chickweed isn't a legume I wonder whether the roots give out some sort of trace elements which feed the crop it surrounds?

For some reason there is an old adage that chickweed only grows on good gardeners plots!

[Kristen]

My favourite advocates of the method are

Sepp Holzer

Fukuoka's One Straw Revolution


Very interesting reads

Interesting, and the reviews make for encouraging reading, I'll give the piggy bank a shake

Not sure the book I have found was the one I was thinking of earlier ... cover looks different to what I remember, but who knows ... it was a long time ago! but after a quick glance it does talk about just chucking the kitchen compost bin straight onto the beds. Published in 1955 it refers to experiments the author made in 1945, and the author implies that they couldn't find anyone else doing this, nor No Dig - might well be right way back then!

Anyways, I rather like the title :

"How to have a Green Thumb without an aching back" by Ruth Stout

Blimey!
How to Have a Green Thumb Without an Aching Back: Amazon.co.uk: Ruth Stout: Books
the First Edition I have is £74.16 ... there is no way I paid anything like that when I bought it back in the 70's

[veggiechicken]

Save your pennies Kristen - One Straw Revolution is a free download
http://library.uniteddiversity.coop/...Revolution.pdf

[Kristen]

Save your pennies Kristen - One Straw Revolution is a free download
http://library.uniteddiversity.coop/...Revolution.pdf

Brill! Thanks. Just got to remember how to Email it to my Kindle now ...

[Two_Sheds]

"How to have a Green Thumb without an aching back" by Ruth Stout

Oh yes, Ruth Stout. £9

[Kristen]

I was just having a read last night. "Why cut Asparagus underground rather than just breaking it off?" Yes indeed ... I cut it underground, bring it into the house, and the Chef breaks it (to determine where the chewy bit starts). Why don't I just do that in the veg patch when I pick it?

(Apart from having a joy of my special Asparagus cutting knife which makes ignorant visitors ask "What's that" ... boys toys ...)

[Lazgaot]

I've just had a look at the soil in a new plot I'm converting to no dig and it's coming along beautifully. I'd bought a tractor load of well rotted manure which I just barrowed onto the soil last autumn, nice and thick at least 6" deep. I haven't touched it since then, no beds or anything, and almost all of it has been incorporated into the soil. I've got seedling in the greenhouse which will go straight in later in the week.

My book of choice is Gardening the No Dig Way by Charles Dowding. His website is also very informative and well worth spending s few minutes reading through.

[Lazgaot]

By the way, I've just come across this short video which you might find interesting.
Creating a Productive No-Dig Garden in under a Year | Permaculture Magazine

Sorry about the long link!

[Randommoose]

Hi,
I started this thread and have been doing my plot the no dig way, composting waste directly on the soil. I got 2.5 tonnes of 3 year old woodchip (about 30 barrowloads), about 10 sacks of compost/leaf mould and spread it on top of a lot of the beds.

A couple of days ago I had to dig some areas (changing the bed layout so digging new paths) and I got two samples of soil to show. Both areas have not been walked on for a year, both samples are from about 6 inches deep. The sample on the left was an area mulched with woodchip and leafmould compost, the sample on the right had no mulch. What a difference!



The stuff on the left is easy to dig (heavy still as it is clay, but crumbly), the stuff on the right is really hard work - either digging with a fork or scraping with a spade.

It is really interesting for me to see the difference that a good layer of mulch will do when the worms incorporate it into the soil.

Moose

[spanish_gardener]

* photos in the FB link below

I took a look at your pictures and I love your wee four legged gardener helper I'm amazed of the amount of varieties you grow. Most people in my allotments only grow potatoes, broad beans and a few green leafy vegetables. I have never visited other allotments before so definitively going to arrange to visit other allotments next summer.

[Feral007]

No dig here too. Soil here is thin and very rocky, so mulching so that soil thickness increases over time is the way to go.
Keeps in the moisture (such as we get :/ ) and protects from the extreme heat/cold.

Admittedly, I got the mattock and hacked a shallow hole to drop each potato in, then covered and mulched, and will then mulch up each time the taters come into view till it's time to harvest.

I use the manure tea, comfrey tea, and soon the nettle tea (just got some nettles to grow outback near the water butt). I like to leave the manure mainly in the paddocks to fertilise them. And it stops the dogs wanting to eat the fertiliser when it's Just Smelly Water.

I'm leaving half the plants 'gone to seed' in the garden to self seed, and drying the other half to save seed.

Each year, the garden soil is becoming more useful and pliable. We've started reclaiming some very solid dried out, bare or weedy areas of the paddock behind the house for the fruit and nut trees, and this year putting in loads of potatoes, pumpkins and cucumbers, zuchinni's and other prolific things in as ground covers. mulching heavily and trying to cover all space between trees, then will expand the outer edge in the next year or two. I'm digging straight into grass, planting potatoes and seedlings, mulching heavily, and praying for some rain.

[Two_Sheds]

Hi, The sample on the left was an area mulched with woodchip and leafmould compost, the sample on the right had no mulch.

It's great to be able to see the difference: a picture really does convey more than words alone. I'm going to run out and do my own comparison now

I'm amazed of the amount of varieties you grow.

Thank you And I eat them all ~ the freezers are full by end of August, and the freezer feeds us until May

Whenever we visit other towns, I look up the allotments too: some are locked, but others are really accessible.

[jojoyce]

no dig method

Read Charles Dowdings book Organic Gardening the No Dig Method. I have started no dig in my second year at my allotment. I went to CD's open day and liked very much what I saw. I have since bought all his books!