No dig bed

[cariann88]

Ive been watching Charles Dowding on utube.

Has any one on here do this methord? And how effective is it?

I am thinking of doing the no dig beds.

[Baldy]

It works well - but no dig doesn't mean no work - I've only done it on occasion so am no expert but you have to do the prep and do it thoroughly

[Alchemilla]

I was given one of his books for Christmas and was really attracted to his method. But it seems to require bringing in large quantities of organic matter into the garden each year...

Wonder if anyone has done it successfully without extensive mulching?

I don't have extra land that I could use as a source of organic matter and shipping it in from elsewhere each year seems to somewhat defeat the eco-objective of the method in the first place.

[veggiechicken]

No dig basically means not disturbing the soil by digging it! So you can plant directly into weed free soil, whether or not you've mulched it. Top dressing the beds with mulch/compost/manure builds up the soil depth and feeds it - as you would with any veg bed - be they no-dig or dug.

[cariann88]

He was saying you get better quality of fruit and veg out of a no dig bed then you do with a no dig bed.

I might do half and half and see for myself.

[purplekat]

I started building my allotment beds up properly last year. It takes a lot of work and organic material to set up initially, but hopefully less in the long term. For mulch, I've been collecting the neighbourhood leaves, and putting a thick layer on paths, which will be covered in woodchip eventually (when the council bring some). Beds get about 4-6" of horse manure every year (for first few years at least, hopefully less as the soil builds up). Still too early to comment properly but it's certainly improved my clay, and I don't have to water as often as my neighbours.

This youtube channel is also worth a look https://www.youtube.com/user/iamnjorganic

[Penellype]

I have been looking after my friend's vegetable garden (3mx4m approx) for the last 3 years. When I started it had been planted with potatoes, most of which were still in the soil in various stages of rotting. The whole thing was full of grass including couch, creeping thistle, dandelions, docks and other nasties. The soil was fairly loose and had had plenty of horse manure added over the years.

I dug the whole thing over with a fork, carefully removing every tiny bit of perennial root I could find, before dividing the area into 4 long thin beds with paths between. Since then the only digging I have done has been to remove any perennial roots that I missed - there were a lot of bits of creeping thistle the first 2 years, none at all last year. The couch grass invades from the edges (it seems to be embedded in the tarmac chippings on the surrounding paths) but it is fairly easy to pull it out.

The last 2 years I have mulched the beds with a layer of used compost, which comes from the buckets I grow potatoes in and the tomato gro-beds in the greenhouse. There is also the garden compost and I make a 4x2ft hotbed out of fresh horse manure, which produces a lovely rich compost after 12 months. I use both of these to grow potatoes and buy in new compost (and last year experimented with 1 year old muck heap) for the tomatoes.

Having done the no dig and mulch process for 2 years now, I'm impressed. There are far fewer weeds and the crops are good - last year's onions were enormous, the tomato plants were so big I couldn't find anything strong enough to stake them with (they bent a metal pole and snapped a broom handle), the courgettes were rampant and the parsnips, beetroot, peas and broccoli all performed well despite the ravages of slugs. So far so good.

I'm lucky - I have an inexhaustible supply of fresh horse manure about 100yds away and a huge rotting muck heap if I want to push a wheelbarrow about 1/2 a mile. I do realize it would be rather harder to do this on the scale of an allotment without the nearby horses.

[DannyK]

The way they used to do it!

[Snadger]

I am 'Dundiggin' much like Penellype. Like her i have an inexhaustable supply of hoss muck delivered for free to the allotment site. I also use cardboard and straw bales when i can get them.

I actually used to enjoy digging and found it quite theraputic, but soon realised I was wasting my time.

I get better results without digging. Weed seeds stay buried and aren't brought to the top to germinate. Nutrients are taken into the soil naturally by worms and all manner of flora and fauna help integrate the topsoil with whatever is applied into an organic living entity!

[JMCKG]

I have been looking after my friend's vegetable garden (3mx4m approx) for the last 3 years. When I started it had been planted with potatoes, most of which were still in the soil in various stages of rotting. The whole thing was full of grass including couch, creeping thistle, dandelions, docks and other nasties. The soil was fairly loose and had had plenty of horse manure added over the years.

I dug the whole thing over with a fork, carefully removing every tiny bit of perennial root I could find, before dividing the area into 4 long thin beds with paths between. Since then the only digging I have done has been to remove any perennial roots that I missed - there were a lot of bits of creeping thistle the first 2 years, none at all last year. The couch grass invades from the edges (it seems to be embedded in the tarmac chippings on the surrounding paths) but it is fairly easy to pull it out.

The last 2 years I have mulched the beds with a layer of used compost, which comes from the buckets I grow potatoes in and the tomato gro-beds in the greenhouse. There is also the garden compost and I make a 4x2ft hotbed out of fresh horse manure, which produces a lovely rich compost after 12 months. I use both of these to grow potatoes and buy in new compost (and last year experimented with 1 year old muck heap) for the tomatoes.

Having done the no dig and mulch process for 2 years now, I'm impressed. There are far fewer weeds and the crops are good - last year's onions were enormous, the tomato plants were so big I couldn't find anything strong enough to stake them with (they bent a metal pole and snapped a broom handle), the courgettes were rampant and the parsnips, beetroot, peas and broccoli all performed well despite the ravages of slugs. So far so good.

I'm lucky - I have an inexhaustible supply of fresh horse manure about 100yds away and a huge rotting muck heap if I want to push a wheelbarrow about 1/2 a mile. I do realize it would be rather harder to do this on the scale of an allotment without the nearby horses.

I am 'Dundiggin' much like Penellype. Like her i have an inexhaustable supply of hoss muck delivered for free to the allotment site. I also use cardboard and straw bales when i can get them.

I actually used to enjoy digging and found it quite theraputic, but soon realised I was wasting my time.

I get better results without digging. Weed seeds stay buried and aren't brought to the top to germinate. Nutrients are taken into the soil naturally by worms and all manner of flora and fauna help integrate the topsoil with whatever is applied into an organic living entity!

My findings also. Less work, more crops. What's not too like?
Last year I was in Bristol when the open gardens day was on. Drove down to see Charles Dowding's vegetable garden, very impressed. He makes a lot of sense when you listen or read his articles.

[ESBkevin]

I'm trying some no dig areas this year but as others have said it takes work. I have gathered about 25+ barrow loads of autumn leaves for next year and raking takes effort. I collected in my car trailer about a dozen barrow loads of pig muck. And probably another dozen loads of soil improver. Six bales of straw and about 20 barrow loads of woodchip. Not to mention an impressive quantity of corrugated cardboard. All of this seems barely adequate to mulch a half plot. And for sure is as hard as digging. But the undisturbed soil is in better heart, it needs to have green manure or roots to retain the micorysi . I have a rotavator and mini tractor so digging or cultivating would be easier but I'm pushing on with no dig over a half of the plot.

[Mr Bones]

A couple of years back we trialed two beds as no dig using our own compost. Liking the way they turned out we extended last year by covering a further six beds with wood chips and shreddings (based on the Back To Eden method) and this autumn embarked on covering the rest of the plot. The whole double allotment is now snugly tucked up under cover and already the soil looks to be improving.
I can see big advantages of planting through compost and manure but in our case we're using mainly chippings because they're free.

[JMCKG]

https://m.wikihow.com/Start-No-Dig-G...perate-Climate

From Charles Dowding.

[happyhumph]

I covered most of my beds in very well rotted manure in Autumn which is doing a good job of keeping weeds down - very few coming through. Would I be ok planting into this in spring? I start off most things in pots then plant out anyway. I have a section which just had compost & no manure for root veg.

[Penellype]

You should be fine planting into it - that is what I did on my onion bed at my friend's last year and the resulting onions were huge.