No Dig gardening

Roland

Prompted by the discussion in @Emp_Fab’s rotivator thread I’ve been wondering what the No Dig method would mean in practice. Who here practices it?

My flower and herbaceous borders are effectively No Dig. They get weeded, and mulched with compost. Ditto soft fruit, rhubarb and asparagus beds.

This afternoon I’ve lifted the roots of our winter brassicas, and forked through the soil ready to plant beetroot. This has given me plenty of time to think about how I’d manage this without digging. Presumably mulching and hoeing to keep the weeds down.

Hootsmon

I don't like it either

ThePrettyDamned

No dig means far fewer weeds, if practiced well, as you don't turn seeds in.

Just mulch and off you go pretty much. You need to feed the soil, rather than plants - that means understanding the soil you have, the needs of the plants and the mulch you provide. 
There is an excellent YouTube channel about it - Charles Dowding. Check some videos I don't practice it as I'm container only at the moment (although in practice it could work, it simply isn't worth me purchasing worms and other insects)  

strtdv

I generally don't dig. I landscaped the whole back garden last year and that obviously required quite a bit of digging, but other than digging an occasional hole to plant a larger shrub or small tree I don't dig the garden at all.

This year after all the digging last year we have far more of those tiny annual weeds but I'm confident that once our bigger plants get established in their new spots we'll have fewer weeds overall. The hostas have come back and I've a few blue and silver leaf grassy type things that are starting to do well now the weather has warmed up.

I planted bamboo last year (first time I've tried to grow it) and it's putting up lots of shoots too. It's a Fargesia species though so non-invasive.

The one thing we're really plagued with though is mare's tail. It seems impossible to kill, all you can really hope for is to limit the growth in any given year. Anyone know how to get rid of it?

ESBlonde

This might take some reading as it turns out there is a lot to know, so I make no appology for the length - the language i have no excuse for, I'm just fick. Here is a not so brief summary, but you will need to study further to form a proper opinion.

I have an allotment and have been experimenting no dig on one half of it for 3 years, but have been noticing some of these benefits over decades without the scientific background.

So while I'm not as scientific as others or indeed rabid about the proceedures, I have noticed improvements in the soil, the produce and the way it survived that very wet late spring last year followed by the very dry summer here in the East. If these exteems of weather continue it will become more important because the soil absorbs and retains the moisture better, it's unlikely to erode with run off. The plants feed themselves and seem to suffer less disease than my neighbours crops in 'conventional' horticultural systems.

Does it mean less work? This is the bit that might be disputed by me, yes lots less weeding for sure and far less watering in drought conditions. But just the digging part is replaced with hauling in and spreading large volumes and weights of finished compost of various types. So you still get a work out, but you can spread that workload over time/seasons to suit yourself.

The real 'magic' or science as we know it these days is in the understanding of something called the soil food web and the fact that it's not just the organic content you apply, but the way the plant has a symbiotic relationship with the other life in the soil. Since a plant cannot physically move it sends out chemical signals that attract the microbes, fungus etc. to it that it needs. Effectively creating it's own local environment, but further through the undisturbed fungal hyphe it transports nutrients and moisture over distances far greater than it's own roots could ever do. The hyphe are not doing this for free, they get the sugars passed down from the sunlight via the leaves and roots of the plant in exchange. Meanwhile the worms, nematodes, arthropods, protozea and bacteria are consuming the organic material and crapping out useable nitrogon and other key nutrients in a form that tha plant can actually use. Additionally the sugars etc. excreated by the plant roots bind together the soil molicules to create that lovely crumbly texture in the earth. The Roots further provide a root for the rainwater to travel down into the soil particulary when the plant has died and the slowly decay. Some of the soil life can only exist in say the top 1-2" of the surface while other elements prefer a deeper 'home'.Every time we dig/cultivate the soil we disturb, destroy and kill all this natural life that is working for us if only we let it.

There are occasions where a fork and spade or even a rotavator is used to establish growing beds, but some people advocate tha even that isn't required if you block the ligh of the weeds with cardboard and then put a thick mulch over the top.

I'm fairly convinced of this and my family history of farming and horticulture has made it hard for me to adopt these methods, plus I love the smell of fresh turned earth. but I'm there now and can't see me going back anytime soon.

Anyone still reading? You don't have to take my word for this, get on youtoob where free resource will provide days of education. The science seems sound and only the chemical companies try to object, many of them are even now giving the system lip service because the farming comminity is moving ahead of them.

So Look for Dr Elaine Ingham for the deep science. Or  youtoob chanels called "iamorganicgardening", "oneyardrevolution", "Alberta Urban Garden Simple Organic and Sustainable (The voice may grate on you, but the theory is tested).

Valerie Herrmann pops up often as a practitioner (and is eye candy too). Of course over here in the UK Charles Dowding seems to be the leading practitioner for small gardens with many others following similar practices.

Over to you.

octatonic

I pay someone to do it for me.

Also for gardening.

MrBump

I wonder how that would work with heavy (really heavy) clay soil?  I hate digging my borders...

ESBlonde

MrBump said:

I wonder how that would work with heavy (really heavy) clay soil?  I hate digging my borders...

It is ideal. Herself had a front flower bed that was clay and littered with builders rubble. Long before I studied 'no dig gardening'  I removed the bricks, concrete lumps and sundry iron/junk and dug in a lot of organic material since the soil was poor and already disturbed at that point. Also a decent mulch layer in year 1. Subsequent years was just more mulch. In year 3 I had to lift a shrub that had become too vigourous for it's location, the soil deep beneth was transformed, yes there were some small isolated clods of clay, but otherwise hardly recognisable. Further years of annual mulching resulted in lush growth and little in the way of weeds, certainly nothing troublesome. It's now been 10 years since the transformation. I'm currently doing the reverse at her mothers home where the soil is sandy heath. Again lots of organic, we are starting year 3 now and already the neighbours gardens look poor by comparison.

VimFuego

MrBump said:

I wonder how that would work with heavy (really heavy) clay soil?  I hate digging my borders...

ours is pretty heavy clay. I generally no dig, but find the soil still compacts under its own weight, so I kinda loosen the soil with a fork. Just kinda stick it in and wiggle (and with the fork as well) every foot or so and that's enough to stop compaction. 
Most years I have approx 1/4 acre under cultivation (not this year, with health issues it'll have to take a back seat) so no way I could dig all that.

Emp_Fab

Ooooooh....  You don't wanna do that!

You wanna get yourself a rotavator!  That's what you wanna do!!

ToneControl

I have a large garden
I bought a tilling machine for £100, and did some beds with that, basically loosening up the top 10-12 inches, then planted up and covered with membrane and slate

For my lawn removal project, I couldn't be bothered digging/tilling, we just covered with membrane and slate, and planted through it

Guess which one has the biggest shrubs now? The lawn.

pintspiller

Get some fencing boards and build some raised beds. Line the bottom with cardboard, half fill with builders sand and the rest with loam-based compost. Bung in your perennials, add an inch or two or bark clippings. Top up with compost and bark each spring.

Charles Dowding a good fellow to look up on YouTube.

As is Paul Gautschi, but the mistake people make with his method is planting in the chipping instead of digging into the existing soil.

ThePrettyDamned

We have very very hard clay at the front of our house and nothing takes root in one particular spot - in the end, I managed to get a cystus in (hope I've spelt that right) - they're very hardy and spill out into beautiful pink flowers.

Not only has it thrived, but it has genuinely improved all the plants around it, and gone some minor way to softening the soil a bit, I suspect through lost foliage and petals and the roots breaking the tight structure slightly. Hardly ready for delicate flowers or vegetables, but it just goes to show what is possible with a bit of thought. 

Now we mulch with leaves (actually, the wind does that for us as it gathers them up) and it seems to be doing fine. 

Schnozz

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YF0ZeY6f-Uk

pintspiller

Schnozz said:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YF0ZeY6f-Uk

Fuck me! He's a bit harsh!

shrinkwrap

Well, well, the things you find out in guitar forums. Very interesting!

Have always known the benefit of leaf mould and leaving things to rot so never done regular digs, just a bit of raking and hoeing to remove weeds. Even then I think weeds must help keep the micro environment moist and aerated so in summer I leave it all alone.

Love those old BBC M.R.James stories!

fob

Another recommendation for Charles Dowding on YT - even if you're not into gardening they're very soothing videos to watch.