Making a no dig garden always looks so easy on TV and in gardening books. And it is easy, IF you have access to the right ingredients. The fact is though, that living in the city in a small space, the phrase 'whatever you have available' is usually what you can buy at the garden centre. I have made a few no dig garden beds, and each time have found that they have been pretty pricey. Substantially more expensive than say, getting a load of garden soil/manure delivered. And they haven't been all that successful. I have wondered if the problem was not being able to get a big bale of decent straw.
This year I have been buying in bulk. When I get my firewood delivered, I also get a couple of bales of straw, between 1/2 and 1 cubic metre of manure, massive bags of potash etc. We have moved things around in our yard and shed to store it. I have found that when you use enough straw, manure etc. a no dig garden is (1) cheap, (2) easy to build and (3) actually works! My plants are going crazy in the no dig garden beds and topping them up will be easy because I just throw on some more manure/compost and straw. Although my technique is that they are no dig for a season, and then when they break down I dig them over and treat it just like soil.
So in my humble opinion, I reckon that the no dig method is worth it if you have ingredients in bulk but not worth the money or hassle if you are buying by the bag from a nursery. I'd love to hear what other people's techniques with no dig gardens are. Do you keep them as no dig long term? What do you use?
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| No dig garden being watered in, layer after layer. Straw, manure, compost, bit of seaweed, comfrey, worm castings....then repeat. |
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| A new seedling planted straight in a little pouch of compost |
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| A couple of months ago - the newly created no dig bed... | | |
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| A happy dwarf pumpkin |
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| Sweet potato |
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| Basil and sunflowers seem to be thriving in the no dig bed too (although I wondered if the straw would be too coarse...they seem to be fine). |
5 comments:
Really interesting post Lanie. You're right that buying in bulk is the only way to get the costs down – and isn't it 'all hands on deck' when the bulk order arrives!
It is indeed! Especially since the manure and firewood is dumped on the footpath (which is probably 1 metre wide), as we don't have a driveway etc. So the moment it arrives, everyone in the family (including visitors) are out there helping!
Hola! mi inglés es muy malo, así que te escribo en español y que lo traduzca google. Jajaj
Hay un método que se llama parades en crestal de Gaspar Caballero que es un poco lo que tú estás haciendo. Hechar compost encima del sustrato, sin juntar con la tierra y que el compost se vaya descomponiendo poco a poco.
Thanks for reading Monica. The technique you mentioned does sound like the no dig method. Similarly, after a while all of the layers just look like soil (but often lovely rich, worm filled soil).
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