[Luiska]

I did a search for this subject on this site and it appears to have come up only once in the past, in 2010, where there was only one response and that just suggested an outside link. Looks like no one was interested in it then - has anything changed? Even Monty Don had something favorable to say about it last Friday and he's a bloke who seems to like to dig.

As I started my plot a couple of months ago a few friends were vociferous that this is the way to go and I have read Charles Dowding's stuff with interest but a lot of reservations: where does one find enough compost to put a six-inch layer across something the size of an allotment - or even a garden veg patch? But the plot is too big and has too much lawn and weeds to dig over in time for planting, plus a mountain of wood chip arrived free beside my plot from the council and experimentation is fun - so I have dabbled a bit and tried 3 different versions, alongside conventional digging & weeding:

1) the spare soil dug out of my asparagus trenches (I used fresh, bought compost to top them up) was dumped six inches thick on an unweeded bed for herbs & flowers;
2) potatoes were planted through weed suppressant into 2 long mounds of compost on an unweeded bed with a thick layer of wood chip mulch on either side and in the dip between;
3) a thick layer of wood chip on biodegradable weed suppressant on an unweeded bed is waiting to get courgettes, squash and corn when the weather is right.

Salads, tomatoes, brassicas, beans, peas etc. are all being grown on conventional beds though I am going to put a thick layer of straw around them as soon as viable. Suffolk soil is sandy and though I'm told my plot has been well-manured in the past it seems very light. Rather than digging it over again and further aerating it I'm sure thick mulching is the way to go - just a matter of getting the wherewithal together.

Has anyone else tried 'no dig' or got an opinion on it?

[Mum2mj]

I'm surprised you haven't found anything in the searches as there are loads of threads on it.  I'm getting kiddies ready for school but if no-ones replies by the time I get back I'll try & find them for you

[mumofstig]

I don't know why you couldn't find anything - it is always being discussed here!
The were pages of results ...
just for a start try
http://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=32805.msg392536#msg392536
http://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=113657.msg1301792#msg1301792
http://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=111127.msg1257256#msg1257256
http://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=51991.msg618263#msg618263
http://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=119758.msg1408778#msg1408778

Also try searching Lasagna bed, garden or gardening...

[ARPoet]

I have gone over to Back to Eden, or, Woodchip no dig over the past 2 years after doing a online course on soil health.
I would never go back to digging.
Lots of Youtube vids if you just type in Back to Eden.

[jambop]

I have just got around to making some raised beds and I will be using a no dig method for them. I will be using well rotted manure for my addition of material to the beds as I could not possibly produce enough compost to cover even that meagre area, so god knows how you get enough of the stuff together for covering a full sized plot. My veg plot is about 15m x 15m to cover that area with a 150mm depth of compost would need about 34 cubic metres of compost ... in more understandable terms 680 50L bags !!!

[al78]

No-dig is something I would like to incorporate but the problem I see is the sheer quantity of material required for a full size allotment. To cover 250 square meters in 4 inches of compost/manure/organic material equates to 25 cubic meters. Good luck transporting that quantity of material, every year. Fine if you live on a farm and have heavy machinery to hand, I can't as yet see how it can be practical for those of us limited to a standard size car and full time jobs, although it is entirely possible I am missing something crucial. I'll need to read up about it in detail.

[mumofstig]

My line of reasoning, although I can see the benefit to the soil of no-dig - is that it would take as much, if not more, hard work to move all the compost/manure, as it does to dig.

So do whatever floats your boat 

[jambop]

No-dig is something I would like to incorporate but the problem I see is the sheer quantity of material required for a full size allotment. To cover 250 square meters in 4 inches of compost/manure/organic material equates to 25 cubic meters. Good luck transporting that quantity of material, every year. Fine if you live on a farm and have heavy machinery to hand, I can't as yet see how it can be practical for those of us limited to a standard size car and full time jobs, although it is entirely possible I am missing something crucial. I'll need to read up about it in detail.

Well that is the fact. To produce 25 cubic metres  of compost you are going to need way more than 25 cubic metres of starting material as well. I am going to try it on my raised beds as I will only need  three or four barrow loads of manure to cover them.

[Mr Dog]

No-dig is something I would like to incorporate but the problem I see is the sheer quantity of material required for a full size allotment. To cover 250 square meters in 4 inches of compost/manure/organic material equates to 25 cubic meters. Good luck transporting that quantity of material, every year. Fine if you live on a farm and have heavy machinery to hand, I can't as yet see how it can be practical for those of us limited to a standard size car and full time jobs, although it is entirely possible I am missing something crucial. I'll need to read up about it in detail.

I don't think you need to put 4" on every year, once you're away an inch will suffice. That said you still need plenty of 'muck'. Luckily, I can get a 'load' of manure delivered cheaply by a local farmer, which provides enough to cover 90% of (the cultivated part of) my plot. As mum says it's a good workout shifting it, although I reckon slightly easier than digging!

[snow white]

I am doing raised beds this year.  Last year I had a full 250sqm of allotment.  This year I have downsized to a 3/4 plot.  I have got wooden boards around various beds so that I can have a woodchip path between them, and have various fruits, some on membrane and some with woodchip mulch in them.  Then I have half my veg plot with 20cm high raised beds as well.  (Have not got around to doing the other half).  I put loads of free manure on the bottom half of these raised beds.  I dug up the old path woodchip which had rotted nicely and put that in as well.  Then I just bought cheap compost to top it up and will top it up in winter with home made compost.  It has cost me £20 in filling material so far. So you don't actually fill the entire allotment with compost, just the beds, and you can do it gradually as you get the materials.

[BumbleJo]

I have some raised beds and some just beds with no boards around them.  I never dig any of them, just put compost on some and manure on some in autumn and sometimes grow green manure.  Occasionally some are just left bare if I haven't enough stuff or depending what's going to grow in them.  Everything grows just fine, and my back is fine too! 

[greenjay]

I do little digging other than rising the spuds. which I try to move around every 3 years not that it always works! I spread my  compost from a pallet bin for the beans and peas. on a good year a friend will bring a load of farmyard manure. the moving of the muck and compost is more than enough for my dodgey back. the muck does bring in weeds though. keep moving the hoe.

[Blewit]

Our 500 square metre lotty is mainly back to Eden with some composted no dig beds. I use wood chips because I can't make enough compost or source it for free/cheap. Although the wood chips don't cost £££ it's hard work barrowing them from the car park. Even though no-dig doesn't mean no-work it's a bit odd at this time of year when other gardeners are busy getting beds ready and ours are already done.

[AlaninCarlisle]

In my mid 70s, I feel the need to keep digging for the sake of my health. Apart from the health reasons, I just enjoy doing it. I have two main veg beds, one is approximately 20M x 5M and the other is 15M x 3M. I get them both manured and dug over in about 5 days

[Luiska]

I don't know why I could only find one thread on this, either - maybe my internet flickered while doing the search; it is doing that all the time at the moment and I am being told... but that is another subject.

I've gone back over the previous threads as well as this one and it is really great to read such a range of informed reports and opinions. I'm going to go on with my experiments this year and see what I think at the end.

One more thing - I have an unlimited supply of wood chip but I am under the impression that if you put that directly on the soil as mulch then it actually strips the soil underneath of nutrient. In other words it's good on paths or maybe between berry bushes or on top of weed suppressant but not, for example, surrounding veg? Is that right? And how about added in small quantities to the compost bay?