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?