Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Growing => Grow Your Own => Topic started by: Fishplate42 on January 12, 2021, 17:16
-
I have been growing plants most of my life. Not just to eat but ornamentals too. Recently we have taken a new allotment on after several decades of growing on our own patch of dirt. We had allotments in the past, but that was a couple of decades ago (at least) lots has changed!
I am not one for change, but I am always interested to see how others do things and if I like the idea I am happy to give it a go. I like the idea of some beds with timber boarders and I intend to build half a dozen raised beds for some crops. But, for the life of me I do not get the following and ultimate dedication to the no-dig idea. It seems to me that instead if digging, you just load on lots of new compost each year and grow in that. Surly that is far more work than just digging the plot?
Personally I am not convinced that a technique adopted initially in America by market gardeners is applicable to hobby allotments. I know I am probably in the minority here, but I am prepared to be convinced if anyone can forward a valid argument in favour.
I'm off to find my tin hat ;-)
Ralph.
-
Not in my experience so far, and I bag horse manure from a nearby field and carry it across the field and up and over a gate before transporting it to the plot and spreading it. To cover a couple of beds with manure takes about two hours of work. To dig over the same two beds would take at least four or five times longer and require much more effort.
The idea is it is better for soil health, it mimics how soils are fed in nature, it doesn't disturb useful soil life, and it cuts down on weeding because annual seeds aren't brought to the surface.
-
It seems to me that instead if digging, you just load on lots of new compost each year and grow in that. Surly that is far more work than just digging the plot?
My back agrees with you, considering how far my allotment is from the car parking area :ohmy: so I find some gentle forking over suits be better. The only real digging I do is for planting and harvesting potatoes ;)
-
I’m a convert to no dig after 30+ years of digging, although in truth I never did dig an awful lot & never did the old winter dig but then again I’ve never had clay soil. I echo what al78 says about the reasons & less weeds on my allotment is always a bonus. If you’re setting up a new plot why don’t you try it & a sceptic of the approach you could do a real experiment, you never know you might surprise yourself.
I can understand mums views if it is a struggle to get the amount of composts to the plot but I now make around 5 cubic meters of compost a year to add on & in this my 4th year of totally being no dig it should probably be enough as you don’t have to add masses to already prepared beds. One of the things that is not recommended is raised b do unless you need to for mobility reasons. That is because in this climate they can provide a hiding place for slugs,snails & woodlice, who then come out & eat your crops.
-
I hear what you are saying, but I question the quantities of material required. I can see it could work on a small scale. Most no-dig plots seem to be divided into small beds with lots of space taken up with paths. In my case we have three 'half' plots that are all managed in the traditional manner i.e. they are dug over and most crop planted in long rows. It would take many tons of material to cover this area to just a few inches deep.
I can see the advantages of growing some crops in smaller areas. To that end I am planning on building half a dozen beds (9ft x 4ft) in two rows at the top of one of our plots. These will be made from ex-scaffold boards and will be built all to similar dimensions, so I can build 'standard' width frames that fit on top, and transferred from one bed to another, providing various forms of protection. It also means I can contain and modify soil types to suit the crop, confined within a smaller area.
Ralph :)
-
I have 2 x 1/2 plots. It’s usually advised it’s the same amount of compost used each year but left on the top not dug in.
-
It’s usually advised it’s the same amount of compost used each year but left on the top not dug in.
Interesting, so from what source does the advice originate and where does the compost come from? To cover that amount of land you must use a lot of compost to make any difference.
Ralph.
-
I hear what you are saying, but I question the quantities of material required. I can see it could work on a small scale. Most no-dig plots seem to be divided into small beds with lots of space taken up with paths. In my case we have three 'half' plots that are all managed in the traditional manner i.e. they are dug over and most crop planted in long rows. It would take many tons of material to cover this area to just a few inches deep.
I can see the advantages of growing some crops in smaller areas. To that end I am planning on building half a dozen beds (9ft x 4ft) in two rows at the top of one of our plots. These will be made from ex-scaffold boards and will be built all to similar dimensions, so I can build 'standard' width frames that fit on top, and transferred from one bed to another, providing various forms of protection. It also means I can contain and modify soil types to suit the crop, confined within a smaller area.
Ralph :)
I'm not quite no dig, more minimal digging. I dig locally to get out persistend perennial weeds such as dandelions, bindweed and creeping buttercup. My plot is divided into beds that extend the full width of the plot and are about 1.2-1.5 meters wide, with weed fabric doubled over between beds, about half a meter wide wide or a bit less. Not much of the plot is given over to paths and I have plenty of growing space. I don't have any edging on the paths, so occasionally I have to shift small amounts of soil from the paths to the beds.
I collect manure from a local field (a friend of mine keeps horses) and I go there to bag manure most weekends during the autumn and winter, or when a bed has been cleared during the growing season. In one visit I can collect enough manure to cover one bed to a depth of 3-4 inches. I have about 10 beds to cover so I could comfortably cover all beds in a month given 2-3 trips every weekend. The process of bagging the manure and carrying it to the car is very hard work, but it doesn't take more than half an hour per trip, and I think of it as good utility strength training during these periods when the gyms have closed. It is basically like doing a farmers walk https://www.verywellfit.com/how-to-do-a-farmer-carry-techniques-benefits-variations-4796615 (https://www.verywellfit.com/how-to-do-a-farmer-carry-techniques-benefits-variations-4796615) with 20-30kg in each hand for several repetitions.
-
I can see the advantages of growing some crops in smaller areas. To that end I am planning on building half a dozen beds (9ft x 4ft) in two rows at the top of one of our plots. These will be made from ex-scaffold boards and will be built all to similar dimensions, so I can build 'standard' width frames that fit on top, and transferred from one bed to another, providing various forms of protection. It also means I can contain and modify soil types to suit the crop, confined within a smaller area.
Ralph :)
I have raised beds at home that I mulch and treat as no-dig and it does work well, so your plan is a good one :)
I have a foot in both camps as I have a full plot spilt into 2 pieces on ether same site and access is difficult for bulk deliveries of material or carrying much in (uphill and narrow paths). I have a no-dig fruit area on one piece of plot that I mulch heavily, then with whatever I have left for mulching, I make a few no-dig areas on the other plot.
My mulch is homemade compost from my various bins and used bark chips and wood shavings from the chicken run. The base layer of the wood shavings was composted, but now I just spread the fresh stuff on top. It is liberally sprinkled with activator (chicken poop) and the soft fruit loves it :)
-
It’s usually advised it’s the same amount of compost used each year but left on the top not dug in.
Interesting, so from what source does the advice originate and where does the compost come from? To cover that amount of land you must use a lot of compost to make any difference.
Ralph.
Most of advice comes via Charles Dowding, he’s spent the last 38 years or so doing no dig on his various market garden sites. As I said previously I make about 5 cubic metres of compost each year now, I do get horse manure from a local stables, some fresh to add to the compost bins & some well rotted to go on the ground, mainly because I want to. They bag it up & I collect it ( well I in the loosest sense, I usually get some poor unsuspecting individual , my daughter, or her partner, to help as she has a truck), but in reality I don’t think now it is necessary. I’ve found my crops to be much stronger & it’s like they have rocket fuel on them. Here’s a picture I took yesterday of freshly harvested parsnips, the ground was prepared with well rotted manure laid out on top, with a sprinkle of homemade compost to sow into
Sorry it’s saying I have no photos in my photo folder! I’ll add them later
-
I'm in your club Fishplate all our raised beds are winter dug and have horse manure spread the rest of the plots that are winter ploughed last year we went in for a green manure trial that we ploughed in before winter and we use other fertilizers in the growing season
to go with no dig would be far more expensive for us maybe its better for those who have problems digging or small plots that's understandable and people that have got hooked on the idea of no dig well that's fine if that's the way the prefer to grow
but if you look at most professional and commercial growers its all done the traditional way so what you have to ask yourself if the no dig idea would improve cropping then this would have been adopted around that idea but with modern methods of growing and the machinery needed far out ways the no dig idea
so its really all about ones preferred option to dig or not to dig and its all about what you prefer to do and not being told its better to no dig or better to dig if ones happy to carry on as one has done for many years then carry on basically if it not broken why fix it
-
but if you look at most professional and commercial growers its all done the traditional way so what you have to ask yourself if the no dig idea would improve cropping then this would have been adopted around that idea but with modern methods of growing and the machinery needed far out ways the no dig idea
so its really all about ones preferred option to dig or not to dig and its all about what you prefer to do and not being told its better to no dig or better to dig if ones happy to carry on as one has done for many years then carry on basically if it not broken why fix it
Commercial growing is not comparable to hobby gardening. Commmercial growing is primarily focused on maximising profit, regardless of the consequences (i.e. externalised costs). People who have allotments don't want to grow crops intensively, so they are able to garden in a way that is more compatible with the natural world (I would hope). Intensive farming is a broken system from a sustainability and future consequences viewpoint, but if money is the only motive, externalised costs that someone else picks up are fair game.
-
i note what your saying 178 but i should mention although I'm not growing for profit I'm never the less growing for results of all the hard work that we put into growing good tasty food and to maximise every thing but at the same time utilize all the ground for that growing period
we try to evert buying any winter veg because quite a lot of what we grow goes in the freezer and any left overs are given away to other's
we should as a country be focused on buying from British growers where possible and Farmers Markets have proven to meet customer needs at a fair price together with good fresh produce
i have to say i don't look at consequences of growing food only consequences comes into play with me is by putting good quality veg on the table that as far as I'm concerned is good wholesome vegetables that are a recipe for good living and to reduce obesity because there's so much clap trap adverts on the tele for buying junk food that is an avert for our younger generation to become obese :(
i can't say my methods of gardening world be compatible with the natural world sorry something i haven't been convinced to buy into yet :D
-
Here’s yesterday’s harvest of no dig parsnips sown into homemade compost on top of well rotted manure on top of soil. :)
-
My plot is basically two beds with a narrow path in the centre, each bed is approx 10 x 3 metres, so 60 sq metres total. For a no dig philosophy, I'm guessing that's an awful lot of compost or manure, especially if you have to go at least 10cm deep with it. I struggle to get the amount of compost I need to just do a small patch at a time each year, which I then leave and dig in spring. Also I'd have to hunt down a lot of suitable cardboard each year.
I have a 'Dalek' compost bin, which to be honest doesn't yield an awful lot each year, even though I top it up with kitchen waste and cardboard and paper etc every other week. It never seems to accumulate in any usable quantity, just shrinks to about 6 inches high. We have fresh horse manure delivered to the site, but to get that from the tipping point to my plot to cover only 3x3 metres, as I did this year, was really hard work, much harder than digging, and that's on sticky clay soil.
So I'm guessing no dig is only useful on smaller plots, or individual beds?
-
So I'm guessing no dig is only useful on smaller plots, or individual beds?
It depends on how much material for mulching you can get or make. I have a compost making obsession. 4 big metre square bins, 2 darlek bins and big white dumpy bag for overspill compostables. I still can’t make enough to cover all my growing space with the level of well rotted material for no-dig.
It is worth a go on whatever scale you can manage, but there is no law that says you have to be all in dig or no-dig. You are allowed to do both :lol:
My original inspiration was Bob Flowerdew, who was always up for an experiment and trialed all sorts of growing methods. I use several of his ideas even now :)
-
My plot is basically two beds with a narrow path in the centre, each bed is approx 10 x 3 metres, so 60 sq metres total. For a no dig philosophy, I'm guessing that's an awful lot of compost or manure, especially if you have to go at least 10cm deep with it. I struggle to get the amount of compost I need to just do a small patch at a time each year, which I then leave and dig in spring. Also I'd have to hunt down a lot of suitable cardboard each year.
I have a 'Dalek' compost bin, which to be honest doesn't yield an awful lot each year, even though I top it up with kitchen waste and cardboard and paper etc every other week. It never seems to accumulate in any usable quantity, just shrinks to about 6 inches high. We have fresh horse manure delivered to the site, but to get that from the tipping point to my plot to cover only 3x3 metres, as I did this year, was really hard work, much harder than digging, and that's on sticky clay soil.
So I'm guessing no dig is only useful on smaller plots, or individual beds?
You only need cardboard if you are changing or starting no dig on a very weedy or pasture land & that also applies to 10cms of compost in the first instance.
As newshoot says it’s not compulsory & you can do a bit of both all of one or all of the other whatever suits the gardener. The original poster asked for reasons why no dig is used & I think there has been a fair few answers explaining those reasons.
-
I have a 10 pole plot and use no dig. I’ve divided my plot into raised beds and filled them with manure to start with and then top up an inch or two every year. We’re lucky in that a farmer delivers manure to our plots so I didn’t have to move it far. I’m not a young woman any more but I managed it alone. It was hard work in the beginning but I find it so much easier day to day than the digging and weeding that I used to do before starting no dig. I get a lot of compliments on the lack of weeds and the healthy veg that I grown but apart from no dig there is nothing special that I do.
As has been said often before here, it’s each to their own on the allotment. Do what works for you. No dig definitely works for me !
-
Took on a large new plot last year and tried to start the no dig on a couple of 6x8ft beds. Dug, cardboard put down then manure. Crops not bad but lots of weeds. Have weeded and put more compost\manure on over winter so will see. Have a number of smaller 4x3 raised beds sieved soil and added manure except for where roots will grow but not planning on disturbing the soil too much. The rest are a mix of raised beds, no sides and wooden sides. Planning on adding compost\manure each year with minimal digging. Main problems will be Mairs Tail and weed seeds blowing in from neighbouring plot. Fortunately we get bagged manure delivered to site and close to car park. Have started a couple of piles to ensure well rotted next year, had to make do with relying on weather and worms this winter
Should be an interesting year, can't wait
-
Learnerlady, the weeds might have been from where you say you dug,compost,then manure, miss out the digging & then you’re not bringing the seeds up to the surface. My parsnips & carrots have all been grown where I spread manure, it’s the digging it in that causes the issues with them.
-
I think what your saying bobbyt is absolutely true we fill 7 Dalek's each year 3 with veg waste the rets with fresh horse manure that stays in there for 12 months we have just emptied 4 and refiled with fresh horse manure the rotted manure that came out the Dalek's is going to be mixed with compost or peat for potting on our plants
and we have to store some of our horse manure in tonne bags in the winter months because its to wet to take the tractor down the allotments as makes a mess of the allotments path but come spring we take it to the allotments and stack it to use in the autumn
its a fact that horse and cattle manure will bring on the weeds because the weed seed are in the manure I'm afraid its one of the downfalls of using manure but I think the benefits of using manure out ways a few weeds a hoe comes to mind :D
as i said in my previous reply its all down to ones preferred option to dig or not to dig its the individuals choice at the end of the day and you do what you thinks best for your gardening needs
-
Hmmmm.... I could do a small experiment then, by not digging the 3x3 metre area which was covered in fresh horse manure late October, as I mentioned earlier, so just leave it and plant straight in it? No prep at all?
At the moment it is covered in plastic sheeting, as advised by someone down the allotments, should I now leave it open to the elements, or have I left everything too late to do this small experiment?
-
Hmmmm.... I could do a small experiment then, by not digging the 3x3 metre area which was covered in fresh horse manure late October, as I mentioned earlier, so just leave it and plant straight in it? No prep at all?
At the moment it is covered in plastic sheeting, as advised by someone down the allotments, should I now leave it open to the elements, or have I left everything too late to do this small experiment?
I think you will have to judge it in spring. Personally, I would leave the cover on if it is already in place.
If you have big clods of still fairly fresh looking material in spring, I would hesitate to plant straight into it. You could lightly fork it in and use it that way though :)
For no-dig, you would apply well rotted manure/compost to the soil surface as prep. You effectively create your own growing medium on the soil surface, although over time it does improve the soil beneath. Applying well rotted organic matter to the soil, either on top or dug in, is always going to improve your crops so you win either way ;)
-
Learnerlady, the weeds might have been from where you say you dug,compost,then manure, miss out the digging & then you’re not bringing the seeds up to the surface. My parsnips & carrots have all been grown where I spread manure, it’s the digging it in that causes the issues with them.
Hi Snowdrop, think there was a variety of sources but will be continuing with the no dig trial 👍
-
I was initially sceptical about 'no dig', as I am about any concept pushed by the multi billion pound gardening industry (I'd be homeless if I bought all the stuff Monty Don recommends most weeks!), thinking it was a ruse to sell compost. But it isn't a new idea though Mr Dowding has done very well to publicise the concept in this country. It's more a throw back to pre-industrial societies methods of growing food. The argument that intensive growing depletes the soil, use of many fertilisers damages the immediate and surrounding ecosystem, is unsustainable and is only necessary because we are depleting the soil in the first place, and that too much digging or compaction through walking on the plot is bad for the soil and supporting organisms are all pretty sound.
-
I've only had my allotment for a few years but we've been no-dig from the get-go, but in a very laid-back way. We both have jobs that involve a lot of overtime so we snatch moments at the allotment where we can so we chose no-dig for three reasons:
1. better for the soil
2. is quick and easy
3. fewer weeds than our neighbours
We always cover with cardboard to suppress weed growth and have a happy time of it in summer, and add varying amounts of organic material depending on what the bed needs, even an inch or do will do the trick because the plant roots grow down through the cardboard to the soil below. Last year, I didn't add anything to two or three of the beds until I transplanted the seedlings (when I added a very small amount).
-
Apart from what others have said in favour of no dig there's also the carbon emissions. I'm sure most folk on the forum are already aware but when soil is disturbed it allows carbon to release into the atmosphere. Carbon that could otherwise be locked into the ground for hundreds of years. I read recently (book was published in 2013 so figures could be different now) annual carbon caused by ploughing in Europe is equal to all the carbon caused by traffic in the UK. Basically if world agriculture stopped disturbing the soil climate change could be reversed twice over. Maybe one of the reasons some farms are now turning to min-till and even no-till methods.
-
I can't see for the life of me farmers not ploughing the ground especially for growing veg crops ploughing the land has been a tradition for as long as i can remember and the main part of cultivation for veg crops for both commercial and the home gardeners
and lets not forget the commercial grower needs to produce fresh veg very competitive to complete with there foreign competitors so the price is rite for the consumer to buy fresh British veg
as for the carbon issue well i have to say when we hopefully get over this covit thing there's going to be more increase in pollution from all things including all these airplanes taking people on there holidays to the sun
minimum cultivation that you mention its limited to certain crops and cultivation cost's come into play unfortunately we are seeing climate change due to many things apart from disturbing soil that is possibly some concern to some but i fear its not taken seriously enough by many people both in this country and other countries
climate change world wide together with world pollution is a big problem for the modern world that will be talked about on a political platform for many years that some counties will only talk about because a lot of countries are dependant on still using fossil fuels for there economy
-
Blewit, that’s an interesting fact, thank you. As for how we could change that around I’m not sure if minimum or no till or no dig would ever be more mainstream & certainly I cannot imagine how commercially it could be done because as Rowlands says tradition is an issue for some. I often wonder if we composted every little thing that we possibly could as a country how much as a whole we could produce & what type of size area we could cover.
Funny isn’t it that we can embrace lots of “new dangled ideas” & such things but some are just a bridge too far. After all once we were caveman, but as far as I’m aware very few people hang on to that way of life. Plus also most of us have embraced electricity in our lives & the use of motorised vehicles :lol:
I’m happy to try new things most of the time, my life would have been a lot poorer without garlic & spaghetti for instance lol. Each to their own I suppose.
-
as for the carbon issue well i have to say when we hopefully get over this covit thing there's going to be more increase in pollution from all things including all these airplanes taking people on there holidays to the sun
It won't make much difference Rowland. Emissions have only dropped about 7% during 2020, which makes a negligible difference to climate change. As for flying, it only contributes about 2.5% of total carbon output and a significant proportion of that is created by the filthy rich, who I suspect still get to fly where they want, when they want. To put it in perspective, the oil and gas industry 'leaks' more than double the emissions of all flying due to bad practices.
https://ourworldindata.org/emissions-by-sector#energy-electricity-heat-and-transport-73-2
-
Can I recommend that this thread returns to it's original subject of the merits/ downsides to no dig and not get derailed into a climate change debate. Thanks.
-
I wondered what C.H.Middleton (wartime broadcaster and writer on all things gardening), might have said, and have just looked it up...
In short, his take is that the main reason for digging, is to aerate as much of the soil depth as is possible, which entails double-digging, to enable natural and applied nutrients compost etc., to get further down in the ground, and encourage larger crops from extended root systems. Also, an autumn dig lets the weather take care of much of the spring preparation after the frosts etc. have done their work.
An old boy I knew well, used to sum it all up by saying 'You want a deeply dug soil, so that veg can get down deeper, because that is where the grub is'!
Nowadays, we don't rely on the need to have yard-long carrots or parsnips, as there are so many new varieties which grow quite comfortably in shallow topsoil, but that wouldn's have been the case all those years ago, I suspect.
Nowadays, I'd definitely dig to get rid of all the invasive weeds, and also - in a strange way, actually enjoy the task, as it really is making nature behave properly, but after that, it's tilling and hoeing, because there's so much compost, old growbags etc. chucked everywhere at home, there really is no need to dig deeply any more.
So that's a sort of compromise I suppose...
-
I don’t think anyone on our site does the full double digging routine these days.
The idea of double digging as the norm came about from the days of the Victorian head gardeners I think. They had to make veg grow on whatever bit of land their employer chose to have their productive garden on of course, but had an army of men and boys to do their bidding. Sadly it is just me at the plot and I take easy options whenever I can :lol:
As well as no-dig, I use other ideas such as trench composting. As with most ‘new’ ideas, this is actually a very old method of incorporating fresh green waste or kitchen peelings into the soil and survives to this day as bean trenches. Vermicompost is a big deal in places like India, where they do away with a wormery and make worm compost on a larger scale. That could be worth exploring if you want a lot of material for no-dig mulching.
ERF - VERMICOMPOSTING USING LOCAL VARIETIES OF EARTHWORMS (http://www.erfindia.org/local.asp)
-
I guess you're right, News, it is an 'old fashioned' concept!
In our old group of allotments, there were a couple down the bottom, which were used by the local school. Our butcher, (sadly popped off to the chop-house on high), told me that when he was a kid, they were told to double-dig the whole lot, presumably for school meals etc. Many years later, one of the plots was taken over by a chap who was an excellent gardener, and grew the biggest carrots I'd ever seen!
When I asked him how on earth he got them so long and chubby, he mildly told me that it was all down to digging! I know he used to make the trenches and sprinkle pellets down deep, (presumably to provide the 'grub' mentioned above), but we could never fault his skills!
Meant to say earlier (Mrs Growster wanted her PC), that if you look at all those aerial photos from the twenties (Britain from above), the numbers and sizes of cultivated gardens are just amazing, especially where there must have been a dedicated gardener, or even a team, working the soil like Mr Middleton would have done! Their rows were immaculate - much better than mine, which were pretty poor when I looked at our old Patch on Gurgle Earth)...
-
you know this topic gets better as it goes along :D my father in law used to dig his plots with a shovel well the ground was light soil and he did the trench method and that was the way they did things years ago they had a load of good manure and trenched it in the ground never seen that done today on our plots nor anyone double digging some have a job to dig there plots once let alone twice :D
and as you say new shoot that old method of green waste although we don't do that method I have seen that done and of cause commercial growers plough in the waste veg
we also put our spent compost on our plots mostly on the raised beds mix it with horse manure and as said years ago these big houses had an army of men nowadays there's the two of us the wife and me and a tractor a rotavator and a mantis that does help things no dig for me i use that 1950's fergi to dig our plots :D
-
You can really tell when soil has been dug deeply and manured over many years, the depth of good topsoil is amazing, in some of the old walled gardens.
So I don't think there is anything 'wrong' with digging - just that some people choose not to.
I'm always surprised how deeply entrenched the 2 sides are, though, tbh.
Growster, you are not alone, I can never manage a straight row either ::)
-
Thank you to all who have participated so far in this thread. I had no idea there is still so much support for the 'traditional' way of working the ground. I do nail my flag to the 'dig' approach, but I am more than willing to listen and try new ideas. Furthermore, I do think that a lot of the no-dig advocates have been guided by the sheep-like following that YouTube gardeners seem to propagate; This is how to do it content. Charles Dowding seems to be the master of ceremonies, not only on YouTube but in the gardening press too. I am not saying anything he says is wrong, far from it, but there is more than one way to skin a cat, and Mr Dowding is running a market garden, not a hobby allotment.
One of the originators of no-dig, and I suspect where Mr Dowding got a lot of his inspiration from, is Elliot Coleman. He started a market garden on land with next to no soil back in the late 1960s and has lots of great ideas and tips to pass on. If you like organic growing and are interested in the no-dig approach, then take a look at Elliot Coleman. I am in the process of reading his book (The New Organic Grower) at the moment. Although I am sure it will not inspire me to turn my allotments over to lots of small beds that don't get dug, I am sure I will learn something that I can use.
For now, I will have to wait. Down here in Kent, we have had so much rain in recent weeks, everything is just swimming in water, no chance of digging my plot! I can't even get on with the 'projects' I normally do at this time of year as the grass and any flat areas are just so slippery. There is nothing worse than temperatures just above freezing. At least if the ground freezes, I can build stuff. Yes, I know, I can when its raining, but you are forgetting, I am a soft southerner ;)
Ralph
-
that's spoken by a true gardener and gentleman Ralph. and i think i could class myself as a soft southerner to its all to do with our age two jumpers now instead of one 20 years ago mate ;)
and when spring comes along all of us will be there on our plots doing our bit dig or no dig :D :D
-
I think the right way to look after your plot is the way which works best for you, everyone is different and the same is true of allotments!
I'm somewhere in the middle, half my plot is raised beds and half isn't, and I'll dig when I think it's useful but don't do much winter digging. In the spring I'll dig out perennial weeds if there's just a few of them or I'll dig "properly" if there's too many. I try to keep most of the ground covered with winter crops or green manure at this time of year, which means no winter digging, and wouldn't have time to dig the whole plot between when the ground becomes fit to work in the spring and when I need to plant or sow it. I guess that's a habit from working on my dad's allotment as a kid, the soil was very sandy and all the goodness would wash out of bare ground the first time it rained, despite getting a load of manure every year. (As for no dig, I've not tried, I never seem to have enough compost to spread it everywhere, even with growing extra...)
As for raised beds, they are useful on wet ground, some of the paths between mine are flooded at the moment, but I wouldn't bother with them on drier ground. My soil does seem to benefit from not being trodden on in the beds, though doesn't seem to mind digging. One point to remember if you do put raised beds in is to make the paths wide enough for your wheelbarrow!
-
I started this post with a goodly amount of trepidation. It has been refreshing to see that the subject can be discussed from both sides without dictate. Over the past week or so, since I started this post, I have had a bit of a change of heart. My initial idea was to build some uniform (in size) raised beds from substantial timber in order to be able to erect standard size covers that can be swapped around between beds. That plan has now been modified.
Forty years ago, I was growing in 'raised beds' but not as we think of them today. I had the back of next door's garden as a veg patch. The lady who lived there was not interested in the garden and in return for mowing the front half as a lawn, I had permission to use the back half to grow veg. The garden was a long strip (typical London Victorian terrace garden) about eighteen-feet wide. I cut beds, four-feet wide across the width leaving grass paths between, and one down the near side. The edges of the paths were cut deeply and the soil slightly raised in the middle of the bed, giving a good deep growing depth. Although the soil was London clay below, there was plenty of topsoil above, a good two spits deep. I grow in those beds successfully for years, until the occupiers of the house next door changed, and they wanted the ground back.
Our plot here in Kent is a bit different compared to our old London garden. This time of year it is impossible to walk on the soil as it is so wet. With our open-plot style, we have just written off the winter months and planned to grow spring and summer crops only. The raised beds I talked about in the first post were proposed in order to give us somewhere we could access during inclement weather. It then became obvious to me that I had been overthinking this.
Now the plan is to just define the small area of beds with paths. Unlike our London garden there is not an established lawn out of which to cut them. Instead, I now intend to retain the paths with lighter boards and adopt the same process as we used all those years ago in London. A bit of modern thinking going on here, by digging out the paths and loading the soil onto the beds and then filling the void with lots of woodchips. As this decomposes, as it will over the years, it will be replenished with new and, in time, the old stuff added to the beds as a mulch.
The idea is to make the beds a uniform size but with the boards that retain the path will be largely exposed on the bed-side with the paths level with the surrounding grass that define our plots.
Thank you for all the input on this subject. I just goes to show that you can teach and old dog new tricks!
Ralph.
-
Just one thing to consider, I used wood chips for my path, it's just down the middle of the plot about 10metre long and 0.75 metre wide. The wood chips do blow about a lot in heavy wind and also stick to muddy wellies when wet and migrate on to the beds. They don't decompose very well in my experience. Someone on here mentioned putting cardboard down instead, which sounds better to me, which I am going to try after removing the chips. Just a thought.