[Salmo]

I do wonder whether any of those casting doubt on 'no dig' have ever tried it.  Deep enough mulch does kill the majority of weeds - the persistent perennial weeds are continuously dug up until they give in.  Horse manure when properly composted has all the weed seeds destroyed.

No dig means that soil is not turned upside down every year thus uncovering thousands of weed seeds, but it is not the leave it alone option, every weed that shows itself should be removed.

Many fellow allotmenteers scoff the principle but they have never tried it - hardly a position of knowledge.


Try it and find out for yourself.

You are right, there are many doubters. I am sure that one reason for this is that no-dig is sometimes adopted as an easy option which turns into a mess when it is not properly managed. These seekers of an easy life are still puzzled that a visit to the plot every 3 weeks seldom produces good results.

What are the key rules that bring success to no-dig?

[New shoot]

Many plot holders, here, dig to improve drainage on their plots (it's clay about a foot down ) I wonder would no-dig work in those circumstances?

Probably in the end - I used thick mulches on soft fruit on my big plot and the worms do drag the stuff down into the soil.  It is a slow process on clay. 

The trouble was the neighbouring plot, which got very run down and covered in bindweed.  That just dived under the path and got so bad, I had to dig out the fruit in the end.  I've dug that patch over twice, dug spud trenches, planted spuds and dug to earth them up, so several seasons of work in one go    The soil was surprisingly good though, for clay which hadn't been dug for years, just weeded and mulched 

Next door is better, but hardly weed free, so I'll be sticking with annual crops and digging on there for the foreseeable future.

My small plot had a couple of no-dig beds when I took it over (long time ago now).  They were weed infested nightmares that were a real pain to clear, but as Salmo says, managed properly, it may have been a different story.   I have replanted fruit on the small plot and reinstalled deep mulches 

[Mr Dog]

Digging became a hard chore a few years ago.

It can be, but my point is still..

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.

I've not seen any discussion about that?

Many plot holders, here, dig to improve drainage on their plots (it's clay about a foot down ) I wonder would no-dig work in those circumstances?

Yes, it is hard work but (as I said on page 1) considerably easier and, as ARP says, much less of a chore than digging IMO. I can move and spread enough manure to cover my plot in less than a morning. No way could I dig it in the same time. I'd also add that those who dig manure/compost in are actually doing twice as much work!

The area of the site where my plot is also has a solid layer of clay about a foot below the surface and is prone to flooding during very wet periods, but my plot floods no worse, and tends to clear of standing water quicker, than those around it.

I too was sceptical before I started but cannot see myself starting to dig again, other than to remove perennial weeds and/or rubbish from a 'virgin' area. As others have said it is a 'no dig' not a 'no effort' or 'work' method. I too find that much less watering is needed during dry spells and the soil surface doesn't become rock hard as it does on some of the surrounding plots. There are also considerably more worms in the soil than when I started out.

.......each to their own though.

[gobs]

Clay soil is said to benefit the most from a no-dig system.

[lettice]

I'm never too sure when people say no dig exactly what they mean.

With my sprouts in the ground and in raised beds, I do a sort of no dig.
My Grandad taught me that always plant Sprouts on non dug soil. Once they were finished producing he put down a load of compost and also threw down kitchen scraps from March to May over their plot. This then allows the ground to stay hard and the sprouts once planted with a metal dibber to stay upright during the season.
I have always done this with my Sprouts.
Assume this is a form of no dig.
Do notice the compost and scraps gets pulled down very quick by the worms, and with a gentle top layer hoeing in, but the ground stays fairly hard and not too fine and mixed like when its dug.

[whitehill1]

I tried all possible no dig methods. I dig  lightly if the ground is uneven and can not level it using hoe.and keep mulching with what ever is available. doesn't need to be compost. so This year in my proper third year of growing , I have done a lot less weeding and watering so far. and mostly I hoe off weeds or use weed killer. but occationally I try digout taproots ,and otherweeds when weed killer is not an option there.

[lettice]

One thing I forgot to say is that where my sprouts grow, there is very little if any weed growth. Not sure if its the sprouts or the no-dig method doing it.
But saying that, where my Asparagus is, also no-dig with a top compost layer thrown over in the winter, there are always loads of small weeds just before and after the harvesting season, but a quick hoe removes them.

[Blewit]

I have solid clay just over a foot down but so far no-dig seems to be working well. The ground drains well in wet periods and during the current dry spell is still moist half a fingers' depth beneath the surface.
It's certainly not easy work getting/making and using enough mulch to cover the plot but  since I stopped rotovating there's lots more earthworms. Figures vary for how many worms there could be per square metre on a no-dig plot, some say thousands others say 300, both seem high to me but if there are only 30 worms/sq m of veg patch that's 13,500 of them, digging, making drainage/air tunnels and creating worm casts 24 hours a day.

Just as an aside, most gardeners probably know but an earthworm can live for fifteen years and might cast 5kg of soil a year. Casts are three times more nutritious to plants than before it passed through the worm.

For me, digging or no dig is just a matter of personal preference.