[Aunt Sally]

I may look at one of those Boresha tubs.

Are you sure that's not a brand of coffee.

Do you mean Bokashi ?

[Spudman]

I may look at one of those Boresha tubs.

Are you sure that's not a brand of coffee.

Do you mean Bokashi ?

LOL....you're right!.....close though

[someoneorother]

It is possible but it is labour intensive and you have to like collecting stuff and bringing it in

and have a car for the collections or enough money to pay for delivery 

green manures are great for improving soil structure, but I found that they add little in the way of nutrients.........I wish it were that easy

Presumably this depends on whether you use a green manure that fixes its own nitrogen, or one that just holds the nitrogen already in the soil to stop it being washed out?

[Totty]

I guess i cant call my plot a 'no dig' niether do i spend hours digging. Each of my five beds are surrounded by 4inch posts which create 2 foot pathways all the way round each bed. When we initially got the plot, the land was heavy unworked clay and it was double dug, i then went over the top with a small tiller. The beds have not had so much as a footprint on them since. Wherever i need to add manure, ill fork it into the top and let the worms do the rest.

But, i always grow runners in the same place and always dig two deep trenches for them. And wherever i am to sow carrots/parsnips i always fork in a mixture of spent greenhouse compost and molehill soil quite deeply.

Both the root veg and beans have done alot better with a bit of soil prep than a neighbouring plot which is strictly no dig.

Its horses for courses, lots will thrive in soil left alone, just topped up,other things need a bit more work i think!

Totty

[Trikidiki]

Playing the devil's advocate......

.......The worms are constantly consuming mulch adding worm-castings to the soil providing allot of the nutrients required.....

The nutients are there already, the worms just recycle it. Even without the worms those nutrients will be available to the plants albeit a little slower to start with but once you have the system running it won't make much difference. In fact the slow release of nutrients by natural decomosition may be preferable to the worms munching through quickly then the nutrients getting leached. The worms probably add more to the health of the soil by providing aeration through their burrowing.

Re. earlie post about weed seeds being exposed to light.

One would hope if the plot is well managed you would not have a 'bad' weed problem. If its a new plot to you, I'm of the view that it is best to get as many of the residual weed seeds that are in the soil to germinate as quickly as possible, remove them once geminated then don't let anything reseed on the plot. Anything that comes in from outside is going to be exposed to light whatever you do, if you are digging in then a fair amount of those seeds will rot in the soil anyway.