[vegypete]

hi ya :)i have been reading up on the no dig method of vegy growing,lots of athorites on google, do any of you guys grow vegys this way and what results have you had over traditionel digging...........pete

[Trillium]

I do something similar to no dig, but I use a broadfork in the spring to simply loosen the soil a bit as I have hard clay to work with. I keep the top layers of leaves, hay and whatever else I can find on top and it seems to be working for me mostly because my climate is more dry and hot in the summer and we're not plagued with slugs or snails. Not sure if the no dig is ideal for wet, cool UK summers though. This fall I'll be applying a 6" thick mulch of shredded bark and an inch of chicken manure so they'll rot down for spring planting.

If you want more info, check out youtube videos. there are many out there under a lot of different names like no dig, lasagna, Eden garden, etc.

[compostqueen]

I don't dig or rotovate but I don't like to talk about it.  Inevitably any thread about no dig turns into why you should dig. Best read up everything you can on the subject and try it out for yourself. You don't have to commit the whole plot to it if you don't want to.

There is a farmer who does no-dig and he's written a book on it, which you should be able to get from the library.  He has a web site here

http://www.charlesdowding.co.uk/

[Aunt Sally]

I know a few "no dig" gardeners.  The most important thing is never to tread on the soil.

[sunshineband]

I tend not to broadcast that I try not to dig, unless the soil is compacted or I am digging up potatoes, or parsnips..... or making a bean trench

As I have beds that are only 1.2m across, I can pretty much reach almost all of it without treading on the soil, and should I have to, I use a wooden board to stand on as this then does less damage to the soil structure.

Manure/compost etc goes on in the autumn

Werks fer me

There are all sorts of variations on the theme, and they all result in decent veg and healthy soil if approached thoughtfully 

Good luck with yours

[New shoot]

There's a few no-diggers around on here so it works, but depends on your soil.  If you have lots of perennial hard to shift weeds that can make a difference to your approach as well.

I have raised beds at home that I don't dig, but do get topped up with compost and so on.  My allotment is heavy clay loam and really needs to be regularly dug with organic matter incorporated to make it workable.  I get very good yields usually - this year the weather has put paid to some crops  

We have had a few no-digger on our site and they haven't been successful at all and ended up abandoning plots, but then we have had diggers that have done the same, so maybe it just depends how much commitment you apply to either approach  

Try a section and see what works best for you.  You won't know until you try as everyone's plot is different  

[Growster...]

One aspect of a 'no dig' plot, is that you continually work from paths.

The opposite is when you have rows of veg each year, and flatten the areas between the rows, so you really have to dig in the autumn, otherwise they're solid!

I've been converted to individual 8' x 4' beds, (mostly by the good people here), and we both think they work much better, although the net-to-gross growing area is smaller.

It would be too expensive to have 54 raised beds though...

[compostqueen]

The solid areas that you mention Growster can be planted.  I like the hard bits to plant leeks and brassicas.  I make a hole with a bulb planter and bung the plant in.  I have grown fab crops in soil like concrete. The plug of "concrete" goes straight into the compost bin    I have planted leeks like this but had to water the area first as it was very hard.  It's easy with leeks as you only need to make a hole, no back filling with soil necessary.

Leeks develop huge roots so when you come to harvest them the soil will be so much more workable than when you started, and will improve year on year. You have to make lots of home made compost so get started 

[JayG]

I do very little digging of my sandy soil because by winter any added organic matter has disappeared, so there is nothing to be gained by swapping one layer of sand for another!
As much compost as I can make gets lightly forked into the growing areas a few weeks before sowing/planting and that's it, apart from the potato and bean trenches which obviously are dug out and filled with compost.

I don't see how you can avoid digging if you have heavy clay at least until you have managed to improve it with manure, grit or whatever, which can take several years.

Lots of scope though for those with soil somewhere in between the two extremes, and I personally would go for raised beds if I had a bigger area than my back garden to play with. 

[New shoot]

I don't see how you can avoid digging if you have heavy clay at least until you have managed to improve it with manure, grit or whatever, which can take several years.

My clay soil eats up compost and manure just like your sand JayG    It is vastly improved to when I took it on - was contempleting brick manufacture at first - but it will take however much organic matter as I can throw at it.  My compost bin empire is quite extensive  

[sunshineband]

I do think whatever you do, compost has got to figure large 

[Growster...]

The solid areas that you mention Growster can be planted.  I like the hard bits to plant leeks and brassicas.  I make a hole with a bulb planter and bung the plant in.  I have grown fab crops in soil like concrete. The plug of "concrete" goes straight into the compost bin    I have planted leeks like this but had to water the area first as it was very hard.  It's easy with leeks as you only need to make a hole, no back filling with soil necessary.

Leeks develop huge roots so when you come to harvest them the soil will be so much more workable than when you started, and will improve year on year. You have to make lots of home made compost so get started 

Although leeks do a lot of soil alteration when they're going for it, I didn't actually think of doing that CQ!

There's only two of us now, so we started the individual beds just to get the whole plot working, and have found we rather like the idea, so much so that we have also done the   same on the half plot as well!

We also find that it is not so daunting to have to deal with a long row of very weedy peas (I mean peas with lots of weeds, not tiny ones...), when their bed is smaller and accessible without overbalancing and creating mayhem by falling all over the place...

...But then, my feet go in several directions anyway, so no change there!