[Madame Cholet]

I'm relatively new to this, converting as we speak can we chat about it in more depth please.

[goodtogrow]

Yes we can Madame!  Welcome to the sunlit uplands of happiness!  No-dig is the default option - you've gotta look hard for reasons to dig these days - how many more books have to be written on it before folk wake up???

Welcome aboard!

[pigguns]

There's lots of info if you use search facility on here, or read the Ecodolly gardeners diary (thanks Angela!). 

I've used both methods in the past, thing is I just can't get my head around growing over a 'compost heap' of layers which by it's nature is a slug sanctuary, and you don't use slug pellets on your compost heap do you?

......so for tender plants slugs like, I don't use it.  Or for brassicas.  Good for courgettes/squash (I used lasagne beds this year over cardboard, over couch grass as a quick fix on a new lottie)- but then maybe that's just me...

[Madame Cholet]

My veg area 10 pole is all converted into 4' beds.joined on  across the back is a 10 pole forest garden work in progress planted with friut trees and bushes just starting to plan the gound layer.
I'm covering my beds one by one with cardboard and a good 6"of manure I've got 4 to go 1st time around and some I'm topping up from last year. My paths are wood chips over builders bags.
I have a young native hedge on the sw side and compost pallet bins across the botoom end.

In places i have problems with twitch creeping through the cardbord any ideas.

[solway cropper]

I've been no-dig for the last four years, initially because of my health but now simply because it really works. Soil condition improves year on year and I have very little trouble with weeds. I did remove all perennial weeds before starting and I apply thick mulches of compost/seaweed, etc. so it isn't a lazy person's option!

I would say that to be successful you need to have access to large quantities of organic matter to cover the ground. Can't imagine no-dig working for those who just chuck growmore at the soil and expect miracles!

[Trillium]

I'm using the Back to Eden method of no  dig gardening, and so far it's working well for me on my clay soil. Here's the original film I watched, about 1-1/2 hrs:

http://www.backtoedenfilm.com/#movie

What a lot of people miss is that before you lay the thick layer of mulch down, you must spread some sort of paper/cardboard down first, then a layer of compost or manure down, and then the mulch. The paper will stop a lot of weeds but I did fork out the very large ones first. I spread cardboard everywhere, then about 2" of chicken manure, then about 4" of bark chips/mulch because it's what I could get for free. I let it sit all winter and come spring I was ready to plant, and wow, did I get a crop this past year. Weeds were very minimal (usually where the mulch was thinner), and I rarely had to water in our dry summers.

You can bet I'll be doing it again this year, but only adding more mulch, as much as I can hold of, because the manure is still working along with the thousands of worms that appeared out of nowhere, and hand pulling any large leftover weeds. My back and knees aren't quite they used to be so this is working out just dandy.

In my 2 ft tall raised beds, I simply heaped on manure then the mulch. Come spring I'll sprinkle more manure since I have lots of pigeon poo I need to shift, then several inches of mulch. Should mention that all my raised beds are lined inside with heavy poly to help hold in more moisture.

Most of the chips are already rotting down into lovely soil, so keeping several inches of chips on top is how it works. Ideally they should be 1 year old chips but I couldn't find any so I used fresh in winter and by spring they seemed to be just right. At the moment, most are partially decomposed, hence the topping up.

[surbie100]

quite probably a daft question, but how does this work with potatoes and parsnips etc, which I imagine need to go deeper than the cardboard layer? Is it rotted down enough by then?

[Growster...]

Good question Surbie, and how do root vegetables cope with the richness of the soil?

[NickoV]

In places i have problems with twitch creeping through the cardbord any ideas.

Is this because you layed the cardboard on top of twitch, or is it creeping in from the sides?

Nick

[upthetump]

i'm 90% no dig. i have 8 raised beds al 8'x4'. i am building fertility every year. i've has this in place now for 4 years and all my beds are 4'' high. every year in the autumn i dig out my runner bean trenches and this year will begin adding another 6'' layer to some beds and empty the soil form the trench onto each bed to build up another layer. i the refill the trench with cardboard peeling etc which will break down for next years runners. i the repeat the process therefore creating lovely soil to increase the heights on my beds. potatos i grow in sacks and carrots in 3' high barrels (no fly damage in 3 years)

[moose]

I've just looked up the Charles Dowding No Dig book and he says he put 3-4 inches of farmyard manure on his beds in the autumn and then in spring sows his carrots direct into that and does not have a problem with forking. Seems that his other root crops are started in modules and transplanted and grow perfectly well.

[Madame Cholet]

In places i have problems with twitch creeping through the cardbord any ideas.

Is this because you layed the cardboard on top of twitch, or is it creeping in from the sides?

Nick

mainly  through a few tears and joins

[pigguns]

quite probably a daft question, but how does this work with potatoes and parsnips etc, which I imagine need to go deeper than the cardboard layer? Is it rotted down enough by then?

I got a reasonable crop of charlotte pots just from wet newspapers straight over couch, cover pots with another layer of wet newspaper then a bit of soil or manure (I used manure).  My parents do this every year -then you just lift a layer of newspaper and take what you need, covering the plant again.  Dug the whole lot over at the end of the season and the soil there is really good now, dead couch roots came straight out. 

[goodtogrow]

... except that I don't believe those couch grass roots (rhizomes) are really dead, pigguns.  Why pull them out if they are?

My own method is to cover the ground with microporous sheeting for a whole growing season.  Perennial grasses don't return, except couch.  Nettles come back too.

Still prefer to fork out all vegetation (it's not digging, it's forking out!), rather than wait a year for the microporous sheeting to do its job.

We can see there're different ways to go about 'no-dig', they all seem to involve digging to some extent, although mainly not.

[Trillium]

I laid everything in fall, and by spring the cardboard and papers had rotted away. The parsnips, beetroots and other crops did just fine with their strong tap roots.