No dig & earth compaction.

Hello everyone,  what to do, what to do.  The ground in the greenhouse is 'snug' so I need to open it up a smidge which got me to thinking, what do the no diggers do in these circumstances?

Cheers,  tony.

With no dig, Charles Dowding only recommends that ground is compacted if it has had very heavy machinery over it ,particularly in wet,muddy conditions I believe.  As per RecoveringAndy’s reply the worms do he opening up for you and this is helped by an addition of well rotted mulch on the top of the soil. The roots will find their way down into the soil. I find it very beneficial & it’s a fallacy that you need more mulch than traditional gardens would dig in.

i suppose it depends if you walk on the beds ours are mainly 8x4 and we do not walk on them we just mulch with manure let nature do the rest  when lifting potatoes last year [desiree]  we did this by hand did not even need a fork  i know the arguements for and against no dig but it suits us and we dont seem to use more manure or other mulch than our plot neighbours who dig.

it takes quite a time for our allotments to actually dry out to cultivate so we tend to leave it till we can walk on the ground without it sticking to your boots and we can afford to wait as our plants are raised in the greenhouses and poly tunnel

but when the plots have dried out I cultivate the ground with the tractor and cultivator and because its dried out we don't get any compaction I pull the ground down first of with my scuffle then roll it with the tractor wheels then go over the ground  one again with the scuffle and it comes down like an onion bed

but as I said you don't have to be impatient the ground must be dry or it will compact I say that from past experience's 

not to worry snowboar I'm in you club  haven't got rid of the spade yet 

keep on digging snowboar I hand dig all our raised beds and then plough all of the open ground with our tractor  before the winter sets in and let the winter weather do its work and as said the ground cultivates like an onion bed in spring compaction what compaction 

Hello everyone,  what to do, what to do.  The ground in the greenhouse is 'snug' so I need to open it up a smidge which got me to thinking, what do the no diggers do in these circumstances?

Cheers,  tony.

I'm not saying everyone should do this (each and every gardener to his own etc.) but we would simply mulch the beds with two or three inches of homemade compost and let nature break up the compaction.
Naturally occurring bacteria and critters within the soil (including worms) will soon start the process and as mycorrhizal fungi arrives the glomalin it produces causes soil to form into crumb-like particles - not unlike fine gravel except it sticks together and is resistant to washing away, erosion or compaction.
We have wood chipped paths that haven't been dug for six years and I can push a half inch thick steel fence pin down by hand to the clay layer 18 inches below.
If you loosen the soil slightly before applying mulch it shatters any fungal strands already there and might ultimately slow the process of regaining the soils crumb-like structure.

PS - Having done this I found after just a few weeks the soil started to soften up below the mulch.

I am a "Dowdingite" but after building my polytunnel I decided to fork the ground open prior to making my beds. The soil was badly compacted and I thought it better to get some air into it. It will be the one and only time but I think it was the right thing to do. My soil its incredibly shallow... eight inches before hitting a solid bed of impervious clay so I want to try to have the best I can above that.