[missmoneypenny]

Thanks everyone.I agree about the baby slugs. I flipped some sheets of cardboard over and I’d say every square 10cm had a baby slug on it. I dispatched them all, but then realised they were also inside the space between the 2 layers of card.
I like the idea of planting the bigger crops like courgettes and butternut through holes in the cardboard. I also need to get hold of some organic slug pellets!

[steven c]

we have been no dig for several years we started with cardboard on heavily weeded plot if your plot has few weeds maybe you dont need the cardboard perhaps try half with and half without good luck.

[Subversive_plot]

Cardboard has it's place in a raised bed with constructed sides (my beds have 12-inch tall wooden sides).  I use it to suppress weed growth when getting a new bed started.  The cardboard is totally buried to a depth of at least 8 inches in my beds.  I can see how it might attract slugs when used in other ways.

[rowlandwells]

I'm not in the no dig club so its good old fashioned digging for me on the  raised beds and then ploughing the rest of the plots I'm not a favourite of cardboard and I've found using a good weed killer [Roundup] has rid me of all the couch grass and perennial weeds

[Tenhens]

Have not tried the no dig method, have just been reading Joy Larkcom's  Grow your own Vegetables,  she says that digging is beneficial for many reasons  , it gets air in to the soil to encourage bacterial activity, helps break up heavy soil, exposes weed seeds and insect pests to birds .

Both approaches have their benefits,  is it a case of what works for the individual ?

[snowdrops]

Have not tried the no dig method, have just been reading Joy Larkcom's  Grow your own Vegetables,  she says that digging is beneficial for many reasons  , it gets air in to the soil to encourage bacterial activity, helps break up heavy soil, exposes weed seeds and insect pests to birds .

Both approaches have their benefits,  is it a case of what works for the individual ?

Most definitely, I base my turning to no dig on my experience of being more traditional for 30 years, reading about it & then trying it for my self in a couple of areas & being amazed at the results. For me it makes perfect sense. The worms aerate the soil by coming up to tge surface & pulling down the mulch. Forests grow enormous trees & nobody digs that over every year, but worms do, pulling the fallen leaves down. Also for me, one of my favourite films is Avatar, in it the tree of life is connected underground to all the other plants (mycorrhizal fungi). It just all slotted together in my head.
I know there are many on here who would disagree with me or state they like digging, that’s fine, it’s your bit of ground do it how you like but for me if it’s better for my plants, the environment,less weeds, gives me more time to sow & plant, that’ll do for me.

[Subversive_plot]

I'm sort of in-between dig and no-dig.

My raised beds are initially filled with bulk municipal compost on top of cardboard., laying on mineral soil (sandy loam). After the cardboard decomposes, worms move mineral matter upward from soil into the beds, but also move organic matter down from the compost.

As the compost in the bed ages, I find that it needs a good turning with a spading fork. That is usually because the upper part of the compost in the bed has lost its water-holding capacity as fine material works downward (worms and insects do that). Turning usually brings some mineral matter (sand, silt, clay) up from the underying soil, and that is highly beneficial, IMO. I do this when I notice the bed seems to need watering more than it should, about every other year.

In some of my raised beds, turning the bed, and a little underlying soil, is easy.  Other beds require swinging a pickaxe to move some of the mineral soil upward, due to the hardness of the soil.  Worm action improves when the worms have a little help.

[Blewit]

Harvested the last of the parsnips today, the bed has been no dig for six years and only receives an annual top dressing of 3cm homemade compost. Parsnips are Gladiator, boots are size 11

[snowdrops]

They’re gooduns Blewitt

[Snowboar]

Cardboard does not kill couch and perennials forget all the no dig miracles no digs great but you need to prep the soil first like new shoot says it will weaken it and it’s a slower process of staying on top of it best way is to prep then no dig or as I do sig and mulch all ways remember digging is hard as you want to make it you don’t need to dig a full spit at a time take it in inch slices if you have to and dig like a square metre every couple of days it’s amazing how much you get done that way if you prep properly it will be less work in the long run

[Snow]

Cardboard will significantly weaken perennials,  making pulling them out much easier. You may need to replace the cardboard once or even twice depending on how you applied it, but that's still easier than picking up a spade. I haven't used my spade in three years now, love no dig. All positives, no negatives and I really wish I'd started doing it sooner.

[mumofstig]

As I always say this

but that's still easier than picking up a spade.

depends on your own health, age and circumstances. Moving barrowloads of compost up hill to my plot, is much harder for me than a light digging or forking over.

It's always down to what works best for you and to a lesser extent, your soil. There's always more than one way to do things, isn't there? 

[snowdrops]

As I always say this

but that's still easier than picking up a spade.

depends on your own health, age and circumstances. Moving barrowloads of compost up hill to my plot, is much harder for me than a light digging or forking over.

It's always down to what works best for you and to a lesser extent, your soil. There's always more than one way to do things, isn't there? 

That’s so very true Mum. As I said earlier, it’s your bit of ground & do what works best for you. I would like to see a bit of scientific research on no dig on a big scale, but I don’t think anyone would fund it, certainly not the fertiliser manufacturer’s as they’d lose out on sales most likely. Also where would all the mulch come from, but if you looked at how much compostable food waste ends in landfill…well!

[Growster...]

I now just use the Mantis to till the top of the soil on the garden at home, (no allotment now), and it chews up what weeds are left over from the last year, and they die off and stay under the surface.

All the last year's old growbags, hanging baskets, bean roots and potting compost get chucked all over the soil, and all this then gets mixed/tilled in with everything, and when I plant out new veg, I'll add some Growmore or similar, and that's about it...

I couldn't dig this winter as I'd 'lost' my Terex spade behind a ton of firewod..:0~

[Snow]

As I always say this

but that's still easier than picking up a spade.

depends on your own health, age and circumstances. Moving barrowloads of compost up hill to my plot, is much harder for me than a light digging or forking over.

It's always down to what works best for you and to a lesser extent, your soil. There's always more than one way to do things, isn't there? 

That's fair enough! although it doesn't necessarily use more compost than traditional digging does once you have beds, you just put it on top instead