[bigben]

I have benefited from growing through weed fabric with holes cut. I dont intend on doing it for ever but it eases the weeding in the first year of so and allows you to concentrate on keeping an uncovered section weed free by digging or weeding with a hoe or by hand.
I used it for onions, garlic and squash last year.

My problem with "no dig" is getting the huge amounts of mulch or manure to my site and stacking it to cover my beds. This would involve me in more work than just digging and planting. I can see it would be great for the soil but only if you have easy access to lots of free organic stuff and your site is not on a steep hill with limited car access.

[Swing Swang]

Folks dig cos they want to 

Yes indeed - best form of therapy that there is

[compostqueen]

I make loads of compost on the plot, leafmould etc and use that.  I get manure delivered once a year.  Nothing out of the ordinary. I don't take my car anywhere near my plot and there's no need to be buying loads of mulching materials. I think some folks have the completely wrong idea about no dig

[mumofstig]

It seems to need a lot of manure/compost each year.
It's not for me, because I find barrowing harder work than  digging....but each to their own 

[JayG]

My soil is about 2' of sand and possibly finer particles on top of a subsoil of flaky sandstone, beneath which is solid sandstone, so there is absolutely no point in digging it other than just for exercise (no thank you!)

Every year it gets whatever compost I can make or get hold of lightly forked into the top 6 inches or so, and a deeper trench filled with organic matter for the beans, and that's about it.

If my soil were really heavy clay I would almost certainly feel I had to dig it to help frost break it up and to incorporate manure and other improvers, without which it would be a very difficult growing medium to work with.

Those are the two extremes though - I don't think either "dig" or "no-dig" can be the right approach in all circumstances (the answer lies in the soil!!)

[Christine]

If my soil were really heavy clay I would almost certainly feel I had to dig it to help frost break it up and to incorporate manure and other improvers, without which it would be a very difficult growing medium to work with.

Mine is really heavy clay - there used to be brick making just up the road a mile or so so enough said. Very fertile BUT without working in compost, manure, soil improver, green manures it's not gardening soil. No dig really doesn't work in the long term. It just allows for a mud puddle every time it rains.

[solway cropper]

My personal view is that it makes sense to dig out perennial weeds before you start, as otherwise they constantly appear through your compost layer.

And regular hoeing or hand weeding is vital, as with any growing method

This is my third year of no dig and it's very successful. As sunshine says, it's best to get rid of perennial weeds before you go down that route. My plot was started from a lawn on boulder clay and after the first few years of digging it was sufficiently broken for me to start the no-dig approach. I make masses of compost which is applied as a thick mulch and plant through it. Weeds are not a problem. Mostly I get chickweed and shepherd's purse which are easy to deal with. I average well over one pound of food for each square foot under cultivation which keeps us going in fresh fruit and veg for much of the year.

There are plenty of people who've been doing it successfully for decades (even on a commercial scale) so it obviously works. But if you enjoy digging, then dig. I'm sure you'll feel better for it.

[Totty]

I have read articles from Charles Dowding, a No-Dig expert and even he admits that there seems to be little difference in yield between digging and not digging. If you work on a bed system, where you never stand or walk on the soil, there is little need to ever dig anyway, any manure/compost can be spraed around and hoed in if need be. By constantly feeding the soil like this the need for digging in manure etc lessens i think. I still dig trenches for beans, and still dig over areas for carrots. Thats about it though.

[compostqueen]

I've never yet grown beans in a trench. I grow them on manure piled up where I want to grow the beans, and they're always fine 

[Growster...]

You can't have a bean trench with a 'no-dig' set up...

I want to bury all the tough old brassica stuff as advised here, and that means a big, long, deep trench - possibly each year!

Also, earthing up spuds does mean you have to do more than just rake the top up to the crown.

And how do you plant brassicas if the soil is not firm enough?

Mind you, I would really like to explore - and subscribe to, the ideals of no-dig areas, but perhaps not on every individual bed each year. We have about forty, give or take the odd joined up one where the spuds will grow this year...

[compostqueen]

I like to plant brassicas in undug soil, which on my plot is not hard to find 

[Mrs Bee]

No dig method is not the short cut that many think it is.

From what I can see no dig takes a higher level of management than good old dig and bury.

When it is done well results are very good. Fail to pay attention to detail or put the time in and failure awaits.

Don't think I agree. If you put the work in at the beginning in the no dig approach, future planting becomes easier.
We took over an abandoned allotment with all that that entails 2 years ago. Wall to wall brambles taller that me and thick sticky clay. I got bramble thorns lodged in some very embarassing places!!!
So we have gone down the no dig raised beds road.

We had to dig out and clear the brambles and are still working on the weeds but.....
We have made raised beds from pallets, loosened the soil at the bottom filled up the bed with manure from our chickens and topped up with the free recycled compost from the council. No nutrients in it but a good soil improver.

We have about a third of the plot done this way so far and those beds that we have done are easier to plant in, get warm quicker, and are so easy to weed.

2011 was our second year and we have been self sufficient in spuds and had loads of wonderful veg. I can't wait until we have the whole of the plot covered in our raised beds and the fruit cages errected.

I also know we have also broken all the rules about leaving manure to rot before using but it doesn't seem to have made any diffence. When we ran out of rotted chicken manure and horse manure we went and swapped some of my homemade cake for sackfuls or fresh horse manure from the local stable. We did exactly the same to the new beds as we had done with the rotted manure. Taking the line that the plants I had grown would die if they weren't planted so we risked it and stuck them in. Wow did they grow well! We had loads of pumpkin and winter squash and are harvesting the last of our celeriac which grew into monsters.

From only using a third of the plot we have been almost self suffiecient inveg for all of the summer and most of the Autumn. We have only just started to supplement our veg with bought vegetables which we get wholesale from Spitalfields.

The larders are groaning with preserves so we are pretty pleased with the second year of setting up a no dig system.

The results with the rest of the raised beds were better than our neighbouring allotmenteers; there words not ours, so it is raised beds and no dig for us. we do not have the perfect allotment yet but we intend to work on it.

[Salmo]

I think you have just proved my point. You manage your plots well and pay attention to detail. No room for short cuts.

[compostqueen]

It will get better year on year Mrs Ball as you add more manures, harvest more veg which aerates the soil as you pull or fork your veggies out.  I have found that veg with lots of roots such as leeks, celery and celeriac (not forgetting the good old potato) all help make the soil more friable for you.  I've planted leeks in virtual concrete and they've done very well indeed. I put the concrete core I'd excavated with the bulb planter into the compost as it was too hard to do anything else with    Leeks don't need any soil putting back into the hole, just puddling in    Brassicas seem to relish undug soil. I just make a hole with a bulb planter and pop my plant in. I do plant mine out when they're a bit bigger than normal though so they have more root on 

[Mrs Bee]

It will get better year on year Mrs Ball as you add more manures, harvest more veg which aerates the soil as you pull or fork your veggies out.  I have found that veg with lots of roots such as leeks, celery and celeriac (not forgetting the good old potato) all help make the soil more friable for you.  I've planted leeks in virtual concrete and they've done very well indeed. I put the concrete core I'd excavated with the bulb planter into the compost as it was too hard to do anything else with    Leeks don't need any soil putting back into the hole, just puddling in    Brassicas seem to relish undug soil. I just make a hole with a bulb planter and pop my plant in. I do plant mine out when they're a bit bigger than normal though so they have more root on  

Thanks for the encouragement! We keep working on it! We are down to our last 3 celeriac now and still have some beetroots and leeks left. Not sure what the last few beetroots will taste like after this freezing weather. Hubby had to have a right tug of war to get the leeks out for Sunday lunch.
Am champing at the bit now to get the tomatoes, aubergines and this years leeks sown. Broad beans are coming on nicely in the utility room. Need to get some peas started too. usually do this at half term, despite no longer teaching, so it is this weeks jobs as well as buying our seed potatoes.

Any advice on type of potato which will taste good and be slug and blight resistant would be welcome.

We planted Charlottes, Kestral and Cara last year. Definately want to do Charlottes as they had a lovely flavour when small and  were really good when left to grow bigger.

We have made the posts of the raised beds quite tall so that as we keep adding the chicken manure and compost to the beds we can make them a bit taller over time so as we get older we won't have so far to bend down! LOL. That is the hubby's theory!