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.