Variable here. We have a new garden and using black plastic has helped, but of course when we lifted the plastic to dig and plant, up came the weeds... They had cleared the badly brambled and overgrown area with a digger and brought in soil from the cattle field. Having moved 300 miles south I was not prepared for the rate at which everything grows here so now am pondering re tactics.
(Our great new landlord...)
When further north, we had a tunnel installed,on a field, and they advised to use cardboard, then manure eg chicken, then straw, not hay. Had to improvise a little, but after three years there was good soil and very few weeds, so I mnay well see if I can get a few bales of straw, if money permits; our wee car died last week so we are rather....
The two clearest areas are those where potatoes grew, under black plastic. Which speaks for itself.
To dig or not to dig?
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Nature's Babe
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Thank you Johnboy, and may I add, I value your knowledge and experience in gardening. 
Sit down before a fact as a little child, be prepared to give up every preconcieved notion, follow humbly wherever and to whatever abyss nature leads, or you shall learn nothing.
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By Thomas Huxley
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Cider Boys
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I have not dug anything for years now, digging is far too hard work. Of course I still plough the fields I rent but do not dig my small garden. You will find that you will get excellent results by using a layer of Sedge Peat, each year, this will be sterile so no weed seeds and Sedge Peat contains a greater amount of humus unlike sphagnum peat, further, Sedge Peat is not as acid as sphagnum peat. The excellent practice of top dressing with Sedge Peat has been carried out for many years by serious no-dig gardeners with the best results.
Barney
Barney
Some years back I tried the French No-dig System known as the Total Return Method. This was and experiment running alongside a normal organic bed and a conventional bed. At the time I was, apart from the
experimental conventional bed, totally organic. I ran the experiment for five years and at the end I decided to give up organics altogether because the no dig system did not provide a sufficient return to feed my family and the quality and quantity produced on the conventional bed was far superior to the organic system as well.
With seven mouths to feed the No-dig system fell woefully short and the conventionally grown produce was far superior to both the organic and the no-dig and this was due mostly by the use of man made fertilizers but without the use of man made pesticides. At that time Nicotine was part and parcel of organic growing, being a totally organic preparation, and that was the only pesticide used.
I still garden conventionally but there are certain things that I do not dig.
I have a permanent Bean Bed which receives an application of FYM every three to four years and this is applied allowed to get thoroughly saturated in the autumn then covered with heavy duty black Polythene until the following spring. I uncover the bed rake off anything not taken in by the worms and then very lightly lightly fork over maybe only two inches deep. I allow the annual weeds to germinate and when there is a good count I cover the bed again with the black polythene and that generally kills of most of the first flush of weeds. I then erect my trellis and plant out as the weather permits. Sod's law decreed this year I decided to plant seed direct and a Mole decided to undermine the entire bed and moved to seed and I had beans come up in my tall peas in the next bed but more than six feet from where I planted them and 18 bean plants in one patch. It will be tunnel grown plants from now on!
JB.
experimental conventional bed, totally organic. I ran the experiment for five years and at the end I decided to give up organics altogether because the no dig system did not provide a sufficient return to feed my family and the quality and quantity produced on the conventional bed was far superior to the organic system as well.
With seven mouths to feed the No-dig system fell woefully short and the conventionally grown produce was far superior to both the organic and the no-dig and this was due mostly by the use of man made fertilizers but without the use of man made pesticides. At that time Nicotine was part and parcel of organic growing, being a totally organic preparation, and that was the only pesticide used.
I still garden conventionally but there are certain things that I do not dig.
I have a permanent Bean Bed which receives an application of FYM every three to four years and this is applied allowed to get thoroughly saturated in the autumn then covered with heavy duty black Polythene until the following spring. I uncover the bed rake off anything not taken in by the worms and then very lightly lightly fork over maybe only two inches deep. I allow the annual weeds to germinate and when there is a good count I cover the bed again with the black polythene and that generally kills of most of the first flush of weeds. I then erect my trellis and plant out as the weather permits. Sod's law decreed this year I decided to plant seed direct and a Mole decided to undermine the entire bed and moved to seed and I had beans come up in my tall peas in the next bed but more than six feet from where I planted them and 18 bean plants in one patch. It will be tunnel grown plants from now on!
JB.
JB, we do something very similar to your bean method for our sweet peas, runner bean and climbing French beans row. Because our allotment is so windy, the pea/bean frames have to be between very securely fixed poles (8' poles at 6' intervals with 2' in the ground). Every autumn we clear the ground of weeds and plants, then cover it with manure and home-made compost and cover the row with black polythene. In early spring, the polythene is removed and the whole row lightly forked. This bed is permanent because we could not move the frame every year.
Yes, I'm the same. My bean frame is on the metal spikes and no way could I get them out. I leave the old bean roots in and add plenty of compost each winter, then mulch again when I plant.
Beryl.
Beryl.
What I would say with Runner Beans in that the first year after using FYM is that the ratio of leaves to flower spikes is is too high. Too much nitrogen produces too many leaves. Too many leaves means hidden flowers and poor access for Bees and other pollinating insects. Very early on in this season we had an absolute mass of hover flies and the set of our beans was incredible the ratio of Hover Flies to to Bees was probably in the region of 75:1. There was a reasonable amount of leaf this year but all the flower heads were visible and the set was magnificent. Because of my travels, this year, most of my beans have gone to feed the district and I have come home to the tail enders which I am really enjoying. I must say that the Wisley Magic were really something to be envied. These were not grown by me but by Mike who has an allotment on my plot. Wisley Magic seem to give very long beans which seem to keep tender for a very long time and are of good flavour. He also has some really fine Leeks on the way and they look magnificent.
My bean bed is due for more FYM this year but I have decided to leave it for another year and try a simple addition of some chicken manure pellets to each plant just enough to give them an initial boost and leave them and note the growth structure. Less leaf and more flower is what I am after. This week I have cut all the Hazel bean poles that I shall need and the old trellis will be used as kindling for my log burner. Waste not want not!
JB.
My bean bed is due for more FYM this year but I have decided to leave it for another year and try a simple addition of some chicken manure pellets to each plant just enough to give them an initial boost and leave them and note the growth structure. Less leaf and more flower is what I am after. This week I have cut all the Hazel bean poles that I shall need and the old trellis will be used as kindling for my log burner. Waste not want not!
JB.