Kitchen Garden Forum

Hello all, I was sent a link to this debate from the forum on my site and wish to add a few observations.
I gardened on light Cotswold Brash for nine years in the 1980s and found that no dig worked brilliantly, using mostly mushroom compost, an inch on each four foot bed every year. This was a small input for the quantity of produce, all organic. It was amazing how little water this stony soil needed and in the dry summers of 1989 and 1990, many visitors could not believe how little water I used, mainly to water plants in from cans. Although the compost dried out on top, the undisturbed soil below it hung on to its moisture and I think the capillary flow of water upwards is stronger in undug soil, because no fracturing of layers has occurred in cultivation.
At the end of every year, the compost had all gone from the surface, pulled into soil by worms and their allies, so the structure stayed good and roots found goodness at all levels. And my seven acres were well known for an absence of weeds, one of no dig's most welcome results. There are always some weeds, but in manageable quantity.

Well, we wanted an expert reply and we certainly got one!

It is good to know that anyone can successfully use this method and not just those of us on clay soils. I would say to those wishing to try it that you should make sure you can get a regular supply of as much organic matter as you possibly can. I have three compost heaps, two leaf mould cages and as much sea weed as I can gather, plus occasional chicken manure from neighbours and every bit of it gets used. My soil probably has some of the happiest worms in Cumbria.

That's an interesting comment about capilliary action working better in undug soils because I've often thought that perhaps the opposite would apply and that when it rained, dug soils, with all their furrows and crevices, would allow the rainwater to penetrate to the soil to a greater depth and thus possibly lead to greater water retention at a lower soil level..

Hi NB
I followed your link about greening the desert - brilliant but they certainly used a huge amount of compost. I am now mulching my beds with rotted straw on top of the compost and that is full of worms. I am hoping to stay with the no dig at least for the next few years and see what happens. I think I just need to keep adding plenty of organic matter and boosting with organic fertilisers like FBB and pelleted chicken manure. However, my young German Shepherd, Amber, doesn't understand no dig...... She keeps digging very large holes and dug up several enormous parsnips earlier this week.