Not-digging for victory: the no-dig garden

When I trained as a gardener many years ago, we were taught to double dig. We were then tested on our skills. This meant excavating a sizeable trench to twice the depth of a spade, in clay soil, on a cold, wet day in autumn. I can safely say it wasn’t my favourite part of the course.

The idea was that digging in this way and adding organic matter helped break up clay soil, improving its structure and creating a better growing medium. As we discover more about the remarkable world beneath our feet, however, it’s becoming apparent that digging, let alone double digging, might not be such a good thing after all. In fact, it’s been found to actively damage the soil by interfering with its natural processes.

There’s a whole ecosystem down there, delicate, complex and finely balanced. Left to its own devices the soil is busy with worms burrowing and creating natural drainage channels, other invertebrates going about their work of digesting and breaking down dead organic matter, and fungi growing and developing mutually beneficial relationships with plant roots. Manually working the soil with tools destroys these natural channels, disturbs invertebrates and breaks up mycelial webs. It also releases carbon that’s held safely in the soil. Studies suggest that it may in fact be better not to dig at all, or at least as little as possible.

So what is no-dig?

There are two fundamental principles:

a) Preserving the existing soil structure and the life within it by working it as little as possible.

b) Improving the structure and feeding soil fauna by adding layers of compost or other well-rotted organic material (mulching).

Gardening in this way has many benefits. It provides easily available nutrients for plants, helps keep down the number of weeds, and reduces soil moisture loss but also helps to prevent waterlogging. No-dig veg growers report higher yields. It’s also generally less work for the gardener! No-dig is most often used in vegetable patches and allotments but can be practised in ornamental gardens too. And there’s no need to add extra feed to the soil if you garden in this way. Plants should get all the nutrients they need from mulches.

Some occasional digging is involved, when planting trees, shrubs or potatoes or digging out pernicious weeds like brambles which may appear from time to time as they do in any garden. You may also need to dip in with a trowel when planting other vegetables and plants. But the point is that soil disturbance is kept to a minimum.

Starting off

To convert an existing bed, place a thick layer of mulch on the surface of the soil – ideally around 10cm or more – and plant straight into that, unless the area is particularly weedy. If this is the case, then lay cardboard on the soil first, adding the compost on top.

Creating a new bed takes a little more time and patience. There’s still no digging involved, even if converting a grassy area. Instead, the weeds and grass are suppressed, usually with layers of cardboard and compost, until they weaken and die.

There’s a helpful video here demonstrating how to start a new bed from scratch:

Once the bed, old or new, is set up, add an annual mulch around 5cm deep to keep it going. Late winter/early spring is the best time to do this, so that nutrients are washed in by rain at the right time for plants to take them up when they begin growth.

What material is best for mulching?

Compost, either homemade or purchased, is perfect, but well-rotted manure (it must be at least 6 months old), leaf mould and wood chippings that are at least two years old will work well too.

Don’t tread on the beds!

Treading on the beds compacts compost and soil, which is what no-dig tries to avoid. Having or creating beds of the right size is key. What works for most people is beds that are just over 1m wide. This gives room for plants to grow but also allows you to reach into the centre of the bed to plant and weed without having to venture onto the soil. If you do need to step on them, for example to harvest runner beans that have grown out of reach, place boards over the area to evenly distribute your weight.

Raised beds aren’t necessary, although they are helpful in areas that are prone to waterlogging.

Harvesting

As the soil and compost should be relatively loose once beds are established, it should be possible to lift root veg by simply pulling or twisting them out. Tubers like potatoes and artichokes should be pulled out too and any strays still hiding in the soil searched out with your hands. You might find you enjoy it! Research shows that the tactile experience of getting our hands dirty in this way can lift our mood, decreasing stress and anxiety.

Weeds

There are usually fewer weeds to deal with in a no-dig garden. This is partly because of the lack of cultivation; disturbing the soil brings seeds to the top where they germinate. Some will appear though so get to them early, while they’re still small enough to be easily pulled out or hoed off without digging.

There’s an excellent detailed ‘how to’ guide here with useful FAQs – Read Here

And a simpler one – Read Here

Fully embracing no-dig in a large plot requires a substantial amount of compost over time. Home-made compost in these quantities isn’t available to everyone and buying it can be expensive. However, no-dig guru Charles Dowding believes less is needed than is generally thought. In any case, something is better than nothing and even if you’re only able to allocate one bed or border to no-dig, it’s a great start. Alternatively, perhaps try simply treading on the soil as little as you can, reducing the amount of digging you do and adding a layer of organic matter when you have it.

Although a spot of digging is undeniably good exercise and can be an excellent way to de-stress, it’s not necessarily the most fruitful route to a high-yield veg plot. Caring for your soil and the many tiny creatures that call it home may well be a better way to grow not just edibles but ornamental plants too. And there’s increasing evidence that healthy soil means healthy humans. It looks as though a growing medium that’s alive with microbes supports our gut health – both through exposure to them while gardening and when eating the produce grown in it. The message seems to be: look after your soil and your soil will look after you.

https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/health-and-wellbeing/articles/the-soil-gut-health-connection