No dig cultivation

[Toddy]

When my sons were younger, the youngest birthday in April always had a delivery of a couple of tons of sand. The lad loved it, had a great time playing with it, and slowly through the year I shifted it around the garden and each April he got a new load to play in. He's too old for a couple of tons of sand now though…..wonder if I can persuade him the forking and brushing it into the lawns might be fun ?

I know how much sand I bought over the years, and honestly, you'd never know with the clay soil We get masses of leaf litter every year dropped from the woodlands too, and it's still clay soil.

The Beechgrove Garden (popular tv gardening programme) once got a tipper lorry load of clay from near here to work with. They were going to show what should be done with it…….we saw the lorry load of Lanarkshire blue clay deposited on their site…..and then nothing else was ever shown. Too much work we reckoned.
It's good, fertile soil, if you can open it up.

You're right about the small stones Robson Valley. One of the reasons for adding crushed shell, crock or fine gravel to potting clay was that the 'roughage' stopped the clay splitting. Cracks form but ease around the debris instead of spreading right through/across. Same with the garden; add in organics or small gravel and sand and it allows water in and through, and roots too. It allows organic debris to be thoroughly incorporated into the soil and encourages the formation of healthy biodiversity.

It's more that any pressure on wet clay just compacts it all again, and the no dig method has a potential benefit there.

M

 

[northumbrian]

I love the beechgrove show its more to do with gardening up here than gardeners world ! good tips and info on their website too !

 

[Bowlander]

The soil here is a horrid gley but where I put my plot it was really sandy - it was in a 30'x10' bed. I asked my neighbour and they'd used it for rearing pheasants years ago.

I've been listening to the self sufficient gardener podcast (US) and they were advocating just putting woodchip/manure on without tilling amd planting through that.

My plan is/was to graze the grass down with my goats, cover with thin card or paper, and then deep woodchip/manure on that.

 

[British Red]

That is pretty much the "back to Eden" approach

 

[Bowlander]

Its worth a try, I'll probably avoid all the biblical references though!

 

[British Red]

Oh for sure, the underlying biological principle is sound though. I only call it that because that's what the chap who made the video calls it!

 

[milius2]

Everyone around here uses regular till methods for veg growing, we have a really nice fertile soils and the spot we use for veg only once in a while see some fertilizer, manure and such. Only thing we do is change the spiecies every year from stop to spot and it does the trick. But recent summers has shown that global warming is changing the weather conditions and more windy and hot days makes things a bit more difficult. So I think no dig and mulch would be my new strategy if I'd take over the veg production. So far it's my mums thing and while she is fit she can do the thing she knows best.

Quite another thing is my own "permacultural" garden. I made some "beds" where I plant fruit trees and bushes and flowers, but mulching never did much good. Because it is so labour intensive and weeds just keep going through. And the weeds I talk about is mostly Couch Grass,it is a robust weed that is so hard to get rid of. My new plan is a bit step backwards, but I think I will go for this. I will uproot the bushes I can, leave the fruit trees, remove all the grass to bare soil and then I will lay a mulching liner. That will stop the grass from growing for some years. On top I will add mulch whenever I have to create some nutrition and prevent the ground from drying out in the sun. Then I will make holes in the liner for bushes and flower and occasional veg that I need. BUT the one thing that concerns me is that by laying down the liner i will create a housing for all kind of pesticides to stay and in the end I'll do more damage than good.

So what do you think about the mulching liner and is it any good to invest in?

 

[Bowlander]

Oh for sure, the underlying biological principle is sound though. I only call it that because that's what the chap who made the video calls it!

Wasn't having a dig at you BR! I just found the bible verses and references to God helping us in the garden a bit off putting!

 

[Bowlander]

I wouldn't be paying for a mulching liner Milius, I've used old carpet, straw, card or newspaper under mulch to good effect. The only benefit of mulch liner I can see is the aesthetic one.

 

[treadlightly]

Myself, my brother and his wife took on a third of an acre site forty six years ago. We had had a year or so to think about how we'd work it all whilst waiting for everything to go through and decided we'd have a go at the no dig system. The ground was in very poor heart when we took it on, fairly heavy clay which had been very heavily compacted and very sour, the only things growing were very sparse dock and bramble at the edges.
We made a start on it as soon as we got it, late October, clearing it completely; my brother and I then double dug the whole site and laid about eighteen inches of very well rotted horse muck across the whole site. We had a proper old-fashioned Winter that year and the frost and snow took care of incorporating the organic matter at the surface. The next Spring we planted as much as we could over the site, concentrating on root crops to attempt to open the soil to some extent; for carrots and parsnips etc. we spent countless hours digging small holes and filling them with a sand/compost mix to let them get down and had reasonable success with this.

For the first two or three years we did the same thing, putting huge quantities of whatever good quality organic matter we could beg, borrow or make onto the ground as a top dressing, no digging in at all; there were many occasions when we thought we'd made the wrong decision and we came very close to getting the rotovator in but we resisted. Then in year four, bingo!...........everything we planted from then on was at the least
healthy and more than edible, we even had good surpluses which we were able to barter for the things we needed for fencing, hen houses and all the rest. We got good fruit trees going, loads of soft fruit, tomatoes and salad crops in a smallish poly tunnel, also paid for from barter of the excess.

We worked that bit of ground up until two years ago and fed two families as they grew up and then for a while the beginings of all the families that grew from them; we never dug that ground again after that first big one,
and it never failed to produce very well for us. If I do it again I will, without hesitation, go the same route. Everyone who ever visited always remarked on how the patch always looked in really good heart and it never let us down.

There is now a house being built there and it scalds my heart every time I see it.

That sounds like a wonderful experience for all concerned Mac and one which nourished (in all senses) two families. Nothing lasts forever though...