No-Dig Garden
Growing healthy food by growing healthy soil
No-dig gardening does not disturb the soil with tilling and conventional farming methods. This means growing healthy soil by continually breaking down organic matter, as occurs in a natural system, by adding compost onto growing beds. We do not use chemicals or fertilizers, the soil holds the fertility. No-dig also provides a clean and easy to maintain, weed free system, that is aesthetically pleasing.
Garden bed installation
We started by mowing the grass as short as possible, and plotting out the garden bed area. We manufactured a 30 ft long by 30 in wide wood template to ensure installation of straight and equal beds. Then cardboard is rolled out right on top of the grass.
Cardboard is covered with 6 in of compost and wood chips in the pathways between to suppress weed growth.
The wood frame is simply flipped over to the next section of cardboard, leaving a 1 ft space between for the woodchip pathways. Most of this was completed by one person.
Here are the completed beds. The cardboard will suppress the weed growth long enough to kill most of the grass and weeds. Although the first year necessitates a lot of weed pulling to remove difficult perennials, the result is years of weed free, and easy to maintain beds.
No-dig gardening also provides an aesthetically pleasing environment.
This is the first year growth in the no-dig beds. At least once per year, a new layer of compost is added to the beds for organic matter and fertility. These clean beds reduce slug and other pest problems.