No Dig Gardening ~

Did you know November 3rd is No Dig day?

To celebrate, I thought I would share with you my recent planting of garlic, onions and shallots – No Dig style.

In case you don’t konw what I’m talking about, No Dig (or No Till), is all about a style of gardening wehre the soil is left undisturbed as much as possible. Most life in the soil is apparently not as deep down as we think…so why dig down to a level which isn’t rich in life and nutrients? It’s the soil life that helps plants immensely. I recently found out about the communication that goes on between plants and the microbes in the soil. Apparently the plant can send ‘messages’ saying what nutrients it needs and the microbes deliver! Ok a very simplified explanation but its something like that.

No Dig is therefore about:

Not disturbing this layer where the nutrients are rich and the mega microbes live.
Feeding the soil, not the plant

When you think about it logically, if you use plant ‘food’, you only feed that plant with specific nutrients. Whereas, if you feed the soil, you not only coninuously improve the structure of your soil, you deliver a whole range of nutrients to the plants, the microbes and all other life in the soil!

An added bonus by not digging, is that youaren’t bringing dormant weed seeds to the surface where they can get the conditions they need to burst into life!

So, to do my planting, I picked areas which have already been weeded and used my little dibber to make a small hole for each clove or bulb. Now, instead of scraping the soil back over and spreading plant food, I added a layer of compost on the top.

If you look at the photos you will see I am planting around the crops that are still in place. This is the first time I’ve done this and will cut the other plants at soil level when I harvest them so the soil isn’t disturbed. This is an idea I got from Charles Dowding who is known as teh No Dig guru in the UK! His website can be found here: https://www.charlesdowding.co.uk/get-started and is a great source for all things No Dig!

Happy Gardening.