My Basic Guide To No-Dig Gardening – Can You Dig It?

Gardening, without digging, you say? Impossible! Or is it…

It seems the gardener’s arsenal (read: shed) is chock-full of tools tailor-made for digging, whilst digging itself seems synonymous with the gardener’s work. After all, how many of us love seeing a friendly robin perched on a submerged fork, biding its time until a juicy worm appears?

But what if there was another way? And, what if that other way was, well, better? If it can preserve the health of the soil, enhance biodiversity and boost the beauty of your blooms, it’s got to be worth exploring. 

In this blog, we’ll unearth (yup, pun intended) how your local Isle of Wight gardener uses no-dig gardening when they can, and all the ways this can make your garden a haven for wildlife and a beauteous retreat.

To jump straight to the how-tos, click here

What on (or under) earth is ‘no dig gardening’?

‘No-dig’ or ‘no-till’ gardening refers to the practice of gardening with minimal disturbance to the topsoil. Yes, fellow gardeners, that means churning soil, then sowing crops, removing old growth and a whole host of ‘essential’ gardener’s Sunday jobs are all excluded in the school of no-dig gardening. 

The golden-rule of no-dig gardening, besides not actually digging the soil, is to sow into newly laid-down organic matter, such as compost. More on this later…

How can no dig gardening help my garden?

Undisturbed habitats

How would you like the roof of your home ripped off and mashed up each spring and autumn? I thought not. Well, it turns out worms, micro-organisms and soil-bound insects are much the same. And these little guys are your best friend when it comes to making soil your plants will love. In an earlier blog post, we spoke about the benefits of mycorrhizal fungi to the health of your trees and plants, but it’s also worms and insects who excrete micro poo nutrients, invaluable to growth.  

Most of soil life is in the first few inches below the surface, as this is the closest part to where organic matter falling on the ground decomposes. We should be mimicking this process by adding compost and mulch to the surface, not wrecking these excellent underground micro-relations.

 Bigger yields

This is no allotment-holder’s old wive’s tale, oh no. No-dig gardening ups the yields of seasonal veg considerably in many cases. An undisturbed soil ecosystem means a higher turnover of nutrients, something the hungry veg-producing plants just love.

Happier, healthier blooms

Whilst your flowering border plants are definitely less hungry than vegetable-yielders, they can benefit from a richer, less disturbed soil, too. 

A real time-saver

If the joys of gardening include seeing flower heads bravely poke their heads out, or fruits slowly ripen, then digging has to be one of the labours. With no-dig gardening, you’ve found a method that does away with all that huffing and puffing (more on this method later).

Rid yourself of weeds

Those cartoon villains, those pesky plants! Because you’ll be sowing into a newly added layer of compost and soil, the weeds that do grow are easier to pull out as they’ll be less established. See Stage 2 below for a nifty way to quell those weeds even more.

Doing your bit for carbon sequestration

Don’t worry, it’s not like I’m going to use a word like ‘sequestration’ without providing some context… Did you know, soil is one of the greatest carbon sinks we have? If left undisturbed, the draw-down of carbon by vegetation on top of the soil can be stored safely away from the atmosphere in the soil. If it’s dug, it’s lost. So the motto is: for above-board carbon reduction, keep it below the surface.

Easy, tiger. Save your back

Many of us take up (or step up) gardening later in life. But, in a cruel twist of fate, this is when nature decides to take it out on our bodies. And digging is probably the most strenuous activity known to gardener-kind. If it can be avoided, many more of us can be gardening long into the future with strong, supple bodies. What’s the gardening version of an Abercrombie & Fitch model?

 How C.A.R. Gardens uses no-dig gardening on the Isle of Wight

Let’s get down to it – HOW is all this possible without digging? It’s all about putting organic growing matter ON TOP of the soil.

Simple enough, right? Just remember: it involves adding compost or soil substrate on top of existing soil, and sowing directly into it. 

Aaaand that’s about it. What, were you expecting a magic spell? 

Here’s a bit of a 1,2,3 on the steps C.A.R. Gardens take to install a no-dig principle in your gardens:

1. Remove all weeds. You can add some weeds to your compost bin, but be aware of pernicious roots and seeds, unless you hot compost. Tip: if you have some established beasties, cut down to soil level and cover with cardboard for a few weeks. These should be easier to pull up, but you may still need to return to these until eradicated.
2. Lay some biodegradable cardboard or other light-excluding material on top of the soil, covering it all (this is so the weeds can’t grow). Try not to use anything with ink on, as these chemicals can leach into the soil, harming your microorganism helpers. You may want to skip this step if you’re working with an already cultivated area, as this is mainly to rid the soil of weeds. 
3. Add a layer of 15-20 cm organic mulch directly on top of the cardboard layer. We recommend using your own home made compost, or if that’s not an option, or you need more, speak to your local council about compost made from local recycled green waste. If you want to be veganic look at ‘Natural Grower’ and PlantGrow products. There’s no need to dig this in. Our worm and fungal friends beneath the surface will rise and gratefully decompose this for us – just make sure what you’re adding is already pretty well composted. 
4. Sow seeds as normal directly into this layer. If they could, your micro-helpers would thank you for such a great start to life. To keep your no-dig garden going, just add 5-10 cm of compost, mulch to your surface when your crops have been harvested/plants/flowered and removed in Spring or Autumn.
   1. For an easy no-dig way of removing crops/plants without – you guessed it, digging – watch this video. 
5. From here, you know the drill – it’s gardening as you know it.  

Fancy giving it a go in your garden? Reach out to C.A.R. Gardens here to book in an appointment. 

Happy no-digging!