Does no dig gardening really work?

[Oliver Buckle]

I agree with CCP

If you’re starting a new bed, just lay down cardboard,

CCP is right, was a time cardboard was made from wood pulp, now there is a significant amount of recycled plastic in it. The same goes for newspaper, I used to line my runner bean trench with it, not anymore.

 

[roadrunner]

I think cardboard can work in some circumstances. I don't use cardboard, because I give my "weeds" way too much deference, to a fault. However, when the soil is very active it eats everything, in no time. Cardboard wouldn't last long in my soil.

 

[Meadowlark]

Yes, no-dig gardening really does work...

What do you mean by "really does work"? Does it enable production equal to or greater than other methods?

Please post photos and provide data from your own personal experience showing how it really works.

I have tested it side-by-side against my techniques and am still waiting for someone, anyone to post up their own hands-on personal experience comparing to their techniques.

I challenge anyone to do the same experiment I did following the above definition of No Dig and post honest results.

I'm also waiting and have been for about 7 years now for a demonstration of this.

I can hand deliver a 2 meter rod into my garden soil.

 

[Meadowlark]

One of my all time favorite photos of the proclaimed "No Dig" guru doing what appears to most as digging in his "No Dig" garden.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

That's hoeing, simply disturbing a thin surface layer, making a tilth is really only like mulching, but using the earth and any weeds. Digging isn't done with a hoe, it's done with a fork, or some sort of flat bladed thing I would call a spade, you might call a shovel. It involves disturbing the ground that the roots of plants grow in. The tilth is not like that, nothing grows in it, it protects the growing medium from heat and evaporation, the regular agitation means plant material breaks down in it and supplies the earth below with nutrient dissolved in the water which passes through it. The agitation sends the small stuff to the bottom and it is absorbed into the soil, the slightly larger particles allow rain through, but stop it running off, then they provide shade which stops it evaporating.
A tilth is a remarkable tool, but it is not produced by digging.

 

[Meadowlark]

That's hoeing,

Hoeing...digging...tilling you say tomato I say tomato.

Whatever, it is disturbing the soil, something which "No Dig" claims is not needed nor even helpful.

During a crop growing period, I very likely "till" much shallower than you "hoe"...about an inch or two...some call that cultivation. Both of which the "No Dig" advocates spurn as I have read and has been posted on this Forum. That would be the famous "1 inch of compost annually no soil disturbance" is all that is needed.

 

[Meadowlark]

I'm just learning about this 'no dig' gardening thing where you just compost and mulch on top of grass to start out a new bed.

...The garden demonstrates how to grow abundant food year round without digging or disturbing the soil. An annual mulch of compost feeds the soil and soil life for a year, increasing soil biology and enhancing soil fertility...

"

...Honestly, all you need to do is put an inch of compost onto your bed each year. That's enough to feed your soil which in turn will feed multiple harvests over the year.

Title of thread:

"Does no dig gardening really work?'"

.
...Adding one inch of compost a year is enough to produce multiple harvests a season, year in and year out.

A 1 inch layer of compost is applied to the soild every December - nothing more added." "Honestly, all you need to do is put an inch of compost onto your bed each year. " No fertilizer, no weeding"

@@Susan BBPM

Have you thought about trying the No-dig method with your usual practices minus the tilling step to see if it changes the outcome?

Yep, been there, done that.

Hoeing = disturbing the soil in any language.

 

[cpp gardener]

And did it change the outcome?

 

[Meadowlark]

And did it change the outcome?

Yes, substantially less production...about 3 to 1 less.

"Not disturbing the soil" means I can't apply my normal practices of incorporating green manure (turning nitrogen producing legumes under) and practicing chop and drop which the way I do it violently with fail mower disturbs the soil.

The one inch of compost claim applied to the surface further limits my production where I use probably at least 3-4 inches of composted cow manure turned into the soil in addition to green manures and chop and drop.

It also means no weeding and even though my soil has been conditioned over many years to be as near weedless as possible, the windblown weed seeds germinate and take nutrients away from the target plants.

For some people, 3 to 1 production might be enough to say "Yes, No dig works"...but not for me.

It definitely strains credibility when people claim one inch of compost applied annually without disturbing the soil will produce as much as my practices. Just isn't true.

 

[gary350]

I think NO till means, you do not own a shovel, you don't own any garden tools and no gas engine tiller and NO hand tools. Sticks, rocks, knife, spoon, fork and your hands can not be used at tools. Here in TN soil is clay and rock I tried to grow a garden with no gas engine tiller it can not be done at my house. I am sure there are many locations in USA that have better soil than TN and worse soil than TN.

 

[Meadowlark]

Interesting take @gary350 ...but you left out the cardboard. which many (most) no diggers say solves all gardening problems.

 

[gary350]

Interesting take @gary350 ...but you left out the cardboard. which many (most) no diggers say solves all gardening problems.

I don't put cardboard in my garden it contains lots of glue. I have no clue what toxic chemicals are in glue.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

I don't put cardboard in my garden it contains lots of glue. I have no clue what toxic chemicals are in glue.

Not to mention the board itself, that's not just wood pulp it's made from, and if it's recycled all the tape and printing from the recycled material will be in there

 

[cpp gardener]

Check out thegardenprofessors.com for info on cardboard in gardens.

 

[big rockpile]

Mother nature does it for you. Soy bean meal is almost 50% protein. Molasses used in gardening is often the leftiver from making refined sugar and instead of being used in feed is given in gallons for deer attractant or other low level uses.

Actually Black Strap Molasses is very good for you. It doesn’t have sugar, it will kill Cancer Cells, and has many good nutrients.

You give it to plants the Microbes like it until it is depleted and die.

big rockpile