I've used a bit of Everedge before and it is great. Not cheap, but I didn't need much. I'm considering it for two small beds. It will last a lifetime. For big spaces it's expensive.
I tried to make a few videos tracking my own experiment with no dig vegetable growing and they are posted here. I just used the used horse bedding and manure from the farmyard next door in a deep enough layer with no cardboard and it has produced some good crops since it was started and I have expanded the area to allow more vegetables and other plants to be grown since. Currently have mainly some kale and chard that cropped well over winter and some leeks that are still small and a few other things growing that have mostly done well. Still needed to do a bit of weeding as the material used was not fully free of weed seeds. Some problems included visits from pigeons and a badger that would have been an issue with other types of vegetable plots as well. On balance I think the crops are yielding better with the no dig method.
I really do want no dig to work for me but I agree with Lizzie27, it can be an expensive way of growing, especially if you have to buy in compost . The other cost is in raising plants, first rather than direct sowing. The other thing to bear in mind no dig does NOT mean no work. If you read CD's books and especially if you go on one of his courses, you see just how much effort he puts in. He puts in huge effort, making ,turning and spreading compost. He is on to weeds, as soon as they appear, if they get beyond 2 leaves that's a failure in his eyes.
Why can't you direct sow, @Allotment Boy? I started my runner beans off in pots, and the first sowing of sugar peas, but other than that I direct sowed everything last year and it seemed to work very well. Maybe if the surface layer was rough garden compost that might be a problem, but if you can sieve it, or add a thin layer of (say) used growbag compost to sow into, that ought to work? My raised beds' top layer (only an inch or so) was municipal compost from green waste, which is (apart from seeds and bulbs, multi-purpose compost and a few irresistible bare root perennials) pretty well my only garden expense at the moment. (I get a dumpy sack at a time delivered here, because I don't make enough compost from the garden for the new flower beds I'm cutting out of the lawn as well as the veg.)
Agreed about the amount of work though. I'd love it if gardening were still my "job" so I could say "Sorry, I can't do the shopping/cooking/washing/cleaning cos I've got to weed the no-dig beds..."
Since 2019 I've lived in east Clare, in the west of Ireland.
Some thoughts from the experiment by sage Bruce over in Ireland. He explores adapting no dig methods for temperate climates and direct seed sowing. He is about an hour's drive from you @Liriodendron - it might be a great place to visit and quiz Bruce. He was running courses. (I'd love to study there and see how they run things)
I think no dig can work if you have a flat area, good, deep soil under the grass, no pernicious, spreading perennial weeds and a plentiful supply of (or funds to purchase) organic matter to regularly top up. I’ve never had those conditions so my experience has been similar to yours Liriodendron.
I garden on terraces and most of the topsoil was scraped off in their creation, leaving a thin layer of essentially rubbish clay subsoil infested with bindweed and other horrors which grow out of the bedrock and under the raised bed sides. The latter necessary to create a minimum planting depth and stop the lot sliding off the terrace. Monsoon-like rain compacts it no matter how much manure and compost I mix in. Annual digging is a back-breaking pain and I really wish I could be no-dig, but it’s a necessary evil to remove bindweed. I tried just spot-weeding it but lost the battle. I just couldn’t keep up.
I only grow things that we like to eat, that are tastier than the shop-bought equivalent and that can cope with my conditions. It is absolutely not a money-saving venture. In fact, it’s become an expensive and time-consuming hobby of diminishing returns. Especially when you then lose much of your crops to increasingly extreme weather events!
Mountainous Northern Catalunya, Spain. Hot summers, cold winters.
I've tried the potatoes under straw, I started with cleared ground with a few creeping thistle. The potatoes produced, but only about half the crop that the ones done conventionaly in trenches did. The main issue I could see was that slugs loved the straw and were very hard to spot hiding in it munching potatoes.
Even though I only got half my normal yield I would still do the method again, as it was 10x easier, no digging to plant, no digging to harvest. But it is only a good method if you have unrestricted space and lots of free straw.
Most of my potatoes (and I plant over 100kg per year) will still be "traditional" but if I run out of time I will just put some on the surface and cover with straw again.
As a real bonus, those areas that were covered in straw are still not showing any weeds now after nearly a full year.
I've also tried garlic in no dig, but the compost/ mulch gets blown off over winter so it's not really working.
Posts
The other thing to bear in mind no dig does NOT mean no work. If you read CD's books and especially if you go on one of his courses, you see just how much effort he puts in. He puts in huge effort, making ,turning and spreading compost. He is on to weeds, as soon as they appear, if they get beyond 2 leaves that's a failure in his eyes.
Agreed about the amount of work though. I'd love it if gardening were still my "job" so I could say "Sorry, I can't do the shopping/cooking/washing/cleaning cos I've got to weed the no-dig beds..."
I garden on terraces and most of the topsoil was scraped off in their creation, leaving a thin layer of essentially rubbish clay subsoil infested with bindweed and other horrors which grow out of the bedrock and under the raised bed sides. The latter necessary to create a minimum planting depth and stop the lot sliding off the terrace. Monsoon-like rain compacts it no matter how much manure and compost I mix in. Annual digging is a back-breaking pain and I really wish I could be no-dig, but it’s a necessary evil to remove bindweed. I tried just spot-weeding it but lost the battle. I just couldn’t keep up.
I only grow things that we like to eat, that are tastier than the shop-bought equivalent and that can cope with my conditions. It is absolutely not a money-saving venture. In fact, it’s become an expensive and time-consuming hobby of diminishing returns. Especially when you then lose much of your crops to increasingly extreme weather events!