When you lay cardboard down and then the layer of compost the compost has to be deep enough to take the plants you are putting into it. So if you're sowing seeds it can be thin, but not for plants.
On the lawn, I use cardboard, then horse manure, with a bit of old peat free compost or garden compost or topsoil or municipal compost or whatever else I can get hold of mixed in.
There are always local places where I can pick up horse manure free, and have just been crossing my fingers re weedkiller. I generally grow in plugs, then plant into pockets of old compost/municipal compost/garden compost.
I then mulch the lot with shredding/chipping from the garden.
I do get some bindweed, but just pull it and leave it to die in place - it's gradually reducing and never gets far. The blackbirds do chuck everything around, particularly on a slope - I sometimes put down some leyllandii cuttings to slow them down.
I get good yields and do little work, so it works for me. I am considering some edging, particularly on the slope...
Almost "no dig". A couple of years ago I tried growing potatoes for the first time. Scraped only a roughly 2" "trench", laid down the chitted potatoes and covered them with mature leaf mould. Kept topping it up as they grew and at the end I had lovely clean spuds so easily dug up. Now in my new garden I'm going to try the Ruth Stout method which is really the same, using spoiled hay to top up that I got by asking on a local chat site. Lots of leaves in this area so I'll see how much I can collect from neighbours to compost down.
I do my veg beds as no dig, started 3 years ago. I laid as much cardboard as I could, maybe 3 or 4 layers, then covered with 15cm ish of homemade compost. I did buy at the time 2000lt of B&Q compost in 100lt bags and was free delivery it cost me £110 (total bargain). I used about 100 litres per 3m2 raked into the surface. Since then I've added about a well barrow of compost to 3m2 each autumn and plan on the same this year. I've had really good crops and this year didn't use a drop of fertilizer or feed on anything, including the greenhouse tomatoes (the greenhouse is bare earth in no dig the same as the beds).
I can only compare with my dad's old veg garden where he dug everything over in the autumn and can safely say I wouldn't go down that route. I do work very hard at producing loads of compost (see the compost thread) so have plentiful supplies but the workload is well spread throughout the year. I've found very little issue with weeds managing to hoe most out when very small and no return of the perennial weeds such as dandelion which totally dominate our grass here.
I'll definitely continue and plant extend 1 bed this year to add 4m2 more. It's definitely achievable especially if you are new to gardening and aren't ingrained in the digging culture. I don't say it's better just a different way, im from a farming background and zero till is becoming much more common now driven by fuel and input costs primarily but farmers are being surprised by the success after the 1st couple of seasons.
Strange that a "no digger" would make trenches for their runner beans, which I have seen at East Ruston.
Why all the sarcasm? Alan Gray is the host of the series that interviews the head gardeners, heads of nurseries, writers etc. (As you well know). This week he invited Charles Dowding on to the programme to discuss No Dig. In the programme Alan mentioned that he tended to use no dig methods for ornamentals but had not thought of it for his veg areas.
It's not about being an idealogue or having a go at people who choose one method over another.
When you lay cardboard down and then the layer of compost the compost has to be deep enough to take the plants you are putting into it. So if you're sowing seeds it can be thin, but not for plants.
If you are creating new beds, it depends what kind of soil you are working with in that spot. Converting an area of compacted lawn would be a very different undertaking than, say, swapping a dug veg bed to a no dig veg bed. In the latter case there might already be high levels of organic matter in the ground and a good planting depth.
The video upthread is a good overview for people already gardening and answers a lot of common questions that people carry about No Dig. CD has a new book out that is comprehensive on the techniques. Perhaps a good Christmas present for some.
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So if you're sowing seeds it can be thin, but not for plants.
When you don't even know who's in the team
S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
I can only compare with my dad's old veg garden where he dug everything over in the autumn and can safely say I wouldn't go down that route. I do work very hard at producing loads of compost (see the compost thread) so have plentiful supplies but the workload is well spread throughout the year. I've found very little issue with weeds managing to hoe most out when very small and no return of the perennial weeds such as dandelion which totally dominate our grass here.
I'll definitely continue and plant extend 1 bed this year to add 4m2 more. It's definitely achievable especially if you are new to gardening and aren't ingrained in the digging culture. I don't say it's better just a different way, im from a farming background and zero till is becoming much more common now driven by fuel and input costs primarily but farmers are being surprised by the success after the 1st couple of seasons.