Converting flowerbeds to no dig beds
Lucid
Posts: 387
Hi everyone,
I was watching Big Dreams, Small Spaces the other day (1st episode) and there was an expert on there who suggested that you could make a no dig bed by placing a layer of cardboard on top of the soil/grass/weeds, then layering soil and compost over the top to plant in to.
Having inspected my newer beds (created last Autumn) I'm disappointed with how the soil looks at the moment. I had meant to double dig at the time, but I then attempted single digging, which ended up as not much digging at all as the ground was so tough. I layered a load of manure and compost over the top, although admittedly probably not enough. I then planted what I had.
Here are some photos of what a couple of the beds look like at the moment:
The soil just looks very lumpy on the surface, so I'm assuming it'll be the same below. What I'm wondering is whether it's an idea to take the plants out and start again - getting a layer of cardboard underneath and then filtering the soil that goes back on top to make sure the lumps etc are broken up. Or is it best to be left? I'm just concerned about the plants not being able to do their best because the ground is lumpy etc. If this is ok to do, then is there a suggested good depth for the cardboard?
Lucid 
Posts
feast you eyes on this:
http://www.charlesdowding.co.uk/no-dig-growing/why-no-dig/
Thanks for the link Hostafan1. I've had a read through and I think I've correctly picked up that for my situation the cardboard layer is probably not the best approach. It sounds as though that's what you want to do to block out weeds. It seems that just continuing to layer with compost and manure etc and not worry about the lumps for now is the best method. Does it sound like I've picked up the right information?
Lucid
I was just thinking, we're going go be getting some bulk bags of top soil to do some more levelling to our lawn area. Is it an idea, before adding a fresh 'no dig' mulch layer, to add a layer of new top soil to the flowerbeds as well? Or is it more cost effective just to keep laying organic mulches until they break the soil down?
Lucid
I would just keep on with the manure and mulching and let the worms do the work.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
I use the no dig technique. I only use cardboard or wet newspaper when there are a lot of weeds to stop coming thru.
otherwise as long as you add over 3 inches of organic mulch on the top of the soil every year you just let the worms do their thing.
Thanks Dovefromabove and treehugger80. I'll give them a good mulch once we've finished all of the work in the beds.
Lucid
Thanks Verdun, It's useful to know that for the future.
Lucid
I don't dig mine but I do weed stringently, at least two hours a week at this time of year.
I read in a book recently the idea of adding garden worms to your garden to help speed up the process of breaking down the soil. Has anyone heard of this and is it something worth considering? We do have earthworms in our flowerbeds but the soil seems very bad condition so I'm considering buying in some extras (few hundred) to help get us there quicker - as well as adding lots of manure and compost etc.
I've also seen it referred that once you've converted to a no dig bed you should never walk on it again. So how do you go about accessing plants? Is it worth getting hold of some planks of wood for this?
Thanks for any help,
Lucid