Gardening for lazy people
The no-dig method makes your garden summer-ready in no time
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Anyone who has a garden would like to have a blooming paradise to go with it. If only it wasn’t so much work! With this simple method, however, it should be possible to avoid annoying steps like weeding and digging up the soil.
Gardening without digging… does that even make sense? Yes, at least if you follow the method of the British Charles Dowding. It does not require this step at all, which is a popular classic for loosening the soil and supplying it with oxygen. In the 1980s, he became more involved in growing vegetables and eventually switched to 100 percent “no dig”. According to the expert, this method ensures that plants grow healthier and there are fewer weeds. It also makes your life easier, as you can plant the seedlings directly in the soil.
How to try “No-Dig”
You don’t have to convert your entire property to the new technology right away. Instead, start with a small area. The expert recommends starting with 1.2 x 1.4 meters, away from trees that draw a lot of water from the soil or hedges that could cast too much shade on your bed. The method is said to work well even in clay soil or mud. This is how you go about creating a new no-dig bed:
- If in your garden lots of weeds grows and you want quick results, you first unprinted cardboard on the entire surface This will help you to start planting right away, despite the weeds. Dowding recommends ten to 15 centimeters of compost to distribute on the cardboard (either from your own garden or purchased).
- Is your earth weed-free, you don’t need cardboard and you can instead use about five centimeters of compost begin. The height is determined after the earth has been lightly compacted. In one of his videos, Dowding shows that he means this literally by walking across the area in small steps wearing rubber boots.
- The bed works best with seedlingsas they are more effective against pests in the soil than seeds.
More tips and tricks from the experts
Charles Dowding explains in one of his videos that he the cardboard for free from shops His tip: Just ask if a shop near you would be happy to dispose of a little less cardboard by sending it to you. However, it should be unprinted so that no ink can get into the soil. If very strong with In areas overgrown with weeds, it is important that the cardboard have no slits that allow light to reach the surface underneath. It is best to lay them down so that such places are covered by another piece of cardboard. Edges of the cardboard should always be on top of each other and not next to each otherOtherwise you risk the weeds breaking through at the edges.
Which compost is suitable?
Do you use your own compostthis should already be well broken down and not too coarseIf you do not have enough compost in stock, it is worth using the purchased variant The expert also often uses a Mixture of bothbut also refers to Mushroom compost which is ideal for everything else, including flowers and vegetables. For the edges of the beds, Dowding mostly uses wood chips. The beds should also be borderedso that plants growing around the bed do not have the opportunity to spread. For this purpose, an overhanging cardboard edge is recommended, which is marked off and weighted down with pieces of wood, for example.
The Cardboard itself begins to compost over timewhich allows growing plants to break through the surface. The weeds that were lying under the cardboard without any sun will have mostly died by then. Only a few new plants will come through that you will have to take care of. It may be a good idea to cover your bed with a net while it is growing, for example to protect it from birds.
Sources used: charlesdowding.co.uk, YouTube/Charles Dowding