No Dig, surely that has got to be the go to method for vegetable growing. I’m a bit sketchy and often DO … before I think, (I will address this failing in the future). Therefore my knowledge of no dig has holes to say the least. However from what I have read it sounds wonderful. Cover the weeds, grass or both in a mulch, compost or manure for example. Cover with cardboard or carpet to keep the light out. Leave for several months or more depending on the wrath level of your weeds. When ready, uncover and pop in your vegetables or seeds. That’s it! You don’t have to dig, the soil structure is undisturbed and aerated, the worms are happy and in one piece, it’s all dandy and natural and no visit to the chiropractor needed.
Back in the real world, I did it all wrong. But there were reasons. During the cold frosty start of 2018 … I embarked on the no dig method for the soon to be vegetable plot. I thought, tarpaulins! What a great idea, they will automatically make a vegetable bed shape and sort out the aggressive weed situation in one fell swoop. So we bought them (a lot, at least 30 🙁 ) We laid them out and tent pegged them down in a vaguely structured format. Now, I was unable to put any compost down. Firstly we did not have any as this was our first year of have a go hobby smallholders. Secondly the whole plot is vertically challenged and lugging big bags of compost or manure up to the top would be worthy of a ‘Rocky’ montage circa 1985.
So simply tarps it was. We laid them down for several months.
To address the manure issue we needed to get a vehicle up into the plot. Turning … to my lightweight 4×4 short wheel based Toyota RAV. A lovely old banger that I traded my Bongo in for (I am not a great passing place country lane driver, the smaller the better please, breathe in everyone). Now I am sure most 4×4 specialists would laugh at the thought of this little Japanese number getting up the slope (bear in mind a tractor had failed) and even I had my doubts (musing over the genius of the Landrover Defender Ggrrrrr). However, after digging out a trip hazard step at the entrance of the field, my little RAV did it with road tyres to boot! Yes it slipped and spun on wet weather days and I don’t hold out much hope when the ground gets sodden again, but after this super dry summer it’s been up and down many a time. Hoorah! Husband did much of the bagging of manure and driving up – I give grateful thanks to our neighbours and their manure pile from their beautiful ponies.
Back to the tarps, did they work? Unfortunately not. Our super-strength docks and ferns ripped through them leaving a patchwork Beast of Bodmin style trail. We took them up, salvaged the ok ones and re-thought the problem.
Solution? The rotavator. We hired a big boy rotavator for a day and churned up two long stretches either side of the plot. Then over to our Mantis Tiller for the fine churning. A great little machine for fine tithe soil, easy to manoevre in small areas with a lovely hum to the Honda engine. (Sorry worms).
The Cornish soil was divine, having had years of pre-owners goats, sheep, cow and horse poo disintegrated in over many a year. We tumbled in the manure and voila! We were ready for vegetable planting.
Finishing of the soil with the Mantis Tiller.
This had overgrown again with grass since we used the first rotavator so the Mantis did a good job for a small machine.
Honda engine.
Mantis Tiller.
A selection of heavy duty rotavators available from Amazon.
A selection of Mantis Tillers available from Amazon.