Diana Noonan shares her no-dig wisdom

no-dig gardening has a very attractive ring to it – and so it should. it provides beds that are easy to manage and rich in nutrients. when well constructed, the method sees a garden with the ultimate soil structure that requires little, if any, weeding, and which is quick to warm up and free-draining.

Here are four good reasons why no-dig growing is worth a try.

1. Grow with the goodies a regular in-ground garden is formed using existing earth to which all the garden goodies must be added: fibre, nutrients and compost. In this situation, it’s easy to get careless. your garden can become no more than unproductive dirt if you haven’t been vigilant about adding the necessary ingredients. with a no-dig garden, your growing medium is always in the best of health because without the goodies, it wouldn’t exist.

2. love the life beneath there’s no getting away from it – soil disturbance is a killer. the moment you go digging around in the earth, whether it’s with a rotary hoe or a fork and spade, you are disturbing the beneficial microorganisms in your soil. sure, they will reorganise themselves, but while they do so your plants are served with a setback. in terms of providing a safezone for your soil organisms, a no-dig garden is the answer.

3. retain the rain any raised garden, including a no-dig one, runs the risk of being water-hungry as gravity sends the water down to its lowest point. But because a no-dig bed contains loads of moisture-retaining materials (such as straw and compost), gravity has a fight on its hands. A no-dig bed is also without the hard crust that so often forms on the surface of a regular garden, and which results in much of any moisture it receives running off, rather than passing through, the growing medium.

4. be kind to your body

A no-dig garden bed affords you the opportunity to carry light loads, bit by bit, onto your construction site over any period of time you choose. On top of this, a no-dig garden can, over time, be raised to a height that will be more manageable if you have a back that does give you problems.

thoughts on Using newspaper & cardboard

Newspaper and cardboard are often used in no-dig garden construction, but debate is ongoing as to whether or not it is safe to do so. in the end, it comes down to personal choice. let this be an informed choice by doing your own homework on the subject.

newspaper, which is made from wood pulp, is certainly biodegradable – in fact, worms seem to head for it when it is incorporated into the compost pile or a no-dig garden. worms, and a range of soil microbes, break down the paper into cellulose, releasing carbon, an essential in healthy soil, into the garden. so far, so good, but what about the chemicals that go into bleaching the newspaper?

if whitening the paper pulp has been achieved through the use of chlorine bleach, this product eventually, and very slowly, leaves behind traces of the highly toxic chemical dioxin. as for the ink used to print newspapers, in the past it was composed of worrying heavy metals such as lead and cadmium. newspaper ink is now more likely to be made from soybean oil, and so is more garden-friendly – but that’s not always the case, so, what is a no-dig gardener to do?

Believe it or not, companies actually welcome enquiries from the public about the products they use, so check out the ingredients that go into the making of the newspaper you intend to use in the garden by emailing or phoning the printer. do the same with any cardboard you are considering using, so you are aware of any bleaches, glues and inks used in its production.

if you have any doubts about using newspaper or cardboard as part of your no-dig garden ingredients, leave them out!