Charles Dowding’s no-dig guide
Charles Dowding is the king of ‘no-dig’ and in his latest book he explains the fuss-free method that’s all about speed, ease and productivity. Is this the year you go no-dig?
Charles Dowding has been a leading authority on no-dig gardening since 1983. He runs veg-growing courses, and lectures and writes books on his growing techniques.
No-dig, right from day one, is less about what we do to ‘fix’ soil and more about how we enhance its natural liveliness. Compost or organic matter on the surface encourages organisms in the soil to travel upwards and feed, which improves aeration and structure. Their excretions contain feed for other organisms and/or plants, so the cycle of life is enabled and magnified. From there it’s simply a matter of sowing and planting into the surface compost, when it’s the right season for each different plant. And don’t forget, no-dig is great for flowers and ornamental plants: fewer weeds, and gorgeous blooms.
It is instructive, and fascinating, to discover where no-dig has come from and how it has developed. And to consider why it did not become popular, even though its practitioners enjoyed such success. No-dig copies nature’s way of caring for soil, and the soil responds by caring for plants, hence the great results. Sounds too easy? Not exactly, but knowing the details is what makes it work.
Vegetables need plentiful moisture and fertility, hence my emphasis on being generous with your mulches when growing them. No-dig also works with thinner mulches, but crops will be less abundant and weeds may be more numerous. I recommend maintaining a cover or mulch of organic matter, so the soil underneath is mostly invisible. One application a year can achieve this. Organisms in the soil keep eating the surface material and mixing it with soil materials, to create an open structure for the growth of plant roots.
The magic of mulches
Mulching once a year with high quality
compost – and using the no-dig method – makes it quick and straightforward to keep soil in top condition. All these benefits follow: great crops, healthy growth, steady drainage, good moisture retention and few weeds. Timing is flexible, and occasionally you are spreading compost while plants are growing.
Making compost is a fascinating hobby, and if you have never tried it, do have a go. You will convert wastes into value, perhaps enjoying the process as much as the result.
Compost varies enormously, and homemade compost is the most variable and interesting. Every batch is different, thanks to seasonally changing ingredients and conditions. An added bonus is the range of local microbes in home-made compost, fantastic for human as well as garden health.
But wouldn’t it be easier simply to lay undecomposed matter on the surface? This is called chop and drop, and in dry climates it may be the best course to take. However, in damp climates undecomposed waste on the surface results in slugs. And decomposition is quicker in heaps, which are more than just ‘decaying material’. Well-made heaps convert waste matter quickly and tidily into stable organic matter or humus, ready to be used as a mulch.
A question I get asked often is ‘do you spread compost in summer before a second planting?’ The answer is simple: there is no need. We enjoy abundant growth from summer plantings when nothing has been added to the soil since the previous year. We mostly spread the annual dressing of compost in late autumn to early winter. Despite this, I often see it claimed that compost should be ‘either covered through winter with polythene, or spread in the spring just before planting, to ensure no leaching of nutrients’. In my experience, which is now 38 years of spreading compost before Christmas, this is not true. Growth has always been phenomenal, and consistently good throughout every year following, on different soils.
Know your weeds
I define weeds as plants you don’t want growing where they have appeared. It’s a personal call and does not mean they are evil
plants, rather that they are strong growers and good at reproduction. Weed plants can spread over whole areas quite rapidly, either from seed or from roots.
Gardening is so much more fun when you are in control of the weed situation, rather than the other way around. No-dig helps enormously, but even so you need to be in the habit of dealing with new weed growth. This is whenever it’s mild and moist enough for seeds to germinate, or for perennial weed roots to grow.
There is a nice phrase used for dealing with the first flush of new weed germination in early spring – a weed strike. It’s about catching them very young and using minimum time for maximum effect. The ideal period for weed strikes is before you sow and transplant, usually in late winter to early spring. Normally you use a hoe or rake, passing it lightly through the surface of the soil. Hand weeding is possible for smaller areas.
Weeding by hand can be fun, as long as there are few enough for it not to be an overwhelming job. It’s always such an opportunity to see what else is going on. At such close quarters, you notice other things too: if there is any pest damage to vegetables, if there are any pods to harvest, or perhaps there is a need to water or give support; plus it’s a chance to remove diseased leaves.
Hand weeding goes more quickly when weeds are small, really small. The habit you need is a willingness to be proactive, to pull those weed seedlings when it’s optional, rather than vital. Stay alert and always be looking over your garden, searching for where you can make a worthwhile difference
I recommend you ignore those who advocate tolerance of weeds, because that approach can so easily lead to a big drop in harvests and, more importantly, to a lot of time wasted.
Some advocate ‘weeds as ground cover’, but when your vegetables and flowers grow strongly, they cover the ground. The soil is also covered by mulches of organic matter, such as compost, so with no-dig I feel that ‘ground cover’ is not an issue. One way or another it’s always covered, but not with weeds.
Start your no-dig journey
Following the no-dig method you can plant into a new bed created on weeds, and on the same day. Even with perennial weeds still alive underneath. Problems diminish and gardening becomes easier, in particular because weeds appear less, since their healing properties are not needed by healthy soil. No-dig requires less compost than an equivalent dug area, because no carbon is lost from cultivation, and active soil life increases fertility.
An easy way to get started is by practising with a pot or a box, which you can sow with salad leaves (they grow fast and produce a harvest). Plant a first early potato in spring in a small bag or bucket of compost, it’s fun and you don’t have to wait long for a crop. Remember the leaves need space to grow! Or make one small bed, say 1.2m square, full of multi-purpose compost. Sow or plant in that and keep planting or sowing new veg as soon as gaps appear.
Visit Charles Dowding and learn more about no-dig on our Somerset gardens tour – see p50.
No-dig copies nature’s way of caring for soil and the soil responds by caring for plants. Sounds too easy? Not exactly, but knowing the details is what makes it work