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- This is one way of clearing ground
without disturbing the soil at all
even when there are lots of weeds
and I mean lots.
Here, there is couch grass, bindweed,
a lot of the gardener's most implacable foes.
And they're under this polythene still trying to grow
while the squash are growing on top of the polythene
through holes that we've made while planting.
So the sequence of events here is quite simple
once you get the hang of it, basically.
You want to get the polythene on in time
to kill the main part of the weed growth
before planting
and also get a bit of goodness under it
so there's something for the planting to root into.
And in this case we laid the polythene on the weeds
which is like weedy pasture,
lots of grass thistles, bindweed and so on.
April 7th
that's laying the polythene on the weeds.
And then a month later, we had some compost ready
that was made in the spring.
So we roll back the polythene,
spread this compost on the surface,
no disturbance of soil or anything
just spread the compost on the dying weeds in early May,
to a depth of about two inches
and topped it up with it,
probably about another inch of well-rotted cow manure.
But it was only just enough
that you couldn't quite see the weeds below.
It wasn't a thick mulch.
And then put the polythene back on top,
for another three weeks as it turned out
until the end of May,
it was warming up nicely.
These squash plants were ready.
So I'd raised them in the greenhouse,
nice sturdy plants.
Cut a hole in the polythene,
dig a little hole with a trowel
into the soil of the pasture,
which is still undisturbed, make a little hole.
Put the plants in, give it some water.
And that's it.
It really wasn't a lot of work
and look at the growth.
So these were planted,
six/seven weeks ago
as
plants about that high
and they are growing.
Initially they were rooting into the surface compost
and now,
boy, they're also rooting into the soil below,
undisturbed, no dig
with vacant root channels from the weeds that have died.
So there you go.
Oh, that's Option 1 on my website
where I explain it in more detail.
This is a No-Dig method.
If you have enough compost to do Option 2,
where you cover weedy ground
with lots of good black stuff
and you can also use soil,
even actually quite poor soil.
If it was just at the bottom of this new bed,
laid on top of the weedy pasture,
whatever you're starting with.
Would assume it's weeds,
it might be no weeds.
Well great. If you actually have no weeds
you don't need so much compost for mulching,
but first of all is in, fruiting plants love compost
so there's no harm in using plenty if you have it.
Here we put last October
so eight months ago nearly.
We put
six inches of,
three inches tops all three inches,
fairly well rotted cow manure on top.
And that was the mulching effect to kill the weeds.
Since then we have had to do some follow-up,
for example,
pulling out weeds that regrow like ,here is dandelion.
And I've just seen there's a thistle here popping up.
So you can pull them out
and they,
don't get apparently root out
but you weaken the plant until it's dead.
So here there were,
you can see a bit behind me,
I expect the thistles are not flowering
at this time of year in July.
And
this soil was full of
I saw some quite tricky weeds,
buttercup, dandelion.
Now pretty well all gone, lovely clean surface.
And in January,
we planted some raspberry canes.
They haven't been brilliant, but they're getting going.
That's not so much to do with the compost
it's the raspberries I feel.
And here we've got
well the raspberries are getting established,
onions, which are actually pretty much ready now.
These were grown from sets
and it's a way of using up the space a bit
while the raspberries are getting established.
So,
this is a simple way
if you have enough compost
if you have access to enough compost
and compost can be anything like,
well rotted manure, leaf mold, whatever it might be
to create a bed without disturbing the soil
and giving you a lovely rich medium
for planting into straightaway.
(soft music)
For more information on organic, no-dirt gardening
check out any of my seven books
on different aspects of this subject,
growing vegetables above all.
And my website has fortnightly updates
to keep you up to speed on sowing, planting, harvesting
and also you'll find information
on my website about courses.
I run day courses here
weekend courses,
courses around and abroad even,
and lots more all about No Dig organics.
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