I've established a lot of different vegetable growing spaces as part of this RED Gardens
Project and I'm often trying to establish these spaces for growing vegetables in the context of
really rough ground with lots of problematic weeds to get rid of. I've used quite a few
different methods to establish these growing spaces including simply turning over the sod
to bury the vegetation thoroughly, digging over the ground several times to remove all
the vegetation and the roots, covering the whole section with ground cover fabric for a year to
kill off all the vegetation or using cardboards and various methods to establish no-dig beds.
In general I have been shifting more towards using no-till or reduced tillage methods for
managing the growing spaces on an ongoing basis. But I still think there is a benefit in putting
in the effort to clear the space and prepare the ground before transitioning to no-till methods.
And in order to create a new growing space between the two large polytunnels,
that will be dedicated to growing high value quick rotation crops, I decided to put in the
time and effort to completely clear and prepare the ground before establishing no-dig beds.
I used to dig a lot more in the vegetable gardens, and still do with a couple of the gardens. One
growing space I established by digging quite deeply, removing all of the vegetation and weed
roots, and continue to double dig for many years after that. Another growing space I established
by turning over the sod and continuing to fork over at least once a year since then.
And this is all part of the continuing explorations into the impact of different
soil management practices over the long term that is a core part of this RED Gardens Project.
More recently I purchased a broadfork, and have been using that to gently loosen the
soil in some of the growing spaces rather than using a standard garden fork to dig it over.
And as part of these continuing explorations I have been managing some growing spaces with
very little cultivation, and even have some growing spaces that have been established
with a no dig method where the soil has never been disturbed. So I've been managing most of
the spaces that I grow vegetables in with some version of reduced or no tillage. Not only is
this easier and in a lot of cases tilling is not necessary, it's probably also better for the soil.
But I have not been so successful in the past starting a growing space with no-till or no dig
methods. Last year we established a large no-till growing space using five different methods,
to see how effectively each method would clear the ground, establish a growing bed and how well
the plants would grow into the future. All of the different methods failed to suppress the weeds,
and we ended up covering the entire space with a double layer of ground cover fabric
for at least a year, and I'll see what I can salvage from the experiment next spring.
There are a few perennial weeds that have been really problematic for us in the past,
especially on the site of the Black Plot, which had been abandoned and leftover grow, and we've
been slowly putting in the work to transform the space into a productive growing area. Scutch grass
or couch grass is one of the big ones, and it has an amazing rhizome root system that is really hard
to kill, really hard to dig out, and can regrow from even a fragment of the roots left behind in
the soil. And the young leaves of this plant have very sharp points which seem to easily be able to
poke up through the cardboard that we often use to suppress the vegetation when establishing no dig
beds. Bindweed is also an issue, though thankfully it's less established on this particular site,
and it also has a really aggressive and large root system that is very difficult to dig out, and it
can also regrow from the smallest fragment. And the shoots of these plants can grow really far,
searching for light, and we found them traveling quite a distance horizontally between the layers
of cardboard before they emerge somewhere else. Creeping thistle is another weed that we have
to deal with that also spreads a long distance through horizontal buried roots, and although
the growing shoots are quite easy to pull up it's really difficult to get rid of completely.
There are other perennial weeds that we have to deal with occasionally,
but it's a scutch grass bindweed and creeping thistle that cause the most problems for us.
In the gardens where we dig we can gradually do the work to completely eliminate them and remove
all the root systems from the garden beds, and put in barriers to prevent them from growing back in.
But in the gardens where we practice no-dig or try to reduce the amount of
tillage it can be a lot more difficult to get rid of these weeds. I'm still pulling
out these weeds from a polytunnel that we established more than five years ago.
With the new growing space between the two large polytunnels, which will be dedicated to growing a
rapid succession of a wide variety of fast-growing crops, I wanted to manage these beds as no dig
spaces into the future, but I didn't want to risk having to deal with these perennial weeds
into the future. So we put in the time and effort to completely clear and level the ground first.
This ground was not in great shape to begin with and had been made worse and compacted by all the
work that we did to put up the two polytunnels, and it was full of all the usual problematic weeds
plus a lot of other types of vegetation. So after putting up the second polytunnel two years ago, we
covered the entire space between the two tunnels with a double layer of ground cover fabric.
I find that a double layer of this fabric can be much more successful for this purpose as
it reduces the amount of light even more, which speeds up the process of killing off
the existing vegetation, and it also gets around any imperfections that might exist in a single
sheet that would allow weeds to grow up through. I have found that the sharp pointed leaves of scutch
grass can make their way up through the woven fabric and continue to grow above, but a double
layer of this fabric greatly reduces the chance of this happening. We weighed down this large area of
ground cover fabric with a lot of large grow bags that we grew potato plants in as part of a trial
that we did exploring different ways to amend low quality compost. This was a convenient use
of the space as we were waiting for all of the vegetation and hopefully all of the perennial
weeds to die off underneath the fabric, but it did mean that we were walking back and forth over the
space further compacting the ground especially in lower lying areas that got a lot wetter.
This full area was covered with a double layer of ground cover fabric for more than
12 months and earlier this spring we finally pulled it all back to reveal the soil below.
There were still the remains of some of the high carbon stems of grasses and other weeds
on the surface of the soil, but all of the other vegetation had decomposed. There were a few small
patches of bindweed surviving at the edges of the space that seemed to be growing from roots
that had survived underneath the buried edge of the polytunnel plastic with shoots growing up
inside the polytunnel and outside the polytunnel that found their way between the layers of ground
cover fabric. And within a few weeks a lot of weed seeds that had been on the surface of the soil had
germinated and it probably would have been better to have kept the space covered with at least one
layer of ground cover fabric in between the times that we were working on the ground.
I used a broadfork to gently loosen and lift the soil over the entire area and I was hoping that
this would be enough to reduce some of the key issues of compaction, but the soil was
still in quite firm clumps and it was difficult to rake it, or to level the full growing area.
We waited for the soil to dry out for a few weeks and then we dug over the entire area with
a standard garden fork, breaking up the clumps of soil and digging out the remaining bindweed roots,
and killing off a lot of the annual weed seedlings in the process. We were then able to use a rake
to move a lot of soil around to fill in any of the low areas. We were left with a nice
clean level growing space that will hopefully never be dug again and we buried plastic at the
ends of the space in order to prevent the weed roots from entering in again from the paths.
The plan was to establish four permanent beds by laying a relatively thick layer of
compost onto the surface of the soil, but first I wanted to amend the soil itself.
I mixed up a range of concentrated amendments, including seaweed for supplying trace elements,
gypsum for supplying sulfur which seems to work well with a high pH calcareous soils that we have,
some bone meal to supply phosphorus and a bit of nitrogen, and some additional concentrated
nitrogen, and spread this mix over the entire soil area. I bought in five cubic meters of municipal
compost that is clean and free of weed seeds, and used a wooden frame to help make and shape four
long beds with a relatively consistent layer of compost that was about eight centimetres thick.
The usual recommendation is to use an even thicker layer of compost, but I decided against this extra
thick layer because we didn't need to use it to suppress existing vegetation. I then added
even more of the concentrated amendments with a similar mix to what we added to the soil, as I
know from experience that this compost is not very fertile, and I didn't want to wait for the compost
to decompose before we could get rapid growth of the plants. And then we finished everything off
by laying some wood chip into the paths, but we didn't really have as much as I would have liked.
All of this work was done by the beginning of the summer and now that we are well into the Autumn
I'm quite pleased with the results, as it produced a clean and productive growing space. There were
some weed issues earlier in the summer, including some fragments of bindweed that we had missed
that needed to have been dug out, and some annual weed seeds germinated on the surface of the soil,
probably before we put the compost on, and had been able to grow up through the compost layer.
A thicker layer of compost and even more wood chip in the paths would have reduced
this but it wasn't a lot to deal with. And all of this was easy to deal with,
especially with the fairly rapid turnover of crops in each bed. Whenever a crop was finished
I would pull out the remains of the plants, and any weeds that had become established,
rake to level the compost, add another sprinkling of the usual concentrated amendments,
and rake again to work this in lightly. I would then sow again or transplant in seedlings making
sure to firm in the compost in order to maintain a capillary flow of water from the soil below.
This has become the high value growing space that I was hoping it would be, and it's protected on
both sides by polytunnels so it's a little bit more sheltered, and the weeds and the slugs and
other pests can only come in from either end. We started growing in this space at the beginning
of the summer, direct sewing and transplanting in a wide range of different fast-growing crops
into each bed, about two or three weeks after the previous bed was filled. Now that Autumn is here,
most of the sections of all four beds are growing their second crop, and I'm hoping to continue to
grow in this area over the winter, using crop covers to help protect from the mild frosts and
strong winds that we get in the Irish winters. It is so nice to have a dedicated space for
growing crops like this, which is something that I haven't had in the past. Especially with the easy
to maintain no-dig beds that are flat, with no issues of compaction, good drainage, and very few
weed issues. And the weed issues will probably continue to get less and less over the years.
The continuing success of this growing space will probably more depend on how quickly I'm able to
turn over the beds and sow in the next crop, and how well I'm able to maintain high fertility
levels. I'm really looking forward to seeing how productive this space can be throughout next year,
producing a wide range of different high value crops, and I definitely think that it was worth
the time and effort to properly establish this growing area before planting anything.