No Dig-gity

Why use more effort than is absolutely necessary? And why use chemicals, fertilisers and pest control when nature can do the exact same job for nada?


These are all points which I have been mulling over since taking on my allotment, having spent some time investigating the "No-Dig" horticultural approach.


The theory is this:


When you turn soil over, you break up the important fungal /microbial relationships within the soil. There's a chain of important microbes and organisms living in the soil which are disrupted when you dig, including earthworms. Fungus such as mycorrhiza exist and contribute to creating a rich healthy soil. This in turn means that we then add fertilisers and other additives to the soil. We also disrupt weed roots which break up and then regrow in multitudinous numbers, making weeding a total ballache.We kill the worms, the fungus and the microbes. Then we have to wait for them to restablish....which we then destroy again the next year.


So what would happen if we just put the right ingredients into the soil(green Nitrogen rich matter, and brown carbon rich matter) in the right quantities, and never dig the soil? What would then happen if we used an organic barrier, such as cardboard to prevent weeds coming through, eventually not only killing them, but taking advantage of their mass in the soil to add back even more nutrients?


Well...by not disturbing those oh-so-important soil dwellers, we allow them to get to work on breaking down organic matter and provide a rich, aerated humus.


Don't just believe me, check out the master - Charles Dowding and his 30+ years of refining this approach. 


http://www.charlesdowding.co.uk/no-dig-growing/why-no-dig/


Plus points:


Super rich healthy soil
Easy planting
Easy harvesting
Very little weeding
Bountiful crops
No Digging!!!


So this is going to be my approach. It relies heavily on mulching so I'm going to need to sharpen my composting skills and make sure I use all available materials.


Check this tale of two allotments using the no-dig approach


http://www.charlesdowding.co.uk/no-dig-growing/allotments/


In the spirit of Permaculture planting, I'm also going to be using a combinatory approach to pest control - I'm creating a medium sized pond for the centre of the plot - with the aim of attracting frogs and toads to control the slug population, and wildflowers to attract the right kind of bugs - therefore bringing more slug predators(birds) to the plot.


It's a massive topic but there are a gazillion videos and websites dedicated to this simple, natural way of farming.


I can't wait to try my hand at it! No Dig-itty!