No-dig gardening is exactly what it sounds like. Rather than tilling before planting a garden, you strategically build up rich layers of compost, manure and even cardboard to amend the soil. No-dig gardening — also called the no-till or no-plow method — stifles weeds, boosts biodiversity, prevents erosion and improves soil health. Here’s how to get started.
Deciding If No-Till Is Right for You
No-dig gardening is an excellent way to grow your own food without harming the surrounding ecosystem. In fact, 37% of conventional U.S. agriculture uses no-till methods. However, there are a few things to consider when deciding if you should plant a no-dig garden:
- Time: The first year of no-dig gardening might have ups and downs — especially if the land is degraded. You may see lower yields and more weeds than usual for a while.
- Location: If you live in a very cold or dry climate, you’ll have to work harder at growing a garden — whether no-till or traditional — than if you live in a mild, temperate growing zone with ample rainfall.
- Supplies: You’ll need cardboard or newspapers, compost, manure and gardening soil. If you’re starting your garden in tall weeds, poor soil or a very rocky area, you’ll need many more of these supplies.
- Patience: No-till gardening is more complicated than other tilling methods. You can’t just rip up the soil, throw in your seeds and forget about them. However, it offers bigger rewards and more opportunities to learn about ecology.
Layer After Layer
With no-dig gardening, you usually employ a layering system to build up and amend the soil. This method is sometimes called “lasagna gardening” in reference to the layers. Those levels are:
- Manure and lime if you’re creating a garden on top of grass. Use twigs as your first layer if starting your garden on a hard surface. If you’re gardening on soil, skip layer one.
- Cardboard or newspapers to block the light and stifle weeds.
- Compost or food waste.
- Manure or a manure-compost mix.
- Straw.
- Manure or a manure-compost mix.
- Straw.
It’s essential to have multiple layers to recreate the conditions where plants would grow in the wild, minus the pests, herbivores and unpredictable rainfall. You’ll essentially be growing your garden directly on a compost pile rather than creating a separate area for composting.
How to Start a No-Dig Garden
If you’re ready for a radical new gardening method to boost crop yields and restore a depleted landscape, put on your gloves and grab a shovel. It’s time to get to work.
1. Prepare the Site
First, if the area you want to plant in is overgrown, start by cutting any weeds down at the base rather than digging them out. Since they may contain seeds, throwing them away is best rather than adding them to your compost mix. You can also construct a raised bed if you prefer your garden to be in a container.
2. Add the Layers
Add your twigs, cardboard or manure-lime mixture, depending on which type of surface you’re working on. Use the manure and lime mix on the grass, and put down twigs if you’re going to garden on rocks or compact dirt. Otherwise, add your light-blocking cardboard or newspaper layer. This layer prevents weeds from germinating, but it will get soggy enough by the time your crops grow that they can push their roots through it.
Next is the compost or food waste layer. Regarding food scraps, the only items you should avoid adding are meat, bones, oil and dairy because they will smell horrible.
Unless you live on acreage and don’t mind the stench and the potential to attract scavengers, it’s best to stick with vegetables, fruit, coffee, tea, eggshells and the like. Compost may also include plant prunings and cut grass.
Next, add your first manure or manure-compost layer. There are various types of manure suitable for gardening and they all have different nutrient contents. For example, chicken manure is very acidic and high in nitrogen, while cow manure is lower in nitrogen.
There are two main classifications of manure — hot and cool. Hot manure comes from carnivores, omnivores and poultry — regardless of diet — while cool manure comes from herbivores. You have to compost or age hot manure before using it or the nitrogen could harm the plants. You can typically use cool manure raw.
You’ll need to research which type of manure to use based on which plants you want to grow. If you don’t want to create your own manure mix, you can buy it pre-mixed.
After laying down the manure layer, cover everything with straw. Add another layer of manure or your manure-compost mix on top. Finally, add a layer of straw.
3. Dig Planting Holes
No-dig gardening still involves minor soil disturbance to get your seeds in the ground. Rather than shredding the soil, poke individual holes around four inches deep in the garden — just below the top layer of straw — and fill them with compost.
4. Plant the Seeds
Plant your seeds at the required depth in the compost wells. Different seeds have unique spacing and depth requirements, so read the packaging carefully.
The weather will dictate which seeds to sow. Warm-season crops prefer soil temperatures between 60° and 65° Fahrenheit, while cool-season plants prefer soil temperatures in the forties.
Which plants to grow also depends on where you live. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has a plant hardiness zone map outlining 26 distinct regions based on their climate, with most of the country in gardening zones 4–9. Look up which plants grow best in your climate and when to plant them.
5. Water the Garden
Of course, the last step in establishing any garden is to water it. Unless you live in a very rainy climate, you should plan to water your garden several times a week, depending on what you planted. Thankfully, no-dig gardens hold moisture well thanks to their numerous layers, so you could go several days between watering.
Plowing Ahead: The Problem With Tilling
What makes no-till gardening so unique compared to modern horticulture methods? The key difference is that instead of pulling up last season’s plants by the roots and burying them, you’ll leave them in place to prevent the following.
Erosion
Tilling predisposes the soil to erosion because plant roots typically hold it down. Remove the plants and the soil blows away. Coupled with worsening drought conditions, you have the perfect recipe for a Dust Bowl.
Biodiversity Loss
The soil may look inert, but it’s home to a mesmerizing network of beneficial bacteria, earthworms, nematodes and mycorrhizae, which are weblike, symbiotic relationships between fungi and plant roots. Running a blade through the soil disrupts the underground ecosystem. In turn, it can reduce the amount and type of nutrients in the earth. Depleted soil tends to be nutrient-poor and will grow sicklier plants.
Weed Growth
Tilling has another unintended side effect. When you plow the soil, you’re inadvertently planting weed seeds alongside your crops, meaning you have to spend a lot more time and effort pulling them out. Leaving the invasive plants intact means they could shade out your plants, soak up water and hog the nutrients in your garden. They can also harbor pests.
How No-Dig Prevents Weeds
A key aspect of no-dig gardening is to kill weeds before they take over. Integrated weed management (IWM) is essential in a no-dig garden because you can’t rely on machinery to remove weeds. The idea behind IWM is to combine several strategies for weed control.
You’ll need to take general preventative measures such as planting weed-free seeds, washing the mud off your tractor wheels between fields and cleaning your boots to prevent the spread of seeds. You’ll also take steps to destroy any weeds that do pop up. IWM includes the following.
1. Crop Rotation
After you harvest one crop, it’s often wise to plant a different species in that same spot next season. For example, rather than designating one raised bed as the potato garden year-round, you’ll go through cycles of different plants. Why is this so important?
Different species of plants have unique nutrient requirements. For example, corn is nitrogen hungry, so planting it in the same field every year could deplete the soil of this element over time. But if you rotated the corn with peanuts or alfalfa — which help put nitrogen in the ground — you could restore the depleted nutrient. Some farmers also let fields go fallow in between planting to give the soil a break.
With crop rotation, you use complementary crops to change the soil chemistry. Growing different plant species changes the soil environment constantly, making it harder for weeds to get established.
2. Planting Cover Crops
What if you want to hold down the soil and prevent weed growth, but it’s too early or late in the year to plant a garden? In that case, you should plant cover crops. Those are any plants that protect the soil and help retain moisture between your main harvests.
Cover crops create a leaf canopy that blocks sunlight from reaching any weed seeds on the ground. Some cover crops are also allelopathic, which means they release plant-specific toxins that suppress the growth of other plant species. It’s common to plant cover crops that double as livestock feed, like oats, rye, winter peas or hairy vetch.
3. Manual Removal
Nobody said gardening was always easy. Sometimes, the most effective way to remove weeds is to pull them out by hand the old-fashioned way. It’s time-consuming, but selective weed removal can be worthwhile for smaller gardens. Throw any weeds with seeds on them in the garbage. Young sprouts might be OK to compost.
4. Intercropping
Intercropping means planting species that mutually benefit each other or the soil. Growing multiple plant species together can shade out weeds or help your crops establish themselves earlier, never giving weeds a chance to germinate. As a bonus, you’ll save time and labor while increasing your garden’s productivity. You’ll also attract more pollinator species that each have unique preferences.
5. Herbicide Application
Herbicides are especially common on commercial no-dig farms that grow crops on a massive scale. If you’re planting several acres of crops, you might benefit from using herbicide to kill weeds, but it’s crucial to weigh the pros and cons.
Using synthetic herbicides means your crops will lose their organic status. Organic herbicides are safe for the environment, but they are non-selective toward the plants they kill, so you have to apply them very carefully. Most small gardens can get by without the use of herbicides.
6. High Plant Density
Another way to control weeds in no-dig gardens is to plant your crops in tight rows. Closely-packed plants can choke out weeds, out-competing them for sunlight, soil and water as they grow a dense leaf canopy. This method only works for species that tolerate high-density planting.
7. Other Methods
Some farmers let their livestock selectively eat their favorite weeds in the pasture if the animals don’t like the crops themselves. This technique works well when growing things like lavender, sage and cayenne peppers, which have strong smells many animals avoid.
Mowing can temporarily destroy weeds without disturbing the ground cover or soil. Another technique is to plant crops so they don’t emerge during seasons of high weed growth.
Finally, one method to destroy nuisance plants over a large area is flame weeding. Farmers usually use a flamethrower to burn weeds selectively. This method is not recommended for beginners because it can start a wildfire. However, it can be highly beneficial for the landscape, releasing nutrients in the soil and stimulating regenerative growth in native plants.
Maintaining Your No-Dig Garden
Your garden might look like a raised mound of dirt when you first establish it, but it will sink lower over time. You can keep adding organic material to it throughout the year or at least once a year before planting. During the first year, you might struggle with weeds still hanging out in the soil, but continual removal and soil layering will suppress them over time.
You don’t need to dig up or aerate your garden at any point. Instead, just punch holes in the top layers of soil to plant seeds.
Sustainable Gardening
No-dig is part of a growing movement to return to your roots with food. People are increasingly concerned about where their food comes from and whether growers treated it with pesticides, herbicides or other chemicals. By growing your own garden, you can secure a supply of fresh, healthy produce for yourself and your family, all without harming the Earth.
[Note: This is a guest post.]
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