How to Have a Lovely Garden Even If The Soil is Lousy…without Back-breakingly Hard Work

Building on the 1938 work done by Japanese natural farmer,  Masanobu Fukuoka, Australian, Esther Deans furthered the idea of the no-dig garden. In her book, Growing Without Digging, she explains that no-dig gardening originally developed to save work and as a simple way to  to rejuvenate badly burned out soil in a garden.

The Benefits Of A No-Dig Garden

The benefits of no-dig gardening include

    •    it takes very little time to put it together
    •    it does not involve backbreaking labor
    •    it mimics nature’s cycle
    •    it is quite simple to maintain
    •    it is inexpensive

Create Your Garden

Begin by layering newspaper about five or six sheets deep over your garden space. Remember, you do not have to dig. Just open the paper and spread over the ground. Then add a four-inch layer of lucerne hay (aka alfalfa). All of the ground must be covered with the hay/alfalfa. Follow this by adding a one-inch layer of fertilizer, an eight-inch layer of straw, and another layer of fertilizer one inch deep. On top of this spread a layer of compost four inches deep. This makes a very nice medium in which your plants can grow.

Over time, the layers break down and encourage earthworms to take up residence. You can add worms to the garden if you like. This will speed the breakdown of the layers, as the worms will process it. To maintain the garden add manure and compost, as needed. Resist the urge to dig or turn the soil as this will undo what you have already accomplished.

No Dig Does Not Mean Never Dig

Once your no-dig garden is well on its way, you can plant seedlings as you would in any other type of garden.

Some followers of permaculture and organic gardening have translated no-dig into never-dig, which creates problems over time. If you commence your garden with a base soil that is badly compacted, your no-dig garden will work fine to begin with; however, you might find your garden doesn’t continue to perform as well.

Make Your Earthworms Happy

Your earthworms will love the rich, fertile soil, but we know that the worms need cover from hot, dry, cold or wet conditions. Worms seek shelter from these intense conditions by burrowing more deeply into the soil, often many feet down. If the ground under the no-dig garden is too compacted, the worms will either die or move on to better digs. What that means is that a preliminary cultivation of the soil before you put down the no-dig system will guarantee a better environment for the worms.

Resources

Fukuoka, M., The Natural Way of Farming: The Theory and Practice of Green Philosophy.  Scroll down for access to this public domain book.

Homage To Esther Deans Website

Natural Farming  Website (Masanobu Fukuoka) 

No-Dig Gardens