No-Dig Gardening

No-dig gardening flips the old advice on its head. Instead of turning the soil over every season, you build the garden up in layers and leave the soil structure alone. The worms and microbes do the digging for you.

It is less work, it holds moisture better, and over time it builds beautiful crumbly soil. It also suits the Kiwi gardener who would rather spend the weekend planting than double-digging heavy clay.

How no-dig works

Digging breaks up the network of fungi, worm channels and roots that hold soil together. No-dig leaves that network in place. You feed the soil from the top with compost and mulch, and the soil life carries it down.

The result is soil that drains well, holds water in dry spells and grows fewer weeds, because you are not constantly bringing buried weed seeds up to the light.

Starting a no-dig bed

You can build a no-dig bed straight over lawn or weeds, no digging required. Mow or knock the growth down first, then lay a thick layer of plain cardboard or newspaper to smother it. Wet it down well.

On top of the cardboard, build up layers of compost and organic matter. A bed around fifteen to twenty centimetres deep is enough to plant straight into. Tui compost or your own homemade compost both work well as the planting layer.

• Knock down existing grass and weeds, do not dig them out
• Lay overlapping cardboard or thick newspaper and soak it
• Build layers of compost, aged manure and pea straw on top
• Finish with compost on top and plant straight into it

Keeping a no-dig garden going

Each season, top the bed with a fresh layer of compost rather than digging it in. Mulch over the top to hold moisture and feed the worms. The bed slowly gets richer and deeper year after year.

Pull weeds while they are small rather than hoeing, and when a crop finishes, cut it off at ground level and leave the roots to rot down. This keeps the soil structure and the soil life intact.