Topic: Dig or not?

[tonybloke]

I'm with the manics, mostly no2, with a bit of option 3 thrown in.
here's one of my no-dig beds, planted with onion sets

[manicscousers]

one of ours with spuds in , definitely a bit of 3  ;D

[star]

Im a 2 and some of 3 as well ;D ;D ;D ;D

[Need a Leek]

Sorry but I am not a number as I work hard and I love what I do...Also I don't own a guitar with flowers on it and sing kumbya and I drive a gas guzzler " burp" 75 Tourer not a 4x4 ;D.

Cheers
Tony

[Emagggie]

With regard to the mares tail, I have plenty on my plot, but I ignore it mostly and the straw mulch covers it pretty well. Haven't found it to be too detremental these last 3 years and no more slugs than anyone else either.
If I had to dig and weed, I would have to have given up ages ago due to back problems.

[manicscousers]

and we'd never have started, due to mobility probs and flooding  ;D

[grawrc]

I must say that I dug the whole plot over when I first got it. It let me remove weeds and see what the soiil was like and what was in it. Now I just treat the different bits according to the rotation plan. We buy in manure and mushroom compost, get leaves from the Council and wood chips from a local tree surgeon. Add to that grass mowings from paths and compost and there's loads of stuff available.

As for the numbers:I'm anything but 1, more of a workaholic the problem is getting me to down tools!!! mainly 2 - although i've made my mistakes and had my failures. And I'd be sorry not to be a bit of 3 having grown up in the sixties n all. ;D ;D

[davyw1]

I have had a good read on the no dig gardening and found it quite intresting, certainly has a lot going for it and certainly seems a lot easier than the way us old fashioned, old b*&&%$s do things.
I think i may be giving half a brassica bed a try as i need what is left of one of the compost beds emptying and do a comparrison on the results.
One thing is for sure i certainly need to make things easier than what they are if i want to keep doing show veg, apart from being hard graft it is time consuming.

[Patrick King]

im new at this but i hope i will number 2 and i think i am a bit of 3. after talking to tonybloke on his plot. i see why people plant by the moon etc.

[GrannieAnnie]

Those of you who do No Dig beds, do you still plant in rows or in blocks of plants?


I've been mainly doing a sort of no dig method for a couple years while improving the heavy clay soil sometimes by digging in compost.  Not going about it very scientifically but the yields seem adequate.

[PurpleHeather]

I have nothing at all against the no dig method.

Or the dig method.

I am not racist, sexist, ageist, religionist, or any other 'ist either.

If people are having a happy life doing what they are doing and they are not harming anybody or anything else doing it. Carry on.

[carolinej]

Those of you who do No Dig beds, do you still plant in rows or in blocks of plants?

I do a mixture of both. Seeds are sown in rows, and leeks and onions, as it is easier to hoe around them. Oh, and spuds and beans too. Other things go in blocks.

Best bits are not needing to wear wellies as the woodchip is always dry underfoot and I can get started well before anyone else on our clay soil, as they are all still too wet well after me ;D (well, their lotties anyway ::))

cj :)

[Robert_Brenchley]

I mostly plant in blocks, but it doesn't work with everything. If plants have to be too far apart to get a block into a bed, I put a row down the centre. Climbers like beans and peas go on wigwams. If I only want a few of a particular veg, it's usually a row.

[grawrc]

I do like Robert and CJ. Flexible planting!

[Old bird]

Davyw1 - I don't grow amny brassicas and they are probably the only thing that I wouldn't use in my deep beds! 

Only reason for this and I am thinking brussel sprouts and purple sprouting because they like their roots in "firm soil" one reason being as they are tall top heavy plants they would rock too much (keep on rockin!) but they also need a lot of space and so I use my old fashioned beds for these!

Don't want to put you off and will probably be shouted down - but them's my feelings!

Good luck with it anyway!

Old Bird

 ;D

[Pootle]

No dig and/or raised beds aren't really a 'new age' or hippy concept  ;D

The late great Geoff Hamilton advocated raised beds for the very reasons people in previous posts have suggested - not compacting soil etc.  Plus there is very old evidence of seaweed being stacked up and left to rot down before being used as the basis for planting crops - medieval monks on the islands off the west coast of Ireland used this method to feed their communities.

I guess its just horses for courses!  There is something theraputic about digging (always makes me think about my Grandad) but its so much easier not too!

[betula]

We put two raised beds in yesterday.We plan to put in a further six.

My plot is very wet clay and I have become tired of the battle. :)

[Barnowl]

Having dug all the raised beds for the first season, I now only dig the potato bed every year as it rotates, although I do fork in compost in some of the others. For onion sets etc I loosen the topsoil with one of those soil miller gizmos.

Whether you dig or not, the stones still come to the top every year  :)

[Old bird]

Do you think that stones have a life! 

How is it that they get to the surface all the time? 

They may be alive in a dead sort of sense and come to the surface to replenish themselves every 256 years or so?  What do you reckon then?!!

Old Bird
 ;D

[manicscousers]

as you can see, Ray's in charge of the spuds, he decided to do them in rows this year, the bed they're in needs breaking up, v hard clay underneath..
I tend to do things as I feel like, radish go in third of a row at a time so's we get successional rather than a glut...some things i do in a star pattern, sort of square with one in the middle, gives more room and I can get extra in
whatever works  ;D