For those of you who followed my old blog over at Tuckshop Gardener you may remember me describing a ‘no-dig’ experiment  at a similar point in the season last year.  This month, when I’m starting to clear flower beds and prepare for the onset of winter, I’m pleased to report that I’ve been absolutely delighted with these trial beds.

Covering the areas of rough grass with leaf mould, then cardboard, followed by a layer of topsoil allowed me to bring them straight into cultivation, whereas trying to dig them out would have taken a huge amount more effort and perhaps yielded less impressive results – the topsoil and mulches heaped upon these area, made fantastic nursery beds into which to sow and plant annual flowers.

How did the method work against weed growth?  Well of course there will always be weeds… And the comfrey roots beneath the mulches did manage to push their vigorous growth through – invincible devils that they are.  But tough perennial weeds like docks, creeping buttercup and couch grass were suppressed, and whenever they did managed to get a toe hold in the surface soil, they were easily removed from this light, uncompacted layer.

As you can see from the photos below, my war against grass this year also extended beyond the flower beds. Covering the paths has actually been one of the biggest revelations to me – keeping the grass out of the growing area makes a HUGE difference to being able to manage them with minimal weeding as grasses always find a way to stage an  invasion an eye-blink during summer.

The photos below chart the progress of one of my ‘no-dig beds’ across the growing year – I’m sure more will be following suit in the next 12 months (and therefore me diving headfirst into skips to rescue huge slabs of cardboard). If you are interested in reading more about No Dig methods, visit Charles Dowding’s blog where you’ll find lots of useful information.

Locally grown flowers, Birmingham. No dig methods

No dig method used for growing flowers. Tuckshop Flowers, Birmingham

No dig bed in full production with cosmos flowers in summer. Tuckshop Flowers, Birmingham
The glorious results, after planting.  Various types of cosmos and  malope ‘Alba’ growing away strongly.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I dig no dig

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