No-dig gardening

Posted: June 6th, 2009

ERN HARDES

BOX GARDENING

Box gardening is non-back-breaking gardening and is ideal for a limited area such as flats or small house yards. Here’s how:

  1. Start with any foam fruit/vegetable box from the fruiterer or supermarket. Any container will do if you can’t get any foam boxes. The main thing is to make drainage holes in the bottom first.
  2. Place 5cm of newspaper or cardboard in the bottom of the box.
  3. Fill the box with lucerne hay or seaweed. The hay will break down quickly to form very good soil whereas the seaweed takes much longer.
  4. Sprinkle on a little blood and bone — or other organic fertiliser — and a little dolomite.
  5. Next add a layer of 2–3cms of compost or good garden soil.
  6. Plant!

NB You can feed your crops with weak liquid fertiliser such as seaweed extract (eg Maxicrop, Nutrisol etc) or liquid manure.

NO-DIG GARDENING

Contrary to what gardening books have told us for years it is not necessary to dig the ground at all to create a garden. In fact digging can disturb the structure and life of the soil and it will take its living organisms some time to get it right again.

There are several methods of preparing garden beds that do not involve digging…but you still have to work a bit! Using these methods you will not only have a garden going very quickly but also one that improves the soil as you go. It is also possible to use some of these methods to build a garden on concrete or very stony ground.

As it is true that there is nothing new under the sun, we can be certain that someone somewhere has been using methods similar to these for many years but it was probably a Sydney gardener, Esther Deans, who first made no-dig gardening more widely known. Her books on the subject are available through good book shops. A summary of her method follows.

ESTHER DEAN’S METHOD OF NO-DIG GARDENING

This method can be used on thick turf of the most rampant kind such as couch or kikuyu. You will need a bale or two of lucerne hay and a bale or two of straw. How many depends on the size of garden you intend to make. One bale of hay would make a garden about 1800mm long and 600mm wide.

  1. Choose a sunny and reasonably level site and outline the garden-to be with bricks, boards, sleepers or any other suitable material you may have. This border keeps the material used in making the garden in place. The border should be at least 200mm (ideally 300mm) high.
  2. Cover the turf with a thick layer of newspapers approximately 1cm thick. This discourages the growth of grass and weeds up into the garden.
  3. Lay pads of lucerne hay over the newspaper. This eventually rots down and creates food for the plants above and for the worms below!
  4. Sprinkle a generous dusting of organic fertiliser (eg poultry manure, cow manure, blood and bone etc) over the pads of hay.
  5. Cover the hay with about 20cms of loose straw.
  6. Again, sprinkle this layer with manure or organic fertiliser.
  7. Place a 10cm layer of compost or good soil on top of this where you are going to plant your seeds or seedlings.
  8. Go ahead and plant. Water well and regularly and you will have bountiful harvest.
Cross section of a no-dig garden

Cross section of a no-dig garden

THE ERN HARDES METHOD

This method is also good for areas of completely untouched grass or lawn.

  1. Define the garden area (about 120cm wide) and make your borders with bricks or boards as outlined already. Flattened roof guttering makes a good border.
  2. Cover the outlined area with cardboard and wet it thoroughly. Esther Deans does not like cardboard but I find it helps to smother grass and holds moisture. Next lay down a thick layer of newspapers making sure to overlap the sheets generously so the weeds won’t be able to find their way through.
  3. Cover the newspapers with lucerne hay—or any hay that you may have available—to a depth of about 150mm.
  4. Sprinkle a generous layer of organic fertiliser or animal manure over the hay.
  5. Now cover the hay with a deep layer of compost or good soil and plant your seeds or seedlings into it. Water well.

NB These hay/straw gardens tend to need more water than conventional gardens.

REVIVING AN OLD GARDEN

These same techniques can be used to revive an old or worn-out garden.

  1. Lay newspapers thickly over the soil and wet it.
  2. Sprinkle it with a generous layer of some organic fertiliser.
  3. Place pads of lucerne or some other hay on the newspaper then another sprinkling of fertiliser.
  4. Spread compost or good soil over the hay and you are ready to plant.