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Hi,
Has anyone come across any evidence-based research about the wildlife value of a no-dig approach to gardening?
Does the RSPB have an opinion on it?
Cheers,
D.
Its quite interesting that you should bring that up - if you can find my thread on here about a farm walk I went on - it was on a No till farm which is probably the same idea on a farm scale! Following the walk I've been reading a book called the ploughmans folly by Edward Faulconer (I think!) and I was thinking of trying some of the ideas in my garden to see how it went on. The wildlife benefits seem quite impressive and other benefits may be better water retention in the soil so less watering is needed in dry periods and also as more water is retained there is less run off so it can help prevent flooding too.
Cheers
Stoat
I'm not bald. I've just got ingrowing hair!
www.rspb.org.uk/.../44101.aspx
If the link above works have a look.
I missed your report on the farm walk. A very interesting read + appears to make sence to me.
I'm sure there was something similar to this covered on an Open Uni programme on BBC2 a while ago, they did a series on farming which I caught parts of. Wish I'd seen more. They covered the farming layer theory on one farm where they hadcrops from the trees right down to the ground. Will see if I can rediscover it!!
'In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks' John Muir.
Excuse wobbily dyslexic spelling!
What an interesting thread. I know little about no dig gardening because I keep starting gardens from scratch lately, so initial digging to get the turf up is essential if you don't want to look at old carpets or black plastic for a year or more. But had I been asked to put my pocket money on the question, I'd've said no dig has got to benefit wildlife if only from the lack of serious disturbance allowing eco systems to establish and build up. Hmmm! I would imagine that mulching looms large too, and a good mulch is heaven for wee beasties:-) And plenty of wee beasties are heaven for birds, small mammals and even quite large ones! It's worth giving it a go on all sorts of levels I reckon. I look forward to reading more deliberations on the subject.
With the chickens and their bedding I've got a very good mulch all ready to go!
Its interesting that in the book I'm reading it keeps saying how nature can look after itself and thats really how we should treat our soil as far as possible. It could well be true - the best soil in our garden has always been where the chicken pen is now. Its a dark shady corner and I couldn't find any plants to grow in it but the soil has always been dark and rich, possibly because its been left to itself.
There was a program on radio 4 recently - may have been the Food Program that was about Forest Gardening Permaculture which sounds like a no dig system. I have found this link
www.agroforestry.co.uk/forgndg.html
Caroline in Jersey
Cin J
Very interesting indeed.....I have to confess to having done lots and lots of digging recently as my garden has been started from scratch and I've had lots of landscaping to do!
I also confess to having done lots of 'random' digging and staggering my digging recently to provide a constant area of disturbed earth to help the ground feeders during the dry weather. The blackbirds, robins and thrushes (amongst others) love scratching around to find the odd worm and bug......thought I was doing the right thing!
My plan having now read this is to leave the soil areas in my wildlife area well alone and see what happens. Unfortunately the rest of the garden still requires lots of work but I will look at this as a possibility as time goes on.
Interesting thread thanks everyone!
Hi Higgy just found my way to this forum again and I've read through your thread. Funnily enough I was thinking of starting a new thread on a technique I first tried a few years ago. I read a book called "Lasagne Gardening" the basic idea is to build up slightly raised beds - you don't need walls or sleepers. If there are a lot of weeds growing on the patch you want to use, lay down a thick layer of cardboard and/or newspapers then build up on top alternating layers of dry and wet organic material much as you would in a compost bin. Top off with a layer of good composted material or some "multi-purpose" and plant!
I used kitchen waste, shredded paper, grass cuttings, fallen leaves, straw, sheep manure and the used woodshavings etc. from the bottom of my guinea pig housing.
I know this goes against all the theories about the nitrogen cycle and so on but I have a super herb garden done like this on a really ropey rubble filled patch and it is fabulous - only the parsley won't keep on growing but then I am one of those people for whom parsley is definitely an annual!!!!
I have a veg patch started last year in the same way and so far so good! I top up all the time with "home grown" compost but have never dug these beds at all.
On the veg patch I mulched over winter with a thick layer of fallen leaves and there were no weeds this spring - sorry I pulled out two yesterday!
I'd definitely recommend this method and urge you all to keep experimenting - rules are there to be broken!!
Jenni
God gave us two ears and one mouth for a very good reason!
I've boght some green manure seeds today. Never seen them for sale before but there was loads of choice at the garden centre today. I bought some that have good flowers for bees. You are meant to dig them in before the flowering stage but my plan is to cut them down in the autumn and let the worms do the rest. I will then plant seeds underneath anything that is left in the spring.
A little digging is beneficial for wildlife though - particularly birds like thrushes as it uproots invertebrates that would otherwise be too deep for them to get to. At one point it would have been wild boar doing the digging, now they have us to do it! I think the difference lies in HOW much digging is done - a little bit here and there is probably beneficial as it uproots things that the birds like, and could also give deeper buried seeds a chance too. Though a compost heap that is turned regularly could do the same job.
Though I personally prefer as little digging as possible lol I dig to plant things and that is about it!
Millie & Fly the Border Collies