Gardener's World returned to our screens last night; Friday 19th March at 8pm on BBC2 with Episode 1 for 2021. Hooray! Time to get inspired by Monty and the team for the spring and summer ahead. One particular feature on the show demonstrated Sue Kent creating a No Dig plot on her allotment.
Mole: David Tipling (rspb-images.com)
Charles Dowding has been an advocate for the No Dig method since the early 80's. He champions it's environmental benefits as being better for all soil micro-organisms, less destructive to important micorrhizal fungi and to worms that improve soil texture as well as working in nutrients brought down from a top layer of compost. No Dig requires less watering and the sustainable nutrients in the soil require much less or no fertiliser.
You can start a no dig bed from scratch over a scrub or weedy patch by laying down cardboard to suppress the weeds and piling the compost bed on top, or just mulch the compost over an already cultivated bed. No dig works for both vegetable and flower beds and you may find that you don't need such a thick layer of compost over your ornamental flower borders they are not as "hungry" as many vegetable plants.
You can still hoe the top layer, pull and trowel up weeds that do appear but over time, they should become less and less as the mulch layers block out the light. If you're concerned about some of your favourite perennials becoming too deep, it could be a good time to dig them up, divide them and re-plant. Dividing perennials not only invigorates them but provides you with twice as many plants
The Flatford Wildlife Garden is still currently closed. Details of re-opening in 2021 will be posted on this blog and the Flatford Wildlife Garden Website.