I was given an allotment after a wait this week. Yesterday morning I went to start marking out the no dig beds when I removed one of the plastic sheets the ground underneath was soaking with standing puddles. This made me feel uneasy as my previous thoughts were two inches of compost over the clean ground to start with and then 4 inches over the couch grass as and when throughout the year.
There is only one other plot holder there at the moment, and the rest of the plots have not been worked for a while. Nearly every plot has raised beds presumably to counteract the permanent waterlogged soil. Even though I am new to no digging I understand the philosophy behind it. To that end, I believe that as the soil is constantly waterlogged nothing will live in it, (worms, invertebrates,fungus etc;) so to be able to grow on that plot I would need some really deep raised beds. Would I be correct in my assumption? If so what depth of soil would actually be needed to be able to get a living soil in a bed beneath the compost?