about to try the no dig..

[nadine]

hello i am new here, and i am about to try the no dig, i have a small patch raised boarder my hubby made me years ago, i was going to ask him to take half the soil out of it as i have had such poor growth this year (mainly due to me having a major operation)but i thought was the soil poor, we use chicken pellets…i am going to be putting a water system in to help myself with watering.

so what i am asking is do i leave the soil in that`s in now ?
i have onion sets ready to go in…

or shall i mix in compost?
it will over fill if i add more to it???
cant wait to read your reply`s thanks from Nadine

[charles]

 Hi Nadine
This is tricky if your soil level is as high as the beds’ sides, in which case I would scrape off a couple of inches and put compost on top. Assuming you can find some compost/year old animal manure. You can plant onions shallow in the soil and put the compost/manure on top.

But if you had no compost you could continue with chicken pellets! Just don’t dig. A little home made compost on top would help improve structure.

[davidk]

Hello Nadine,
Yes, or as Charles has done in the past, add 2″ strips all-round to top of raised beds:
Nows a good time to start raised beds/NO DIG; Preparing mine @ present for Onions/Garlic, planting biodynamic day is Friday!
http://www.the-gardeners-calendar.co.uk/moonplanting.asp
Good Luck.

[charles]

 Great tip, I had forgotten about doing that, I just screwed on some battens!

[Author]

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