Encouragement

[PoolfieldMember]

I went on the no Dig Veg course with Charles in Sept 2012 after trying a year of mulching my veg beds with straw turned into a slug fest. I was feeling pretty gutted that having researched permaculture and watched loads of youtube clips about no dig veg the permaculture way had ended so badly and felt close to giving up on veg growing.

The day with Charles and his stunning garden was inspirational and I decided to have one more go at veg growing. I came home and started redesigning the layout in my polytunnel and started sourcing heaps of well rotted stable manure,I added a 6″layer to the beds in the polytunnel and I spent a whole season being vigilant about removing weeds as soon as they appeared. There had been a couch grass problem that I had not tackled effectively in previous years and I can honestly say that by the end of the first year it ceased to be a problem.

Encouraged by a most successful winter of salads in the polytunnel I started on the outside veg beds, I spread well rotted and then sheet mulched over winter and sheet mulched the old grass pathways between the beds. Sheet mulching does seem to encourage slugs so as soon as possible I lifted the stuff off the pathways and spread a light covering of rotted wood chipping to stop me sticking to the pathways in wet weather.

I have a small hoe which I keep sharp and I can go round the whole veg plot, pathways and polytunnel in about 15mins . I can not believe how much easier life is this year! The hardest thing has been collecting enough material for composting, I now have 5 bays to my compost heap each 1m cube and spend a fair amount of time shredding hedge cuttings to boost up the stable muck.

Thank you Charles!

Ps my chickens don’t have a concept of No Dig

[charlesModerator]

Thanks for posting this Poolfield, its a great story and the best bit is how you can now keep weed-free with so little time and effort, little and often.
I fInd weeding one of my most enjoyable jobs as it is so quick (apart from field bindweed in a few places…) and is a chance to check on vegetable growth.

As with your chickens, my huge poplulation of blackbirds also are keen diggers.

[PoolfieldMember]

Another great success has been the improvement in the soil’s ability to cope with the hot dry weather. I haven’t had enough compost to cover the old pathways and the soil there is like concrete and cracked and yet in the beds between them the soil is still is still wonderful and the plants are looking very happy.

[StringfellowParticipant]

This is a great point and something I have noticed too. Lots of work initially to acquire and spread a generous mulch of compost/ manure, but once done saves much watering time aswell as continually building fertility. This makes sense, as spreading compost in winter when there is less of other gardening tasks to do, eases work at peak activity times during these summer months. Certainly frees up more time for me to hoe horsetail, that’s for sure! 

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