Gardeners question time.

[AndyParticipant]

Hi Charles,While sat in the car waiting for my wife and grandaughter on Friday I turned the radio on and dropped on the above programme .After about 5 minutes of listening, a question was asked about the panels thoughts on No Dig gardening.Chritine Walkden said it was too expensive ! Due to a bad back this year she had covered her “not too large garden”with a layer of compost and come to that conclusion! and that was it,no other panellist was invited or tried to answer..Needless to say the radio was switched off instantly….Bloody experts. It’s amazing how these experts all advocate digging and double digging to incorporate the compost/manure but when it’s layered on top it suddenly becomes too expensive!! Sorry about the rant but come on BBC wake up.

[peatParticipant]

They also said the other week that blighted foliage should be binned instead of composting it. What rubbish.

[charlesModerator]

Gosh this is disappointing. I met Christine in June and she never mentioned her worries about the expense of no dig. As you say Andy, it seems that having the compost visible makes it more expensive.
A man came up to me at Wells Food Festival and said how well the no dig method with compost on top is working for him, and how economical it is even though he is using bagged compost from the garden centre.
So its all strange how the radio discussion is one sided like that.
And the wasteful advice on composting too.

[RhysParticipant]

Costs:

1. Compost/manure – whether you dig it in or not, the cost is the same, assuming you use the same amount no matter how you garden.
2. Tools – no extra tools required for no-dig gardening, indeed it’s arguable that you don’t need the implements necessary for double digging if you are really short of cash.
3. Sprays/teas – no difference in requirements per se there either – you can choose to use them or not, but there’s no difference in cost whatever you do.
4. Watering – OK, there is no metering yet, but were you to be metered, there is no evidence that no-dig requires more watering.
5. Seed compost – you could I suppose try and argue (fallaciously in my view) that you need to sow more things in modules for no-dig, but my experience of sowing into undue soil directly says that there are no germination issues whatever. All module use allows you to do is transplant out earlier in spring and have plants growing in summer ready to be transplanted before the previous harvest is lifted i.e. making the garden more productive. I simply don’t see a case for saying this is a cost unique to no-dig….

All in all, a judge would have this assertion thrown out of court in short order if a brief worthy of the name made a 10 minute peroration…….

[JohnParticipant]

“Dig, dig and dig … ”
From the National Allotments Society website jobs for November.

Heigh ho!

[Author]

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