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I have a vegetable garden of approx 70 sq metres that I want to convert to a no-dig approach. I thought of splitting in two and covering half of it with my own compost plus some worm excrement fertiliser, with cardboard on top and a black plastic sheet on top of that. I live in Spain near Malaga and if I do this now, do you think it would be ready in the autumn after 6 months?
My other question is if one can grow potatoes using this approach as I normally heap the soil up before planting the potatoes (we have 2 crops a year).Hi Andrew,
When doing an initial mulch with a thicker dressing of, say, four inches of compost and manure, I like to plant straightaway. Unless you have rampant bindweed or a Spanish equivalent, I would plant potatoes now, through small holes in cardboard and plastic. Check after 3-4 weeks that potato stems are managing to push up through the holes, and they may need helping to do so. Once plants are growing, their tubers will stay white as the mulch is acting to keep light off them, in the same way as soil in ridges.
You could try a second crop from planting in late summer, after harvesting by pulling back the mulches.
The soil will become hot for sure, at your latitude, and I am not sure if that is damaging. I would be more concerned about keeping rain off, unless your ground is level, so that most rain can percolate into planting holes rather than away, or I believe it mostly seeps through if you use the more expensive Mypex, aerated polythene.
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