Starting a 2000m2 no-dig garden!

[RachidParticipant]

Hi there!

I grow vegetables commercially small-scale. We have recently moved to a new town where we will continue growing delicious food! We have grown no-dig before in our small home garden, with cardboard below and a thick layer organic matter on top. But that’s not feasible in a bigger scale. We have a big organic mushroom farm close by so we are of course going to buy their wonderful compost. We are going to lay a 7.5-10cm (3-4inch) thick layer compost directly on top of the existing grass. It’s a young hay field with no weeds just short newly cut grass. Someone with experience from a similar situation? Will it be enough compost? We cant put cardboard first at this scale, it’s just not practical. And we can’t pay for more compost than that, we don’t want to overdo it either, as this compost is rich in Nitrogen. Thanks in advance

Rachid

[WelliesParticipant]

Hi Rachid,
I am starting our big veg area too. I did my back in concreting the polytunnel legs so yesterday sat on my old jcb and leveled out the big heaps of topsoil I had previously dumped all over the area.
This is on rough pasture grass and the soil has many stones and rocks.
My plan….
Level(ish) out the top soil heaps (including awkward huge lumps of tough grass).
Scratch around with a fork over the whole area and pick out the bigger stones and rocks.
Black plastic the area using the stones to hold it down.
Concurrently make loads of compost.
In the spring drag the plastic along about 6ft and apply lots of compost and cardboard paths.
Plant this up.
Keep making compost and once I have enough compost for another bed, drag the plastic along again and create another bed.

Thats roughly my plan.

We live just down from an electrical store warehouse so each week I go there and take all the cardboard they have. It is becoming a bit of a liability at the moment as it is building up rather than being put down but it will get used.

Rob

[RachidParticipant]

Hi Rob, sounds like a good plan. I wonder if if someone has experience of laying compost directly on top of the grass with only about a 7.5 cm (3 inches) thick layer and no cardboard. I could get more compost if that isn’t enough but then I guess it should be some other kind of compost with a lower Nitrogen content?

[Author]

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