 My first attempt at a no dig garden began on sandy, desolate soil that little else was growing on except a few weeds. It was positioned in an unused area near our toolshed behind where our normal growing beds were located. My colleagues on the farm did wonder what I was up to collecting twigs and stockpiling newspapers.
So it began with a heavy layer of newspaper in a long line, followed with a mesh of twigs and sticks and top. On went a cover of straw and I began watering it all down. We had a bit of compost about, plenty of grass clippings and bags and bags of wood shavings from a local furniture workshop. I inter-layered these on top of the straw as one normally would for a no dig garden bed but the only component I was lacking was manure so I made do with a couple of layers of finely sprinkled dynamic lifter to help the process of decomposition along. We had leftover lettuce, sunflower, radish and snapdragon seeds so in they went. Everything performed really well in a place that wasn't likely to grow anything particularly well prior to the no dig garden bed. So much so that we decided to lay irrigation hose as I had been hand watering previously. The problem was that we needed a slightly different layout for the no dig bed and it was here that we made a great discovery. By simply grabbing the heavy layer of newspaper underneath we were able to drag out sections of the mounds and reposition them without too much disruption to the plants. Thumbs up for no dig garden beds!
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