No Dig 2013
I do love a fresh start and the turn from Christmas to January and a New Year always puts a major spring in my step. I have to admit that my garden (in fact any project I’m involved in) always looks fabulous in my minds eye at but can be a little slow to materialise to its full splendour in real life. No matter, that’s what makes a new beginning so great. If we didn’t picture ourselves achieving wonderful things we’d never try anything, right?
2013 is no different but this time I have a little bit of a secret weapon. You’re going to hate me for this but thanks to the correct alignment of the stars and some other chance happenings I have the master vegetable gardener Dermot Carey of Lissadell as my own private gardener and tutor. Happy days! With Dermots help and advice I really will be achieving my dream garden this year and look forward to roaming perfectly productive rows of specimen salads and vibrant vegetables. But why do you care? Well, you may not but I’ll be documenting progress and will try and give you all the benefit of Dermot's expertise. I'll be writing a regular blog post of our garden with plenty of photos so hopefully we'll all learn something along the way.
We’re also featuring an ‘Ask Dermot’ section on the website where you can put your questions to one of the most experienced growers in the country. Dermot also runs courses from time to time, we'll keep you posted on times and locations of his masterclass workshops.
I'll be going 'No Dig' as much as possible this year after a long conversation with Author and Sunday Times Gardening Correspondent Jane Powers. Make sure you check out Jane's blog 'One Bean Row' for a top up on her writing or if you really want to benefit from her wisdom and entertaining style you should get her beautiful book 'The Living Garden'. (As usual, it will come as no surprise to learn we stock it....)
Anyway - No Dig - why? Here's what Jane says:
In a well-managed no-dig (or rarely dug) garden, the soil is alive and active. Its structure is elastic and springy, and more robust than that of a constantly dug soil. Organic matter must be 'fed' to it in order to maintain its vigour, especially if you are taking nutrients out of it in the form of food crops. The best way to do this is to place a layer of well rotted manure or garden compost on top, and let the worms dig it in. Within a few weeks or months - depending on their numbers and the time of year - they will plough all the material underground, in a far more efficient and effective manner than can ever be achieved by a man with a spade (or mechanical tiller). Worm populations may be small in some soils, but they increase when you add organic matter.
Here's what I get from this:
I'll be going 'No Dig' as much as possible this year after a long conversation with Author and Sunday Times Gardening Correspondent Jane Powers. Make sure you check out Jane's blog 'One Bean Row' for a top up on her writing or if you really want to benefit from her wisdom and entertaining style you should get her beautiful book 'The Living Garden'. (As usual, it will come as no surprise to learn we stock it....)
Anyway - No Dig - why? Here's what Jane says:
In a well-managed no-dig (or rarely dug) garden, the soil is alive and active. Its structure is elastic and springy, and more robust than that of a constantly dug soil. Organic matter must be 'fed' to it in order to maintain its vigour, especially if you are taking nutrients out of it in the form of food crops. The best way to do this is to place a layer of well rotted manure or garden compost on top, and let the worms dig it in. Within a few weeks or months - depending on their numbers and the time of year - they will plough all the material underground, in a far more efficient and effective manner than can ever be achieved by a man with a spade (or mechanical tiller). Worm populations may be small in some soils, but they increase when you add organic matter.
Here's what I get from this:
- You don't have to do much work.
- You add compost which will suppress the weeds and cut down on hoeing.
- You will increase your beneficial worm population who do the work for you.
- You don't have to do much work.
- You don't have to do much work.