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Building a Vegetable Garden

The No Dig Garden is built on top of the ground, so you can start building a vegetable garden anywhere. This is organic gardening at its simplest and best.

building a vegetable garden plant in dirtpile

Building a vegetable garden of this sort is extremely attractive for those sites that have poor soil or invasive weeds. It's also a great way to build a garden for those that can't, or don't want to, dig a good size vegetable garden!

First thing of course, is to choose the site for building a garden. Make sure the site is level and ideally gets at least 5 hours of sun a day.

If it's not reasonably level, smooth out the humps and bumps as best as possible, then fill the gaps and any lower edges with soil, sand or whatever organic material is at hand, such as bark, leaves, twigs, washed seaweed, paper, jute, wool carpet or similar. As this rots down, you will need to add more compost to these low areas and gradually build them up.

If the ground is on too much of a slope, build a terraced vegetable garden. You can make a grand affair with formal retaining walls, or just shore levels up with branches, bricks, planks, corrugated iron or other obtainable materials.

If you are planting a vegetable garden over lawn or weeds, you can mow the area to ground level and build the garden on top, or you can leave the vegetation to decay underneath in time — as long as you cut out light.

If you are planting your vegetable garden on a hard surface, such as hard clay, an old stoney yard or driveway, put down some cushioning organic material first (as above, bark, leaves etc).

building a vegetable garden pile of dirt

Starting to build a no dig garden

Begin with a newspaper layer of at least 5 pages — or 20 or so pages if you like (or cardboard, sacking, natural carpet etc) to at least 5mm (¼ inch) thick.

It helps to surround the garden with some sort of border material. This can be bricks, logs, planks or rocks and can be 20-25cm high (8-10 inches) or more. See these suggestions from readers here: Ways to contain raised garden beds. A raised border contains the organic material within, discourages invasion of surrounding lawn or weeds, deters various people and critters, and means less back-bending.

Lay down a layer of pads of lucerne hay (sometimes called alfalfa) leaving no gaps, to a height of 10cm (4 inches). Layer some good organic fertilizer on top to a height of roughly 20mm (1 inch). This can be just about any sort of good quality material like well rotted chicken, horse, cow or sheep manure. If you don't have this sort of material available, sprinkle a layer of good natural commercial fertilizer. No need to go the full 1" depth with commercial material.

Add a thick layer of loose straw to the garden 20cm (8 inches) and another layer of fertilizer and then top it off with 10cm (4 inches) of compost.

Water the garden until it's wet but not soaking. You can now start planting your seedlings immediately for an instant garden!

Here's a diagram of the process when starting a vegetable garden the no dig way.

It will NOT look neat like this! You also do NOT have to have these exact layers, materials and quantities. Nature does not use a tape measure — use whatever you have at hand or can easily buy.

Building a vegetable garden top layer

Building a vegetable garden layers

Building a vegetable garden like this (seriously messier than these pictures) can be achieved in a couple of hours if you have the materials on hand. Build several garden beds in different shapes to add interest and variety to your gardening.

No dig gardens are just the same as other gardens... just easier to build and maintain.

Here are some step-by-step photos of building a no dig garden using a slightly different approach.

Planting a vegetable garden

No dig gardens are more successful if you plant seedlings rather than seeds. The seeds can get lost in the mix and you are less certain about where everything will come up. With seedlings, you have a better idea of where things are. Also, with the rich organic materials in this sort of garden you can plant more intensively than you would with a normal garden.

What will do well? Beans, peas, capsicum, eggplant, tomato, lettuce, sweet corn, broccoli, spinach, cabbage, cauliflower, brussels sprouts and vine crops like melons and pumpkins. Root crops should not be tried until the bed is more mature.

Once your seedlings are in place, cover exposed areas with another layer of mulch. This can be straw, grass clippings or leaves. Try to keep the stems of your young plants clear of the mulch to discourage stem rot.

Does Size Matter?

Well, in all things, it does and it doesn't. It all depends on what you are trying to achieve. My view is it's best to start small when building a vegetable garden, and expand with your ambitions.

Some additional hints:

Only make your gardens twice as wide as your arm length. By that, I mean make sure you can reach into the garden to the halfway mark for harvesting and weeding.

You should avoid walking on your no dig garden. It will compact the layers of organic material and may cause problems later. It may also track undesirable things (weed seeds especially) into the bed.

A good idea, if you want to plant out your garden the same day you build it, is to water the layers of materials as you lay them down. The straw layer in particular takes some time as straw does not readily absorb water. Pre-soaking the bales in standing water can also help if it's an option for you.

With the no dig garden you are, quite literally, unrestricted to size or shape. So try some different things. Plant your climbing beans with your corn so one supports the other. Put some herbs around your cabbage or tomato plants. Some of the principles of companion planting will provide inspiration. Organic gardening is all about a garden in tune with itself.

Plant in clumps rather than rows if it suits the sun situation. Rotate your crops so you take full advantage of your growing season. The secret to having a really successful no dig garden is planning

A bale of lucerne and a bale of straw will do a garden about 2m by 1.5m. If you have a reasonable growing season, get one underway and start the second later.

Keep topping up your gardens as they bed down and rotate your crops. Each time you re-plant a patch, add some compost and always mulch around the new plants. The mulch will keep down weeds, retain moisture and promote fast, healthy growth.

There are endless materials you can use when building a vegetable garden. Have a look at these material varieties

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