Keep adding layers to no dig gardens or start again?

by barbara booth
(dunbogan, nsw)

We live near Port Macquarie and have successfully grown tomatoes, lettuce, beans etc in our new no-dig garden. All crops are finished and we want to replant for winter.

What to do next - do we start again to add layers as before? We also found that the existing ground (lawn) was very hard which made it difficult to use stakes.

Any tips you could give us would be appreciated. Also what crops would be good to plant?

Megan replies... That old positive saying: "Everyday I'm getting better and better," applies to your no dig garden. You've made a great start and from now on the soil in your garden will get better and better each day...well it might take a season or a year to begin with if you've started with a scungy bit of land.

Your no dig gardens can just keep on being used. There's no need to empty your no-dig plot ever, unless in the unlikely event you get some really nasty disease/bugs/infestation that you don't want in there.

Just keep adding layers to your no dig garden, such as compost and mulch in-between harvesting. (This will also soften and incorporate the layers into your old compacted lawn that resisted stakes – worms 'n all are trojans at aerating and enriching soil).

I make my own compost and add a sprinkling of lime between the layers and any seaweed I might have collected, or some beach sand. These additions help with the nitrogen content and trace minerals.

If you don't have enough compost, see if you can scrounge some animal manure and put a layer down of that, preferably aged at least a month and/or mixed with straw or similar.

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Here's a corner of my garden I've just about eaten the last leaves off, so I've pulled out any old plants I don't want and I'm topping it up ready to plant some winter veggie seedlings. This first photo shows layers of newspaper going down on top of the previous no dig patch, which I've finished with except for a few straggly greens. I've also hosed the area first.

Next photo below shows wet paper covering all the area I want to re-plant.

This last photo below shows that I've added some compost and I'm now covering it with mulch. After that all I need to do is sharp digs with a trowel through the layers and paper, put in a handful of compost or soil and plant seedlings in each hole and water well.

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Port Macquarie has a nice warm climate, so going into winter for example, you can still sow seeds or plant plants of some cooler varieties of spinach, lettuce, Asian greens, broad beans, peas and garlic. These may produce later in winter for you or in spring.

Even a crop of potatoes can go in which should give you some early spring tasty 'taters. Keep the mulch up with whatever is handy at this time of the year — maybe leaves for you.

Or you can plant a 'green manure' cover crop. It's a good idea to ask what is best to grow locally, but some popular seeds are rye, clover or lupin.

These plants help the soil with nitrogen and in the spring or before they flower and seed, you can chop them down or just bend them and bury them under 5 or so layers of paper then some compost and mulch and there you have a great start for the summer growing season.

If you do leave your veggie plots to lie fallow, when spring comes you can keep building up the garden with layers of handy material right on top of your old plots. You can throw the kitchen scraps on, some paper layers, compost — really whatever is available, you'll truly find you and your soil will get better, better and better. ~ Megan