No Dig Materials

...or the story of the brown and the green

The materials used in a no dig garden follow similar principles to those of the garden compost. That is they work best when alternating carbon (brown) layers and nitrogen (green) layers. This is the story of the brown and the green.

When building the garden a wide variety of materials can be used but you must follow the principle of the brown and the green.

So in the garden initially explained, we start with newspaper (brown), lucerne (green), animal manure or fertilizer (mixed brown and green), straw (brown), fertilizer or animal manure (mixed), compost, mulch (may be brown or green).

Brown materials are generally things that are dry and dead. Paper, autumn leaves, sawdust, wood chips and straw. They generally need some moisture added to help them compost (or can be used to soak up excess moisture by being mixed with greens).

Greens are often moist organic material like grass clippings, lucerne and animal manures.

The brown materials tend to be bulkier and assist in keeping the garden aerated. The greens can occasionally 'mat', particularly grass clippings and cause a problem with aeration. When using grass clippings either use very thin layers or mix them with a brown (straw perhaps) to stop the matting problem. If your garden is poorly aerated, it will smell bad and work poorly.

Brown (carbon) materials	Green (nitrogen) materials
Paper: black and white newsprint, phone books (shredded), cardboard (shredded)	Animal Manures: Sheep, cow, horse, chicken, goat.
Bark chips: shredded and untreated chemically. Sawdust (untreated). Chips from high resin type trees (pine, eucalyptus) should not be used unless composted first.	Grass clippings: In thin layers only as they will mat down and reduce air flow through the garden. Alternatively, mix with sawdust for use as a blended layer.
Straw: Lupin straw, and Pea Straw will readily compost and don’t carry many seeds. Hay bales will carry lots of seeds so don’t use it unless it is in a deep layer of the garden and the seeds won’t be able to germinate.	Lucerne: Will break down readily and is very good for the growing plants. Is high in nitrogen.
Palm Peat: This is 100% coconut fibre from coconut husks. It can be readily bought in either small bricks (just add water) or in large bags. Great topping for the garden as it is weed free and plants will take readily to it.	Worm castings: Worm castings are an extremely rich source of nitrogen for garden plants. See further information on worm farms here. .

For those materials that come in bales (straw, lucerne, etc.) you can often purchase these cheaply if they have been rain damaged. Farmers can't store wet bales and will often sell them cheaply.

This page on No Dig materials is information that can also be applied to composting.