No Dig Gardening
We’ve
done it! After a few pitiful attempts at growing a crop of veggies I am
happy to say the barbeque is finally overflowing with goodies from our
garden. We owe it all to some good advice from some “permaculture“
friends of ours and helpful information from Ross and Jenny Mars’
excellent book Getting Started in Permaculture.
It
basically comes down to a technique called sheet mulching. The idea is to
leave the area to be used relatively undisturbed and planting on top of the
ground. This way it doesn’t matter how many weeds you have or what the
quality of the soil on your land is like as you are going to create your own
garden bed filled with your own wonderful compost.
Here’s
what you do:
1-
Build your compost pile at least three weeks prior
to planting time so that it will be ready to use.
2-
Select a good site for your garden – a flat,
sunny area with easy access to water. You may need to slash the weeds or mow
the lawn but leave the cuttings where they are.
3-
Gather your resources – piles of newspaper/
cardboard/ old carpet, green plant material/ prunings/ lawn clippings, a
bale of straw or a pile of mulch, bricks/ logs/ rocks to build the beds
with, a bag of manure.
4-
Soak the newspaper or cardboard for a while and
then lay it out over the area to be used. Be very generous and be sure to
overlap the joins, as this is your barrier to weeds.
5-
Lay out your garden bed design on top of the
newspaper using bricks, rocks or logs. Be creative. It doesn’t have to be
square! You can create a nice Mandela shape with bricks or rocks. Make sure
you leave pathways or “keyholes” to give you easy access throughout your
layout.
6-
Put a layer of green plant material in first.
Clippings, shredded plant material or prunings are good for this. Make this
layer about 20cm thick.
7-
Sprinkle a few shovels of manure over this and
water it in. This will help the green plant material break down over time.
8-
Fill the beds with your newly created compost. This
layer needs to be about 25cm thick.
9-
If you are planning to run reticulation hose
through your bed, now is the time to do it.
10-
Give the bed a good soaking.
11-
Plant seedlings and herbs directly in.
12-
Mulch around your plants with straw (not hay –
the seeds will cause you problems) or any type of garden mulch.
13-
Cover your garden paths with a thin layer of mulch
or sawdust.
There
you have an easy to maintain garden which should produce a good crop,
providing you have done your homework well on what to plant. It should stay
relatively free of weeds if you have built your beds carefully. The few
weeds that do creep through are very quick to remove. We have ducks free
ranging in our garden as organic pest control and after sharing too many
lettuces, have finally fenced our veges in! This way our ducks have some
freedom, we get to harvest our crop, and not many bugs make it past our
resident bug busters.
You
can build most of you garden bed at very little cost if you are resourceful.
So get fossicking and have a go. It is amazing how good things taste when
they come out of your own garden. And the kids will just love getting in
there with you.
By
Robyn Antonelli, quolkids.com
