No Dig FAQS
What is no dig?
This is one of the questions that I am often asked. There are more questions below, and, like no dig, the answers are straightforward and make sense!
1. Leave soil undisturbed as much as is practical.
2. Feed the masses of soil life with organic matter on the surface, as happens in nature, to maintain drainage and aeration.
No dig works on all soils including heavy clay.
Sometimes you need a spade, say to cut out bramble roots or make a hole for planting trees.
Starting out
Do I need to dig before starting no dig?
Apart from rare soils with pans, the answer is no. Often when starting you see plentiful growth of weeds, a sure sign of lively and fertile soil.
If you are starting with a building site, or field where tractors have smashed the soil, then you probably need to use a fork to loosen soil just once.
Does it matter if soil is hard/clay/seemingly compacted?
No, because usually when people ask this they are referring to soil that has a natural firmness, or sometimes just because it’s dry. Truly compacted soil is rare and you will know it by a bad smell of sulphur, and water lying for a long time after rain. A one-off forking can help loosen this rare problem.
Clay soils grow fantastic plants with no dig – I know from long and happy experience. In contrast, loose soil holds less moisture and results in plants falling over. Roots like firm soil.
How do I convert from dug soil to no dig?
If the surface is uneven, rake to level it. You may even need to use a spade to level off the peaks, moving soil into the hollows.
Then spread organic matter as surface mulch, and soil organisms will multiply to the advantage of your plants.
Does soil ‘need digging’ after, say, four to five years of no dig?
No, this is a myth and completely untrue. For example, my garden at Lower Farm had it’s best year in the horrible wet summer of 2012, when many growers and gardeners struggled even to get on their land, and that was its 15th consecutive year of no dig.
Homeacres in late 2022, after ten years of no dig, is more abundant than ever.
How do I plant a tree?
You dig a hole, just the size of the roots. Leave the adjacent soil undisturbed.
Do I need to fork to loosen the soil?
Another myth, from the misunderstanding that soil needs to be loose for plant roots to grow. It is manifestly untrue, yet it’s a deep-rooted belief!
In a trial at Homeacres, the strip that we loosen every year with a fork (on the left in the photos) has given 5% less crops than the adjacent strip which is no dig (this page explains the trial). Both grow the same vegetables and have the same amount of compost on the surface.
Weeds and slugs
Can I hoe and use a trowel?
Light hoeing and raking is fine, usually the top 3cm/1in or less. This means you run the blade through your surface mulch of compost, and it’s almost effortless.
Use a dibber or trowel to create holes for new plants. Always a little deeper than the rootball you are planting, but without loosening any wider than the rootball.
Does no dig work to control marestail (Equisetum),and other perennial weeds such as couch grass (Elymus repens), and stinging nettles (Urtica dioica)?
From the many reports I hear, gardeners who don’t disturb soil have more success for less effort in reducing marestail compared to gardeners who dig.
Couch/Twitch grass
I have, many times, completely eradicated couch/twitch grass (Elymus repens) within a year. However it transpires that British couch grass is less vigorous than a few others, from what I am told by growers in New Zealand and parts of the USA, among others. The US Bermuda grass sounds more difficult, though still possible to eradicate by mulching.
Nettles
Stinging nettles when well established are like a 'woody weed'. The first step is to cut everything to ground level. Cut right to soil level and for a big patch, use a rotary mower to mow at the lowest setting to remove all stems and some surface roots.
Nettles are strong but not too persistent, unlike, say, bindweed.
When mulching a patch of strong nettle roots, use extra thick cardboard, even two layers on the ground and underneath compost. Or if you don’t need the ground immediately, cover with black polythene for six months before laying cardboard and compost.
Why so few weeds?
Whichever perennial (or annual) weed you have, mulching rather than attempting to dig out every root means a greater chance of complete eradication. Why? If only soil could talk… like all organisms that are alive, it’s happier when not disturbed and damaged. Any digging out of weed roots stimulates the remaining ones to grow more.
Weeds are part of soil’s recovery mechanism
Literally. I have heard farmers say that 'chickweed follows the rotovator'. Probably because the tool has chopped soil into many small pieces and has broken its network of structure/aggregation, as well as biological (mycelial) filaments holding particles together. The chickweed has tenacious, wiry roots – they do such a good job of holding soil together again, while the biology can heal.
That’s just one example of what we are avoiding with no dig. It illustrates why we see few weeds, although there may be new seeds blowing in and many of those will germinate.
After cardboard degrades, do you lay more? Or use plastic?
It depends on the weeds. If they are annuals and non-persistent grasses, the 8–10 weeks of light deprivation (before cardboard degrades) sees them die and not regrow. But perennial weeds with strong root systems will push through the decaying cardboard after 8–10 weeks, depending on the time of year.
1. You need to keep removing the regrowth (not the deeper roots) with a trowel, every week if possible. Eventually the deeper roots run out of energy.
2. Or, if you have really powerful perennial weeds because the soil has been damaged, on allotments where digging has been continuous for years or decades, for example, and these weeds are more persistent, it can be worth using black plastic (not woven polypropylene) to cover them for even a whole year. Spread organic matter before laying the plastic. You can plant summer crops through the plastic, such as squash and potatoes. See my ‘New Area’ playlist for the whole sequence of a year in 2021 – by August the couch grass and dandelions were gone and we removed the plastic after harvesting squash – we did not use it again. Then by October 2022, the bindweed was almost finished, with just a little weak regrowth. It’s not invincible.
It’s enlightening to lift the polythene and check for growth of new weeds: there will probably be white or pale yellow stems. If you see lots of them, best leave the polythene in place because the deeper weed roots still have sufficient reserves to continue growing. Or if you see no pale stems and leaves, the plastic has done its job and you can lift it, to reuse.
The use, in year one, of light-excluding mulches such as cardboard and polythene, to kill perennial weeds in that first year only, saves much time.
Slugs? New weeds?
Fewer weeds germinate in undisturbed soil, and compost mulches on the surface make it easy to pull weeds or to run a hoe through the surface.
However, cardboard and polythene also offer hiding places for slugs, which is why I recommend them only in year one, to kill any mass of weeds which it’s not feasible to pull or hoe.
After year one, in gardens where slugs are common:
- Use compost as the main mulch and not hay, straw or grass.
- Remove or do not install wooden sides around beds, to reduce slug hiding places, save money, and increase growing area.
- Keep your edges tidy, to make slugs find a home elsewhere.
No dig results in a balance of undisturbed soil organisms, such as slug-eating beetles and toads. They eat a lot of slug eggs too.
In contrast, dug soil has layers of compaction from the structure being damaged by fork or spade. In the resulting anaerobic layers, fermentation happens and creates alcohol. Slugs like alcohol, and this is another reason why digging causes problems.
No dig allotmenteers in the UK have reported that their lettuce plants are not eaten by slugs, while their digging neighbours are suffering damage to similar plantings, even while poisoning with slug pellets.
Does no dig need more organic matter than you need when digging?
Absolutely not. This is another myth and misunderstanding, perhaps because compost is visible on top, rather than dug in.
My two-bed trial shows over ten years now no dig results in MORE FOOD for the same amount of compost. Plus with less time needed.
To grow healthy and abundant vegetables, soil needs feeding with organic matter, whether you dig or not. This is not a new finding, but has often been forgotten from a reliance on synthetic fertilisers, which feed plants yet harm soil organisms such as fungi.
New research bears me out on this, with the discovery that synthetic nitrogen, as used by most farmers, is depleting soil carbon and being a major contributor to CO2 in the atmosphere.
Can I add roots of perennial weeds to my compost heap?
Oh yes you can, and I know this contradicts much 'official' advice, but these roots are not ever-living. Even in a cool compost heap, as long as new ingredients are added before any new shoots can find light, they run out of energy and expire. In a heap with some heat, they die more quickly.
At Homeacres when I arrived in winter of 2012/13, there were many roots of bindweed, couch, nettles, buttercups and docks going into the compost heap, where we had been clearing weeds off concrete paths etc. The heap never went above 40°C/104°F and all those roots disappeared.
Result: saving of time and more nutrients in the compost.
Likewise, you can add diseased leaves to compost heaps. I add blighted plants, fruits and tubers of potatoes and tomatoes, mildewed squash leaves and rusty leek leaves. The disease spores die when the leaves they live on die. In 2018 I had super healthy leeks where I'd grown leeks in the past three years, with less rust this year than last.
How do I stop weeds and grass invading my plot?
For most weeds, it suffices to cut edges say every 3–4 weeks in the growing season, with long-handled shears and/or a half-moon edger, helped by mowing the ground closes to your beds, weekly if possible in the growing season.
Grass and weeds will love to grow into your fertile ground. When starting with a lot of weeds, thick cardboard along an edge is a good first step in keeping it tidy. Be sure to use wide enough pieces of cardboard to have 15cm/6in overlaps on any joins, and over weedy edges to clean beds.
If weeds start to grow through the card, say after 8 weeks or so, simply lay more cardboard around the weedy edge.
What compost can I use?
Which organic matter is best?
Any kind of compost creates a productive mulch, and it’s worth buying if you can’t make enough, for the time it saves you and the extra harvests that result. The initial dose may be high, to suppress weeds and save a huge amount of time because of weeds growing less. If you count your time at minimum wage level, the compost will soon be paid for.
Suitable composts are many, preferably quite mature, say 6–12 months for homemade compost and 1–2 years for animal manure. Compost from leaf mould and woody materials is good, and there is no requirement to use animal manures. Much depends on what is available locally. Woodchips make nice compost after 2–3 years, and then you can sieve them. Generally I do not sieve compost before applying.
Buy mushroom and green waste compost up to three months before you need them, so they can finish decomposing and maturing in a heap. Often these composts are still hot when delivered, say 50–60°C (roughly 120–140°F), and spreading them at this stage results in poor growth, especially if you had filled a whole bed with immature compost like that.
If they are cool when delivered, they have probably aged in the seller’s yard, and can be used straight away.
I had this comment from a man who ran an allotment: Someone put compost down and then it had to be watered every day or it just dried out.
That’s because the compost was still maturing. After 2–3 months, it behaves normally.
Can beds be filled with soil?
I advise not, unless you are fortunate enough to have healthy and unneeded soil, which is rare.
Soils you can buy are often 'dead' from being stacked for long enough to kill all the microbes needed for growth. This was discovered by Professor Victor Stewart (Aberyswyth Uni.) in the 1970s and ‘80s. He worked with the National Coal Board to discover why farms became so unproductive, after they had scraped off soil to extract coal in opencast mines, and then replaced the same soil.
Is there a specific order in which to add materials when I make a no dig bed?
Spread the least decomposed first, so it’s at the bottom, and keep the finest compost for your top layer, to sow and plant into.
An example for a bed of 6in/15cm depth would be for the first third to be half-decomposed animal manure, the second third old but not perfect homemade compost, and the top third multipurpose, mushroom or green waste compost. Firm the materials while adding them. If dry, walk on them.
Is no dig good for growing flowers?
Yes, for sure. In the UK, there are now huge numbers of no dig flower growers. Sometimes it’s claimed that 'compost is too rich for flower growing' but that is another myth.
When I gave a talk to 150 flower growers, over half of whom are already no dig, I never heard a comment about beds being too rich for flowers. In fact, it was praise all round. Adding compost is not akin to adding lots of fertiliser – see the Compost section below.
Scale
Can no dig work on a farm scale?
Yes, and it’s called no till, using different methods for areas above 0.5ha/1.25 acres. Perhaps use more polythene mulches/tarps, and for less intensive veg (cabbage, potato, onion, squash) see the work of Richard Perkins at Ridgedale Farm in Sweden.
In the 1980s I had cropped 3 ha/7.5 acres by 1987. I used less compost than at Homeacres, and cropped less intensively with less second plantings.
Does no dig mean a loss of yield?
No, the trials I run suggest the opposite. The same areas of dig and no dig over 11 years (2007-17) have given 863.95kg/1904lb from the dig beds, and 923.42kg/2015lb of same plantings from the no dig beds, at Lower Farm then Homeacres.
Why does no dig mean you need a smaller area?
Soil is healthier so growth is stronger, plus it’s quick to replant in summer for a second crop, which makes it more worthwhile to concentrate compost on a smaller area and at a greater depth, say 3–5cm/1–2in each year.
Cropping a smaller area saves time weeding, watering and protecting from pests.
When is best time to apply compost?
Any time is possible except when the ground is full of crops. Say from when a last harvest is taken in autumn, to when winter crops are cleared in spring.
Compost is not fertiliser and contains most nutrients in a water-insoluble form, hence the success of applying compost in autumn, then leaving beds to weather which encourages lumps to soften. I never cover beds in winter apart from mulching with compost.
Do I need to cover beds with polythene in winter?
Only if you have a major weed problem and want to kill them using light-excluding mulches. Otherwise, compost is the mulch – rain can wash through and its nutrients are retained. They are released as and when plant roots ask for them, when temperatures are correct, through soil organisms such as mycorrhizal fungi and more.
Compost and manure
Can I sow and plant into compost?
Yes, people actually ask this! Perhaps from misunderstanding the word, which here means well-decomposed organic matter:
- Garden and kitchen wastes
- Animal manure
- Purchased materials such as mushroom compost
- Two to three-year-old wood chip, bark and leaves, etc.
Does compost burn leaves of young or other plants, or harm tree trunks?
I wonder where this question comes from. If someone plants into, say, fresh chicken manure, or compost that was still 60°C/130°F when spread, plants will grow poorly. In my experience and the experience of everyone I speak to who uses mature compost, including half-rotted manure, plants are fine. I have never seen an issue with, say, trees or roses, where compost butts against their trunk or stem.
Does compost have to be homemade?
No!! even though the compost you make is often healthier and better for plants than what you buy. Few of us can make enough for the whole garden.
Homemade compost is often high in beneficial microbes, and I value it highly for that. It’s precious.
I also spread purchased composts, including some old animal manures.
Which compost is best for propagating seedlings?
At Homeacres I buy potting compost for propagation. Sometimes this is called potting soil, just to confuse matters, and indeed John Innes composts do contain loam, which is soil! They are useful for filling beds but give variable results for seedlings, because they are a franchised recipe fabricated by different suppliers.
How safe is bought manure?
Most is fine, except I would not use manure from battery farms because of cruelty and antibiotics etc. However there is an issue with a small percentage of horse manure.
A few farmers spread a weedkiller based on aminopyralid, a poison that stays on hay and is excreted by the horse, then only decomposes when in contact with soil organisms. It harms legumes and solanums in particular. Therefore you can test for it’s presence by sowing peas, beans or potatoes in horse manure before taking delivery.
If you have spread some which is causing problems, you either need to remove and dump it, or grow brassicas and sweetcorn for a year until it has decomposed.
Do I need to spread more compost or feeds before new plantings in summer?
Generally no, although maybe if your soil is light and sandy, and your winter mulch was light and has ‘disappeared’ into the soil by midsummer. However most of us can mulch just once a year, say in autumn, for two plantings through a whole year.
Do I need to grow green manures?
If you have plenty of spare soil, this is an option. However in organic gardening advice, it’s sometimes presented as a necessity, and I notice how people then feel guilty if they don’t grow them. Most allotments and gardens do not have empty beds and it’s more viable to use a little extra compost and double crop, for example.
There are issues with green manures: how to get rid of them, slugs accumulating underneath, and time lost in spring while they decompose. Try some methods that work for you, just don’t imagine they are simple to get rid of, except for white mustard sown in early autumn, which is killed by frost. Green manures are also a way of bulking up the compost heap – if you have the space!
Layout and paths
Laying out a garden/plot, should beds and rows run north south?
No need for this unless your vegetables are mostly tall, and would shade beds on the non-sunny side. More important is to run beds up and down a slope if it’s less than, say, 10%, so that compost and water do not fall into paths below, and to have an entry point to paths where you need to access.
Is there a prescribed width for beds?
No, because with no dig you can put a foot on or even walk on beds so they can be wider. I have some of 1.5 up to 1.8m/5–6ft, where there was not space for two beds of 1m/3.2ft and a path, and they crop well.
Incidentally ,paths of 40–45cm/15–18in are good, and even be narrower when you have no wooden sides.
Do I need sides for beds?
Only if you like having them, but having no sides saves money and reduces pest numbers, such as slugs and woodlice, because they have less habitat.
As wood decays where in contact with soil, that creates a damp pocket of space which is ideal shelter for slugs in dry weather, just near to your plants!
Not having sides mean your beds become mounds, with sloping sides. They are still raised above path level. Paths must be weed free for this to work.
Do I need to mulch paths?
Any mulch is better than bare soil, paths included. Their cover protects and feeds soil life, while increasing crops through the extra fertility. Plants in beds root horizontally into paths – most roots are active near the surface.
I cover paths before winter with a thin mulch of compost or pieces of small wood such as dust, shavings and small chips, preferably aged 6–12 months or more so that fungal breakdown has occurred – see photos above.
Does a no dig garden rise up over the years of adding compost?
Less than you might imagine, because compost consolidates after being eaten and excreted by soil life, such that it reduces in volume by as much as three quarters over a year.
Therefore beds filled with compost do not ever need to have compost removed. They can be topped up every year, to maintain their level.
My beds have no more room for compost. The current compost is at the very top of the raised bed lip. What do I do?
These beds must have been filled originally with soil, or some soil. Unlike compost, soil does not sink or settle.
So yes, you may need to remove some. Or remove the bed’s sides, mulch the paths with thick card if not weed free now, and pull some of the bed onto the path, making the bed a little wider in the process. You can walk on no dig beds.
Clearing, planting
Can I plant in wet weather?
Yes, you can. This means you can work in any weather and not lose precious opportunities, say when plants need to go in. No dig is versatile, thanks to the soil preserving it’s structure all the time.
- You can walk on paths in wet conditions to access beds for planting.
- You can dib holes in wet compost, or make holes with a trowel.
- Your boots stay clean, except for a bit of mulch material.
Do you need to remove all roots before replanting?
No, because old roots feed microbes and other soil life as they decay. Better to twist/rotate stems of broccoli, lettuce, spinach, etc., which snaps off the roots close to a stem and causes less soil disturbance than when you pull upwards. If ever I have upheaved the soil at all, I walk on it to re-firm, before resowing and replanting.
