I have been an advocate of no-dig since 2011 working my former allotment in Walthamstow, London and then continuing to apply its principles after moving back to north Wales.
My partner and I moved to Portugal in 2022 where we have a Quinta (smallholding) of 7.5 acres in a small village near Fronteira, Central Portugal. We almost immediately established a Horta (vegetable garden) on no-dig principles.
The biggest difference between Britain and Portugal is, of course, the climate. Here we can experience dry conditions from May to October with serious heat in July & August. So adapting no-dig to drought and introducing irrigation to the plot is essential.
We are still working on providing irrigation from our very large and deep pond, by pumping water to a large tank to store it and then use gravity to bring water to the Horta. On the plus side, we can grow cool weather plants throughout the winter months as most of the rains occur generally between October and March. We experience a few frosty mornings in January & February but - as yet - no sub zero temperatures; our Aeoniums have survived without a scratch!
Our soil has a clay base close to the surface and it has suffered in the past from over-tilling. There are about 180 olive trees and everything else is pasture; a neighbour keeps sheep on the land which means it is kept 'clean' and is fertlized naturally.
We need only maintain the vegetation in our garden (fenced off from the rest of the pasture) by mowing it and mulching with the grass cuttings to help restore essential organic matter in the top soil and hold better the moisture for the dry summer months.
With the autumn and winter rains comes green growth, a second Spring if you will. The brown, dead grass of summer is replaced overnight with green grass shoots - and weeds (!) - so mowing is very much an autumn and winter activity.
When there's enough mulch on the surface, I keep the cuttings for composting. Making compost has also been a matter of rethinking and adapting. With the summer heat it dries out quickly; also, there's precious little green material at the height of summer to add to the bays. So I've determined to grow more than we need to keep ahead of succession and cultivation problems and provide a source of green material for composting - after all, nothing is wasted: if we don't eat it or give it away, composting surplus means it goes back onto the beds sooner or later. Plus having all beds full over summer helps prevent the worst of the strong sun's effects just as it surpresses weeds.
The last 3 months has been great for compost. With so much green to mow and with plenty of brown material from last year, we were able to fill two big bays within 6 weeks. Both were turned into a 3rd bay which is now full and I hope ready for using in April if not before.
We've had our share of successes and failures over the two years since March 2023 when we first laid down cardboard and starting borrowing compost from the 40 cubic metres of green waste material we had delivered.
This winter we have finally extended the original beds and built new, larger ones for squashes and sweet potatoes, for example. Last year, I was incapactitated by illness and we found keeping on top of things very difficult as physical activity was limited.
Adapting sowing and planting times to these conditions is hard work, as we are so hard-wired to British climate conditions! But overall, I'd say we have now started to understand better the growing conditions here and we are making slow but steady progress.
The photo shows last year's tomato crop, Roma variety.
On the googlemaps view of our Quinta, you can clearly see the layout of the Horta as it was about September 2023: the 6 no-dig bed rows are visible as is the larger area beside which is under black plastic to suppress weeds, an idea nicked from Charles preparing the new land - for squashes I think? It's a good job we did that, as shortly after, I fell ill and was unable to do much for 6 months!
