My name is Sonia, I am a No Dig gardener together with my partner Loïs. We started gardening to grow our own vegetables in 2015, but only after I discovered Charles, around 2018, did our garden grow into a success. I watched all his youtube videos all winter long, then ordered some of his books and a year or two later, did the online course. We stopped all digging, I started to make a yearly planning and to raise our plants in modules. We created a hotbed in our greenhouse early February to start the growing season, when outside, there is still 30cm of snow - sometimes as late as mid April. We live in Switzerland, 850m above sea level in a mountain village. Our seasons are short - we have hot summers with very little wind, but very very cold winters with no sun until end of February. It can snow until mid May and in April we always, always have a few deep snow days. Yet, I plant my first plantings on a snow free day in March and they always survive the late snow. I grow 2-3 seasons in one vegetable bed and as of end of October 2023, I am still harvesting tomatoes in the greenhouse. No dig really has made a huge change for us!
With no dig, all our environmental challenges just turn into opportunities to explore and learn and garden with nature. Since three years, we are fully sustainable with all our vegetable needs all year round! (Yes including the long 6 months of winter, November to End of May…).
