No Dig
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The Garden Project is a third of an acre space at Felixstowe School, and a partnership between the school and the local charity Boost. The Garden Projects includes an allotment area, using the 'no dig' approach, a grass labyrinth, wildlife pond, and an orchard. The Garden Project achieved Level Five of the RHS School Gardening Awards in 2023, and has won 'Best School Environmental Project' in the Felixstowe in Flower Awards for the past two years. Students can take part in the free Garden Club during lunchtimes, and volunteers are encouraged to support the maintenance during school holidays.

My friends in Sheffield, amazing gardeners, are great fans of a no dig garden. I always learn something from them and they enjoy sharing new information. As it happens I follow the “no dig” philosophy, mostly because I have to use my time wisely in order to look after flower beds, hives, backyard orchard, new trees planted on property for wildlife, and pastures for hay (has to do with maintaining green belt status). I live in Hamilton, Montana where the growing season is short, summers very hot and winters very cold (in general). Attached is a snapshot of part of my veg garden. I of course have compost piles which to be honest are a bit unmanageable. This year I may have to dig one row for carrots and parsnips. They are always very stunted.

I have an organic garden company, I start in 2012 helping people. I help them creating, maintenance and advance family orchard in her homes, company’s, schools around the Island. Using alway no dig method. For me it’s the best and only option to take care of the soil, plants, biodiversity…

I have build more than 200 veggie garden since I start.

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These beds are made with eucalyptus forest compost taken out from the forest in front of my father's house!! People: Make a lasagna of cardboard, dried grass, and compost on top of the place where you want to start growing. 100% sure that if your land has a full belly, it will grow up some great crops!

Email: santiagoportanova@gmail.com

We have set up our community garden to follow the No Dig movement, we are a not for profit community organisation called Stepney Hill Eco Project based in Scarborough, UK run by volunteers and working with the community also schools.

We also have our own personal allotment ‘Lost The Plot’ which is no dig. We used this as our pilot before we rolled out our community project which is situated close on a farm. The farm is working with us now to hopefully become a social farm for our local community.

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I have 300 square m of no-dig garden for over 3 years now.

Thanks a lot for popularizing no-dig! It made my life easier and my ground healthier, crops are getting better every season.

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I took on this 300 square metre allotment in February 2023 and spent the Spring & early Summer clearing, digging and planting in the traditional way.

Then I came across Charles’s videos and gradually converted, first mentally then practically, to no-dig.

I’ve restructured the space into 5ft beds with woodchip paths, beefed up the compost operation massively and am ready to go 100% no-dig in 2024.

Most veg did pretty well in my year zero but I’m excited to see how much better the harvests can be in year one, with a bit less backache!

Email: andy@polestar-research.co.uk

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We are in mediterranean climate and probably zone 9. I would like to see on the world map how we are categorized. Our soil is red, a lot of iron in it, hard and very stony. I managed to make a garden on a hill with bought soil and to enrich it with sheep manure and some sand to make it less claylike. After 10 years of conventional trials last year I started nodig. In summer we have temperatures up to 40 celsius and not much rain. Sometimes there is no rain for 3-4 months. I wonder how nature and my work will bring some fruit.

We got the plot of land in 2019 and have loved making it into our haven. After fighting weeds for a couple of years in the veg bed, I learned about no-dig; what a turn-around point!! I now have no-dig vegetable bed, fruit area and no-dig polytunnel. I just have to remember to not let the hens into the areas, as they seem to ignore "no-dig"!

My garden patch is approximately 0.03673095 of an acre--yes, rather small compared to your parcel. I have been transforming the space into an edible garden over the last four years. The majority of the land is devoted to fruit trees, berry bushes and grape vines (represented by about 55 different varieties), but I also have annual vegetables interspersed throughout. No dig, through exposure to Charles, has been added to my gardening philosophy. I've included a photo which really doesn't show much, for it's impossible to take it all in through a single snapshot.

I started my no dig plot in 2021. I've been given a plot which wasn't in use for years and had lots of rubbish in it. I didn't mind as it was perfect for no dig. Since then a new member joined, who does no dig too.

I took on my allotment in Jan 2023, and simply followed Charles' advice as much as I would manage. I was surprised how easy it seemed - and I'm very lazy - but the barrows of veg, fruit, and flowers that I wheeled home showed a great return for not too much effort!

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I am creating a no dig garden - 4 years into the making. So inspired and learning every month! Happy and excited to connect with anyone learning and growing this way.

The attached photo shows a no dig mixed flower, herb and veg bed summer 2023

I started no dig gardening in my kitchen garden in 2019 with two beds measuring 1,5x3cm. The results were so successful that I grew the no dig garden plot bigger and bigger every year. Today, I have over forty beds, two polytunnels and a greenhouse. The garden continues to develop.

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We started our small no-dig garden in 2023 on clay soil, and had wonderful results in our first growing season. We plan to gradually make it bigger to become more food self-sufficient.

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Started in 2018, our small no dig urban homestead in Zadar gets better and more developed every year. Part of it we set up as raised no dig beds for intensive rotation of staple annuals, and the rest as a food forest. Every year we love it more and more :)

Conatct details:

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/lana_ujdenica/

Email - mailto:lana.ujdenica@gmail.com

We are a rural coffee shop located beside the beautiful Glencar Waterfall, Co. Leitrim, Ireland. We are on very heavy clay soil and initially created some raised beds but have since started beds just on the weedy ground, following the no-dig principal, trying to reduce slug damage now with woodchip paths. We grow the majority of our salad leaves for the coffee shop utilising the techniques shared by Charles for harvesting which we are also educating our staff about. We compost as much as we can from the teaSHED with used coffee grinds a great addition in raising the heat of our composts piles.

I'm a horticultural engineer from Northern Germany. In 2017, I planned a school garden for the elementary school in our village and planted it with no dig beds. With my educational project "Lotte and Krabi in the Garden of the Northern Lights", I show both the children and their teachers how to grow vegetables intuitively and easily. This year, the school garden will be expanded to include a dyer's garden and I will also be creating and looking after a school garden with no dig beds at the secondary school in the neighbouring village.

My email is: christina.koeppen@naegelmitkoeppen.com

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I have built a no dig-garden on part of a meadow/old orchard in the Taunus Hills (550 M elevation). Phase 1 (three 120cm beds + 2 straw potato beds) is complete and has been cultivated for 3 seasons. Phase 2 is ready to go as soon as spring arrives adding 2 more 120cm no dig beds.

During winters I have been thinning and extending a tiny area of woodland within the old orchard using self/bird propagated seedlings harvested while thinning as well as adding new apple trees and restoring old neglected fruit trees (pear and plum).

I make my own (hot) compost from veg garden/kitchen, shredded hedging and woody pruning/grass and hay from the meadow and manure from local animals when available.

Last but not least, I have one of Charles' books and watch all his YT videos.

In the neighbourhood there is one no-dig market garden (with members) and one private no-dig garden in the next village .. there could be more.

I've been no dig for about 10 years here in our garden. Attached is a photo of our veg garden in early spring as we were laying card to create new beds.

I've been following Charles and No-dig for a while but only got the allotment 18 months ago so it's still a work in progress. This photo is from August 2022 but shows one of my new No-dig beds being created.

I started a no dig garden last year and also attended one of Charles’s No Dig day courses. The attached photo was taken in January 2024. Not much to show here at this time of year- except a few broad beans under cover.

I have included a couple of pictures I took today. Not much to show here at this time of year- except a few broad beans under cover.

I started last year following Charles' advice covering the ground with cardboard and piling on plenty of compost and using wood chippings for the paths. Compared with what I had achieved before last year, it was very productive under the new regime. However this is still early days. I used temporary wooden boards for the beds which I am now taking away as I put more compost on for the coming year. I am trying to get the compost production going although my view of the compost heaps looks a little forlorn! I would be happy for any no dig neighbours to get in touch; simonbrookpenhow@outlook.com

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My name is Marianna and since 2022 I've converted a small part of my garden into a no-dig kitchen garden.We have a very hard clay here, with clear signs of hydromorphism, and I was rather skeptical this method could work here, but I'm very happy it did!!! In summer I mulch my beds with a thick layer of straw or dried clipped grass in order to minimize evaporation, and every fall I add to the beds 3cm of my home made compost. My major issue are slugs in fall and winter, but sowing in modules and chasing slugs overnight (together with frogs and other creatures) makes me able to save up 70% of the harvest. My neighbours really laughed seeing me working in the lawn with large pieces of cardboard and compost at the beginning, but now they are very pleased by the results and they come asking advice.

I built a house in the middle of a field four years ago and had to start from scratch with my garden and veg patch. I rotavated once (because the ground had been compacted by construction vehicles) and then went straight to No Dig. I got my cardboard from our local bike shop and create most of my own compost by using horse muck and straw mix. If I am lucky, I get some leaf mould from a family member, which is greatly received. When I see a wood chipper in the village, I ask them to give me their wood chip, which they seem happy to do.

Two years ago, I also took on an allotment which used to be a chicken run - overrun with nettles, dock, etc. I went straight to No Dig and now coming up to my third year, it is all very manageable. I have very little fruit besides rhubarb, raspberries and strawberries, so this year I have taken on a ½ plot full of fruit trees and bushes, and asparagus which had been neglected. I am currently working on clearing and making paths, hoping to be ready for some decent pruning in the Spring.

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I am a no dig gardener and love watching Charles' videos.

I love gardening this way. I’ve doubled my garden area because it is so much less work than traditional digging!

We are Ripened in the Texas Sun Farm, a small farm in Canton, Texas! We have been following no dig for about 2 years now and have seen a tremendous increase in soil health and crop production. We are excited to be a part of the no dig community!

The pictures provided are a few months old. The plot is about 21.6 feet by 36 feet roughly. I plan on adding at least one more bed on the left side. On the far right side I will put a 6x10 foot roughly polytunnel when weather permits.

The site has a water to the plot but they offer nothing else. Everything has to be carried to the plot not car access.

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We have a very small garden at the back, with plenty of containers and also some garden beds on the roof of our shed! Small poly house. It is very shady that’s why we want to expand to front garden as there is only a lawn with wasted space, more sun there so more veggies. We have a two bay compost system at the back of our terraces. Neighbours put out their scraps, lawn clippings, garden waste. And after few month we can use it back to the soils. We try to grow things that we like and things that are expensive in the shop (berries, salads).

We are happy to share our email to no dig neighbours: kamil.olczak@gmail.com.

We are the proud current custodians of the old walled garden. Andrew has always grown potatoes, onions and runner beans in a dug bed for many years. Two years ago I stumbled across Charles and the No Dig method and decided to use a bit of the garden as an experimental no dig patch. I became more interested in knowing where our food comes from and how it’s grown, we were both keen on becoming a bit more self sufficient than we had been. Unlike Andrew I had never gardened or grown anything, I was and still am a proud novice! When I laid out my plans to Andrew he was convinced it wouldn’t work and it would be another fad that I wanted to have a go at- I have a room full of previous fads so his assumption was fair. In January 2023 I got my first ever greenhouse and built two no dig beds using materials I found laying around. I was full of confidence and went at it with a ‘give it a go and see what happens’ mindset. After a bereavement in 2023, this further catapulted my desire for growing and a real appreciation of the healing vibes the garden and my little growing space gave me. Not really having a clue I watched YouTube, read books, followed instagram accounts and signed up for a course at Homeacres. I’ve never looked back and Andrew is a complete convert.Still work in progress, we now have a brassica cage, 9 no dig beds one for herbs, three compost bays (we have had our first lot of home made compost!) and after a visit to Homeacres I’m creating a squash bed for the 2024 growing season. Our little garden kept us fed last year, and I still have a stash of Crown Prince and Butternut Squashes to take us through soup season!

We’ve been no dig for almost 8yrs and it saved my back!  Started a 3 stall compost bin last year and I’m hoping to make enough compost to sustain on my own!

This will be my first full season of ‘no dig’.

I have ten 2m x 1.2m beds prepared with five yet to come on stream.

Photo to follow!

We bought the property in June of 2021 and that fall I started with one no dig 8x4ft bed, which I planted winter crops in. Since then I have expanded to 3 main veggie beds, 16ft by 4ft long. The no dig approach made the set up very easy. I recycled old fencing to use as temporary sides so that I could fill them approx 10cm deep with compost. The initial bed ended up being a mix of compost and soil as that was all that was available at the time. The remaining beds were filled with aged cow manure and green waste compost. I found the green waste compost lacking and added mushroom compost mid season in 2022. I plan to remove the sides this year. The paths are mulched with wood chips obtained from local arborist. Now I add a layer annually of compost, my own or mushroom compost purchased. I have also been creating flower and perennial beds with the no dig approach, using black tarp to suppress the weeds and grasses initially. I have also created a poly tunnel greenhouse with no dig beds the size is 10 x8 ft.

The production has been amazing, for such a small space I produce a lot of food. I don't weigh my harvests but I am able to feed my household all year from the beds, in the summer I barely buy any groceries and in the winter I supplement from the local market or store. Last year we had record drought and I found my beds held up beautifully with some irrigation.

The entire property is 1/4 acre. I have plans to add more growing space eventually but for now my small space does very well. I also find Charles continual planting approach to be very helpful in making the space very productive.

Courtenay BC is also a temperate oceanic climate but recently we have experienced more extreme weather events in summer and winter. The planting zone is zone 7b.

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The photo was taken in June 2023.

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This is my 5 year old no dig allotment. l use sheet composting and compost from my three ' pallet bins' to easily supply all the organic matter l need.

I'm happy to hear from my neighbours!

Email is: tonygray1958@outlook.com

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I started no dig at the beginning of January 2023.

The photo is 3 months after a mild stroke, all labour outside of shed and polytunnnel building my own. What great therapy !! Love, love, love No Dig !!

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I switched to no dig about three years ago on all my kitchen garden beds and the results have been very impressive both from both yield and uniformity of crops.

My kitchen garden was established over thirty years ago and managed in a traditional dig / compost and rotovate pre planting way. What I have noticed since moving to no dig apart from the main benefits is the soil structure is changing to a lighter composition that does not crack when we have really hot weather.

The photo is from July 2023, showing one bed with succession crops.

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The photo shows our pub's no dig veg beds which the public are welcome to visit!

https://lakedistrictfarmersarms.com/our-kitchen-gardens/

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We also have decade old no dig gardens at our artists residency, Lawson Park: https://www.lawsonpark.org/gardens/the-paddies/

The garden has been no-dig for the past 8 years.

We are set here in the Midwest amongst farm fields designated for corns and soybeans. Our soil is a heavy clay loam.

Thank you Charles for all you do! This gardening method is the only way to go!

We’ve just moved house, so I’ve had to give up my large No dig allotment (so no photo to add at the moment), but I’m looking forward to creating my new garden at the new home.

Always happy to chat all things No Dig to anyone local and encourage them.

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My email is: paul@rothwell.co.uk

I started my No Dig potager in earnest in 2022 and have been incredibly happy with the results so far. No Dig is arriving here in France, and I will do my best to help spread the word!

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(Unfortunately I don't have a decent picture of my garden at the moment but will send one through later in the year!)

I would like to share my no-dig garden!

I made it last year as an addition to the old one.The new one is partly shadowed by big oak trees and where those trees stands is also a small slope down towards my garden ending with an old stone wall. I thought it would be good because it would be less windy, more warmth but also some shadow if it becomes really hot. It worked well last summer but I had to water a lot anyway because the oaks leafs came late and the warm weather came early. So this summer I think I shall plant more even in the old kitchen garden really early in the spring.

I also have boxes on the kitchen side of the house where I have tried to grow different kind of plants but not had a great success yet. Only one year when I filled one with meadow seeds - oh wow!!   I have some thought in taking in hens or geese’s too but I am not sure…And I also need to make a new land for my old strawberry plants…But as for today it is 20 cm of snow over everything and snow is falling down.So I am planning what seeds to buy.

My place is called “Stjärnstoffs Gård” (gård = cottage/farm) it is built in the old traditional south of Sweden style. It was built in 1993 and 1996 and they used recycled materials from old houses in the south of sweden. Today visitors belief our house is 2-300 years old.We are trying to make the garden look a little as if it was an old garden. In the garden of the house I lived in before this place I took inspiration of an english cottage and when we moved from it the garden was a paradise…

This will be growing season year 4 in my allotment. The photo is from year 3.

I am the only person on our site doing "no dig". Love it.

Look forward to meeting more like-minded gardeners and growers.

My email address is: wildkookaburra@hotmail.co.uk

I’ve been practising No Dig for about 10 years, and last year also started making my own compost in earnest. (Also finding Charles’ No Dig book invaluable!)

We have a lovely garden and green house, that we manage by no dig.

The picture is of one corner of the land that hosts the vegetable garden.

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Here is our website: vlierhof.org

Having started as a young boy (digging the garden of my ageing grandfather) to the present, where I manage a no-dig vegetable garden with a friend on her farm, and a no-dig allotment in Haarlem, the Netherlands where I live, I've been interested in gardening my whole life. The friend's garden, when overgrown, needed a new approach, and I found Charles' approach the best:it actually worked superbly. I have enjoyed all his videos and newsletters, have learned tremendously from his experience, and am now writing in the newsletter of the gardening association of which I am a member about the lessons I learned.

Two gardens, each 250m2, and we can't eat the abundant produce fast enough, giving neighbours and friends what we can't eat!

And apart from that, there is the rebounding ecosystem around you when you take good care of the land. This is an ever-recurring lesson and experience, as well as a reminder of past and hopefully future biodiversity on the farm. This includes a very active mole, attracted by the worms...

I'd love to share lessons, experience, and seeds, fit for our relatively soggy peaty soils here in the west of the Netherlands.

The name of my gardening association: 'Nooit Rust'

My no-dig allotment is at the Pimp Hall Allotment site in Chingford, London.

I've built up a reasonably useable compost top layer over the last 5 years, overlying a pan of solid London clay, which the diggers on neighbouring allotments have constant difficulty with! We're lucky that since the local authority ceased delivering "brown bin" compost a couple of years back we've had regular supplies of leafy wood chippings from their tree contractor. This, plus occasional deliveries of horse muck forms the basis of my three compost heaps. The plot is situated next to a recently renovated pond which has existed as a watering hole for cattle since the 16^th century.

We have regular visits from local primary school children whom I try to indoctrinate with descriptions of the role of fungi and bacteria; they do appreciate the vital role of poo.

The photo shows surviving Brussel Sprouts.

We have a no dig garden pretty close to Homeacres. We have a selection of rare perennials - asparagus (heritage and modern), rhubarb (including some Icelandic and Australian cultivars) & artichokes, along with seasonal like beans, onion, garlics etc. as well as some Row 7 cultivars. The photo is of last spring.

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I just took over a half allotment in Werrington, Peterborough UK in December. This is my first attempt at no dig and I am looking forward to Spring with keen anticipation!

To date, I have been concentrating on preparing growing beds and have been slightly taken aback at the amount of compost that is needed but I am determined to get off to a good start and am making the investment.  Each of my 3.9m x 1.5m beds needs two builders bags of compost ( 1.5 tonnes approx).  The higher raised bed shown in the photograph also has around 1 tonne of topsoil under the compost.  I have another 2 bags of compost and one bag of woodchip for the paths to complete phase 1.

There are two more similar sized beds to construct but I shall be leaving these until later in the year as currently I have to wheelbarrow or carry all materials from the main gate to my allotment as there is a ban on vehicles using our grass access tracks until the Spring in order to conserve the ground.

I may also have an option to take over the other half of the plot shown in the background of the photograph and hopefully I shall know for sure fairly soon.  This is a retirement project to wean myself away form work, but I think I shall be working for a few months yet to try and recoup my start-up costs which have been fairly substantial given the amount of materials and tools that I have needed to buy. Having said that, I am looking at it as an investment as I hope to be self sufficient in compost before too long.

Coming form a sedentary work regime, it has felt at times like hard graft, but I notice it is starting to take me less time to recover from each delivery and the feeling of well being that I get whilst working my little piece of land and my own speed is simply wonderful.

I've attached a photo of me in my Vej Mahal (a temple to food) with my geese coming in to get some bean leaves.  It was taken in early summer so doesn't look as full-to-bursting as it does just now after a warm rainy summer.

I live in a regional town outside Sydney within the Blue Mountains National Park.  It is a cool climate garden quite similar to those of the south of England, except with snow falls every year.  Nearly everyone up here grows their veggies in some kind of caged area due to the cockatoos and bower birds, which will decimate your crop within an hour.  They are the main pest I have to contend with and this (expensive) solution is my happy place.

My veg garden is on the bed of what once was the River Don.

Townley Hall Walled Garden is a volunteer-run community garden situated in a 0.6 Ha Georgian walled garden within the grounds of the beautiful Townley Hall. The garden was established in 2021 during the pandemic to donate vegetables to people who experience food insecurity. In the past two years over 5 tonnes of vegetables have been donated to the charity FoodCloud.  We want to make delicious healthy vegetables and garden know-how accessible to all.

Our ‘no dig’ garden is organically managed by an ever-expanding team. The garden has two polytunnels, fruit and flower plots, and 70 x 10 metre vegetable growing beds so far. It's a great spot to learn how to grow vegetables and flowers.  We love to work together with the land in a thoughtful and careful manner, teaching and learning as we go. The aim is to enjoy nature, support biodiversity and each other and to encourage creativity and care for the soil.

The 10Ha farm is divided into habitat areas, forestry, old pasture, a small orchard and the vegetable plots.  

The cropping area consists of 1500 m² of polytunnels, 50 x 20m permanent no dig beds and the rest of the vegetable area is currently in overwintering green manure crops.

We are in the process of converting more of our growing areas to the no dig system which we started trialling in 2020 and are now ‘hooked’. We are very impressed with how well the crops grow and have seen huge improvement in quality and yields over the past 3 years. We plan to increase the area devoted to no dig this year.  The farm has been in operation as an organic farm since 1989.

We sell our produce through our farm shop and to restaurants both locally and in Dublin. We also wholesale vegetables to other organic growers. We love to grow many types of vegetables and are not afraid to try unusual varieties and try new crops each year.

I have been using the no dig method of gardening since about 2016. The amount of gardening and self-sufficiency I have achieved would never have been possible for me without this approach as I have no help in the garden and my body would not have managed digging etc. I love the structure of the soil, that I can work on it and stand on it and it doesn't compact and get claggy and muddy. I now have a plentiful supply of veg and fruit year round.

https://www.instagram.com/paddockproduce/

I have always dabbled with fruit and veg growing in the garden, so when friends mentioned that they had a local allotment but they had neither the gardening knowledge or health now to use it fully, I asked if I could help them, with another friend, to start a group growing project.

In my own garden, I have used the “no-dig” method. My aim was to trial this method on the allotment, using local and free or cheap resources, to see what food we could grow together to share, using our pooled labour.Challenges included:

·     the plot being shaded for half the day in the summer as it is next to the Knapp Copse

·     Lots of top soil was removed from the beds by a previous tenant!

·     Grass and weeds had grown through plastic sheeting which was covering the beds

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One year on, we have learned lots, had fun together and shared harvests including salads, beetroots, broad, French and runner beans, peas, potatoes, tomatoes, chard, radish, onions, garlic, courgettes, squash, leeks, herbs, rhubarb and raspberries. We are looking forward to finishing our wildlife pond, and picking winter salads, various brassicas, and early spring crops from our free cold frame!

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Money saving methods have included:

·     Obtaining free woodchip (for paths) from local tree surgeons

·     Finding free stuff (frames, netting etc) on Freecycle and other sites

·     Sourcing excellent manure from a nearby local horse owner

·     Seed saving and swapping/sharing

·     Compost making - sourcing material from others’ gardens to make more of this

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I would be happy to chat to anyone who is interested about using the no-dig method for growing fruit, veg or flowers, and would also recommend Stefan Drew’s website Bitesize Gardening, or Facebook page How to Dig for Victory (UK Sustainable Fruit and Vegetable Gardening) as great sources of information.

My email address is: tessbiss@gmail.com

We’ve had black polythene down since Feb and its coming off in Jan to have the 6 months of cardboard, compost and mulch on top. We are starting and very new and a bit scared!

I have about 200m2 of veggie/flower garden plus some spots on other surrounding fields. In addition to this the fields for our horses are no dig/no till as well. I started with no dig about 2020/2021 after noticing how well everything grew in a left pile of horse poo. Since then, never going back again. Thanks to Charles and his Team for all the knowledge and enthusiasm you are sharing.

A few years ago, my father-in-law inherited a big farm garden full of fruit trees in Nether-Bavaria. The area is acknowledged to have the best soil in Bavaria. Apart from a neighbour, who put his beehives there and cut the grass as far as necessary, the garden has literally been left alone for 20 years. It has become a treasure of biodiversity amidst a highly intensive farming area. The family wants to keep it that way, but since none of the younger ones lives nearby, all we can do is two or three people spending one day on the spot every two or three weeks. Filled with mending fences, fighting the hazelnut-jungle and harvesting loads of apples, plums, pears, quince ect.  (my husband put up a harvesting community to come and share from Munich), it felt like all we could manage.

No one had ever thought about reviving our late aunt´s vegetable garden. The soil is clay heavy, packed with weeds; starting all over would mean a lot of digging, wouldn`t it?

When I found Charles` videos on Youtube last autumn, we saw a range of new possibilities.

In early winter 2022  we covered the to-be-bed with 8-fold newspaper, the edges/path around with cardboard and mulched with dry leaves and “compost” from a heap that had accumulated over years out of cut grass, woodchips and rotting apples. Left it to freeze.

First plantings in April and since then it is a pleasure to watch it all grow.  (Just didn´t consider flying pests, will cover next year.)

Second game changer: Propagation in multi-cell-trays. It is so easily done on a windowsill at home in Munich. Then I take them to Nether-Bavaria and pop them in. Water once and that´s it. Sometimes a whole set is gone by the next visit, dryness or slugs, depending on the weather. But others thrive. We decided to plant only things that also grow on the fields around without being watered. But later I popped in everything I had to many plants of. (Like that we harvested for example more than 1 kg of cherry tomatoes from 3 plants; double amount rotted in September during our three-week holiday, so what?)

I really want to encourage everyone to give NoDig a try, especially if conditions are not ideal and time is scarce. Looking at Charles´ videos I realise my little veg trial looks like a real mess. Bed sizes not ideal, no tidy edges, compost quality questionable. But the weeds did not (completely) take over when we were away, and we had a decent harvest in the first year.

Now the bed is ready for next season. Compost on, garlic, onions and kale still there. Looking forward to starting earlier next spring. Thank you so very much!

I have a plot in a community garden in Central Texas. I've been following Charles' no dig for a couple of years and enjoying the benefits over tilling. I'm hoping to convert some of my fellow gardeners too.

The picture is of my garden in December - mild winters allow us to grow a lot of things in the winter and to keep on planting until a freeze.

Charles's books and videos have been unbelievably helpful, instructive and inspiring and I pass on details to all gardening people I know! At the moment I have three books and two calendars - far from finished!

I was already "no-digging" from about 2016 onward in my previous garden on Essex clay, but without the knowledge and experience which Charles and his books and videos provided from winter 2020-21 onwards, in my new garden in Norfolk. (Removers' cardboard boxes, stored since the summer, were invaluable.) His use of multisowing, path/bed proportions, compost-making, interplanting and succession were all novelties for me, and all have worked brilliantly. Course Book 1 was read over and over. Sowing dates and the planning for winter crops in the greenhouse and early spring in and outdoors are the icing on the cake: we just have so much more food from the garden now.

My vegetable plots are one area of 7 x 5.5 m, plus a strawberry bed and a bean row. I'd like more but it would mean losing a beautiful apple tree or some of the ornamental garden.

The photo is from May 2022.

This is year one of our new vegetable garden. Correction: year two. Because unlike what we were used to doing (up to three times), this time we did not start digging and fertilising - but composting.

I used to often feel disappointment in my vegetable garden when my carrots did not look in the slightest like the orange power carrots listed on the packaging. I had a lot to learn about adding the right fertiliser, at the right time, for the right vegetables.

Until I understood through No Dig that with compost, we feed the soil in all its facets and complexity. We bring life to the soil, so to speak.

Point - that's all I need to know. With No Dig, I don't need to know it all in detail. By disturbing the soil as little as possible and working with compost, I let nature do its work.

So last year, Vegetable Gardening began by starting compost bins. Chopping wood, mowing the lawn and going to ask our (surprised) neighbours for more - slowly but surely the bins got filled.

Happy as a child, I watched the temperature rise in the compost bins, how I set in motion something that has been working this way for millions of years. I felt how the stored solar heat radiated 1:1 from the compost.

Insects, fungi a rat that began to set up this heated house - vegetable gardening had begun long before it began.

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When covid arrived in 2020, all my travel plans were put on hold and the empty shelves of the local supermarkets prompted me to go back to cultivating my own veg as l had done for 40 years without chemicals or artificial fertilisers. Raised beds and the no-dig concept were appealing as l was retired and planning ahead realised there would come a time when l could no longer dig. Inspired by Dr Christine Jones and the Biofarm Nots Conference of 2020, Richard Perkins etc. my journey and adventure with no dig began.

I am based in Orkney, half a mile from the village of Dounby surrounded by agriculture and an SSSI to the west of me. l keep bees, grow trees from seeds, have a 2 acre garden and 500 miles west of Richard Perkins 59°N with a 5 month growing season. So far my No dig experience has been a great adventure and still learning. Enjoying Charles's No dig recipe book and calendar.

l am on Facebook as Jeannine Dollé.

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I have been following Charles and No dig since about 2016 when reading about him. I had taken on a garden with raised beds and started No dig.

I was living near Havant at the time and Charles did a talk at Hayling Island Horticultural Society.

I was hooked, I also started an allotment near there.

In Feb 2022 I moved to a village just outside of Bath only have a small garden but managed to find an allotment about a ten minute drive away which I took on in Feb 2022.

Attached are 2 photographs one at the start and one taken later October 2023 a couple of weeks after planting my garlic and onions.

My allotment is at the Hartley Farm Shop, Winsley, Wiltshire. If anyone would like to visit, please get in touch: bennyzin@icloud.com

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I began my gardening journey in 1976 growing a wide range of organic vegetables for my family in various gardens and allotments, digging or forking the ground and turning in cow and horse manure delivered by the local farmer.

In 2007  We moved to the heavy clay of the Blackmore Vale, Dorset, and needed to establish a new garden where there was only grass and some elderly apple and pear trees. Fortunately our free weekly local newspaper had a regular article written by Charles Dowding in which he described no dig and recommended it on heavy clay. I also bought his first book and later in the year visited his garden. Using his recommendations I established a vegetable and soft fruit garden buying in horse manure and green waste compost. As a result of no-dig and making our own compost the soil is now in wonderful shape and produces a wide range of fruit and vegetables. We are now self- sufficient in vegetables and fruit having added cordon apples and plum and cherry trees. Having purchased a hefty shredder we produce enough compost for mulching and have deliveries of woodchip from a local tree surgeon. Our trees provide a wealth of leaf mould.

We have 2 greenhouses for tomatoes, peppers, chillies, aubergines and cucumbers. In the winter they provide salad leaves and garlic.

The rest of the garden is devoted to wildlife and plants for pollinators. I am a natural beekeeper and have been awarded a wildlife friendly garden plaque from the local wildlife trust.

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The F3 Project uses land provided by Chafyn Grove School, Salisbury to grow free fruit and vegetables for those hit by the cost-of-living crisis.

Details on thef3project.org.uk.

We have rainy winters, warm, dry summers in a marine environment. Problems include deer, rabbits, slugs, mildew, and white fly.

I have an acre of alkaline clay on the Herefordshire side of the Malvern Hills and have raised vegetable beds, a 10x12 Hartley Botanic Greenhouse, a small polytunnel and ordinary vegetable beds.

My husband is an enthusiastic compost maker, and we often joke that he could open the heaps to the public. We have fruit trees, soft fruit and grow lots of different vegetables, especially those we really like.

I have saved seeds for as long as I can remember, encouraged by a neighbour whose runner bean seed dated from the1930's. He always told me they adapted to the soil and I've done the same for decades. I also save most of my tomato seeds (not F1), runner and climbing French beans, garlic and potatoes, dill and parsley. I save all the calendula and other companion plants and all my annuals.

We are totally organic, and have always been interested in the soil inspired by our long membership of the Henry Doubleday Ryton Gardens when it was a flourishing concern. Charles is now my guru and I am always grateful for the ongoing inspirational YouTube videos and the amount of knowledge he so freely shares with us all.

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I have been a No Dig Gardener ever since I came across Charles online, for about 5 years.

Having a similar climate (though obviously not the same day by day) as Homeacres, we can benefit from the schedules and advice: it is great receiving the emails.

Our first community garden called "Groland” (our street is called Roland Road),  hopes to expand via satellite gardens on small plots shared by our community members.  It is part of the idea of growing (green and)  local on our island… which is otherwise served by ferries from the mainland and Vancouver Island which is, clearly, not eco-friendly.

This autumn we will add to the 4 small raised beds by creating 2 new long beds using the Lasagne, cardboard and compost method that has worked so very well for us at home. I and my husband have vegetable plots around our home, domestic - not commercial though we do aim to give lots of bounty away each year, we are also on a (9’ shallow) dug well which we manage ourselves.

Water is a big issue where we live, with severe water restrictions every summer for many parts of the island.

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If you are interested to know how our community garden is developing, go to the "Groland Community Garden Diary" link on the top menu bar -here

https://sites.google.com/view/rolandroadcommunity/our-groland-diary

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A volunteer-run Community Garden which uses No Dig methods to supply organic vegetables to Wimbledon Guild’s HomeFood Cafe. Open Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays 11:00-14:00, weather permitting.

Our vegetable plot is about 100 square meters, located 500 meters above sea level on the north side of Lake Geneva. I started "NO DIG" in 2021 after watching Charles' videos and buying his books and calendars. When my neighbour saw me putting down all the cardboard at first she thought it looked like I was making lasagne.

NO DIG helps me to continue gardening, the job of digging or forking is too strenuous for me now. I am very pleased with the abundance the vegetable plot produces and I love watching the seedlings grow on my windowsill.

What I like best is the method of picking the outer leaves of the salads. That way we have a harvest much sooner and longer instead of waiting for the heads to form and then cutting the whole thing off.

I have been a market gardener for 2 years, growing for food banks, individuals and restaurants.

Before getting into market gardening, I was a construction contractor for 25 years and I needed a change in my life, I prepared for ten years to cultivate on 200 ft2 in the backyard where we lived in Montreal, I was inspired by Philip Forrer and then by watching dozens of videos on permaculture, I discovered No Dig by Charles Dowding.

I immediately fell in symbiosis with this way of farming. I watched all the videos on the channel and I felt ready for a new adventure, so I closed my construction business at 51, sold our house and my partner and I moved to Rimouski as a partner, we found a magnificent piece of land with an almost new house but on the other hand the place where I installed my gardens was on a rocky cape. So I brought in a bulldozer with a 3' tooth to open the rock and for aeration then I spread a 3 inch layer of fill soil to have a bottom (6000 ft2 of surface) finally I I applied the principles of No Dig, several layers of cardboard and 12" of compost and for my paths I use BRF.

After two years of cultivation, the results are magnificent, we are completely self-sufficient in vegetables and small fruits and I wait for the first fruits from my new orchard. This year 2023, I harvested more than a ton of varied vegetables :)

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I have been no-digging for many, many years, but on moving to Monbahus, in the Lot et Garonne (France), 3 years ago I have been busy following Charles! I have also been busy persuading others to follow his methods.

The picture is of one of my 2 different veg gardens. The mesh fence around the outside of the veg gardens is to keep the deer out 😊

Lucky enough to discover Charles' book in 2017 when this garden was started, no-dig from the beginning.

Plot is 404sqft/37sqM, 1/100 acre.

Use homemade compost, green waste, mushroom compost, and wood chip compost.

Very instensive garden, grow large amounts of food in small plot using trellis/vertical gardening, succession planting, start plants indoors under lights. No dig has enabled large harvests on a small city yard.Highlights this past summer were watermelons and sweetcorn, plus 15kg raspberries. Grow a variety of everything, including an asparagus patch and hop bines.

"Gardening for Life No Money Required" is a book we published back in 2013.

I have the privilege of teaching gardening around the world through a program called Farmer to Farmer for the last 16 years.  I have made many overseas trips to 12 third-world countries.  We have a No-Dig Garden here in south central Montana.  I also presented a TEDx talk in Billings, Montana on Oct 7th, 2023, titled: "To Change the World, Change the Soil."   The YouTube video is now being edited for a later release.

Attached is a photo of me in our NO-Dig Garden beds. It has over-produced for the last 3 years.  Example: our tomato plants have reached over 5 Meters (17 feet) in length with hundreds of rare heirloom tomatoes.  All raised beds have never been dug; simply good compost added on top of cardboard.

I teach No-Dig Gardening at a Montana homeless shelter, (The Montana Rescue Mission) for the past 3 years.  I have garden instructors all over the world teaching farmers how to make and use GOOD Compost without digging their native soils.

Our 500sqm allotment has been no dig since 2016. The plot provides us with a huge variety of (daily) veg, fruit and some cut flowers.

Since adopting this growing method crop yields have increased and the plot is so much easier to manage.

My garden is small and still in its early days. We moved here about a year ago and the east courtyard was nothing but native weeds and spider plant (an absolute nuisance to remove the roots). It's not perfect but it's growing up slowly. I sow seeds almost every week, and am always trying to improve my property to ensure we are being responsible and sustainable where possible. Coming into spring has been the most exciting time to start learning about vegetable gardening, there's so much colour, possibility and deliciousness. Although our courtyard has a high fence which makes it difficult to achieve decent sun sometimes, we make do and plant accordingly as the sun moves higher in the sky.

The photo attached is of my main vegetable cropping area, it doesn't look like much but I'm doing my best, experimenting and learning as I go. The no dig technique is proving to be successful so far in terms of ease and conditioning the tired natural soil underneath, with worms, critters and bugs showing up to enjoy their new environment.

We have a beautiful garden in our house. This picture is of the backyard. We have vegetables, flowers and bonsai. The beds, fences, compost bin and shed are all hand-built using reclaimed materials.

When we started gardening here four years ago, we had minimal knowledge but thanks to Charles, we have started getting basic knowledge. No-dig was a revelation and an obvious choice for us since being in London, we have hard clay to start with.

We are big fans of Charles and have watched all of his videos. We also have some of his books. He is such an inspiration and a great teacher. We owe all the gardening knowledge to Charles. :)

After reading Charles Dowding's Organic Gardening book, we started our no dig allotment in January 2017. The plot had been neglected for years and was overgrown with couch grass, bindweed and horsetail. Within 6 months we were harvesting our first vegetables, and we now grow an abundance of veg all year round.

I have a large allotment in North Dorset growing a variety of crops on stony soil. I have been growing for almost 50 years but switched to no-dig about eight years ago despite having known Charles for about 15 years! Fortunate to have access to plenty of organic cow manure for the plot and this is topped with home-made compost annually. The plot is about 20 rods and on a south-facing slope. Favourite outdoor crops include salad leaves, beetroot, sweetcorn, peas, garlic, broccoli, swede, celeriac and raspberries.

I regularly post on Instagram (@englishmanofthesoil) and occasional videos on YouTube. The plot is now very fertile and continues to astonish and teach me year on year. I am happy to show any local newbies (or not so local if you are coming down the A303) about the benefits of no-dig.

Favourite quote from a neighbouring plot. “I come up here for three hours on a Sunday morning and spend the whole time weeding. You pop in for ten minutes to grab some veg and yet your plot never seems to have any weeds!”

In 2022, I moved from Belgrade to a small town, where I created my own little "no-dig" heaven - 15 beds of 8 meters each and a small orchard. We have very hot and dry summers and cold winters, so it’s very challenging climate for beginner gardeners. I am learning about growing vegetables every day, and I am very motivated to grow as much healthy food as possible for my young family.

Our garden is 150 square meters and no dig. The ground is sandy (it includes clay sometimes), it does not hold water for a long time and gets burned during the warm and hot months with scarce precipitation.

The upper part of the garden is 2.5 meters higher above sea level than the lower part, on a length of 22 meters. That’s why we built terraces to prevent erosion.

No dig works very well. Soil life is active, water drainage as well as water keeping are fine. The compost and organic mulches that cover the soil even forgive the kids’ playing soccer.

Also the trees got a green boost with the no dig beds and compost places around.

The healthy and colorful vegetables travel from the no dig beds to the kitchen on our family dining table. Some seeds start the new journey of sowing, planting, growing, and harvesting.

We are very happy with the results, especially regarding the limited amount of growing space available.

Hopefully, we’ll be able to scale up one day and extend the no dig gardening to other places, too :) In an ideal world, this would be a field where up to now soil is tilled.

For several years now I have been perfecting the techniques and deepening my knowledge of growing vegetables in the garden.

By chance, I discovered Charles' content on YouTube and since then I have been addicted to the no dig method.  

This method, which focuses on the cultivation of the soil, suits the life I'm trying to adopt for myself, and my family.

Creation alongside consideration of the earth and the environment.  

Recently, I started spreading the news that the no dig method brings, to friends, family, and even started giving workshops and lectures on growing vegetables using this method.  

My family and I enjoy fresh and delicious vegetables, without harming the life in the soil and without the need for weeding.  

It is so gratifying to see that the method is expanding its distribution all over the world, and it makes me especially happy to see it happening here, in Israel.

I moved here in April 2023 and the garden was all lawn before, so it’s my first year. We have badgers, foxes & the occasional deer in the garden & it’s nice to have lots of wildlife around. Looking forward to my no-dig journey!

I discovered Charles' work from an interest in compost use. What he was teaching just made sense.  I tried his methods and the success was amazing.  My garden is 4 years along now and still getting better. No backbreaking rototilling, easy weeding, rich home grown food. I'm very grateful to have run across Charles.

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This is our southern California no dig plot. It is two rows that are roughly 4’ x 50’ each. Each season simply add more compost to the top of the rows. Here in Southern California, by the coast, winter season is the best for us. However, this summer season we did have a bountiful butternut squash harvest.

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I have been running a no dig garden since 2020. I run my vegetable garden in raised beds. My ornamental and vegetable garden is approximately 1000 m2.

I have been no dig gardening at this location for two years and it seems that Charle's sowing and planting times are at least two weeks later up here.

Despite that, this year's harvest was better than last for most crops.

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We live in a plot of about 5 and a half acres where we look after 3 rescue ponies and some bee hives.

We started No Dig back in 2021 and have 15 raised beds of varying sizes, a polytunnel and a fruit cage which we will use in 2024.

The main beds are reasonably close to the beehives.

We have become self-sufficient in many vegetables and are discovering the joys of preserving food for the winter.

Seed saving, compost making and growing more flowers to attract predators to the beds where we seem to suffer from a lot of white fly. We love the concept of No Dig which falls in line nicely with our organic way of life.

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We moved to our house in December and inherited a large patch of grass.

We have worked hard to start growing the no dig way with a greenhouse, polytunnel and veg beds.

We did have some setbacks with all the rain at the beginning of the year but have had some good harvests.

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We run Ali's Edibles market garden.

We were inspired by Charles in 2013 when we started, and have been doing No Dig ever since.  

We grow on about 3/4 of acre and supply our village and a couple of restaurants and are happy to host a No Dig Day on 3rd November.

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Skool Beanz is a gardening club for children run from our very own No-Dig allotment, teaching them how to grow delicious veg, beautiful flowers and how to garden to help nature with plenty of upcycled art.

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I took this plot on in autumn 2022 - it was covered in thistles, balsam, nettles and docks. We covered with cardboard and compost throughout winter which got rid of the weeds.

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Backyard garden in Madrid - long hot summers, cold dry winters.

Raised beds - about 15m2.

Trees (apple, plum, almond, mulberry) and a white grape vine.

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I have two plots, total area 17.5msq. This is my first year with an allotment. However I’ve been gardening for years.

After much research and reading Charles’s book, I decided to go down the no dig route.

I also wanted to create easy to maintain beds so that I can still be at my allotment into my eighties, my father was still pottering in a garden at 94.

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A full sized allotment with 20 no dig beds.

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Lovely little 36sq meter no dig patch on Roots Allotments, Bath. Thank you for being such an inspiration Charles D 🌞❤️

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250m2 allotment we took over in March 2023, after it was neglected and unused for few years.

We are in our 1 year of no dig journey.

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I grow in the backyards of two of my neighbours. I share a little bit with them, and everybody is happy.

The total space is 100m2 and in 2022 applying Charles' do-dig principles this space produced 315kg of kitchen-ready vegetables. Wow. This amount of food is triple what the same space produced two years ago before I found Charles. Thanks, and here's to better health through healthier soil.

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I have a small potager which I took over 2 years ago and since, have been applying no dig and following Charles' advice and methodology.

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7 beds with different width and length. Sandy soil. Tiled footpaths.

I started in 2021 with no dig. I have 3 compost bays which I struggle to fill up.

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My entire garden is in raised containers. I've been gardening like this for years. I prefer not having to get down low to work but also my plot was set on concrete so there wasn't much choice.

I started no dig only very recently by doing my best not to disturb the soil underneath and dropping fresh soil treatments at the top only. A few handfuls of compost or gardening soil is all you need, poke a hole with your finger and drop in a seedling or seed. Sprinkle some compost over top, gently pat and water. Mother nature takes care of the rest.

My favorite part about no dig is how easy the end of season is. Previously I would dig up all the old roots and till the soil for next season. This was so labour intensive I dreaded it! But now I love end of season. I simply twist out larger plants and cut smaller plants at the base making sure to leave the soil undisturbed. Then I cut the plants in small pieces and put them directly into my compost pile along with the dried fallen leaves, a few handfuls of compost and some splashes of water. Voilà - pots are ready for next spring and compost is started. Best method ever!

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Our plot is about 2000 m² - the vegetable garden (200 m²), low stem orchard (1000 m²), forest garden/fenced chicken and mallard duck coop (800m²)

We started in 2015 with no-dig concept (old horse meadow). We have sandy soil, very dry.

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