{"id":17822,"date":"2018-06-02T10:03:27","date_gmt":"2018-06-02T08:03:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.edimentals.com\/blog\/?p=17822"},"modified":"2018-06-02T10:13:39","modified_gmt":"2018-06-02T08:13:39","slug":"no-dig","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.edimentals.com\/blog\/?p=17822","title":{"rendered":"No dig?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A sign of a fertile soil are the weeds. Being a bit late at planting my chicories and swiss chard, the weeds had already formed a green carpet over the bed I’d intended to use (nature’s plaster!). I hand weeded this area yesterday, harvesting edible plants as I worked!<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Most of my vegetable production is by way of what I call the\u00a0 no dig\u00a0 self-mulching gardening (ultimate no dig)…as perennial vegetables form a long-term vegetation cover that requires little energy and no digging to maintain. Below soil surface the earth is full of roots, binds more carbon than other vegetable growing systems and fungi are now known to play a bigger role than we realised only a few years ago.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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However, I still grow a significant amount of annual crops, both leafy greens like swiss chard, potatoes, carrots and parsnip. If I was to use no dig methods, where the undug soil is covered with compost, hay or similar, I would need to produce much more compost and import hay (non-organic). I therefore choose to dig and some of the healthiest plants are weeds like Sonchus oleraceus (my most important vegetable from August to September!<\/span><\/div>\n
In any case, any nutrients which are washed out from my annual beds ultimately end up in my forest garden and perennial plantings below, so are not lost!<\/div>\n
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