How To Build a No Dig Garden

Here are the basic materials you’ll need:

• Edging material
• Newspaper
• 1-2 Bales straw or lucerne
• Organic fertiliser
• Well-rotted manure
• Compost
• Seedlings

No-Dig Garden Tips

• Choose a sunny position with good drainage. If you are starting the garden on lawn and can’t remove the grass, keep it at bay by laying down some old carpet as a base for the other materials. With no oxygen or sunlight, the grass will eventually die off.
• Decide what size your garden bed will be. The idea is to start with a small area, which you can expand later if you wish. Edge the bed with bricks, logs, rocks or railway sleepers – in fact, any material that will allow you to contain the soil.
• To suppress weeds, cover the ground with a thick layer of wet newspaper, about 1 cm thick. Use plain rather than glossy sheets, and overlap the edges.
• Cover the newspaper with pads of straw or lucerne. Next, add a layer of organic fertiliser, such as pellets of chicken manure or blood and bone.
• Cover the fertiliser with a 20 cm layer of straw or lucerne. Add a generous amount of manure with further layers of straw or lucerne, then cover with a layer of compost.
• Water the garden and allow it to settle for a few days.
• Plant seedlings into the compost. Start with shallow-rooted vegetables, such as lettuce. As your garden begins to make its own compost, and the layers turn into rich, brown soil, plant deep-rooted crops such as carrot.