How to Prepare and Take Care of a No-Dig Vegetable Garden (Slovenia)
Welcome to no-dig gardening. This is a tutorial which is written in a form of questions and answers. Questions will lead you on a path, and answers will give further directions. I want to share with you seven years of experience with no-dig gardening which gives abundant yields and improves soil life and quality year after year.
First we will take a look at natural patterns, weeds and learn about soil protection. What is the best mulch you ask? How can we simplify the mulching process? We will explore how to take care of an established garden, what we can do for Autumn/Winter production, and finally, how to prepare for new season and how to establish new garden areas without digging.
Is no-dig gardening natural?
It’s about observing nature and using patterns of nature! One of the crucial patterns in nature is soil coverage. Whenever there is bare ground, nature works to protect the soil with help from living plant cover and through the breakdown of organic matter on the soil surface.
Do we have more weeds in a garden if we dig and disturb the ground?
Yes. By digging, and similar disturbance, we destroy soil structure and we activate untold weed seeds. Remember, their role is to cover and protect the ground and repair the soil structure. If we work with nature, we disturb the ground as little as possible, and thus end up with less weeds. We still need to weed, but we do it faster and easier.
Soil protection is the key?
Healthy living soils are key in no-dig gardening. The foundation of a healthy living soil is soil life. We need to take care of it and enhance it. We do that with nature’s way of soil protection. Otherwise we have bare ground which gets compacted by rain. The sun bakes the soil, the wind dries it and blows it away. Water can’t infiltrate the soil anymore, as the soil is compacted and without air. With minimal interaction and good soil protection we can avoid this — even better, we can improve the soil over time.
A dried, compacted and cracked soil surface — we can do better than this!
Can mulch help with soil protection?
Mulch is priceless! With its help we can retain soil moisture, and the soil is not over-saturated with water. Instead it becomes loose, aerated and fertile. And alive!
What is mulch?
Organic matter, which is applied on top of soil without incorporating it in the soil.
I get this question a lot: "What type of mulch is the best?" I came to the conclusion that it’s not the right question. I tell people: "It’s not so important what type it is, but in what condition it is".
My favorite is half decayed, with a lot of small particles. It has a humus smell. It’s moist and it’s almost black in color. Be it hay, straw, leaves, grass, wood — if it has the above characteristics I use it happily!
Part of the garden is protected in June with one year old, rotten hay
The garlic bed was mulched immediately after planting in October last year.
First a thin layer of compost mulch and than 10 cm (4 inches) of leaf mold.
Leaf mold at bottom right. Leaf mold is rotten, decayed leaves and it’s a great mulch.
Can we have troubles with mulch?
Mulching with fresh, undecayed and rough organic matter (fresh grass, hay, straw, leaves, manure) gives a lot of food and optimal living conditions for slugs and snails. It also attracts and gives shelter to other, bigger animals, which can be a challenge for gardeners. I avoid fresh/rough mulch where there are already existing problems with slugs, voles etc. If there are not such problems I don’t hesitate to use fresh grass, hay, straw, leaves…. There are also troubles with sowing and planting in fresh/rough mulch. Older gardeners in particular have troubles working with mulch, as they were used to working with bare ground all the time. Well, fresh/rough mulch is very valuable and finds its place in a garden (paths, certain beds…), especially if we don’t have the above design challenges. What works for me is mulching with compost, old rotten manure, leaf mold, fresh grass, rotten hay, grass clippings.
We can use compost as mulch?
Compost is amazing mulch, my favorite, thanks to Charles Dowding, one of the best gardeners in the world. He gardens in a similar climate to myself (humid cold temperate) and we have the same challenges when it comes to using fresh/rough mulch. When using compost as mulch, everything is simplified. Garden beds with compost mulch are always ready for sowing and planting. It has fine particles, retains a lot of moisture, the black color gives extra warmth when needed in spring and autumn, and retains existing soil moisture in summer. Compost attracts far less slugs, because a compost outer surface dries out fast and it doesn’t contain fresh food for them. A compost surface does not crack and compact! It gives perfect soil protection when spread on top and it’s just amazing with providing soil life and soil improvement. If we mulch our garden soil with 2-5 cm (1-2 inches) of compost, we invested in half a year of soil protection, depending on soil type and quality and the type of vegetables growing there. You do not need to dig compost into the soil – rather, spread it on top and nature will take care of the rest.
When to re-mulch my garden?
When a previous mulch starts to disappear and the soil becomes bare again. I usually do it before this happens — I just can’t look at bare soil anymore. Even if there are just small bare patches on a garden bed I mulch it straight away.
Soil eats mulch, whether it’s compost or hay. Sooner or later we will have bare ground if we don’t take care of it. Most of the mulching is done after harvesting plants in Summer, Autumn and before Winter. This way our garden soil is prepared for a new season before Winter and it’s ready faster and in better condition in Spring. Wintertime can damage soil a lot, if we don’t protect it. Or it can be a time of soil rest and feeding. We know that we are growing soil, not plants.
What can be done in Summer-Autumn for Autumn-Winter vegetable production?
When certain plants move out of the garden, we replenish soil cover and the soil is ready for a new phase of succession planting/sowing.
When garlic, carrots, salad, peas, early cabbage, potato and others are harvested, the soil starts
to become bare. If we wait too long the soil starts to erode and compact and we also start to see
an abundance of weeds. No cover, no living plants = soil’s and gardener’s worst nightmare.
As soon as we don’t have enough cover and/or living plants, we mulch with 2-5 cm (1-2 inches)
of compost and sow/plant new veggies like endive, kale, chicory, lamb’s lettuce, winter salad….
In autumn there is a lot of green and black color.
Soil is protected by compost mulch and living plants.
In autumn most of the garden is protected with compost and sown/planted with winter salads,
mizuna, pak-choi, endive, chicory, lamb’s lettuce and others.
What about preparing the garden for a new season and what happens with an empty bed in the Winter?
Soil degrades heavily in Winter if it’s bare and left unprotected from the natural elements. We need to protect the soil over Winter! We mulch when plants are harvested late in the season (late cabbage, beetroot, turnip, corn, peppers, pumpkins and others). When we harvest these plants, we can mulch with 2-5 cm (1-2 inches) of compost and maybe plant some Winter veggies, but mostly we’ve done that already. The garden is ready for a new season — the soil is happy and the gardener is satisfied.
What do I use if I don’t have enough compost? Can I use manure?
Manure is especially useful for Autumn preparation for a new season in areas where nothing will grow over Winter (empty winter beds). In this case we can mulch with at least 12 months old and rotten manure. Whatever we use, be it compost or manure, we don’t incorporate it into the soil, we just spread it on top, usually in a 2-5 cm (1-2 inch) layer. Old rotten manure breaks down really well over winter, with the help of freezing and thawing and the casual breaking of lumps with a rake or fork. In spring we have a fine compost surface, ready to sow and plant.
What about weeds?
We need to be there for the garden and take care of it — part of this process is weeding. The best is to do it often, when weeds are small. It’s easy to weed in no-dig garden, there are less weeds and they are easier and faster to remove. If we have good weed-free compost or manure it’s a lot easier.
Can we establish a new garden area on a grassy or weedy spot with the help of compost or manure?
We can spread old rotten manure or compost 10-15 cm (4-6 inches) on top of grass/weeds. That way we can prepare a new garden on a random surface, without digging — but just by spreading the material on top. The best time for this is in late Autumn, when plants go dormant and don’t fight back and are killed by the lack of light.
Again we break surface lumps by hitting them with a rake or fork over Winter, and in the Spring we need to weed out plants like dock, thistle, bindweed and others that appear. Again, we weed often and little, keeping the surface clean so veggies can take place. It’s easy to maintain weeds and have a clean garden at the end of the season when we apply a new thin layer of compost — if it’s even needed, as most of the time it’s not. We need to apply 2-5 cm (1-2 inches) in the future when the soil starts to become bare.
In December we spread one year old cow manure on top of a grass field. In spring everything
was compost and different types of veggies were happily planted and growing afterwards.
Kale and lettuce in June.
After one month on the same patch — kale, pepper, tomato and melon.
A grass field turned into garden simply by spreading 15 cm (6 inches) of one year old cow
manure. The hokkaido pumpkins did really well — lots of produce is hiding in the grass. Note clean
and compost surface. Lots of young thistles were removed in spring, little and often — there was no
hard work, just some fun, knowing it’s a future investment. There was no need for additional
applications of compost for the next season, as there was plenty left.
Is this all?
You know, gardeners are learning all the time, until the end of their lives. So many details… but there are principles we can use. Permaculture starts with ethics, goes on with principles, they lead to strategies and we end up with appropriate techniques. I gave you some techniques that might not be useful to you, but the principle is there — protect the soil! If you have any further questions, write it below in the comment area. Any suggestions, ideas or constructive critics are welcomed! For those in the Northern Hemisphere, I wish you an abundant close of the gardening season and good start for the next one. And lots of compost!
Thank you for that great article! We have many skilled gardeners and i hope to see more examples of that.
I’ve gardened organically forever, but have been wondering if I could do a no till garden some how.I read some where that turning the ground upsets the soil’s natural defense.
Go for it! Digging upsets a lot of things, one of them is also capilary action of soil, interaction of top soil with subsoil, dug soil atracts more voles. It’s much more work and more.
Hi, yes, No Till works well, without all the digging, that actually scars the earth, and hurts our backs. Further, destroys it’s ecosystems. It is especially easy when one is converting no a traditional garden into no till, as all that is necessary for lazy beds, is a four foot wide area layered with a combination of 3-4 inches of manure covered with 2-4 inches of mulch. Than plant.
I refer you to Google Deep,Green Permaculture, No Dig Gardening. The story there, with diagrams is excellent.
Correction. It should read 4-5 inches of manure and compost. Sorry.
That has proven the case with my garden. I am no till and have never experienced such production, much healthier plants. The plants are so Street no that even the chiles when I went to cut them off, using the chop and drop technique, I had to use a large cutter bag device as the base stem was like a small tree trunk,
i dig the soil 40 cm depth to remove the rocks and big stones one time only in second year after rain the amount of weeds is low
Great article, dong this on my front lawn, can see onYOUTUBE under ‘Lawn Liberation’.
Bravo Aljaž, pozdrav iz Gartlca
Well done, nicely presented article! Keep writing.
Terrific article. Most helpful. We are just now implementing our vege garden to provide salad for our PCD course in December. Thank you.
Great work, must be proud! Spread the knowledge and grow a lot more this way! Thank you!
Excellent! Yeah for mulch and manure!! The best spot in my garden is last year’s expansion area – a patch of lawn that I mowed short and then piled on about 6 inches worth of the straw-laden chicken manure from a winter’s worth of roost droppings from 20+ hens and then added about 5+ inches of early spring grass clippings. Last year we got 50 ripened delicata squash off of 2 plants & tons of eggplant from that area. This year’s 12 tomato plants and 100 white onions went to town as well. And so very easy!
Hi Aljaz, thanks for the article and nice to finally see some photos from your garden! Cheers from the snow (yes, arrived in Finland today), keep up with your great work and good luck with everything!
Thank you all for kind words!
Mari!!! :) Hello to Finland. I also wish you all the best and see you around a tree somewhere. I miss you.
Julia, thanks! I will write an article on lasagna gardening also, i have many photos as i was lasagna gardening in first years most of the time.
Bruce Bebe, thank you! I hope your PDC goes well.
Sandra, i was just standing in the main garden on a farm yesterday and i said to myself: “Wow, what we can do in one year is just amazing.” Thanks, good luck to you too!
Khadija, thank you, i will keep writing.
Janez, hvala, hvala. Me pa zanima ker Janez in kdo si na gartlcu… :)
Trevor, your video is amazing, real true lawn liberation. Amazing work and results! Enjoy IT.
fathi ghazzawi, it depends on many things how much weeds we will get. If you didn’t get a lot, great!
Rok, thank you. We really do here in our country, lots of people with 30+ years of experiences. I was looking under their fingers all the time, questioning them. It is about the soil, but also the details of how to tend the plants… :)
Thank you. I notice you did not mention cardboard or newspaper, but just starting with compost. Is this your intent? Thanks…Jim
It was that particular instance, when i didn’t use cardboard to start with. Yes, i usually put down cardboard first, if i start a new garden on a meadow or something like that.
Great article and super design …i just did my PDC in Kilifi Kenya and i am now visiting Vienna which is a stone throw away from Slovenia…i would really like to meet and exchange ideas with you is there anyway we can exchange contacts Aljaz? It would be great please let me know what you think, keep up the good work
Saleem, no problem… write me on gmail: sadnivrt
Very good article, Aljaz! And great to see your garden.
Keep it up! :)
Thank you Noelia! :) Take care.
Nice article, thx. What’s hidden here in this seemingly effortless technique is the effort required to make compost. Especially when you want to scale up beyond your basic kitchen garden. I generally like the chop-n-drop or the mulch technique but it doesn’t work well for beds for salad greens … they need fine tilth and hence the need for compost or freshly tilled soil.
Correct, but I run a small weed bunch over with some leaf mold, and/or, mowed grass with a composting mower. This breaks the material down small enough to use anywhere. Not true chop and drop, but close to it.
Humanure is our future. Almost no effort to make top quality compost. Cow manure, one year old is also great to top the surface now in spring. Compost can be unripe, not too much, but it weathers in winter till spring. Since i don’+t have slug problem i use rough mulch all the time for broad growing plants such as pumpkins etc. I also put a lot of mulch on paths where it becomes fine and can be used for fine tilth on beds.
in my comment above there is a mistake… “Cow manure, one year old is also great to top the surface now in AUTUMN/WINTER”. (not in spring-no time to break down enough for most veggies)
Great idea. My local county waste company compost the compostables left at their site. They also have wood chips, which they practically give away. I use those on my paths. They hold a year, sometimes 2. And all the time they are building soil.
Janez na Gartlcu sem JR Design. Res dober članek. Vsaka čast.
Great article, I love when people go in depth rather than surfacey gardening articles after researching for years.
I do have one question though.
I have read a lot about being able to ‘mulch with compost’.
However, it doesn’t make sense to me, cause some of the purposes of mulch are to keep the soil moist and prevent weeds and it seems to me that compost is very close to the make up or consistency of soil, so weeds could easily grow in it and it would want to cover any bare spot, like soil would? And it seems like compost could dry out as easily as soil could.
It just seems to me like mulching with compost is like mulching with soil.
What do you think?
Love the article!
Sarah
Hi, Sarah. I agree that compost like native soils should not be left uncovered. Though it will help the soil below it, the compost itself will be compromised. I cover all soils of any type with hay, straw, wood chips, pine straw, garden trimmings, or dry leaves. My soil stays moist and loose even under our intense NW Florida sun.
Congratulations for your explanation, exactly something like this that i was looking for. I have a few questions, special in terms of climate adaptability of this technique. Do you think in a warmer climate, Mediterranean, the constant mulching could be used more or less the same way?What about mulching to recover poor soils? By providing only coverage without digging and mixing up does the soil can start to recover quickly? Or would it be faster by providing some incorporation during the fast 2/3 years? Thanks for the very good article, Cheers
Want to build no dig vege garden above ground to protect old body.Can you advise the
layers of material and ideal depth.Ideal base. Drainage and support for compost also.
Can you advise where to research this type of garden structure and the layering of
soil , compost etc.
Your article has got me very enthused. Thanks
Love the article. I use wet cardboard over my veggie beds with old hay on top over the winter pulling this aside and breaking through the cardboard I fill the gap with fine compost to sow into.
Hi,
can I use half ready full of worms compost to cover the soil for winter?What about pellet manure?