In March of 2021 my husband and I started work on our new veggie garden! I had done a bit of research and wanted to go with the no dig approach by Charles Dowding, an amazingly talented gardener from the UK who has written multiple books and courses on gardening. I purchased his book called No Dig Gardening, Course 1, and found it to be super helpful and packed full with great information. As you can see from the pictures below these were the results we got using this growing method on our gardens 1st year!! 

The no dig method is a very easy and low maintenance approach to gardening that focuses on enhancing your soils structure no matter the type while also keeping those pesty weeds at bay! This is achieved easily by adding cardboard on the ground over the area you are wanting to use for your garden and then adding about 6 inches of compost. The cardboard suppresses the weeds and grass from growing and the compost gives your plants all the nutrients they need while also attracting beneficial organisms and earthworms to your top layer of soil to feed. This helps improve your soil’s structure and will help your vegetable garden to thrive!! 

We did have to till our main garden area lightly before laying down the cardboard to helps level out the ground, as it had been torn up the previous month from construction! We used a compost mulch for our garden beds from a local composting facility because we didn’t have enough of our own, but, when possible, it is always more beneficial to use your own compost if you can. For our walkways we used regular mulch as we wanted something that would still help to enhance the soil underneath over time as it slowly breaks down as well as help with water retention and keeping weeds at bay! 

As an experiment I did do the potato row without cardboard and instead covered the top of the row with weed barrier fabric, I then cut large holes for where I planted the seed potatoes. It worked really well for suppressing the weed, though I did have a couple here and there where I had cut the holes. it also helped a lot with moisture retention in the soil. Having the fabric on top also was great at keeping the light off of any potatoes that were protruding through the soil and the earthworms loved it for the darkness and moisture too! 

Overall, 2021 was a great gardening year, it came with its challenges to be sure. Trying to keep everything alive in 45-degree Celsius weather was a new one for me (not normal for gardening zone 5b Canada!) but we made it through and everything, including us, survived. I’m so proud of what we were able to accomplish growing in our garden on a bigger scale in just its first year! I definitely learned a lot, and am now so excited to put all of that knowledge to good use for this upcoming year. 

If you are thinking about starting a vegetable garden of your own, no matter how big or small, I highly recommend Charles Dowding’s No Dig Method! It’s easy, low maintenance and it allows you to start growing with success right away!!! 

Happy Gardening!

H