No Dig Gardening

SINCE I was a little girl, I’d enjoyed gardening – but I’d hated hoeing and weeding.
Everyone agrees that gardening would be more fun, and many people would be more inclined to take up gardening if there wasn’t the need for all that back-breaking, hard work such as digging. It may be a surprise to many people, but digging is NOT necessary part of gardening at all! So how did we get into the habit of digging up our garden in the first place? Basically, it’s just old tradition.

The no-dig method of growing, which is exactly as it sounds has gained a lot of press over the last few years. Traditional digging is the consequence of translating commercial agriculture to the garden setting. In fields of many acres, where efficiency and time restraints are pressing, ‘digging’ (or ploughing) with a tractor makes sense (leaving aside the debate of what this does to the soil’s integrity). But in the garden, efficiency and time pressures are of less concern and work can be conducted at more leisurely pace.

Historically, people have treated their gardens like miniature farms, people looked at how large areas of land were farmed, and then did the same on a smaller scale, because that’s what they knew how to do. You may be asking why do farmers till the soil anyway? The answer is because tillage (ploughing) helps loosen compacted soil which makes it easier to plant into, rip up weeds, and buries the waste left over from harvesting.

Kind of raised bed; simply place bags of garden soil on

This raises the logical question why is the soil compacted in the first place if it’s constantly tilled? There are several causes of re-compaction of tilled soil, namely, animal-powered and mechanized farm equipment, such as tractors and oxen, people walking on soil and rain impacting on bare soil. Before we can understand the reason for not digging soil, it’s important to understand what soil is, otherwise it’s not clear what we’re dealing with.
No-Dig Establishment

The soil is not just ‘dirt’ to anchor plant and tree roots, though that’s how many people treat it! The soil is a very complex eco-system, teeming with very diverse life.
Infact, the soil is more abundant with life and more complex than any other ecosystem above the ground. There are about 50 billion microbes in one tablespoon of soil. By comparison, the human population numbers over 7 billion currently. These organisms include Bacteria, Actinomycetes, Fungi, Yeast, Protozoa, Algae and Nematodes.

Furthermore, there are anthropoids and insects in there as well, including earthworms. That’s a lot of life in the soil!
So what are all these critters doing in the soil? The soil bacteria form a beneficial relationship with plant roots, and soil fungi form a beneficial relationship with tree roots, helping them access nutrients. The soil organisms carry out the important functions of nutrient cycling, improvement of soil structure to aid water and air movement through the soil and also the control of diseases and enhancement of plant growth. Most of the soil fungi occupy the top 15cm (6”) of the soil, while the rest of the organisms live at different levels.

Mechanical tilling is not needed in no-dig organic method

Digging and turning over the soil exposes a very delicate ecosystem to the air, which dries it out, and to the ultraviolet rays of the sun, which sterilize the soil-killing the soil organisms.

The soil loses a lot of its nutrients such as carbon and nitrogen. It also too loses a lot of its organic matter, and as a result, does not retain water. The delicate soil structure is destroyed, compaction of soil occurs, leading to hardpan formation, and reduced water infiltration in the soil, and more surface runoff, which increases soil erosion. Tillage is the term used to describe the agricultural preparation of the soil by digging it and turning it over.

So why are farmers so fond of this destructive practice? Well, they found that when you first dig up the soil, fertility goes up, and plants grow better. The reason is that the tiny little bodies of all the soil organisms that have just been killed by digging breakdown, releasing their nutrients to the soil.

No-dig growing beds

The catch is, it only works once, and then your soil is sterile and the plants are worse off, and they become more prone to diseases, and require even more fertilizer than they normally would. To further compound the problem, chemical fertilizers are pumped into the dying soil, which effectively kill off what soil is left. Yes, chemical fertilizers kill soil life! It’s really a fool’s game to destroy the soil life for short-lived, once off nutrient boost, which really shows gross ignorance and a complete lack of understanding of soil ecology and what makes plants grow!

That, in a nutshell, is why we shouldn’t dig (till) the soil.
No-Dig establishment

No hard labor digging with spade

The reason we think it necessary to dig a new growing bed is to get rid of weeds that one is sure to be faced with. But rather than dig them up, we’re to smother them, covering the garden with a deep blanket of organic mulch material which will smoother the weeds, help the soil retain moisture and virtually eliminate the need to dig, till, plow or hoe. Vegetables thrive amidst the nurturing mulch, protected from temperature extremes and fertilized by the decomposing straw or leaves.