Gardening: Building a No Dig Garden

Building a No Dig Garden

Written by Judy Williams

The no dig garden is exactly what it describes...a fertile garden bed with no digging at all. It involves layering clean, organic materials that will literally compost around your plants as they grow.

The No Dig Garden is built on top of repparttar ground, so you can build a garden anywhere. This makes it extremely attractive for those sites that have poor soil or are weed infested. It's also a great method of gardening for those who can't (or don't want to) dig a garden patch!

The site you choose for your garden must get at least 5 hours of sunlight a day. Drainage will be good because of repparttar 113379 materials that will be used in making repparttar 113380 garden.

If you are planting over lawn or weeds, mow them to ground level. If you are planting on a hard surface, put down some cushioning organic material first (like seaweed or leaves).

To build your no dig garden start with a layer of newspaper (no colour printing), at least 6mm (1/4 inch) thick. Surround repparttar 113381 garden with some sort of border material. This can be bricks, logs, planks or rocks but should be at least 20-25CM high (8-10 inches) to contain repparttar 113382 organic material within.

Lay down a layer of lucerne hay leaving no gaps, to a height of 10cm (about 4 inches). Layer some good organic fertilizer on top to a height of 20mm (1 inch). This can be just about any sort of good quality material like chicken, horse, cow or sheep manure.

Growing Vegetables in Containers - The compact solution

Written by Judy Williams

Container vegetable gardens are a great alternative for those that don't have access to backyards. There can be a range of reasons to grow your vegetables in containers...easy access to repparttar

kitchen, safer environments for children and repparttar 113378

handicapped or just lack of a yard to use for gardening.

Vegetable gardens in containers can also be extremely attractive and serve repparttar 113379 dual purpose of style and function around your patio.

The no dig vegetable garden can be just as successful in containers provided similar guidelines are followed.

Drainage is vital so ensure your containers have appropriate drainage holes to allow water to escape. If they don't, repparttar 113380 plants will literally 'drown' and will be susceptible to diseases. They also need a sunny space. The advantage with vegetables grown in containers is that you can move repparttar 113381 containers around to follow repparttar 113382 sun if no one spot in your patio or garden is suitable.

Vegetables grown in containers will need some additional attention. Their root system is restricted to repparttar 113383 pot so make sure you keep them well watered. Containers are far more likely to dry out in hot conditions which will kill your plants or have them 'fruit' poorly.

It is also very important that a mulch is put on top of repparttar 113384 container. This will slow evaporation and keep repparttar 113385 surface temperature of repparttar 113386 soil cooler. Plants like tomatoes have small, fiberous roots which will dry and die in hot soil.

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