No dig, two ways to clear weeds

This is one way of clearing ground without disturbing the soil at all Even when there are lots of weeds And I mean lots here. There is couch grass bindweed a lot of the gardener's most implacable foes And they're under this polythene still trying to grow While these squash are growing on top of the polythene through holes that we've made while planting So the sequence of events here It's quite simple. Once you get the hang of it, basically You want to get the polythene on in time to kill the main part of the weed growth before planting And also get a bit of goodness under it. So there's something for the planting to root into and In this case, we laid the polythene on the weeds which is like weedy pasture lots of grass thistles bindweed and so on April the 7th That's laying the polythene On the weeds And then a month later we had some compost ready that was made in the spring. So We rolled back the polythene Spread this compost on the surface No disturbance of soil or anything. Just spread the compost on the dying weeds in early may To a depth of about two inches and topped it up with a probably about another inch of well-rooted cow manure But it was only just enough that you couldn't quite see the weeds below it wasn't a thick mulch And then put the polythene back on top For another three weeks as it turned out until the end of may it was warming up nicely These squash plants were ready. So i'd raise them in the greenhouse nice sturdy plant cut a hole in the polythene dig a little hole with a trowel into the Soil of the pasture which is still undisturbed make a little hole Pop the plant in give it some water And that's it It really wasn't a lot of work And look at the growth. So these were planted six seven weeks ago as Plants about that high And they are growing initially. They were rooting into the surface compost and now Boy, they're also rooting into the soil below Undisturbed no dig With vacant root channels from the weeds that have died So there you go, that's option one on my website where I explain it in more detail This is a no dig method If you have enough compost to do option two Where you cover weedy ground? With lots of good black stuff And you can also use soil Even actually quite poor soil if it was just at the bottom of this u-bed Laid on top of the weedy pasture or whatever you're starting with Assume it's weeds. It might be no weeds. Well great If you actually have no weeds, you don't need so much compost for mulching But vegetables and fruiting plants love compost. So there's no harm in using plenty if you have it here We put last october. So eight months ago nearly we put six inches of three inches topsoil three inches Fairly well rotted cow manure on top and that was the mulching effect to kill the weeds since then we have had to do some follow-up for example Pulling out weeds that we grow like here's dandelion And i've just seen there's a thistle here popping up so you can pull them out and they You don't get a parent root out, but you weaken the plant until it's dead. So here there were You can see a bit behind me. I expect Um, the thistles are now flowering at this time of year in july and This soil was full of thistles and quite tricky weeds buttercup dandelion now Pretty well all gone lovely clean surface and in january We planted some raspberry canes They haven't been brilliant, but they're getting going that's not so much to do with the compost as the raspberries I feel And here we've got while the raspberries are getting established onions Which are actually pretty much ready now. These were grown from sets and it's a way of Using up the space a bit while the raspberries are getting established. So this is a Simple way if you have enough compost if you have access to enough compost and compost can be anything like well-rotted manure leaf mold Whatever it might be to create a bed Without disturbing the soil and giving you a lovely rich medium for planting into straight away For more information on organic no dig gardening Check out any of my seven books on different aspects of this subject growing vegetables above all And my website has fortnightly updates to keep you up to speed on sowing planting harvesting And also you'll find information on my website about courses. I run day courses here weekend courses courses around and abroad even And lots more all about no dig organics