Starting a super easy, no-dig garden bed

I think many people get the impression that gardening is harder than it really is. I agree it CAN be hard work, but it doesn’t have to be! I’m all for an easier way, this way happens to also be a cheaper way. Yay!

Rather than buying one of those over-priced, raised garden frames or breaking your back digging up grass and weeds, then trying to keep them from growing back all through your vegies, let’s look at a no-dig bed.

This method has also been referred to as lasagne gardening or layer gardening. (As you can see, my University degree was NOT in art...)

The basic idea is to lay out your materials in layers, each of which performs a certain function.

Layer 1- your lawn. Don’t bother digging up the grass. As it dies off, it will add to the organic matter in the soil for your plants.

Layer 2- Weeds and other green waste. Add whatever you have. Lawn clippings (though not too thick or they won’t rot down well,) non-invasive weeds, soft, green trimmings from any plants you have just pruned. Of course be careful that these don’t include thorns. You don’t want a nasty shock when you push some seed down into the ground later!

Layer 3- Brown waste or seaweed. This is just another layer to add to the soil’s nutrients and bulk, you could use fallen leaves, seaweed (check the regulations in your local area to make sure you’re allowed to gather this,) a thin layer or straw, coffee grounds, tea leaves, thin twigs.

Layer 4- Manure or compost. This is going to provide a nice, moist, fine bulk for your plants to grow into, but if you don’t have much of this, don’t worry, you can still make it work.

Layer 5- Newspaper; 8 pages thick, or cardboard. This will stop any seeds from the things you’ve included below this layer from growing up in your garden.

Layer 6- Mulch. This can even be one of the things you have already included, it just needs to act as protection from drying out. Wood chips, seed-free hay or straw (I don’t mind using pea straw because if peas start sprouting up, I get free pea shoots! Or my chooks do…)

As you can see, most of these things can be gathered for free. If you don’t have enough, why not put the word out that you want these things and see who might have a contribution. 

There might be someone down the road with a rabbit who will bag up their bedding straw and poo for you. There might be a local cafe which will save their coffee grounds for you. A friend might have just moved and have an excess of cardboard boxes (or nappy boxes work well too!)

Once you have got your bed all put together, you can edge it if you want to, with bricks, rocks, timber laying straight on the grass next to it. Water it REALLY well and you’re ready for the next step.

Planting into the bed

When you want to plant into your no-dig/lasagne bed, simply part the mulch, cut a hole in the newspaper or cardboard and make a gap in the compost layer. If you didn’t have much compost or manure, this is the time to fill that little pocket with good quality compost to get your plant off to a good start. 

By the time it gets it’s roots down into the other layers, they will have started to decompose. If you want to sow small seed, such as carrots, just part the mulch, cut open a line of the cardboard and fill a little trench with compost and sow directly into that.

There are so many benefits to this method. Less effort, less cost, less disruption to the naturally-formed layers in the soil, less watering required once the seedlings get started. I just love it. 

Let me know how you go?