Easy Veggies - Embrace ‘No dig’ gardening

As a vegetarian something I always wanted to do was to grow my own organic vegetables, fruits and cooking herbs. Now that I finally had my own garden I decided to do just that. 

'No dig' gardening 

I started looking at the easiest way that I could start my vegetable garden as a beginner gardener and I came across the ‘No dig’ method. This method simply means gardening without digging over the plot repeatedly each year, minimising disturbance to the soil. 

The steps are: 

• choose the spot where you want to grow your vegetables
• remove/smother weeds
• get some cardboard (I used cardboard boxes from recent postal deliveries and made sure I removed any staples, plastic tape and labels)
• cover the area of soil where you are planting with layers of cardboard. Make sure you overlap your layers so that weeds have less opportunity to get through in the future
• Put organic compost on top of your layers of cardboard.

That’s it! You are ready to start planting your seeds. 

With 'No dig' all you do each year is top up your raised beds with additional compost and keep weeding. The cardboard will just slowly decompose underneath. 

I chose to invest in 3 ready made wooden raised beds and some garden mesh to give my crops more protection and try to keep away the resident cats and foxes. Although I found snails and slugs much harder to convince to stay away…

Keeping it simple

I went a bit over the top when planting my initial crops, got too many different seeds and tried

to grow too many types of vegetables. With time I learned what would grow and thrive in my new garden and what would fail miserably. I did well with tomatoes, spinach, cauliflowers, rhubarb, beetroots, parsnips and radishes. I managed to grow herbs in pots outside such as mint, oregano, dill, marigold, lavender, rosemary and coriander and I also grew basil inside the house  in a pot on my kitchen window sill. 

I failed miserably with carrots and salads (both eaten by some unknown animal one night), onions, spring onions, kale and broccoli (they never even came out of the soil). So, my plan from now on is to be more focused and continue to grow only the vegetables that I know can easily thrive. 

Composting and conserving rain water

To be able to produce my own compost, I got one of these Dalek shaped compost bin and put it at the end of the garden. 

I keep things simple by adding regularly into the bin relevant food leftovers (fruits, vegetables, egg shells and tea leaves) mixed with cardboard and paper and with grass and hedge or tree clippings. I also turn the content of the bin over regularly with a spade to help with the composting process. Garden compost can take between six months and two years to reach maturity. 

I have not been able yet to invest in and install a proper rain harvesting system yet so I can collect  water from the roof and gutters, but instead I put a couple of plastic containers (big water bottles with the top cut off) in the garden to at least collect some of the rain fall that way. 

I am enjoying learning about gardening from trial and error and I see this as a long term endeavour. For example, I planted some fruits tress this year (apple, plum and cherry) but I know that it will take time, probably years, for them to grow and bear fruits. I did manage to harvest a small quantity of strawberries, raspberries and blackcurrants though this year. 

I love spending time outdoors in my garden. I find the process really peaceful and a good additional way to keep physically active. It also made me realise how different, and better, homegrown organic fruits and vegetables taste from what I usually buy in supermarket.