Stephen Albert
The no-dig or light-dig garden preparation method calls for spreading soil amendments across planting beds and allowing rain, wind, and soil organisms to till or work the amendments and their nutrients into the soil. You do not have to dig or use a rototiller in your garden every year.
Lightly turning planting beds with a garden fork, and amending the soil well in advance of planting gives rain and wind as well as soil organisms like bacteria, fungi, nematodes, and worms time to break down soil amendments and release nutrients that plants use to grow.
Begin the No-Dig or Light-Dig Process Early
Begin the process of preparing and reinvigorating last season’s seedbeds and planting beds early in the season before you plan to plant. You can even prepare to plant in autumn ahead of winter. Set aside a few hours over several weeks to visit and re-visit the garden to make sure beds are prepared and renewed. Preparation can begin as soon as the soil has dried and is workable.
Vegetable plants have fine roots that are too weak to penetrate hard soil. Prepare the vegetable garden for planting by breaking up lumps of soil and adding compost and manure. Leave enough time for snow or rain or irrigation and wind to work soil amendments into the ground.
No-Dig Garden Preparation Method
It is not necessary to use a mechanical tiller or double dig by hand most home garden planting beds every year. You may want to double dig or use a rototiller to work new ground the first year especially if the soil is heavy clay, but even that is not always necessary. Loosening difficult soil with a garden fork and spreading a couple of inches of aged compost or manure across the bed is more than enough work to prepare most gardens for planting.
Many gardeners advocate the “no dig” vegetable gardening philosophy which calls for “sheet composting”–not digging the vegetable garden bed at all. Sheet composting simply means spreading several inches of aged compost and manure across the garden planting area once or twice a year and allowing nature–rain and wind–to work it into the soil. This method saves the gardener’s back and does not disturb the habitat of garden microorganisms–which are essential to good garden soil.
Five Ways to Improve Planting Beds
Follow these steps to prepare your planting beds for the new season with little or no digging:
- Use a garden fork–not a spade or rototiller–to loosen compacted soil in planting beds or to break up surface clods. You can do this in the fall, late winter, or very early spring. Avoid working in planting beds when they are too wet; you will inadvertently compact the soil; plant roots can not thrive in compacted soil.
- Spread 2 to 4 inches (5-10cm) of aged compost across the planting bed, or spread 1 inch (2.5cm) of well-rotted manure and 1 or 2 inches (2.5-5cm) of aged compost across the bed. Let winter or spring wind and rain work the soil amendments into the bed for a few weeks or even a month or two. Then let soil microorganisms break down the compost and manure.
- If you are ambitious, you can use your garden fork to lightly turn the compost and manure under after it has sat a couple of weeks. But it is best not to over-turn or over-till planting beds; too much digging and tilling can harm the microenvironment where soil organisms live.
- If you use a tiller, run the blades slowly so that the soil life is not overly disturbed or harmed.
- Mulch: Once the planting bed has been prepared, add another inch or two of aged compost or organic mulch across the bed. This will prevent the soil from losing much moisture and will protect the bed from air temperatures too cold or too warm until you plant.
Also of interest:
No-Dig, No-Till Vegetable Gardening
How to Make a New Garden Planting Bed
How to Prepare an Established Planting Bed for New Season
