Our first beds

First no-dig bed

The no-dig method is widely used by growers in the cut flower grower sector. Described and promoted by Charles Dowding in Somerset. The essence is to leave the soil undisturbed when bringing it into cultivation and during growing. The weeds are initially dealt with by occluding them from light - often by using cardboard.

A fairly shallow cover of fertile soil completes the bed. Planting (through the cardboard layer) can occur straight away but its more usual to let the bed mature a while - over winter is perfect.

So we started our first bed in November, and plan to make beds up as we go along.

Here is the first bed - cardboard laid straight onto the field The permanent weeds are mostly creeping buttercup, couch grass and dock. I am wondering how well suppressed they will be and how we am going to deal with the breakouts. This is how it’s looking in November.