[Marc]

Hi all, after gardening in Kildare for the last 20 years I believe I may have come across the answer to 2 gardening chores we all hate, digging and weeding.
The above mentioned film shows an American gardener using a method of basically covering the soil at all times, I tried it as he explains it and with amazing results in our first year, as I was convinced that the fertility had gone out of our soil it was even more amazing to see all the veg not only take but thrive, and grow better then they had ever done before,with zero weeds and no additional watering at all even in the heat wave of July !! Massive potatoes, giant red cabbage and cauliflower and pumpkins, too may beans, and our first year ever that no onions bolted and they grew enormous ( or as should be, I had just got used to small ones ) beautiful garlics and all the lettuce and chard we can eat, perfect globe artichokes.
So level you plot as much as possible, cover with 4 or 5 layers of overlapping newspaper, and mulch with organic material to 6 inches deep.
[u]I just wanted to share !! [/u]

[Sive]

Thanks for that Marc, I'll pass that on to "He Who Grows the Vegetables." The newspapers we have, not sure about the 6 inches of organic material...that's quite a depth. Could we use horse manure alone ? We've just emptied some of our compost bins........

[Marc]

I used everything I found, horse manure, bull manure, straw, fresh grasscuttings, leafmould, woodchip and wood shavings, just do not dig it in that would rob the nitrogen present in your soil lay it on top , the newspapers will kill any growth underneath before they too become compost. If your organic material is fresh, make a small planting hole down to the soil and plant your transplants there for the first year, second year sow or plant in the mulch.

[Sive]

How many years does that work for, before the process has to be repeated ? Is that a silly "how long is a piece of string" type of question ?
Also, does this kind of layered material provide a haven for slugs ?

[My Potatoes]

Is this not the "no dig" method, or a variation thereof?

[Dr. Sunny Thomson]

[Marc]

I skipped the Religious bits, and the rest works a treat for me. I will be adding material on top every year, why not ? How else am I going to replace what is given to me from the same plot year after year? I saw the chore was the paper, putting it down in rain and wind last November was a nightmare, but nothing worth while comes without effort. and I do like spreading this material, it is a joy to work with, and organic. It is a joy to sow in and watch seedlings emerge and no weeds to compete with.

[tagwex]

I watched the first 35 mins. of this last night, filling in time until it was time to do something else. From what I saw yer man just seemed to be repeating himself with the same message over and over or was I dreaming? Basically, put down a timber based mulch, keep adding to it each year, run the rake through it regularly and no drills and little or no water required, Three minutes that could take, so what about the other 1 hour and 5 or is it all much the same before I torture myself and watch the rest of it.

[Blowin]

As someone else has alluded to, the 'No Digging' idea goes back to the 70's or further and, like Tagwex, I attempted to view the video last night but I didn'y have enough coal on to even get it started.

I brought a garden shredder when we came to Ireland but found it rather slow and laborious so it's been relegated to the back of the garage ever since and I tend to burn all my hedge trimmings etc that could, I suppose, be converted to mulch.

What you don't say, Marc, is how you earthed up your spuds under this regime and, secondly, how you dealt with carrots, parsnips etc that normally start life in drills.

[tagwex]

I don't think the fires of hell would warm up that programme into something interesting to keep me for well over an hour listening to that repetition. Is there anything worth watching in the last hour?

[Good guy]

I've just noticed Blowin's comment about the garden shredder. Mine got choked on something (for the umpteenth time) two years ago and I haven't fixed it yet! When I do get around to it, I'll take it to the charity shop.
These days I run over stuff like cabbage stalks and hedge trimmings with my lawn mower. The neighbours were most amused to catch me mowing the street outside my house, the other week, but using the mower sure beats sweeping the stuff up. And it reduces the bulk enormously. Material that is too heavy for the mower to chop gets dried for kindling.

[Marc]

hi again, few answers to a few questions, I suppose I earthed up the spuds with the 10 inch straw layer I put over them after sowing, not really earthing up like we used to do but the harvest was better then ever. made a furrow to sow the parsnips, they were great to and still in the ground. pictures of all this on facebook, Marc Wouters page. And at Tagwex, what is there to gain by knocking down others ? stop posting, dislike in silence, we do not care !! just did another 3.5 m x 14 m patch that I had covered by tarp for the last season.

at the moment growing out there are, parsnips, Broccoli, cabbage, kale, spinach beet, chard, broad beans,5 types of Garlic, all of next season onions, meteor peas.

that's it for Nov.

[ian]

Take it easy marc, he only asked if there was anything interesting in the movie twice, personally I watched a small bit of it found it tedious, well done on the no dig it seems to have gone well for you, it does require considerable yearly inputs and is not a method for everyone.
Regards, Ian.

[tagwex]

Yeah take it easy Marc. Who knocked down who here exactly? This is a forum, by definition a medium for the open discussion of subjects of public interest whether they be good or bad, where one can agree or disagree with the sentiments of others. I was merely making the point that the programme you were eulogising about was boring and repetitious and that I couldn't figure out how it could stretch to 1 hour 40 mins, 35 mins was more than enough for me, in fact way less would have done to get the simple message across adequately and without all the God stuff too. If that method works for you then I'm happy for you, I wasn't casting doubts over its viability just the way that it was being put across. Also, I was not the only dissenter. Who are you to tell me to stop posting, I will post and comment as much or as little as I like on whatever topic I like and do not need someone like you to tell me to stop. Dislike in silence??? So we, the forum members, are only to agree with you then, is that it and not express our own opinions? See definition above again. "We do not care" - is that the royal we or have you contacted all the other 7202 forum members for a common consensus of opinion or have you elected yourself as spokeperson? Or were you just having a bad day?
PS. Can anyone help me out here, there is something driving me mad here. You know when you just cannot put your finger on something and need to be reminded, who was the front man in the adverts for Superquinn? Maurice .......... whatshisname? Also Superquinn changed some of their stores to ..........Prices, now what was it again?

[Sive]

Pratt, tagwex, no not referring to you, before you lose the cool........I mean Maurice Pratt....though one of us may have something wrong here.... as I connect him with Quinnsworth, not Superquinn.