November 30, 2006

The backbone of a no dig garden is mulch; be it a mulch of homemade organic compost, sweet earth mixed with well rotted manure, ‘boosa’, the weeds which are pulled out by hand before reaching the flowering stage, shredded newspaper and cardboard, even grass clippings will do, writes Zahrah Nasir

Imagine being the proud owner of a wonderfully productive, bursting to the brim with flowers, fruit, herbs and vegetables garden which doesn’t even have to be dug. Absolute bliss!

More to the point though, and I am definitely not joking here, this is not only possible but highly advisable if you want to work with nature rather than against it.

“What on earth (no pun intended), is this woman ranting about now?” you may well be asking yourselves and I don’t blame you one bit! Taking the back break out of gardening is something I have been practicing for years now and, I promise, it is time-saving, money-saving, water-saving, even sanity saving if you like, as there is no need to pull your hair out by the roots at the thought of facing another strenuous planting, read ‘digging’, season lying just around what always feels like an ever present corner.

Now, let me explain the simple, basic mechanics of turning your precious garden into a no dig zone. If you are the proud owner of a well established garden then the transformation is very simple indeed. Leave your large garden spades and forks to rust in their storage cupboard and polish up, or purchase if need be, a hoe and a rake instead. A hand trowel, the use of which is not classified as actual digging, will also come in handy at times but, whatever else you do, if you employ a ‘mali’ then do not let him use the trowel for anything other than transplanting. Absolutely none of the perpetual dig, dig, dig which ‘malis’ are apparently, most destructively, addicted too.

The backbone of a no dig garden is mulch; be it a mulch of homemade organic compost, sweet earth mixed with well rotted manure, ‘boosa’, the weeds which are pulled out by hand before reaching the flowering stage, shredded newspaper and cardboard, even grass clippings will do.

First of all the garden must be weeded, carefully, by hand although, if you have an up and coming crop of tough perennial weeds you may, just this once, have to retrieve your spade and dig them out otherwise, if only the tops are removed then their deep roots will fight to send up new shoots in an effort at frustrating your weed free garden plans…..something they usually succeed in doing if even a thread like piece of root is left lurking in the soil.

Next, and this is the ‘fun’ bit, you need to spread whichever mulching material you have on hand, laying it between one and four inches deep depending on the type of plants you are growing, don’t go smothering the pansies for example. Over almost every single square inch of exposed soil and the ‘almost’ is important here as the mulch, particularly if it is fresh, green material, shouldn’t come in to direct contact with your existing plants as it could damage them as it heats up before rotting down.

This mulching material is not dug into the ground but is left as a protective, water retentive, weed suppressing, food rich carpet which is slowly but surely pulled down into the soil by creatures such as the ever industrious earthworms, busy beetles, organised ants, greedy woodlice, wriggling centipedes and the legions of other species of creepy crawlies who, if allowed to go about their constructive tasks uninhibited by chemical or human intervention, form legions of the best soil management teams that nature has designed.

This amazing collection of insects feeds both on and in the mulching material, chewing, chomping, digesting and recycling the stuff until it is broken down into the best soil and plant food imaginable. Rainfall or judicious watering, serve to help the entire process along and the mulch will quite quickly disappear into the soil, enriching it with valuable minerals and nutrients as it goes. Great isn’t it?

Mulch, whichever form you use, also acts as a weed suppressant as seeds find it difficult to struggle through the layer in search of the light and air required for them to grow. It protects the valuable earth from the scorching rays of the sun, thus reducing the amount of watering necessary to keep the plants happy and also prevents another enemy, the wind, from blowing particles of soil halfway around the world and more.

No. Mulch does not smell bad at all and neither does it attract rodents and other nasties as long as any homemade compost is properly rotted down before being applied. I do admit that those of you who insist that your garden appear perfectly manicured, pedicured and coiffed at all times, may find mulch a little unsavoury for the first few days after it has been applied but it does blend in and ‘settle down’ before too long and the benefits, to all concerned, are enormous.

Before I forget, you should keep the mulch topped up at all times for it to be fully effective in the long term so, every time you spot a gap or notice that the layer has shrunk to almost nothing then spread on some more. There should never be even the tiniest patch of un-planted ground left uncovered during any season of the year whether you live in the heat of the plains or the cool of the hills. Even ‘dormant’ earth needs lots of loving care, attention and mulch if it is to provide you with bountiful harvests in the future.

“My annuals” I hear someone scream. “How can I plant my colourful display of seasonal plants with all this mulch lying around?” Don’t worry. Nothing to it. Whilst you cannot sow seeds directly in the mulch for obvious reasons you can do the following:

Start off your seeds in suitable containers such as shallow trays or plant pots in the normal way. Meanwhile, spread a one to two inch layer of mulch all over the surface of the beds in which the plants are destined to be located, keep it damp and, by the time your seedlings are large enough to transplant, the mulch should be at the right stage of decomposition for you to take up your trowel, make suitable holes through the mulch in to the soil below, then insert the seedlings in these, firm up the soil, water in and let them grow as per usual.

If growing varieties of seeds which need to be sown directly in their growing position then, if you are new to mulching, use a hoe and a rake to create a suitable soil consistency, this isn’t digging, plant your seeds as normal and, after they have germinated then carefully dribble fine mulching material around them, adding to it as the seedlings grow up and become established.

However, if you have mulched before and the mulch is well merged with the soil, then hoe and rake this until suitable soil conditions for seed sowing are attained then continue as above.

Actually, I recently bumped into a lady from Abbottabad who complained that her seasonal bulbs never came up a second time despite the fact that her mali took good care of her garden and was perpetually seen digging away at any soil in sight. I strongly suspect that the mali’ has dug the bulbs into extinction, numerous other plants too, whilst if the no dig mulching method was used then the bulbs would have thrived and multiplied no end.

Honestly, once you catch the mulching habit there is no going back and you will be stunned at how grateful every living thing in your garden turns out to be.

Send your gardening queries to zahrahnasir@hotmail.com Answers to selected questions will appear in a future issue of ‘The Review’.

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