A change has been made where we are meeting at Mary’s Market in Edgebrook Center the 20th of September
A lush, productive vegetable, herb, and flower garden doesn’t have to require endless hours of time and unlimited energy. No-dig gardening methods let you keep the rototiller in the shed and focus on what you like best—planting and harvesting!
With the step-by-step instructions in The Complete Guide to No-Dig Gardening, you’ll discover how to
it’s 128 pages
author: Charlie Nardozzi
The Complete Guide to No-Dig Gardening: Grow beautiful vegetables, herbs, and flowers – the easy way! Layer Your Way to Healthy Soil-Eliminate tilling … garden naturally-Reduce weeding and watering
8.22.2021
Introduction
Us humans are always digging in the soil
no dig gardening is good for the soil
use deep mulch
Use Straw bale, or keyhole gardening
talk of no-dig beds
use compost and potting soil
Lesson impact of planet using no-dig gardening
Chapter 1
The benefits of no-dig gardening:
- more productive garden with less work
- reduce global warming
- reduce stress and anxiety P. 8
- more earth friendly
- reduce weeding
- digging kills micro organism
- tilling could mean a more compact soil
- tilling is good for about 1 foot
No dig helps the planet
- it’s less work
- gathering/laying bed material
- use raised bed with organic material
- less walking in garden beds means little compaction
Chapter 2
Gardens means soil!
need to know drainage
soil is living organism, crushed rock, water, air, and top soil and humus
5-10% of organic matter.
check soil for clay, sand, or silt
water drains slow
it’s also the most fertile
40% cxlay, 40% sand, 20% silt
Soil tests
ribbon test
jar test
hole draining test
hardpan metal rod test
soil pyramid on page 19
need to know ph factor of you dirt
Health soil contains humus
organic lets a plants root grow deep
holds soil in place
organic matter is the heart of the soil
encouraging earth worms to dig
on page 24 they talk about organic matter
Discuss Biochar
it’s black carbon
increase nutrient uptake
sequester carbon
it’s an old practice
research is ongoing
Chapter 3 Building a no dig garden from scratch
Siting the garden
needs to be in full sun
look at drainage issues
no dig gardens are raised up from ground level
Build a frame
Free-Standing No-Dig Garden Beds: Three methods
layers of organic materials
use mulch
or compost
in your layer alternate green and brown materials, but not so exact as a well constructed compost pile.
on page 32 a chart tells about layering a no-dig bed
maybe farm worms for compost.
compost and top soil
page 68 talks about building your own compost
chop and drop strategy on page 69
ideas for beds on page 41
Can adapt you no-dig garden to concrete or rocky soil P.45
use hardware cloth at the bottom
build 1 foot
create a branch layer
soil 10-12 inches
use cardboard for weeds, or use a plastic or growing tarp
growinfg a 3 foot bed defers weeeds
Chapter 4 Converting an existing garden to no-dug
State of existing garden
find out what’s not working
like poor production
compacted soil, roots can’t grow adequately
page 53 talks about cover crops use radishes
page 52 is a step by step process
add 2inches of compost yearly
weeds produce organic matter to build up soil
keep be well watered
green manure is grown in growing season….use cover crops used to build up the soil
compost is key to a no-dig bed
p. 68 talk about building a compost pile
Gardening clean up: you need to trop and drop at seasons end
use a shade cover to protect plants from the heaChaptee=r 6 Variation of no-dig gardening
- straw bale gardening (bales will smoother any weeds)
hay has weed seeds
nitrogen fertilizer and water p.77 takes about 2 weeks
20-20-20 fertilizer is recommended also 5-5-5
sticks is good for the soil and the enviroment
2. talk about building mounds
3. Keyhole gardening raised bed needs little water p. 82
design p. 84 building a a keyhole garden
refer to page 31 and 36 for layering
chapter 7 the original no-dig garden
soil mixes: need organic fertilizer
add compost
lots of soil mixes for a container
3 types of mixes:
- seed starting mixes
- potting mixes
- special plant mixes
potting soil is good for no-dig gardeners
Recipes on p.94 for organic potting soil
Mycorrhizae is important but its for your potting mix
organic soil mix ingredient are on page 94
Looking at container gardening
matching your pot with your plant P.99
What to plant
single, fillers, flowers, seasonal
Use organic potting mix
MG Buds book club 
Had a total of 4 people at our in-person bookclub at Mary’s Market. The book score a 3 smiley face rating with a high 4 and a low of 2. Next month are book is “Gathering Moss”.
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While I picked this good:
I want to construct multiple raised beds for my garden. Currently, every year I till and plant my onions, with these onions I’m very worried that if we get a lot of rain (3 years ago) the onions get washed out…thus raised bed…ok,..now I would like a process of perfecting the soil in this raised bed. I also learned that I could cover the raised bed with some black plastics. I also plant tomatoes and peppers where I should have a couple raised beds for these. Learned a little about biochar and using cover crops (which I don’t use)
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Very nice, I started no till gardening by reading “One Straw Revolution” by Masanobu Fukuoka. I will check this out. Thanks!
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