No-dig and no-till gardening are not the same thing. Many gardeners use the terms interchangeably, but there are key differences between these gardening methods. Both no-dig gardening and no-till gardening philosophies highlight the importance of soil and allowing soil organisms to aid gardeners. Gardener Scott discusses these gardening methods and helps identify the differences in no-dig and no-till gardens. (Video #220)
“Organic Gardening: The Natural No-Dig Way” https://amzn.to/3iG19sN
“No-Till Intensive Vegetable Culture” https://amzn.to/33I2afF
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21 Comments
Hello Sir.
Ive started gardening in 2017, starting out with a few peas and carrots, this year im started to become fully self-sufficient in everything i can grow in my climate; Western Jutland, Denmark, zone 8A.
Ive watched several youtubers over the years, but i must admit that you are the one that comes the closets to my scale of gardening, many of the others are borderlining commercialising their garden always squeezing out that last percentage telling how much money theres in it, for me that takes the joy and satisfaction out of it.
What i learned is that in my soil, sandy/loose;
1: My garden is too big for no-dig, i dont trust the free compost we can get at our recyclingstation.
If i used the Charles Dowding method, which may be superb for others, i would need to buy compost and cardboard, which would be very expensive.
2: If we do not get much snow during a winter, lets say less than 15-25cm, and frost, my soil would look like the surface of Mars without covercrops.
Covercrops are vital to my soil, to avoid erotion, flushing out the nutrients and to keep some "loose" layer on top.
3: I was very suprised of how fast sandy soil compact just by its own weight and water "dragging" it down.
If it do not loosing it mechanically, by fork or machine, the compacted layer will after 7-10cm (3-4 inches) will become so hard that you cant push a fork into it without using you legs.
So loosing it, not necessarily tilling it, helps to add a rootlayer and helps drainage and i find earthworms deeper down.
4:Crop rotation helps a lot to prevent pests and helps to "massage" the soil layers.
Rotation also keeps you on your toes regarding massaging the soil and making sure the nutrients and soil composition are correct at every place.
5: Any kind of mulch needs to be help down by something othervise it would blow away within a few days, which would require something substantial; netting of some kind and that is not practical for my size of garden.
6: I need to water relative often, since sandysoil do not hold water that well, but thats improving slowly year by year as i use the little compost i have and green manure/cover crops does a very good job for a very small amount.
So what ive learned is that there is no golden solution; each garden requires slight adjustments to fit just that gardens needs, take that tip from there, that tip from there and that tip from him; its like a puzzle where you get each piece from a different place.
Gardens are like humans; we all have the same basic needs, we just need them in slightly different ways to fit our needs.
If you’re just adding enough new soil (aka compost) to your soul top of course you wouldn’t need to till it.
You have explained this in such a digestible way. Thank you for helping me do my garden right this year!!
How can you call it no till when you work in organic matter into the soil? I consider working matter into the soil tilling
Working in material that hasnt broken down yet does take nutrients away before getting any use. So however way you look at it you can't escape compost. It's a necessity, and gardening is pointless without it as your crops will be subpar.
Thanks for pointing up the differences and clearing up misconceptions – I'm in an 8b with prolonged periods of no rain especially in spring and summer, and this video went a long way in my decision making.
excellent advice 👍😄
I'm wondering where a broad fork tool fits in.
Interesting information for sure!
With no till can I put kitchen scraps into the soil? They'd have to be covered to avoid attracting out door pests or getting complaints from neighbours.
I watched an episode of epic gardening that he did with charles dowding an he said that charles tilled the soil when he first started then after he loosened the soil he went to no dig. So the first time he put in his garden where he is now he tilled. Keven said it cuts out years of waiting. They till that first year then go to no dig and no till.
I have just removed 40 oak trees from my backyard and it's covered in hard pan clay. I can't dig more than 1 inch. I can add wood chips and wait 2 years or till with rear tine once & amend the soil so I can have a harvest this year. Thoughts?
This was a great video
in the end it all boils down to use what's most appropriate for your soil and your climate, so do your research and experiment a lot which is the fun part of all this plant stuff :->
I love learning from you. At 10:32 in this video I see you sitting on the edge of a bed that has a metal outside. Please let me know what kind of sheet metal, for lack of a better wording, this is. I'm figuring out what material I want to use for only a slightly raised area for food producing bushes and strawberries. The troughs you use are attractive, but expensive, not even available here in the east. The raised beds provided by Epic Gardening are another expensive option, and I've seen some information that the durability is questionable. I see you have wood reinforcing that metal. Is it stained or otherwise coated with something that helps with rot without being too toxic? Thanks for your information.
Do your wood chips not use the nitrogen in soil to break down? How do you overcome the decrease of nitrogen?
Thankyou for your video. Really cleared a lot up for me as a new gardener and has encouraged me to experiment a bit and not feel like theres a right and wrong way.
Was something like this in the One Straw Revolution?
Iowa Zone 5a. Thanks for the clarification. Nice to know the method I stumbled onto is called No Till, not No Dig. After initially digging the garden and then trying to deal with the clumps of clay that I unearthed, I decided it was easier to keep laying mulch on top of mulch because it seemed like less work than digging. Shredded leaves, for example, laid over garden rows in the fall turn to leaf mold by mid June. Soil built this way seems okay, but I don't feel comfortable without breaking it up a little bit in the fall to work in my amendments and to loosen the compaction that occurs over the summer.
Potato, potato. I see no difference. Charles Dowding's main focus is not to disturb the soil which is the essence of no dig.
You can use whatever mulch you want but in UK compost works best. Even if you do chop n drop it is essentially no dig. No till does the same imho while also allowing to some disturbance.
Mulch type does not matter. With different type of mulching you get the same result but it may take longer (rich and living soil).
Besides Charles Dowding experimented with different mulch, compost seems to work best in UK. Again use of compost is not the essence of no dig but the creation of complex living network of soil life which any type of mulch will allow. Just do not disturb the soil by no digging or no tilling, same result.
No till is similar to what a herd of Buffalo would do to soil mixing in compost and aeration
I needed to see this explanation. Thank you. This cleared up so much for me as a new gardener.