The Complete Guide to No-Dig Gardening by Charlie Nardozzi

Author:Charlie Nardozzi
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Cool Springs Press
Published: 2020-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

For some vegetables, such as carrots and parsnips, you will have to disturb the soil to harvest. But try to gently pull, instead of digging out the roots, to minimize the soil damage.

GARDEN CLEANUP

At some point, you’ll need to remove spent plants to get ready for winter, plant another succession crop, or sow a cover crop. Instead of the traditional cleanup method of pulling out and composting plants, in a no-dig system, it’s better to chop and drop spent healthy plants. Once the plants are finished producing or have been killed by frost, don’t yank them out and disturb the soil. Instead, chop up the foliage and stems and leave them on the bed. Chop right down to the soil line, if possible. This adds organic materials to the bed and saves you a ton of work. It’s like composting in place! My tools of choice for chopping and dropping are a manual hedge trimmer and a hand pruner. For plants with really thick stalks, such as broccoli, corn, and sunflowers, I use a lopper. How finely you chop up the plant material is up to you. The smaller the pieces, the quicker it will return to the soil as compost. Note that chopping and dropping is not a good method for your plants if they were heavily diseased or insect infested.

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