Can you dig it?

To dig or not to dig? That is the question, and it’s a question often debated on television and radio gardening programmes, in the pages of gardening magazines, and on websites and blogs from all over the world, not to mention up the plot and over the garden fence. The conversations can become more heated than a compost heap in the middle of summer, but is there a right or wrong answer to that question?

There is a long and successful tradition of digging vegetable gardens annually but there is also evidence that digging is not only unnecessary but is detrimental to soil structure.

Regardless of the fact that I actually quite enjoy digging and that a newly dug piece of ground is a thing of beauty, we consider our plot to be no-dig but we’re not obsessional about it.

I’m an amateur gardener so I’ll leave the science to experts like Charles Dowding. My own reasoning is quite simple.

Firstly, look around at all the plants growing naturally in the ground. All manner of plants have been growing happily all over our planet since long before there were people to till the soil. Secondly the natural way for soil to be regenerated and reinvigorated is by vegetation and animal waste falling to the ground, rotting down and being pulled into the soil by worms and other invertebrates, so no-dig gardening is replicating nature more closely.

In digging there is also the possibility that we actually turn our best topsoil under the surface whilst bringing the less fertile, more coarse sub-soil, and possibly clay to the top.

Turning the soil can also bring weed seeds to the surface, giving them a better opportunity to germinate. It also unnecessarily releases precious moisture.

Conversely it can be argued that digging well-rotted manure or garden compost into the soil is merely giving nature a helping hand, accelerating the process that worms and other bugs do rather slowly.

Digging can be hard work, but no-dig is not effort free by any means. It takes a lot of energy to source adequate quantities of manure and compost, you need sufficient time and space to store it to allow it to break down sufficiently to use, and it needs to be wheelbarrowed around your plot and spread where it is needed.

Reading up on the subject of no-dig gardening, covering the ground with cardboard to eliminate light to kill weeds is often suggested, again it can be quite difficult to find sufficient quantities of cardboard. It isn’t cheap to buy as anyone who has bought cardboard boxes to move house will testify; and of course, laying cardboard (let alone plastic or carpet which I have also seen suggested) over your ground can hardly be seen as a natural process.

Our approach is pragmatic. We dig as little as we can and mulch as much as we can. We are lucky that there are riding stables near to our allotment site and they deliver bagged horse manure regularly. After a few months in a compost bin I find this to be perfect for spreading on the surface. I compost as much waste vegetation as I can and occasionally invest in a delivery of cow manure.

There’s no doubt that regular mulching has improved the soil, it is particularly noticeable that weeds are much easier to pull in my most improved beds.

Gardening on very heavy clay we find that regardless of our no-dig efforts to date, the soil can become very compacted by the huge amounts of rain we have had over recent winters so if we feel it necessary we will loosen the surface a little with a fork. The beds that we grow our potatoes in tend to get a lot of disturbance too, spuds don’t lend themselves well to no-dig.

And what of fertility and production? Experiments are inconclusive, various studies can be found to prove that either method is better, but what of it? We are amateur gardeners; not farmers, not market gardeners, and the few percent difference in yield is unlikely to be relevant to us. A normal allotment or even a reasonably sized vegetable patch in a garden will probably produce more crops than an average family can eat in a season and the chances are we will run out of exciting courgette recipes before we run out of courgettes anyway!

To dig or not to dig? Is there a right answer to the question? I don’t think so. If you like digging and love the sight of a freshly dug bed, carry on digging. If you don’t like digging and you feel a bit guilty every time you chop a worm in half, try no-dig gardening.