No Dig Gardening

1. No Dig Gardening

2. Your work becomes harvesting, watering and planting – not weeding, feeding, and fighting pests WHY?* Any surface* Water holding* Nutrients* Clean – no toxins* Clean – no weed seeds* Replenish worn out soils quickly* No preparation work removing weeds* Easy to manage - cuts like butter

3. Feed a family of three in 10 sq. m Recipe online: Diggers Seed Club, Heronswood, Victoria

4. WHERE?on concreteon earthover weedsover competition (eg tree roots) in containers

5. Roof gardens Hundertwasser House public housing, Vienna

15. DESIGN

16. Bed shape • Least path • Can’t step on beds – one arm reach wide • Based on arm circles • Kneeling space in centre Planting zones • Pathside greens – cut and come again • Longest & biggest things in the centre

17. Plum tree Design Beans Compost Raspberries, fennel, artichokes Corn & pumpkin Cherry tree Beans and peas Potatoes

19. For the the big, the slow and the anti-social eg corn, potatoes, melons, pumpkin

20. HOW?

21. Layers Straw: 10cm Compost: 20cm Straw: 30cm Earth or concrete

32. How to • Sprinkle with dolomite – to add magnesium • Fertilise each year /season as usual - add seaweed preparations for trace elements • Rotate crops as usual - eg • beans/ lettuce, then • tomatoes or cabbages/ onions or corn/ pumpkins, then • silverbeet/ beetroot/ carrot • Use companion planting and plant stacking to maximise yields

33. Non-hybrid seed varieties eg Eden Seeds Diggers Seeds Garden characteristics, not field machinery Locally adapted (eg resistant to bolting) Interesting, diverse – appearance and taste Self seed and breed true Need conserving – gene diversity

34. GETTING THE MOST OUT OF ITCompanion planting/ guilds

35. Companion planting/ space stacking

36. STACKING Companion plants Different root zones Different leaf zones Compatible chemicals Insect interactions Lettuce, spring onions & carrots

37. COMPANION GUILDS Parsley Leek Lettuce Spring onions Carrot

38. COMPANION GUILDS Tomato Celery Basil

39. COMPANION GUILDS Chives Strawberries Rocket Peas Bush beans

40. Since Mayan times The three sisters: corn, pumpkin and climbing beans

41. COSTS

42. Costs Straw - $40 Compost - $320 Railway sleepers – 8 x $20 each Seedlings & Seeds - $100 TOTAL = $620 Weekly box of vegies = $40 Time to ROI = 4 months

43. Effort Initial • 1.5 days to construct (2 people) Ongoing • About 1-2 hours per week, includes watering and dinner harvesting Less than the mowing?

44. Ongoing inputs • Over winter, about 180l of water each 2-3 days • We use tank water, our household consumption is 70 l per person per day • Greywater recycling is the next step • Seedlings and seeds – about every 3 weeks approx $5 per week • One big bag of rooster booster $16 • A bale of hay $7

45. RESULTS

47. Planted April Fools’ Day

48. 7 weeks old

50. September