no-dig market garden
Market gardening is one of the most productive enterprises per square meter. Now it requires a lot of input to make it so productive but is a very efficient use of space when managed well.
I have been involved in market gardening since I was four years of age following my dad around his one acre market garden. I have tried many different techniques, growing through membranes, ploughed with horses, mulching with seaweed, silage etc. And AT THIS POINT I have come to the very convenient method of buying in the finished compost by the truck load.
It is quite costly but I can say from lots of weeding experience that its totally worth it. Its a lovely way of growing.
our method is broad fork the beds (which allows air and water down into the deeper soil) in the early years, then we lay a thick layer of wood chIp on the pathways, and ANOTHER LAYER OF comPost down. If it’s the first application we put down SIX inches, FOR a top-up IT’S around 3 inchEs.
For certain heavy-feeding crops I put well rotted manure DOWN first as the compost is not as rich as THIS manUre is.
This system of laying down weed-free material is a total game-changer. It means you can plant crops throughout the spring and not have to look back. It also means your crops are kept clean as you are not weeding all the time, it keeps salad super clean and allows harvesting to be much quicker as you don’t have to worry about weeds as you are harvesting.
The proCeSs of laying down huge amounts of orgaNic matter stops weeds but IN THE bigger picture it is feeding the biology of the soil. BY NOT tilling and instead inputting that amount of matter we are regenerating that soil year on year.
This high amount of inputs into a small area, allows us to grow more per square meter and with far less problems with diseases or pests.
Our market garden is broken into two gardens. One is a bog garden which is great for certain crops. We grow around THIRTY beds which are 30M long and we have two tunnels.
The second garden is our main garden IN which we grow around SIXTY 30M beds. There ARE three tunnels AND This is our main enterprise and what we spend most of our time doing on the farm.