What Is No-Dig Organic Gardening?

It all started a little over 80 years ago, with a Japanese gardener named Fukuoka Masanobu. He devised the idea of an alternative, natural farming method that involved the rotation of crops, natural control of pests, the use of seed balls, and virtually no tilling or digging of the soil. The idea was gradually introduced into North America and other parts of the world, until these principles have been applied to smaller organic gardens as well as farms, under the name "no-dig organic gardening."

No dig garden (Photo credit: Samuel Mann)

The idea is that leaving the soil alone, along with the mulch that accumulates on it and decomposes and enriches it over time, will make it healthier. Leaving it untouched will allow the development of the small, interrelated ecosystems of worms and microorganisms that are necessary to produce healthy plants - very much, in fact, the way nature already does things and has always done things whenever humans don't step in and try to alter the process.

It doesn't even matter, really, which basic soil you start with. Because you don't actually garden in the existing soil that's already there, but instead you create raised beds for your plants by placing layers of mulch and other organic substances on top of it, which will naturally integrate with the underlying soil without you having to do anything. The mulch, in a layer 2-6 inches deep, consists of things like organic compost, leaf mold, and manure. This provides a very rich environment for worms, insects, and microbes that make a quick job of working through the mix to create a natural biosphere. With the balance of this small ecological system being more natural than in many other types of gardens, proponents of the no-dig system claim that their gardens are more free of harmful pests and plant diseases. As these organic substances decompose, they essentially compost on the spot, while simultaneously feeding your plants.

A slightly more systematic method of no-dig gardening involves more obvious layers of different types of materials, so this way of doing things is also occasionally referred to as "lasagna gardening." This may start with setting out layers of wet cardboard or newspaper on the surface, to prevent weed roots in the base soil from sprouting and intruding into the new, healthier garden. Wet straw may be spread on top of this, as the basic mulch, followed by a layer of compost, leaf mold, and manure. Then another layer of straw, all of which is wetted down thoroughly.

No-Dig garden 2010 (Photo credit: Pip_Wilson)

Once this whole mixture has composted slightly, scoops of new soil can be placed in indentations in the mixture, only in locations where a plant is going to grow. Just a small amount of soil is needed, a scoop for each plant, because all the rest of the nutrients will come from the straw and mulch that are composting beneath it. The gardener would either acquire small seedlings to put into these soil pockets, or could use seed balls.

A seed ball was one of the things also advocated by Fukuoka Masanobu. These are created by taking three parts compost and five parts red (terracotta) clay, adding some manure, and forming a small ball. Into this the gardener places two or three seeds, and the balls are then set in the scoops of soil on top of the mulch. These balls allow seeds to germinate and grow even in thin soils, so in a rich, composting location like a no-dig garden, they can simply thrive.

This is a very different type of organic garden from what we normally think of when we hear that term. But it's just one more way of creating a garden that works along with nature's methods, rather than against them. If you have inhospitable soil, or just don't want to go to all the work of digging up, turning, and integrating organic matter into your existing soil, the no-dig method may be a good one for you to try. See below for some helpful resources.


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