How To Grow An Organic Vegetable Garden Without Digging (PHOTOS)

From Organic Gardening Magazine:

Build a better vegetable patch with this no-dig method, borrowed from organic farms in rural Australia. The no-dig piles are fairly stable, but some gardeners prefer to build boxes to contain them. Various materials work, including 1-by-12-inch boards, bricks, concrete blocks, stacked stones, or a staked frame of chicken wire. The materials below are enough to build a 4-by-8-foot raised bed.

• 2 to 3 pounds bloodmeal and bonemeal
• Newspapers
• 1 bale of herbicide-free alfalfa hay
• 1 bale of herbicide-free straw (use bedding straw, not feed straw, which has viable seeds)
• 10 cubic feet of compost (preferably homemade)

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Moisten the soil thoroughly with a hose and add a generous dusting of bloodmeal and bonemeal. Wear a mask to avoid inhaling the dust. (Repeat the watering and dusting step after adding each layer to the pile.)

May 2013 Central U.S. Tornadoes (GRAPHIC IMAGES)

gadgets/slideshows/298353/slide_298353_2481215_small.jpg

May Tornadoes 2013

Moisten the soil thoroughly with a hose and add a generous dusting of bloodmeal and bonemeal. Wear a mask to avoid inhaling the dust. (Repeat the watering and dusting step after adding each layer to the pile.)

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This is old news. My green thumb is now greener!

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Comments

[Lisa Troup]

02:25 PM on 01/21/2011

A wonderful way to use landfill stuffing lawn clippings!!!Plant a garden ANYWHERE!!!......O;)

[jovisco]

07:41 PM on 01/18/2011

Organic food is important... but not many know what it actually means. There is an anonymous agribusiness marketing group attempting to capture those perceptions... help them out by filling this survey out. http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/7WGVB9H

[Debra Prinzing]

03:04 AM on 01/15/2011

Hello HuffPost, It would really be nice of you to credit the author of this piece. I know you'd appreciate receiving credit for re-posts of your original content, right? So please do the same - as a professional courtesy, I request proper credit as the copyrighted author of this Organic Gardening piece. Debra Prinzing - www.debraprinzing.com

[climbing panda]

06:40 PM on 01/10/2011

so are you able to buy, or otherwise procure, organic hay, alfalfa, and newspaper?

[willko]

02:02 PM on 01/10/2011

How 'bout mulching your massive Christmas Tree instead of sending it to the landfill and
using that mulch in your organic vegetable garden?! Do away with the newspaper as well,

www.trashedblog.com

[The Giving Garden]

12:33 PM on 01/10/2011

Not sure if this has been mentioned already in the comments, but there is an excellent book on how to use this technique (and it doesn't require newspaper) It's out of print but can be found online. The No Work Garden Book by Ruth Stout. I use this method in my vegetable garden and it works great as long as you can find a reliable 'weed-free' source of straw. To learn more about my garden visit http://thegivinggarden.wordpress.com/ or you can link to my flicker to see pics of this garden as well http://www.flickr.com/photos/thegivinggarden/sets/72157625320739679/ It provides us with quite a bit of produce and is much easier than double digging or tilling and I can attest to the fact that the straw is an excellent mulch and weed barrier since I didn't original use this method. Good luck!

[VTrebelrocker]

12:51 PM on 01/10/2011

Right on!
gorgeous gardens and home!

[1 4 Freedom]

11:54 AM on 01/10/2011

I am concerned about the ink in the newspaper...maybe it isn't a problem but I THINK there is BPA in the ink. I don't know know why you would need that payer anways. Maybe it could be replaced with mulched leaves from the prior falls yard cleanup? www.awaketorealfreedom.blogspot.com

[southingtonian]

02:37 AM on 01/11/2011

check out this link from the Ohio Extension service for a farmer's view of newspapers.
http://ohioline.osu.edu/cd-fact/0122.html

[KELLI2L]

10:47 AM on 01/10/2011

~ I'm all for raised gardening, however, I prefer to just incorporate these ingredients into my soil that I place into the frame, rather than stacking the layers ~

[KELLI2L]

10:29 AM on 01/10/2011

.....This process of growing is odd, since laying newspaper promotes the growth of ground worms (which are definately good for a garden) but how do they get to the top soil layer (in order to benefit the plants?).......

[Trittydi]

03:47 AM on 01/10/2011

I would love to do this - but we live on a wooded lot. I may be able to put a small garden out in front - and hope the neighbors don't mind.

Right now we're growing sprouts indoors. I bought a sprouter ($14) and seeds to start for Christmas. We're absolutely loving it - so easy and so tasty!
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[Ozark Homesteader]

11:28 PM on 01/09/2011

This is Patricia Lanza's _Lasagna Gardening_, isn't it? I didn't see credit for her or her book in this piece. Did I miss it?

[Trittydi]

03:48 AM on 01/10/2011

They said it's being done in Australia.
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[Ozark Homesteader]

10:31 AM on 01/12/2011

Lasagna gardening has been popular among some US gardeners with limited space since Lanza's book came out a dozen years ago or so.

[VTrebelrocker]

09:05 PM on 01/09/2011

this system works and it works amazing. think of it as replicating mother nature, more specifically a forest floor. all those leaves, branches etc. slowly degrading while holding moisture creating some of the most beautiful, rich, dark soil while maintaining an unseen microsystem of fungi and microbes.

we used it this past season (minus the bone and blood meals) and we've never had more success.

less water is used due to the hay and straws ability to hold moisture

there were no weeds thanks to the cardboard and newspaper (we used cardboard as it covered
better and insured that no weeds (aka grass) would come through)

all the material will eventually compost down into the best soil you've ever had and you can put your kitchen scraps right in and let them break down right in the garden

no noisy smelly rototillers needed or backbreaking shoveling to be done
- digging disrupts so many beneficial things in the soil on the micro level, organisms, fungi, structure etc.

and did i mention there is ZERO weeding to be done!

[TheLadyOphelia]

02:49 AM on 01/10/2011

I'm glad you had success with this gardening idea but I've tried such methods and prolonged drought, torrential rains, and boundless squirrels and chipmunks here in my area of Wisconsin allowed me only failure. My whole point was that for a beginning gardener this would be complicated and very possibly frustrating. I assume that articles like these are for non-gardeners - I could be wrong.

When talking to people who would like to begin gardening, I always try to tell them the easiest and most environmentally friendly way to progress. This method may be great for the environment but I don't consider it particularly easy or what people in an urban or suburban gardening situation would want. It does look slip-shod and some "mcmansion" subdivisions probably wouldn't even allow it . I think the idea behind articles like this is to capture the interest of people who've never grown their own produce, but isn't realistic for a lot of home situations.

I see that Organic Gardening produced this and I find they seem to have strayed from the original intentions and become a hip, glossy, non-controversial, middle-of-the road gardening magazine. They are aiming for the yuppy (sorry, can't think of a better word) market now.

As a method to improve problem soil for a future garden and plant that same year, this is would work well. . Over the years I've found that with gardening, if it works for you than it is the right way!

[VTrebelrocker]

12:26 PM on 01/10/2011

I guess I was just reacting to all the comments that were immediately dismissive of this practice. And I always tell my students if they find a way that works for them then it is the "right" way.

It does look slip shod in the beginning but after it settles it can blend in fairly well. We connected several keyhole design gardens that include beneficial perennials and annuals and the design looks quite nice. I am sure if you just slap the stuff down it would not be very attractive, but how many people who live in "mcmansions" actually do their own vegetable gardening anyway?

I live in Vermont and it isn't called the Green Mountain State for no reason. We had very little rain and decent heat this past summer yet everything stayed green and lush!

Totally agree with you on the Organic Gardening front! That magazine frustrates me.

[Trittydi]

03:51 AM on 01/10/2011

I'll have trouble keeping the raccoons and opossums out of it if I put my compost directly into it.
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[Chuck Bluestein]

02:04 PM on 01/09/2011

It seems like a lot of work buying that stuff and using it just to avoid digging. Some people enjoy digging into the dirt while gardening. I did not know that there was alfalfa hay. Alfalfa is a popular supplement.

[jsarets]

03:36 PM on 01/09/2011

Alfalfa is the most popular hay crop.

[lbsaltzman]

10:43 PM on 01/09/2011

If you don't have land, your soil is poor, or if water is big concern this is a great way to get some herbs and vegetables. This technique will hold a lot of water in the soil and you should get really nutritious plants.

[judderwocky]

11:42 PM on 01/09/2011

right...but by working those same ingredients into the soil, you can improve the soil for future years of use.... rather than just creating an unstable mound that will have to be reconstructed again and again each year... or am i missing something?

[bnation]

12:25 PM on 01/09/2011

This seems like as much work as planting a traditional garden plot. You still have to bend over. Then haul bales of hay...etc. I am sticking with my garden plot.

[JohnUSA]

10:41 AM on 01/09/2011

hay. check.
newspaper. check.
bones. check.
compost. check.
Now if I could only get my hands on some Monsanto seeds...

[HazelPethigFan]

09:00 PM on 01/09/2011

oh look, another urban type making some point by saying the word "Monsanto" since that seems to be the "in" thing to do these days.

Well shucks, all us farm boys are in such awe of ya'll in the big city. Weez just bumpkins ya know. What geniuses you city boys are to get such fashionable haircuts. For sure you'll get a very impressive big city job dressed like that.

[judderwocky]

11:29 PM on 01/09/2011

I'm sorry... but this just seemed really out of left field.

[Trittydi]

03:52 AM on 01/10/2011

LOL!
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