No Dig Adventure Starts Here

MasterKAF and I had been chatting about the kind of allotment that we wanted to have in our garden. Growing fruit and vegetables is a real priority for us because we want to eat more healthily and also save money. Added to that the chance to work outdoors and there is no contest! The one thing that was putting us off a little was the grunt work needed to set up the patches.

We have been looking at the work of a chap called Charles Dowding who promotes the idea of No Dig Gardening.
If we have come across a way to work the land we have without breaking our backs in the process then MrsDTB is one very happy woman. There is a good range of videos on YouTube that explain much better than we can at this stage, how the process works but to start with, we needed to prepare the ground. 

Essentially you need to smother the pasture, blocking out all light so that the grass and weeds weaken away. For this, we chose a heavy-duty membrane that will block the light but let water through. Having measured two plots we cut and laid the membrane using tent pegs to secure the edges. 

MasterKAF hard at work

These areas can now be left for a few weeks before it will be time to put a layer of mulch down and replace the membrane again to allow our no dig beds to develop. 

More gardening!

We are really getting into this gardening lark. MasterKAF helped to sow a number of seeds this morning that are all going into the greenhouse to help feed us over winter. We thought it a good idea to begin to compile a log of what we do in the garden so that we can track progress. Here are is the log so far, which covers everything we have begun to work on for the next few months:

Plant When Sown Where Sown # Seeds When Planted Where Planted # Plants
Potatoes 27 August 2018 Grow Bags Outdoors 12 27 August 2018 Grow Bags Outdoors 12
Carrots 20 August 2018 Kitchen Garden 50 Kitchen Garden  
Dwarf Beans 20 August 2018 Kitchen Garden 40 Kitchen Garden  
Salad Leaves 05 September 2018 Greenhouse 6
Carrots 05 September 2018 Greenhouse 18
Carrots       05 September 2018 Kitchen Garden 1
Salad Leaves 07 September 2018 Greenhouse 30      
Corn Salad 07 September 2018 Greenhouse 18      
Radish 07 September 2018 Greenhouse 36      
Mange Tout 07 September 2018 Greenhouse 10      
Pak Choi 07 September 2018 Greenhouse 12      

He also had fun playing with some Lego models in the garden as is still running around outside as we speak. ?