Don’t Dig, Do Good: Grow Food and Help Wildlife
No-Dig Children’s Gardening Book is a fun easy book to grow own organic food (forget that it’s for children, this simple illustrated guide is good for everyone and much easier to understand!)
This book begins with an overview of no-dig gardening and healthy soil. Then learn how to create a no-dig garden bed in a day, and what to plant in it. You’ll learn how and when to sow common garden vegetables, along with tips to grow giant sunflowers!
You’ll also learn of the benefits of no-dig gardening to native wildlife, and how to create a no-dig market garden in your community. Plus learn how to save your seeds for next year, so you can plant them again.
If you share your home with animal friends, learn about pet-friendly gardens (many plants and mulches are unsafe near animal friends). And use nontoxic humane slug and snail deterrents.
Avoid netting and read tips for wildlife-friendly gardens. Also how to create safe havens for garden birds and stop birds flying into windows.
Bin allium scraps (onion, leeks, garlic, shallots, chives) and citrus/tomato/rhubarb scraps, as acids could harm compost creatures. It’s okay to put them in food waste bins (made into biogas).
Of course, all no-dig gardeners know that Charles Dowding is the man to go to, for extensive advice. His website has a beginner’s guide (which you can convert to pdf. and print) that covers all the basics, and he has many videos on his YouTube channel if you prefer ‘moving pictures advice’. He also has an online beginner’s course‘
Grow Together condenses 40 years of experience to create 50 proven companion planting combinations, so you know what to plant next to each other, for better harvests (this naturally deters unwelcome visitors to avoid chemicals or harming native wildlife).
Learn where to plant carrots, lettuce, fennel, spinach, garlic, coriander, broad beans, asparagus, cucumbers, peas and strawberries!
Learn more on no-dig gardening
Garden Organic has a good simple post on how to start a no-dig garden (or create one on existing soil). It says to avoid suppressing weeds with plastic or carpet (most has chemicals that would leach into soil).
It instead recommends a combination of mulch made from homemade compost, fully-rotted manure, leaves, straw, grass cuttings, to suppress weeds (this could take months, so be patient).
And for already-cultivated beds, again it’s simply to transfer to no-dig gardening, applying an annual mulch each autumn. Wonderful worms will do most of the work for you, rising up to eat and digest the mulch, to create black gold soil for your garden goodies! RHS also has a good post.
Where to buy good organic seeds
Not just red, beetroot comes in many colours, but this is the main one. The only caveat is that eating it can sometimes cause ‘beeturia’ (turns your pee pink!) Unless you have some underlying medical issue, don’t worry about it, it will soon disappear out of your system! It occurs simply because betanin pigment does not break down during digestion.
If you can’t find sustainable beetroot seeds locally, you can buy from Vital Seeds, The Real Seed Company, Tamar Organics or RocketGro.
For indoor plants and greenhouses, use Feather Friendly bird tape to stop birds flying into windows (avoid facing indoor plants to face gardens).
