No-Dig Organic Gardening (helps 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-nig 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.

The New Natural Food Garden (create a bountiful harvest)

The New Natural Food Garden is a wonderful guide to grow a bountiful harvest of vegetables, in harmony with your environment and suited to your region. From starting seeds, to harvesting and storing produce.

The authors (who have taught thousands of people to grow their own organic food) share decades of experience, using gardening techniques and practices rooted in permaculture.

They’ll teach you how to create a garden that suits your growing conditions, and empower you to make your own choices: