No-dig gardening

[4] Two pioneers of the method in the twentieth century included F. C. King, Head Gardener at Levens Hall, South Westmorland, in the Lake District of England, who wrote the book "Is Digging Necessary?"

In areas with thin soil and high erosion, there is a strong case against digging, which argues that in the long term it can be detrimental to the food web in the fragile topsoil.

While digging is an effective way of removing perennial weed roots, it also often causes seeds that can remain dormant for many decades to come to the surface and germinate.

This natural biosphere maintains healthy conditions in the upper soil horizons, where annual plant roots thrive.

Moisture is also retained more efficiently under mulch than on the surface of bare earth, allowing slower percolation and less leaching of nutrients.

It is also helpful to remove any perennial weed roots from the area beforehand, although their hold can be weakened by applying a light-excluding surface layer such as large sheets of cardboard or several thicknesses of spread out newspaper before adding the compost mulch.

As Deans grew older, she was assisted by Lucinda Bartram who helped her carry on the tradition of teaching no-dig gardening methods to others.

He has written eleven books on gardening organically and without digging, and gives regular talks and courses on the subject.

His methods centre on using compost as a mulch, rather than unrotted organic matter which tends to accumulate slugs in the damp, British climate.