No-Dig Organic Gardening Anyone?

Is anyone using the no-dig method?

There was an article in the L.A. Times about it lot too long ago, and it sounded really great on being low water use.

Here's the link:

http://www.latimes.com/features/home/la-hm-nodig12-2008jun12,0,55177.story

There is a great Forum here in DG about using bales to grow in.

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/f/strawbale/all/

I don't know if that's clickable or not, but it's a fantastic forum if you want to grow without digging. I'm using a variant of it to start a garden bed.

Thank you Hastur!

Besides straw bales which I love, I also use Eathboxes ([HYPERLINK@www.earthbox.com] ). Check them out. The Lasagna Garden method also should yield no digging but I don't know about the weeding. It seems to me I get weeds no matter what I do with in the ground planting! They especially love to get into my mulch but it is easier to pull them out! It is always better to avoid as much digging as possible so as to not disturb the soil ecology. You are on the right track!

I try not to dig as much as possible.

I am going to give it a try. I have been an organic gardener for many years now, but have battled the weeds and just get sick over using so much water on my veggies. California is so arid, it seems like it's about time the agriculture adapts to the ecology of the bioregion. I am willing to see how effective this type of gardening will be. It will most certainly do no harm.

My first garden in Tucson, AZ was a Ruth Stout-type "no work garden". I used straw bales and potting soil to get it started. I placed the bales on top of many layers of cardboard since there was Bermuda grass underneath. The garden was fabulously productive but the Bermuda got the best of it. I just don't know of a way to garden on top of Bermuda without totally digging it out first. There's someone on the SW garden forum who is currently using this method or a variation of it You might want to check there.

Momherb