A Quick Word About No-Dig Gardening

It was with great enthusiasm and conviction that I dove into the no-dig gardening technique. Now, a few months down the line I have some thoughts on it.

First, it seems that the mulch is meant to be wood chips, fresh from some chipper, and as I didn't have any I used straw, which duly sprouted all the seed heads in it.

Second, and the worst thing, was that the slugs and snails loved it! They ate every little cabbage into lace. I went out at night and caught tons of the slimy buggers. During the day they would hide in the mulch of cardboard and straw. They got enormous!

Third, in winter the mulch keeps the ground very cold.

Fourth, unless you have managed to smother and kill off the weeds like couch grass, they will keep popping up.

So I think that I will start mulching more now that the weather is warming up and there's no sign of the much-needed rain, but until the ground has no more weeds like couch grass, no-dig is heaven for gardeners' enemies. I am much more vigilant in searching for the slugs and snails.

Update from the Hill.

A rosy dawn with mist.

I have been neglecting my blog. I am still trying to figure out how to get photos from the phone to the computer! (Aha! I've found a way!)
Meanwhile, the 'Wine House' has got nearer to completion

and the vegetable garden is bulging with cabbages.

I have two temporary residents in the vegetable garden. My granddaughters' Guinea pigs have come for a holiday. They are eating the grass and fertilizing the ground and I think they are so cute! The cats find them fascinating.... I am glad they are in a cage!
I have spun and woven a tweed scarf. It's very soft. The rigid heddle loom can be a bit boring but it's lovely to make fabric.

The ground is very dry. We have had no rain for weeks and none in sight. I have been watering the onions and garlic and broccoli. The weather is mild, warm in fact. Hot at midday. Cool at night. Hardly need a fire. Let's hope we get some real rain before the summer comes.

My funny greenhouse. But it works. The seeds germinate in the warm atmosphere.

The lentils I sowed a couple of months ago are coming up well and so is the garlic, on the big terrace. I also sowed some chickpeas which have also come up. These are the things that traditionally one can grow without watering. They are meant to have some rain! Still, they get the dew and the mist sometimes. That will have to do. The broad beans are in full flower. I chopped some down and covered them in straw, using them as a green manure. I am not sure what I will plant in the terrace, but it will have to be something that doesn't need watering. Perhaps corn or potatoes.

It feels that we have left winter behind even though the swallows haven't arrived on the hill. They are already making nests closer to the sea.
So that's the news.