How We Grow Flowers Without Digging - A No Dig Gardening "How to"

In the flower patch we aim to grow flowers using the No-Dig or No-Till method. Traditional tilling methods break up soil structure and require the soil to ‘heal’ for a time before efficient plant growth can begin. The No Dig method relies on roots, worms and fungi to do the hard work!

Dahlia beds, tubers are planted in 3- 4 inch deep compost and left to grow for the season.

How to approach no-dig in your garden

Below are two images illustrating how we extended one of the flower perennial beds on the flower farm using the no dig method

This is a 3 foot wide bed where perennials will then be divided into in late Autumn

Note the end of bed has had a layer of Mypex to kill off the grass for 3-4months

Compost is spread evenly in a 3 inch layer with manure pellets, leaving a 6 inch gap of card to prevent grass from creeping back

We tend to start by placing either a non biodegradeable (old carpet or building plastic or landscapre fabric) mulch down for several month or over winter

Then come spring, or whenever we are ready, we use card from bicycle shops to lay a single layer of card over the future bed footprint.

Dead grass under the card and compost becomes future food for the soil and its inhabitants

We then add a good 2-4 inches of compost, chicken manure pellets and/or topsoil over the cardboard.

Planting can then begin straight away after the compost has been spread.

Note on plastic mulch: You may skip the plastic mulch if you have a good double layer of carboard and a deep layer of compost , around 5-6 inches

Flower seedlings ready to be planted into top layer of compost

Maintaining your beds

Every Autumn or Spring we then add a 1 - 2 inch layer of municipal compost along with organic chicken manure pellets to the beds. Adding this layer helps combat weeds as well as feed the soil for the next seasons flower crops.

Polytunnel flower beds created using no-dig method

Growing daffodils using no dig method, thin layer of compost then space bulbs like eggs in an egg carton

cover bulbs with 3-4 inches of compost or topsoil. Once blooms have grown and plants have faded this bed can be used for a summer annual crop

A great tip on sourcing cardboard

For the first couple years we used small boxes of card that we found at the recycling centre or from local shops. This process of layering an even mulch of small boxes took us hours upon hours to cover our beds! Since last year we discovered that bicycle shops are more than happy to give away their boxes. Bicycle boxes are made in one large sheet roughly 4 foot by 8 foot, they also tend to use staples to construct the boxes rather than plastic tape! This cut down the mulch process to mere minutes. We will never go back to those small boxes again!

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Flowers delivered nationwide across Ireland from our florist studio based in Glanmire, Co. Cork

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