Have you heard of no-dig gardening? As the name suggests, this productive and simple approach involves minimal digging – making it quick, easy and most importantly, great for healthy soil and healthy plants!
Regular turning and digging of the soil breaks up the vital mycorrhizal fungal networks that act as the connection between a plant’s roots and the minerals held in the soil. With reduced digging and turning of the soil, these networks are allowed to flourish, benefitting soil health and the health of your plants in turn. Due to this, no-dig gardening requires less of the gardener – less watering, feeding and chemicals.
In this workshop, gardener Lindy Young demonstrated how to make a no-dig bed – how to plant this up with vegetables, how to care for the bed going forward with minimal digging, how to make no-dig beds on different scales, what materials are needed and how to make do with what’s at hand for a thrifty but effective garden.
No-dig gardening can offer the health and wellbeing benefits of gardening to everyone, including anyone who isn’t able to dig or lift, or who struggles to keep on top of traditional gardening practices.
This event was part of Aberdeenshire Wellbeing Festival. Check out the full programme online here.
About the project
This workshop forms part of our project Caretakers' Garden. Named after the former residents of the caretaker's flat at the Brander Building (now the Deveron Projects office!), Caretakers' Garden will build sustainable systems of care in the Brander and Square Deal gardens, for the benefit of current and future inhabitants. As a starting point, we are asking, what is our role in caring for these gardens in the present and into uncertain futures? How do we build the means for communities (human and more-than-human) to enjoy the gardens and care for each other in?
Led by gardener Lindy Young, we will work together to create a learning space for novice and seasoned gardeners – a space for exploration, experimentation and exchange. Regular workshops, drop-in sessions and artists' projects will open the gardens up, inviting new 'caretakers' to come along and learn, help take care and be cared for.
