Most of us are creatures of habit. We often learn to do something one way and then never consider alternatives. That’s the same for gardeners. When you first began to garden, you learned a way to prepare your new beds for planting. And that method was probably a lot of work… digging, tilling, turning, adding amendments, watering, raking, and digging some more.

When you prepare a garden bed for the first time, it often takes significant effort. But what if there was a way to simplify the process? A way to create new garden beds that didn’t take so much backbreaking work? I recently discovered a new way to create garden beds that doesn’t take as much effort. This year, I’m creating some new beds with the No Dig garden method.

The No Dig method is not a brand new way to create garden beds. Many people use this gardening technique with great success. It’s new to me, however. Although I’ve heard the term No Dig before, I’ve never delved into what it really was and why it’s an easy way to create new garden beds.

We’ve been wanting to expand our growing area. Our main garden space is generally packed with berries and vegetables. I’ve maxed out the room in my Kitchen/Cutting garden. A few years ago, we created Pumpkin Hill in our front yard to grow more winter squash and pumpkins. While we have some great spaces to garden, it’s just not enough.

My husband and I both feel we need more space to grow produce and flowers. But we have no empty areas left to work with. The only possible areas are the ones planted with grass. We don’t need as much lawn these days, so we decided to turn part of the yard into more garden beds. However, we wanted to minimize the amount of work to create these beds in the lawn.

As I was researching garden bed prep, I came across the ‘No Dig’ garden method. With this technique, you don’t have to dig up the grass. You build your new garden bed right on top of it. So there’s no digging, no turning, no tilling and no mixing. You just simply decide where to put your beds and you create your growing area with compost.

Why Build a No Dig Garden Bed…

Here are a few reasons why this simple method can help you to create more garden space.

1. This is such an easy method. I love that we didn’t have to do backbreaking work to create these beds. No removing the grass and turning over the soil.
2. It’s a lot quicker to make No Dig beds. When you’re in a hurry to get started, this takes a lot less time than creating your typical garden bed.
3. You can make changes as you go. We created small beds and left grass pathways in between. But you could create one large bed and make pathways with wood chips or pea gravel. If our grass pathways don’t work out, we can just cover them over.
4. It doesn’t cost a lot to get started. The biggest expense is the compost. Although you can make your own compost, it takes a lot of compost initially.
5. You can start small and add more beds as you master those first growing beds.
6. You will have far fewer weeds growing in your garden beds.

How to Build ‘No Dig’ Garden Beds…

Here are the steps you need to take to create No Dig garden beds.

Step 1… Decide Where to Put Your Beds

Before you create your beds, first decide where you want to place these No Dig beds. Do you want one large area or a few smaller beds? Be sure to locate any underground sprinkler heads before deciding on placement. We spent a few days unsuccessfully trying to locate sprinklers and eventually needed to have them blown out in order for us to find them (thank you, Bob.)

Step 2… Gather Your Supplies

With the No Dig method you don’t need a lot of supplies. You’ll need enough cardboard to cover the bed area and you’ll need compost. You should have enough compost to cover the beds about 6 inches deep. Those are the must have items. If you decide to make a border around your beds, you’ll also need those supplies. However, having a border is not necessary.

We created simple borders using supplies we already had. When we lost our incense cedar tree several years ago, we saved the fencing sections that had to be replaced. So my husband simply used the old fence boards as our border and he cut up a few old 4x4s for the corner posts. We started with just one fence board height, but we left the 4x4s extended in case we want to go back and add a second layer of boards. If one layer is sufficient, we’ll eventually cut off the 4x4s.

Other things you can use for borders could be large rocks, bricks, or store-bought border fencing. Again, borders are unnecessary to create these No Dig beds, just a personal preference.

Read… How to Create a New Kitchen Garden You Will Love

Where to find your supplies:

You can find large pieces of cardboard by checking with an appliance store or large box store. I was able to get all the cardboard I needed from a local appliance store. For the compost, call around to your local nurseries and garden centers. Even if they don’t have any compost for sale, they can often direct you to someone who does. We purchased our compost through a company that sells decorative rock for the garden.

There are a variety of different types of compost available. Composts can be made with garden materials, animal waste, food waste and mushroom planting medium. All can work in the garden. I would caution you, however, on using human waste. Some companies are selling compost that is made from human waste. Because of the risk of contamination with pharmaceuticals and pathogens, I would not recommend this for areas where you will grow edible plants.

One last thing about your compost, it’s best to use compost that’s had time to decompose. If your compost is in the early stage of decomposition, it can be too hot. And this could kill your young seedlings. Most No Dig gardeners recommend building your compost beds in the fall so the compost has time to break down. We didn’t build our beds until February, so we chose a garden compost that had been sitting since last summer.

Step 3… Create Your No Dig Beds

Creating your new beds is really simple. Lay out the cardboard where you want to place the garden bed. If your bed is large and needs multiple pieces of cardboard, be sure that the cardboard is overlapping. This minimizes grass and weeds growing into the garden bed.

Next, cover your cardboard with compost. Be sure to create rows in your bed about 4 feet wide, leaving space for a pathway in between the rows if you are making one large area. For our beds, we created 4 ft by 10 ft wide beds with the grass in between. Your compost layer should be about 4-6 inches deep.

As you lay down your compost, level it out with a rake. It’s okay if you press your compost down by standing on it. This actually firms the compost into place and gives room to add in a little more compost. With a typical garden bed, we don’t recommend walking on your prepared beds because it compacts the soil. With the No Dig beds, walking on them is perfectly okay.

Once you’ve filled the beds, you can begin to plant your crops. Whether you are planting flowers, vegetables or herbs, you can plant seeds or seedlings directly into the compost.

If you’ve been thinking it’s time to create some new garden beds, this method is easy to implement. For more information on this method, check out: No Dig garden beds from Charles Dowding. He’s the go-to expert on creating No Dig garden beds.

In the end, we created 6 new garden beds that are 4 ft by 10 ft. It took almost 5 cubic feet of compost to fill our beds. That was the main expense. The only other things we needed to purchase were some sprinkler components so that we could elevate the sprinkler heads.

Our No Dig beds are ready to go. Now I’m just trying to be patient about planting. We’re getting close to the time when we can start some cool weather crops of spinach and peas. I can’t wait to see how successful these new beds will be. Whether they’re filled with flowers, vegetables or both, they’ll give us some extra room to grow.

If you need some extra garden beds and you have limited space and time, using the No Dig method might be the perfect option. You’ll be planting before you know it without the backbreaking digging, tilling, and turning. Happy No Dig gardening!