Creating a no-dig garden in 7 steps
Step 1 Gather Your Materials
For a bed about 1mx1.5m you will need:
3 bales cane trash or lucerne
Instant humus and Stimulate (order from Linda. These increase the health of your bed )
10 buckets of good compost; Worm liquid if you have it
1.5 kg organic fertiliser/manure eg Organic Xtra
A stack of newspapers
Water
Shade cloth (old and holey is ok)
Potting mix/garden soil or extra compost for planting
Plants (See note at end) Seaweed liquid to soak plants before planting (Organic Certified product available from Linda)
Step 2 Prepare the area 
This can be done on concrete or the worst possible soils!
• Mow the area if grassed.
• Spread the grass or soil with a few handfuls of Organic Xtra or manure to encourage earth worms and microbial activity which will in time work their way into your raised bed.
• Water the soil and manure to moisten.
• If your building your bed on concrete, go straight to next step
Step 3 Layer a newspaper base 
• Wet the newspaper in a bucket of water or barrow.
• Layer in thick overlapping wads on the ground.
• Overlap by at least a hand-width to stop weeds growing through.
• This becomes the base for your no-dig garden bed and will in time break down. By that time, any grass or weeds will have died.
Step 4 Create your first of ingredients 
• Cut the baling twine on the bales and peel the sugar cane or lucerne from the bales in thick ‘biscuits’.
• Lay them onto the paper in a single layer. Water the layer with 1 watering can full of water in which you have dissolved some Instant humus and Stimulate.
• Then add a layer of Organic Xtra or manure then a bucket of compost
• This is layer 1. Water well with a hose to wet thoroughly
Step 5 Make 3 more layers
• Continue layering until the heap is knee high. I usually make a total of 3 layers
• It’s a bit like making a club sandwich – lots of layers!
• You will still have some biscuits left. Stand these upright around the outside of the bed as a wall.
• They help to keep it all together and reduce water loss out of the sides.
• See how it looks like a large pile of material ready for a compost heap? That’s exactly what you are creating.
It shoud be at least knee high. If you have a prefab bed, fill the whole bed.
Now cover the bed with old shade cloth or carpet and wait 2 weeks, watering frequently, to start the composting process.
Step 6 Prepare to Plant 
• After 2 weeks, the bed is ready to plant. First plant with seedlings (see below) Make make a planting space for each of your plants. This is for a few reasons:
• 1. The roots can’t establish in the open friable mix of a fresh no-dig garden.
• 2. Potting mix or compost will provide additional nutrients, hold moisture and provide support for the growing seedling
• Make some holes about as big as a clenched fist in the bed with your garden trowel. Fill these with the compost or potting mix.
• See how big I have made this filled planting hole in the picture?
Step 7 Planting your first crops
• Soak your seedlings in a bucket of water with a seaweed solution such as Seachange (from Linda) or fish and kelp mixture before planting. It helps to reduce transplant shock
• Now plant your seedlings into the planting spaces filled with the mix. (Next page for suggestions) Firm them in well making sure you have covered the roots with compost or potting mix completely to prevent them drying out and dying
• Water well now and continue to keep the bed moist while your plants are growing
• Cover with shade cloth for a few days to reduce evaporation and give some shade
• Keep this bed moist and fertilise your seedlings with worm liquid +/or some liquid fertilisers as they grow. I use BackYard Box Organic. Ask me for some as I stock it.)
What to grow in your new no dig vegie garden...
To begin:
You have just created a nitrogen rich compost heap as a garden bed!. Leafy greens love nitrogen
• Leafy greens eg mizuna, mibuna, parsley, chicory, mustard greens,
• Nasturtiums around the edges to retain moisture and deter whitefly and aphids, chives to inhibit aphids, prostrate rosemary is also good
• Strawberries (on the shady side), lettuce, chinese greens, silverbeet and spinach …
Later as the heap settles in and the materials break down in to a compost mix you can grow…
Shallow root crops and fruiting crops such as
• Baby carrots, radish from seed
• Tomatoes, beans, pumpkins, eggplant,
• Lebanese cucumber, snow peas and peas, beans, cabbages and broccoli
Enjoy your new garden.
Do you have a no dig bed that has sunk?
Look out for my ‘Raised Bed Reno’ notes coming soon in the Gardening Tips section of my website.
Cheers, Linda