Dig or No-Dig? Grass paths? Raised Beds? New Allotment Questions! | JB's Beginner Guide - Part 2

[@JBNat]

Thanks to everyone who comments with further advice or things I'd missed! I really appreciate it. The main thing that has been pointed out in the comments so far is that I didn't mention how your physical ability can factor into the decisions I discuss. If you're older or less physically able, it is a great choice to go for the lower maintenance options of slabs or woodchips for paths, and raised beds can make life much easier in terms of being able to both access the beds and also reducing the maintenance of weeding etc. Please do keep the comments coming! Lovely to hear from you all.

[@suemowat222]

I'm comfortable with no-dig and use it but don't think it's good to be rigid about it. Remember that people have been growing good crops for thousands of years by digging and ploughing, so it's OK. I think you are right JB about starting with digging then moving on to no- dig later.

[@jonathanharvey4879]

My sentiment as well. Tilling works if it didn't there would not be as many humans as there are. I am a digger and find it most cathartic. OK maybe no dig is the way to go but getting enough compost could be a issue. I would dig your beds to start and then switch to no dig later if that appeals to you. Apparently your soil structure should recover in around 3 months

[@wales123100]

​​@@jonathanharvey4879 even charles dowding is careful to say there's not that much difference in yield its time thats the plus point of no dig but I've always dug

[@GARDENER42]

That's pretty much what I did - dig out most of the perennial weeds, then cover in cardboard & compost. Do NOT use membrane - I have wood chip paths & have hardly any weeds come through between the annual addition of a 2" layer of chips. My plants seem to love growing into them & no raised bed edges, ever.

[@Carol-oc7mx]

Another view point from us oldies - raised beds are more useful as you aged and bending may become an issue - digging again may become an issue - mowing and edging grass paths, I do love them, can become a big chore as energy levels begin to nosedive love this series of videos so far 😁😁

[@majordog2399]

I love a grass path, it's better for the planet, keeps you fit mowing and looks great after a tight cut. I've tried wood chip and it brought along a lot of fungi that has affected the crops so I'm grass only now.

[@mikkibubble4711]

So glad I found your channel! I’m a newbie in growing veggies, just got my beginner’s plot. My problem is, identifying what I actually have on my plot, and distinguishing weed from useful plants. Are there any identification apps you could recommend, please?

[@LizZorab]

Ooh nice find in the rhubarb!

[@JBNat]

Thanks Liz! I try to forget about the rhubarb you so kindly gave to me that I almost instantly killed.....

[@lindacano437]

Great video...lots of information I needed. A lot of things I knew already, but being elderly, I needed a reminder. Thanks JB!💚

[@JBNat]

You are so welcome!

[@Bhoywonder67]

On the waiting list and expecting my first allotment within the next month or so. Very helpful videos

[@JBNat]

Thank you! Good luck with the waiting list 😁

[@mandytaylor1008]

Hi jb great video we use cardboard and woodchip paths after 3 years of topping up every year we scoop up some of the path and use it as mulch and then we replace with more woodchip. We have it delivered free to plots so this is easy for us. If you have more time you get on top of the weeds coming through. Nest woodchip paths keep grass from growing into beds. We don’t have any sides to our beds so everything is flat so to speak. We started off with boards around our beds but slugs were rife. But before our no digging we gardened traditionally with long rows no beds and we dug. I bought plants a lot of the time and Had a nursery bed for sowing seeds. I had never sown indoors or in a greenhouse. Now I sow everything I don’t like to buy hardly at all anything we recycle as much as we can. We do have to buy in compost organic compost as although we make a lot of our own we need more. It’s £58/ ton delivered from a nearby supplier of all kinds of soil compost sand you name it. It’s what we call black gold. It’s amazing and does the trick. That’s me and my hubby. We by no means perfect and have lots of failures and we always learning from you and everyone else like you. But we love it even tho our polytunnel blew away a few days ago that’s the 3rd time now and is very bodged so will need to invest in another after the summer. I lost a lot of my plants and seedlings and have had to sow all over again. Never mind that’s how it is isn’t it. Thing is to get over it quickly and start again.👍Thame care see you soon🙋🏻

[@louise2209]

I’ve got a mix of formal and informal raised beds, in ground beds and pots in my garden. Compost though is just expensive and pot luck now. So I am playing around with teas, green manure and mulching with leaves, my own wood chip and just working with nature to create ground cover, grow nitrogen fixers, while my own compost develops better. Good luck with the new plot!

[@MrBlacksunster]

I have paths with woodchips. Started with cardboard underneath. First year I had to remove some weeds. After 3 years only a few seeds come up. Need to add new woodchips every year but for the rest it is very low maintenance. Everyone has their preferred path, mine definately is woodchips!

[@JBNat]

Cardboard under the woodchip is a really good point - I've started doing this for the paths in my beds now, thank you!

[@MrBlacksunster]

@@JBNat I think I saw this in your last video, worked great for me. Hope it wil work good for you too. Best thing is to keep adding more woodchips every year, or even twice in the year.

[@sharon1615]

This is a great series JB I'm going to recommend your vlogs to everyone 🥰

[@JBNat]

Thank you so much Sharon! You're the best 😀

[@emptynestgardens9057]

I love Jessie and her Mum's paths at @Plot37. I have woodchip around my garden beds and they for sure harbour slugs, earwigs and wood hornets more than the grass paths. They also do require some weeding and yearly top-up. Grass or woodchip or something else, it's all about what the individual can physically and financially live with. It all works 👍🏻 Looking forward to seeing this space transform JB.

[@JBNat]

Brilliant summary!

[@jennisutherland577]

JB I found you today! 😊 I am in Australia and live in a Lifestyle Village where I have been blessed to takeover a plot gardened by a wonderful gardener ( you guys will be jealous over there because it’s $50 a year and there’s probably 10 plots not being farmed🙆🏼‍♀️ ( sinful really) the information and advice you are giving is spot on in 🤩 thank you 🙏🏼 I am looking forward to more binge watching 👩🏼‍🌾

[@JBNat]

Ahh wonderful Jenni! Thank you so much, really nice to know. I imagine the climate is quite different over there!

[@jennisutherland577]

@@JBNat yes it sure is! I watch A lot of Charles Dowding and then apply what I learn to our climate I’m Aussie zone 5 and gonna be mor patient with this plot ( or not and I’ll learn a lot on the way😂)

[@NickSBailey]

good advice lookng forward to see how it goes. a vote for grass paths here as well, I like them short enough and edged well to look neat but long enough that a few daisies, trefoil and clover creeps in and flowers.

[@railfanner8460]

@Naturally JB, excellent video! I always like to hear about different methods of gardening and this video covered A LOT! This year, I am going to refurbish my existing raised bed vegetable garden and with the cost of lumber (as well as everything else) right now, I will be going with the no dig method. Looking forward to seeing your progress for ideas and inspiration. Thank you for sharing!

[@JBNat]

Thanks so much! I'm really glad you enjoyed it

[@dutchbeef8920]

My tip, look around the site and see if there is a pile of wood chips. If so, dig down into the pile and find the old decomposing stuff. I used this on my first allotment to bulk out an anaemic compost heap. You need mass for making compost. I took loads of wheelbarrows of the decomposing wood chips and added them to the pile. This really kick started the pile and it turned into decent compost.

[@JBNat]

This is a great tip! I can't do it on mine because the stuff at the bottom is infested with bindweed roots 🤣 we just skim from off the top ha!

[@dutchbeef8920]

@@JBNat ah thats a shame, evil bindweed.

[@stephenblaze4571]

Yes another great video may I suggest that you mention age and ability I'm near 69 years old and have just changed allotments with an 87 year old who could not cope with his plot, I've built raised beds because I do not want to dig my plot over every year, But I must say that you are putting a lot of thought in about what to do when to do it, a lot of new allotment holders go mad and burn themselves out they come the first couple of weeks and then have a month off and think the plot will be the same when they come back as when they left it

[@JBNat]

Great point Stephen - I added some notes about this in the comments/description as admittedly it's a bit of a blind spot for me! I mentioned it a little bit during the video but definitely could have expanded on it!

[@FrederickBowdler]

Great advice 😊

[@thedorkasaur]

Paths, I'm actually trying to use my paths to be an area for flowers. I'm growing things like sedum and creeping thyme that can be walked on. I'm hoping it means that pathways will have a purpose, good for the bugs, look pretty. 🤞🏻

[@JBNat]

Beautiful idea! Clover is a great one too!

[@bhalliwell2191]

About paths. I, too, like the look of grass paths, and the fact that they provide clippings either for mulching with, or to go into the compost bin. In general, however, my rule of thumb has been: Can I afford the initial investment; can I afford to maintain whatever this is (I agree, for instance, with *Empty Nest Gardens*'s observations); what secondary or tertiary effects will this have for good or ill; and perhaps the most important consideration for me: How much will it take in money and/or sweat equity to *un*do this if undoing becomes needful? Looking forward to watching this allotment garden as it develops!😊

[@grahamwalker139]

Personally for me and my allotment its no dig and wood chip paths. I went down the the raised bed route to begin with but after a few years the wood started rotting, too many places for slugs etc to hide and the it was a pain getting rid of all the rotten wood from the raised beds. The only problem for a while was finding enough materials to make compost but I found a stables so now I mix raw stable manure with thin layers of wood chips and that make a passable compost.

[@JBNat]

Manure and woodchip is meant to be a brilliant compost and mulch! Sounds like you've got it sussed!

[@nineteenninetyfive]

One the things I don't like about no dig in raised beds is that it has a bit of a "Ground Force" instant make over effect. I think allotments should be gradually improved and formed over time so it kind of goes against the grain in that way.

[@JBNat]

I really know what you mean! I kind of love that it took me the best part of 3 years to actually get plot #1 converted into a growing space, whereas I'm hoping to makeover plot#2 in the best part of a few weeks!

[@JanesGrowingGarden]

I still can't decide what to do with my paths - some are membrane with woodchip over but now full of grass coming through, some are just grass, some are - well I'm not quite sure but good to get it sorted at the beginning stages before the beds take priority. Another great video JB - keep 'em coming!

[@JBNat]

Hahaha that's another one of the reasons I sort of like grass... not really anything that can go wrong with it!

[@lookinglassminiature]

I got rid of the grass paths around my raised beds. I think we call the invasive grass you have crabgrass in Canada. I put mulch down and it is so much easier. Great videos for beginners J.B.

[@paulineellison9047]

if u want low maintenance then go raised beds no dig and wood chip paths... thats what iv got but then again i am 72 and cant be doing all the digging now

[@ThatBritishHomestead]

lovely new allotment there! Looks like its got a lot of pertential. If i started over i would so rows, like market gardenting!

[@anthonyp.2492]

Another great video JB...Much love from Indian River County Florida

[@JBNat]

Thanks so much 👍

[@happydigging]

Great video, really well thought out advice 😃 Happy digging 🌱

[@ErraticPerfectionist]

I have woodchip paths, with no plastic. I weeded to the best of my ability, then just used a goodly amount of cardboard before putting down the woodchip. I top up the paths by mulching my own prunings (there's a reasonable amount every autumn and spring). I am not a fan of grass because almost the only kind around is couch (or other invasive runner grasses) and it's the absolute worst for taking over garden beds. If native grasses were easier to grow then maybe I wouldn't mind, but my friend who lives nearby tried to sow native grass, and unfortunately other people's invasive runner grasses blew into her yard and she's now wrestling to get her garden beds free of it.

[@mariewright9352]

I was very luck with my plot last June due to the previous holder friends and plot neighbours keeping the plot mostly clear and they had rotovated it so it was 90% clear when I took it over but very interesting video if, like you I go for another plot at some time in the future but trying to not get ahead of myself 😂 I need to see how I get on this year first !! Due to cost I have put chicken manure pellets into my beds over the last few months, will this put enough goodness back in my soil.I’m also planning on putting blood,fish and bone in before I plant. Will this be enough?

[@JBNat]

Chicken Pellets are fantastic! I have some too and I will mostly be using them at the bottom of transplants, a small scattering at the bottom of the hole just to give them a little boost at the start. Unless your soil is seriously depleted, BFB and pellets should be really good.

[@cathtf7957]

Nice overview 👍👍

[@johnowen8984]

I've just taken on my first allotment a few weeks ago. It's covered in a thick layer of woodchips, and ive got a lot of work to do digging up broad leaf dock. Never knew until recently they have roots as thick as a parsnip! Luckily, the guys on the allotment organised a 20 ton load of mushroom compost, and i managed to get a ton for 25 quid so i can start some no dig beds after i finish fixing the leaking shed roof.

[@JBNat]

Bargain!! Starting off with a wood chip layer is no bad thing - it's quite an effective mulch. My Family Garden is a real advocate of mulching with wood chip and gets great results. One thing is that it can remove nitrogen from the soil during the composting process, so it might not be ideal for your greens - brassicas, lettuce etc. But you can remedy that with a seaweed feed or something similar!

[@1974isl]

I cant produce enough compost for the no dig method but I can see the appeal.

[@JasmineTribeX]

Is there a part 3 ? :)

[@JBNat]

I'm sorry I actually never got round to filming part 3! I have been thinking about restarting this. What sort of things would you like to see in a third episode? 🙏

[@stephenturner3942]

J.B, I have small chillies, my issue is they are all flowing, I have been told to cut off, but there appears to be more and more.

[@JBNat]

Are you feeding them with anything? You probably just need to get them potted on!

[@stephenturner3942]

@@JBNat just half recommended tomato feed.

[@JBNat]

@@stephenturner3942 ah well that is your issue! Tomato feed is for the flowering stage of growth. At the seedling stage you don't want to be feeding it anything other than a very diluted nitrogen feed to encourage leafy growth. You want to get your plant as big and as strong as possible before making it start producing fruit when it's in its final pot size :)

[@FrederickBowdler]

I tried woodchip without any membrane in grass and it seemed to disappear in less than a. Month. Wood chips make a poor compost and it takes along time and can controversially be toxic to vegetables.

[@JBNat]

@@FrederickBowdler I've had mixed experience using cardboard. In between my scaffolding board raised beds I was able to get a muuuuch thicker layer of woodchip, which is why I think it's done a really good job of keeping everything down. On some of the lower beds I created I couldn't put down as much chip, so it's not lasted very long. I wouldn't say it's toxic either, it can just deplete the available nitrogen to plants as part of its composting process. Shouldn't be an issue on paths. Also seen mixed results of people using it as a mulch! If the roots are low enough I suppose it makes sense they won't be impacted.

[@FrederickBowdler]

I don't know for certain but like mushrooms (often toxic) woodchip fungi can be toxic in the short term this is one of the problems of carbon chemistry.

[@bago696]

Get the strimmer out JB, its driving my OCD nuts

[@JBNat]

Hahahaha all in good time Colm!

[@belindax4897]

I didn’t have to look too hard for weeds in my plot lol.

[@wales123100]

I'm a digger!

[@catemc2323]

🌈💚🍀

[@locke6531]

👍

[@JBNat]

Thank you pal!

[@shirinnosrati6766]

Get rid of everything and start fresh. Don't waste time and effort on saving some plants that are already there. Hear me out, it's not worth it! I tried doing that and ended up ripping out all of them after 2 years of constant weeding and maintaining.

[@AndyMarchant]

Is this just putting a raised bed over concrete? kzbin.info/www/bejne/b6mlfWmsrNSHe9E

[@JBNat]

Yes it's half concrete and half a small existing garden border 😊

[@AndyMarchant]

@@JBNat I found your video where you built it out of pallets! I have a full concrete path up my garden, with no border, do you reckon I could replicate? Either way, your videos have got me to enquire about my local allotment. Just awaiting the form!

[@JBNat]

@@AndyMarchant ah lovely to hear! Good luck with the waiting list! You can definitely make raised beds on concrete, but you might want to go a little deeper with the bed than I have, unless you are content just growing shallower rooted plants. One thing you might miss from going straight on concrete is the soil microbiome. But if you start with a bit of soil from elsewhere in the garden at the bottom, and then add plenty of organic matter it should provide plenty of food for the worms etc

[@AndyMarchant]

@@JBNat Thanks, sir!

[@tangerinebabe1]

This is my 1st year going no dig. I get mixed results with digging, so I've been studying this method and I'm intrigued. So I'm going to do my whole allotment this way and see how it goes this year. All my rised beds are prepped and ready to go.... Fingers crossed 🤞

[@JBNat]

Good luck! Let me know how you get on later in the growing season!