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UK: I’m a former professional vegetable grower and these are my tips for starting a vegetable garden

You can remove the turf from the lawn using a spade or turf lifter, which will remove the top few inches of turf.

By Drew Swainston
Home and Gardens
Mar 16, 2023

Excerpt:

I am a former professional kitchen gardener and have been fortunate enough to work in several fantastic vegetable gardens. I have helped plan and develop these vegetable gardens and also, in my spare time, my partner and I turned an overgrown section of field into a productive allotment garden to grow vegetables, fruit, and flowers. Using my hands-on knowledge and experience, I have outlined 10 important factors to consider when you want to start a vegetable garden in your backyard.

Traditionally, growers would dig their plots every winter – either by single or double-digging – and work in lots of well-rotted manure or organic matter as they went. However, nowadays there is more of a common thinking that no dig, or no till, gardening is the way to go. It is thought that too much digging and working of the soil actually harms the structure and the beneficial microbial life within the soil.

No dig gardening involves laying a base level of cardboard and then mounding the compost or organic matter on top – adding to this each winter. The materials smother weeds and rely on worms to incorporate that compost down into the soil over time. It is now a very popular method of growing and has many benefits – I myself started running my allotment using no dig principles and have worked in kitchen gardens that were no dig. I found them highly successful ways of growing and I would class myself as an advocate for that growing method.

Read the complete article here.