Starting a no-till bed Charles Dowding style

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TomF
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Well today I built a couple of new beds on the front lawn. I did it Charles Dowding style and now we have two additional beds of 16 foot x 3 foot beds that get good sun. Our original beds are somewhat shaded and this more than doubles our bed area. Also the original beds were 3' wide but the paths were only 1'. Too narrow for my size 13 feet so the new bed has 18inch path between. My long legs can span 3' beds easily enough but a more trad market garden style like this is 30 inch bed with 18 inch paths.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LH6-w57Slw&t=2s
I did nothing to the grass. Got a bunch of cardboard and hope that since it was just lawn and not to weedy, things will turn out fine. Now Jack may throw up in his mouth a little bit with me plunking the beds parallel to each other in the middle of the yard way out of synch with the more organic, flowing nature of our perennial beds. We will figure it out later, hopefully. LOL (we did not have great success with the plantings that were in there anyway and our ornamental Maple has been hit hard with snow load and mega breaking main limbs)

So Friday I went out to Terra Flora Organics and picked up 2 yards of Premium Fungal Mulching Compost for the build. Saturday afternoon was spent peeling tape, laying out the cardboard, moving a couple of big rocks and laying out the beds. Sunday was funday with the spreading of compost and wood chips. The compost was aged nicely and not hot at all with a quick temp check. I used a bunch of treated 2x6 scraps to lay along the string line to keep things separated. I first played out the compost about 4" thick. Then packed the edge a bit against the board then stood the boards up on end and packed more to about 4" height after packing. I could then pull the board away and bring in the wood chips and they filled up to the packed compost edge. I just did 6 feet at a time and worked my way down.

So I am off for March break trip and will get some starts from the local garden store to plant when I get back end of March. Hopefully everything works out fine. I may have to rake out some of the bigger chunks as the compost was not screened at all. Will see how that goes in the long run. Might not be a great carrot bed for a while.
Attachments
peeling tape
peeling tape
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laying out beds on cardboard
laying out beds on cardboard
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temp check
temp check
IMG_9504.jpg (117.88 KiB) Viewed 2398 times
Last edited by TomF on Mon 14-Mar-2022, 00:10, edited 4 times in total.
TomF
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Three pic limit so a few more.
Attachments
the working side
the working side
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finished end
finished end
IMG_9506.jpg (174.86 KiB) Viewed 2397 times
working along the string line
working along the string line
IMG_9508.jpg (165.1 KiB) Viewed 2397 times
TomF
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And the last few images.
Attachments
packing the edge along the upright guide boards
packing the edge along the upright guide boards
IMG_9509.jpg (173.49 KiB) Viewed 2397 times
the packed edge ready for wood chips
the packed edge ready for wood chips
IMG_9510.jpg (157.1 KiB) Viewed 2397 times
the finished garden beds
the finished garden beds
IMG_9511.jpg (191.67 KiB) Viewed 2397 times
Danoost
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I appreciate you taking the time to share what you've done. This will be tremendously helpful for other gardeners!
jack oostenbrink
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This looks great Tom! The pictures are very helpful to show the process.
TomF
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Danoost wrote: Mon 14-Mar-2022, 16:25 I appreciate you taking the time to share what you've done. This will be tremendously helpful for other gardeners!
jack oostenbrink wrote: Mon 14-Mar-2022, 20:49 This looks great Tom! The pictures are very helpful to show the process.
Well it did not wash off the cardboard with the really heavy rains we got right after completing this which is a good thing! Will see how my edges fair too as that was a focus in the webinar Dan. They are at least parallel to the yew hedge Jack. hopefully we can visually tie everything else in when we start to clean up the other beds. Will follow up when it's planted.
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