![]() ![]() But it’s a big step, especially for people who are used to digging. Now, a lot of people are curious and quite a few are going for it. At first, no one wanted to know then, people were curious, but didn’t want to do it. No-dig guru Charles Dowding, who has been writing and (not) digging for 40 years, welcomed B&Q’s epiphany: “It has been a slow burn. With the no-dig system, you can actually start to put the carbon back into the soil and it’s a really nice thing that we can do.” But, of course, by digging it, we’re exposing that carbon to oxygen within there, and that turns into CO2. “And the higher the carbon is, the better it is. “Carbon is like the glue within the soil,” said Clapp. Instead of digging to aerate soil and suppress weeds, with “no-dig” gardening you spread compost on the surface annually and allow worms, bacteria and soil fungi to break it down naturally, so you don’t need to add fertiliser. “And there is, we believe, an alternative way to doing that, and for that we have to thank Charles Dowding and his methods.” But Clapp’s “light-bulb moment” has illuminated a commercial path to reducing chemical use, as well as cutting back-breaking labour for gardeners.Īt the launch, Clapp sweatily demonstrated double digging, the arcane Victorian method of cultivating vegetable and flowerbeds two spades deep: “But digging damages bacteria and fungi in the soil and is the old way of doing things. ![]() Traditional farming and gardening relies on adding nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium (NPK), which is the basis of most synthetic fertilisers.
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