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In recent years popularised by the current no-dig garden expert Charles Dowding, no-dig gardening is where we help preserve the soil structure through feeding the soil life with organic matter on the soil surface. At times the use of spade may be needed to dig something out but generally, the soil will lay undisturbed. I used this method at the allotment which when I started was a heavy clay soil and by the time, I left I could use my hands dig holes for plants.

In this design “closed-loop” is where we are trying to recycle all nutrients and organic material back to the soil it grew in. For a small garden like this, we are never going to be able to close the loop, external resources will always need to be brought in to help improve the soil but working towards completing as much of the loop as possible using resources in and around the garden will help with the overall sustainability of the garden.

The location of the composting area is to be at the back top corner of the allotment plot. This location was selected for a few reasons:

• I wanted it to be out of sight when we are sat on the bench.
• I did not want it next to the main allotment path where people would have to look at it when they walked passed my plot.
• Once the plants get grown-up it’s also going to be the most shaded part of the plot, helping to prevent it from drying out too much in the sun.
• There is a patch of nettles currently where the composting area is going to be, placing the compost here will prevent the nettles from growing.

Soil represents one of the most highly diverse ecosystems on our planet with an interacting community of bacteria, archaea, viruses, fungi, and protozoa: collectively referred to as the 'soil microbiome'. The soil microbiome governs biogeochemical cycling of macronutrients, micronutrients and other elements vital for the growth of plants and animal life.

Zone 0: Centre of activities - the house. This is high maintenance, high use and requires considerable investment of time and energy.

Zone 1: Annual plants, herbs, compost, plant propagation, construction and maintenance, bike store and other high use activities, greenhouse. Often irrigated

Zone 2: Dense planting, poultry and small livestock, orchard, polytunnels.

Zone 3: Large water storage, main crops, sheep, cows, field shelters.

Zone 4: Forestry, wood-pasture, dams, forage.

Zone 5: Wild zone, where nature is in charge and where we go to learn and harvest only that which is abundant.

Zone information https://www.permaculture.org.uk/design-methods/zoning .

Couch grass, nettles, and docks are excellent at growing from the smallest piece of root left in the ground, this is why it’s important to try to make sure as much of the roots are removed as possible from these plants. Dandelions will also grow from small pieces of root but their leaves also make for good eating so leaving some of these will be of benefit.

There was an allotment rule that stated fences could be no higher than 60 cm. Rabbits will easily jump over a fence this low, I set my fence to 80 cm. This would stop all but the most persistent of rabbits from jumping over. A fence at this height allowed me to be able to bend over it and access the bed on the other side. As a side note, the beds on the other side of the fence were higher than the outside of the plot, this made the beds easier to reach. I also dug the rabbit wire into the ground with it bending out from the plot to prevent rabbits from scratching under the wire.

I did make a note of mentioning how pointless such a low fence would be for rabbits to other people on the allotment site and before long everybody had fences that broke this rule. Nothing was ever said to me about my fence height.  

Paths and Beds

There were a few things that I wanted to achieve with the layout of the beds and paths:

• Easy access when tending to the beds
• For the paths to flood
• Microclimates
• Different ways to walk around the beds
• The beds to give the perspective of wildness

Easy access when tending to the beds – Everything should be done to avoid standing on or walking over the beds. Walking over the beds will cause compaction to the soil and will have a negative impact on the soil microbiome. Designing with the intention that everything growing in the beds can be easily reached from the paths will prevent having to walk on the beds when removing weeds, planting out and harvesting. There was one area where I needed to add a keyhole into the design for a bed that would have been too wide to reach. The rest of the beds had access from either side of the bed or from reaching over the fence.  

For the paths to flood – The location of the plot was on the only section of the allotment site that was flat. Having raised beds would prevent the plants from becoming waterlogged during the wetter parts of the year or after heavy rain. The idea was to dig the paths down and rise the beds higher so during wet weather it would be the paths that flooded and not the plants. After the wet weather, the water from the flooded paths would say on the plot and slowly drain back into the soil. Holding the water on the site for longer would be of great benefit during the summer months.   

Microclimates – Designing the beds with shape to them both in the layout and the hight of them will create microclimates that will be beneficial for wildlife and will create niches for different plants. Having the paths flood during the summer will also add extra microclimates to the plot.    

Different ways to walk around the beds – I wanted to build into the design as many different ways as possible to walk around the plot trying to give it the feel that it was much larger than it really was.

The beds to give the perspective of wildness – When sat where the bench is going to be I do not want to be able to see straight lines. I want the plot to look wild to help recreate a natural habitat something that I find very calming and relaxing. Most of the time we spend at the allotment will be either sitting on the bench or walking the paths so having as natural as an experience as possible inside the plot will be of great health benefit for both of us.

Sow the beds with cover crops: During phase one of the design the main beds will be sown with a ground cover, this will be a mix of buckwheat, phacelia, radish, and red clover. Buckwheat has the ability to take up soil phosphorus and return it in a more plant-friendly form back into the soil. It also suppresses weeds and attracts beneficial insects and pollinators with its abundant blossoms. Phacelia is often used for soil-improving as green manure. It is effective at preventing nitrogen leaching and suppressing weeds, due to its fast establishment. Its dense zone of shallow roots are very good at conditioning the top 3-4 cm of soil. Radish has long taproots and bore holes into the ground, loosening the soil. The radishes capture, store and then release nutrients back into the soil, so they also can reduce the need for fertilizer in the spring. Red clover has a bacteria in the nodules on roots that convert nitrogen from the air into nitrates. These stored nitrates are released to the companion plants and following crops through root decay and the new roots and nodules that grow to replace them.

The temporary growing area will be sown with a crop of lucerne which builds organic matter in the soil providing nutrients to plant roots. Its high nitrogen content helps other organic material to decompose.

The soil food web is the community of organisms living all or part of their lives in the soil. It describes a complex living system in the soil and how it interacts with the environment, plants, and animals.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soil_food_web 

This is a small area of the plot where we can add a few quick growing crops ready for harvest before we start phase two of the plot. Once these crops get established a ground cover of lucerne can be sown.

Bare-root fruit bushes need to be planted in autumn or winter while they are dormant. They are much cheaper to buy than container-grown ones which can be planted at any time. Here we are planting bare-root bushes.

Strawberries are best planted out in spring after the first frosts, I’ll be planning mine in November to get them in the ground and out of the way. I’ll not be expecting a crop the first year so I’m happy to plant mine this time of year. We shall see how these plants cope with been planted out in November.

Perennials are plants that live for several years, they bloom, crop and die back over the course of a year, but the rootstock remains and it is from this, rather than a new seed, that the next year’s flowers and crops come. Because they remain in the soil and grow over successive years, the root systems of perennial plants help to improve the structure of the soil. With deeper root systems that stretch further down into the soil, perennials are able to access nutrients out of the reach of annual plants. They then bring these nutrients up to the surface where they and other plants can access it. As well as bringing up nutrients from further down in the soil profile, the root systems of perennial plants are also able to draw moisture up. Again, this moisture becomes available in the upper levels of the soil for other, shallower rooting, plants to access. Planting perennials not only helps access more water from the soil, but it also preserves soil moisture because the soil is at no point left exposed. Because the perennial grows its crop from the same rootstock, the permaculture gardener does not have to expend energy clearing areas for sowing, sowing seeds and composting and mulching the soil to supply nutrients for plantings.

https://regenerative.com/seven-advantages-perennials/

Chop and drop is a method of mulching that has become a core technique utilised by permaculture around the world. The method is to find a tree or plant that can be used as mulch; prune off branches, leaves or the entire plant, drop the chopped off material to the ground and leave it there.

Depending on the climate, over time the chopped off material will eventually breakdown and feed the soil, whilst also preventing undesirable plants from growing by suffocating them out. In our temperate climate branches will take much longer to breakdown than in tropical climates.  

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Websites offering useful intimation

Permaculture Association: https://www.permaculture.org.uk/

The Diploma in Applied Permaculture Design: https://www.permaculture.org.uk/diploma

To learn more about the Permaculture ethics and Principles https://permacultureprinciples.com/

Podcast - Homesteading and Permaculture by Paul Wheaton: https://richsoil.com/permaculture/category/podcast

Podcast - Diego Footer's Permaculture Voices: https://www.permaculturevoices.com/

Sun Surveyor app https://www.sunsurveyor.com/