With another series of rain days forecast, it seems a good opportunity for sowing into no dig beds that I made a few weeks ago. We have been busy with visitors for that time, so yesterday was my first chance to get down and have a look at how the hay rows are doing.
First up I was impressed with how moist the ground is underneath the hay. We had had a few sunny days which had dried out the surface soil in the dug bed between them, which stood in stark contrast.
Second I was impressed with how well the hay had kept the grass down. It’s only in spots where the hay was thin that some grass grew.
And then I was impressed with how sweetly the hay is composting – although there is still a clear boundary between soil and compost, there is a lot of animal activity starting up, so there should be some turnover by worms and others.
I made a row in each hay bed, just by pulling apart the hay until I hit soil, then sowed french millet and mung beans in the bed in the featured image;
and sunflowers in the longer bed uphill.
As this bed is quite wide, I came back and sowed about eight watermelons in single holes along the right side.
It seems a bit strange to plant on the soil surface, and I did push the watermelon seeds in a little, but the broadcast seeds are among hay debris in fairly deep channels, so it should be a good environment to germinate, especially with this rain.
All-in-all that’s millet and mung beans, lab lab beans and corn, sunflowers and watermelon, from left to right, with the middle bed a traditional hoed one and already up and growing. I hope this no dig system works, as it would make planting cover crops and grain crops for the chickens much easier.
I’ll update when the seedlings are moving.