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Why you should NEVER dig your garden!
Ever heard of Charles Dowding, the man who pioneered the No-Dig gardening system? SO cool. I’m a massive fan grrrl of his. Kind of embarrassing tbh. If you peeked into my book shelves, this is what you would find:
So over the bank holiday weekend I went to Charles Dowding’s ACTUAL Homeacres farm in Somerset and took a course with the ACTUAL MAN HIMSELF. Beyond thrilled. Entirely geeked out. Rich thought it was very funny, and then went out and bought himself another tractor while I was gone. (Seriously, how many tractors does one man NEED???)
Anyhow, Charles Dowding’s hero concept is that when you’re gardening (counter to the centuries-old dictate about getting out there with your spade and breaking your back digging hell-for-leather to loosen up the soil) you don’t dig. At all. Ever.
Turns out, you don’t have to.
In fact, you shouldn’t!
Dowding has proved in formal trials for more than 17 years that soil thrives best when it is left undisturbed. Instead of digging (or tilling), you just add a layer of compost to the top of the soil each autumn, similar to the process that occurs in nature where organic matter builds up on the surface.
Over time, the compost is naturally drawn down into the soil by the activity of soil life, improving fertility, drainage, and structure without disrupting the ecosystem. So you get healthy soil that supports vigorous plant growth with less effort and fewer weeds. What’s not to love?
So – this way is easier. AND better. AND more productive. Win win win. The basic power underpinning the whole system – and this is what I finally understood actually listening to Mr. Dowding in person, rather than just reading his books – is that gardening is not chemistry – where you’re adding nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. Gardening is BIOLOGY.
The soil is alive. It’s a living system. And when you dig it, you wreck it. You’re basically giving it a lobotomy – because the brains of the soil is the underground mycelium network, which is a delicate web of fungi, bacteria, and soil life that plants rely on to form symbiotic relationships with plant roots, helping them access water and nutrients in exchange for sugars.
Basically, digging makes your soil stupid. And dead. And you want your soil to be brainy and alive – because then your plants can interact with the soil and get what they need at any given time, instead of you trying to figure out what they need and give it to them in chemical form.
It’s very similar to your gut in that way.
I was just thinking that – when the ten of us students (v. excited – all v. geeky – there were people there from the US, Norway, Ireland who had all come specially for the course) were sitting down with Mr. Dowding to THE MOST GORGEOUS feast, all prepared from vegetables grown right there on the farm – when Mr. Dowding mentioned the soil microbiome.
Well, that was my cue! I said that we did gut microbiome testing at Chuckling Goat, and that we were planning a soil microbiome test. (This is true – we currently have a PhD studentship underway with Cambridge University and John Innes Soil Centre, to try to design a soil microbiome test for gardeners. It’s my passion project. Don’t get me started. Gets me so excited that I can’t sleep at night. More geeking out.)
Mr. Dowding was interested in this – so much so that he gave me a little packet of soil from Homeacres to take for use as our first baseline for the soil microbiome test.
Now this is – let me see how to describe it. It’s like – imagine that you’re a massive fan of Taylor Swift. And you go and take a class with her and she GIVES YOU HER GUITAR TO TAKE HOME WITH YOU.
Kind of like that. But with fewer sequins.
Because it’s all connected. Of course it is. Healthy soil produces healthy food – which creates a healthy gut. (Watch a cool 3-minute video explaining that idea here)
The Homeacres soil – which I would strongly argue is probably the BEST soil in the entire UK – is currently sitting in my fridge. I’ve contacted Prof Anton Enright at Cambridge, who heads up the lab where our gut microbiome test results are processed. I’ve told him that the soil sample is on its way.
At Cambridge they will test the soil with 16s rRNA testing – and maybe shotgun sequencing as well – so that we can see exactly what bacteria are alive and present in it. And using that as a baseline, we’ll figure out what we want to test for, in the soil microbiome test.
We are now at the reaches of what current science can tell us. It’s a bit like – the science is a Tardis. But we have to figure out where we want to GO. What does alive soil look like? What bacteria should be present? If you’re taking care of your soil properly how does that show up on a test?
What do you think? Do you dig in your garden?
Come with me on the journey – who knows what we’ll find!!
Hugs,
Shann
Shann Jones MBE
Founder/Director Chuckling Goat
Top 5 Empowering Women Business Leaders to Watch in 2025, CIO Look Magazine
