Creating a flower bed via "no dig" method

[AntiqueBooks]

Hello Gardening Wizards!

Me again! You all very kindly made suggestions for flowering bushes I could put in my front-garden's flowerbed when I create it. (It's currently just grass)

But now I want to ask about the creation of the bed itself. I think it will be about 3m x 2m. South facing.

I'm planning to put down newspaper and pile compost on top.

Have any of you done this? Do I need to create a trench/border round it eg with bricks?

Should I leave it until Feb/March to start? Or will microbes still get to work this time of year?

How much compost will I need?

Is this doable for a clumsy moron like me?!

All (blunt!) advice welcome! Thanks

For winter I'd plant things like hellebores and cyclamen.

I do an edge with my half moon thingie or a spade for a small area. Turn over the line of turf into the new bed area then cardboard and a thick layer of compost. I use my garden compost.

The edge seems neater to me. It makes it easier to hide the cardboard edges with the compost.

Using no dig I've widened several large borders and created a few new ones, its so much easier than having to dig everything over.

Used my hosepipe to get the correct line I wanted a lazy S shape.

A really good orange/apricot rose is 'The Lark Ascending' which is an English Rose (that's its classification) bred by David Austin. He set out to breed roses with all the elegance and classiness of old roses, but good repeat flowerers. That one's a cracker -never stops flowering and is disease-free.

If you're going down the crocosmia route, look for the more refined varieties. It'll take over your border anyway so you might at least have a good one. Most people grow 'Lucifer' which is big and robust. It's good, but I also have 'Firebird' and a fantastic one called 'Culzean Pink' which must have originated in Ayrshire. I've got others but have lost the labels.
Also if you like orange flowers, why not tiger lilies?This is in my cottage garden.

You like thorns then @AntiqueBooks 😀 Nearly all the gardens I have had have come with pyracantha and holly. In the right conditions pyracantha grows fast, last house the 2 bushes needed frequent pruning. This house it is in a south facing border and much slower thank goodness.

Crocosmia was also here already and is everywhere, hard to get rid of.

If you want berries what about a skimmia, they are better behaved and no thorns? Vibernum tinus flowers in the winter and is nice with it along with hellebores and snowdrops as mentioned above and black grass is good with them.

For a white rose that is wildlife friendly look at Kew Gardens. More classic one is Desdemona. I’d look at putting some Geranium rozanne in for ground cover.

I’ve had mobility issues and although I can walk again thank goodness it has made me appreciate plants that are fairly well behaved and easy to maintain - not the border of brambles , crocosmia and Japanese anemones that were here originally!

@MaxandMeg that’s gorgeous! Can I ask where you got your obelisk? Thanks

I have a pair of them in an enclosed area which is planted as a cottage garden @Seaitoverthere I love them but I don't think I could have justified buying them if we weren't open to the public. They are from the Lichfield Garden Furniture Company.

@MaxandMeg what a beautiful garden you have 🙂 I think maybe I am going to have to take up carpentry 😀

"No dig" still involves preparing the bed when you are setting it up. You have to get out perennial weeds for once and for all. It's really a system for growing annuals or perennials rather than permanent flower bed planting (Charles Dowding is a pioneer and he digs out couch, ground elder etc before starting a new bed). You'll have to dig holes to plant your roses etc. But the cardboard/compost thing will kill off the grass underneath at least.

Completely agree with this. We have used it a bit for growing vegetables but DH does the veg and he just found it irritating and untidy so he ended up forking the beds over.
@Seaitoverthere A bit of carpentry's the way to go. We have 6 acres here so that's just a corner, and rather a problematical one too. The obelisks spruced it up no end.

6 acres?! That’s a lot of work 😀

I also wouldn’t use no dig for the type of planting you are doing @AntiqueBooks . I think by the time you have faffed around getting cardboard, organic matter, compost etc you might as well see if you can find a gardener who likes digging. One I have used is £15 an hour, enjoys digging and can do a lot in a couple of hours. A Wolf Garten push pull weeder excellent for dealing with weeds after.

Thanks everyone.

I must admit I was worried i was taking on more than I could handle. As well as being quite weak physically, I'm dreadfully clumsy!

My neighbour has given me the number of her gardener so I'll text him and see what he suggests! I only like the nice "lady" bits of gardening, nothing messy or hard work!

I had started piling up cardboard in the spare room but perhaps I will just give myself a Get Out of Jail Free card!

The gardener says no problem at all, he can set up the bed for me. Presume he will dig it in. He can help me select and plant the bushes/plants as well. I know it's nice to do things oneself but I don't want to make an arse of this given it's right outside my house! Can't have the neighbours laughing at me if I end up with a muddy swamp or somesuch!

Plenty of years ahead of me to learn and experiment!

I think it is the right thing to do if you can afford it. Maybe ask him to help you choose with easy maintenance in mind.

No prizes for doing it yourself when you have health problems. This way it gets done, you get the enjoyment of it without making yourself ill.

Thanks @Seaitoverthere Yes, I find dealing with my pots to be enough to be getting on with! I have to make sure I don't make any of them too heavy to move/repot!

Just coming on to say that I try to do no dig as far as possible and I've found this stuff to be absolutely excellent. https://mulch.apsleyfarms.com/product/apsley-mulch-soil-improver/. It's light and fluffy and easy to apply and the plants love it. I have couch grass in part of my garden and though the mulch doesn't get rid of it, it somehow seems to root just into the mulch layer. This is so soft and fluffy that the couch grass just lifts out with minimal effort. Massively better than buying bags of compost at the garden centre.

I have one bed in the middle of the lawn that I started a few years back by getting someone to dig it over. A couple of years later I doubled its size by covering the new area in cardboard and piling up anything I could get my hands on, on top. I use it for veggies and for the first few years I consistently got a better crop from the undug area.

However you do need massive quantities of organic material to make no dig work. If your garden isn't big enough to generate much and you don't live in a horsey area where people are only too happy for you to go and raid their well rotted pile then it may not be practical and/or financially sensible for you.

Thanks @MontyDonsBlueScarf I definitely fall into the category of not having enough mulch (small garden) or horsey people nearby! I did like the "no dig" idea and the idea of doing it myself but tbh I learned the hard way earlier this year* that sometimes it's easier to just get a man in.

*I tried to remove paint off floor tiles myself (the previous occupants decided they preferred grey paint to 1930s terracotta tiles!). Made a huge sticky mess and had to get a professional paint remover person in to use industrial chemicals.