Starting a new no dig gardening | allotment - the first beds go in

It's preferable to use thicker cardboard, but in the video, they mention using thinner sheets that are large enough to cover the beds. If using thin cardboard like they did, it's important to ensure it gets wet enough to break down properly.

They had to plant their onions, garlic, and broad beans immediately and didn't have enough well-rotted manure available, which is needed to avoid burning the plants. Using fresh manure can harm the plants, so it wasn't an option at the time.

They used 250 liters of compost, which resulted in a depth of about four to six inches. However, they concluded that 125 liters of compost doesn't go very far and wasn't as deep as they had wanted.

The onions were planted approximately six inches apart and the rows were spaced about eight inches apart, which was wider than the previous year to make weeding easier.

The plan is to use the shallow beds as a temporary compost area. They will add leaves and other compostable materials, and then when it's time to move it, they will relocate the materials to more permanent beds or the manure bays when ready.

It seems that someone had been picking the beans before they had a chance to mature, which prevented them from forming properly. Some plans did develop beans, but not to the extent they had hoped.

The plan is to continue working on the no-dig beds, buying more compost for the broad beans and garlic, and to transplant more beans. Also, they plan to collect more leaves for the compost layers in the shallow beds.