Gardening is a great way to spend time outside, and it allows you to grow beautiful flowers and delicious vegetables.
On the flip side: A garden can be a lot of work to start and maintain. One expert gardener took to Instagram to show how to eliminate a lot of the hard work and suppress weeds.
The scoop
Martha (@marfskitchengarden) is an expert gardener living in London who teaches followers how to get the most out of their yards and gardens. In an Instagram clip, she shows how to prepare a garden bed and keep weeds at bay.
The video takes viewers through the steps of preparing a no-dig garden bed. As Martha says in the video, "It's the easiest way to prepare your garden beds."
Martha starts by cleaning out her bed of sticks and weeds before she lays down a nice layer of cardboard.
"The thick card[board] starves weeds of light which causes them to die, so can be done directly on grass," she says.
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After putting down cardboard, the next step is to add a thick layer of mulch or compost. Once you give everything a good water, you're ready to plant.
Martha puts in some gooseberry plants and shallots. She tells viewers that the wet cardboard is pretty easy to dig through for planting. This method helps keep weeds from growing by smothering them. As Martha notes, "No dig buries [weed seeds] deep in the soil where many will never germinate."
How it's helping
Gardening is a healthy way to connect with nature and save money at the grocery store. Not everyone chooses to garden to grow food; growing flowers and other decorative plants is a way to support your ecosystem by selecting native flora.
If you do decide to grow your own food, you can save hundreds of dollars on groceries. The Cool Down's guide says, "An initial gardening investment of $70 can yield 300 pounds of fresh produce a year worth $600."
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Tips like Martha's may even reduce your upfront investment. Plus, there are ways to get cheap or free seeds, and you can get discounts on ripped bags of soil at the garden store.
What everyone's saying
Commenters were happy to learn about this no-dig method.
One person said, "Definitely dabbling in no dig gardening this year."
Another commenter wrote, "Love this. Why would anyone dig!"
Someone else chimed in, "My mind is blown…"
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