How to make a No Dig Garden - Morag Gamble 

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I live in central Canada, where our snow has just now melted. At the funeral of a well loved local gardener a year or two ago, she was still imparting gardening know how. Everyone was amazed, but not surprised, of hearing and seeing Annie's barefoot gardening. It turns out that after years of perfecting this practise, Annie did so with complete intent, for it was through her feet that Annie cold tell when the soil temperature was just right to put out her seedlings! Never underestimate anyone's intentions after years of gardening practise! 🥕

I cancelled Netflix and now I am watching your videos. So much to learn and so many novel ideas. Thank you for sharing.

I watch this video once again, ever so often. Share with everyone I know that gardens. Thank you thank you. So inspirational!!!

I'm a big fan of this method too. I've often put newspaper at the soil level AND on the top just under the mulch, what I've found is that worms LOVE newspaper and will encourage them to wriggle up ( even compacted soils) aerating all the way, Ive seen this at some really harsh sites that had zero worm activity in the soil., the first newspaper layer I put is only a few wet sheets, the top layer of paper is really thick and wet. I love your teaching style too, super easy to follow. Thank you.

Skirt, no shoes, no gloves, gotta love this lady!

I’m jus an “apprentice” 66 year old veg gardener in Norfolk UK. Trying to learn fast from others. I tried some of Charles Downing’s methods last year for the first time in my garden. Now I’m just starting an allotment. You’ve given me lots to think about. I’ll be adapting and learning. Thank you!

finaly someone who discribes everything detailed enough to do it on your own. short,informative, no bs. thx.

People like this lady is the reason I cancelled my Netflix. I'd rather not fill my head with rubbish anymore. I feel like I can have a magnificent garden with good yields by learning from her. Thank you Morag❤

Newspapers have so many great uses! It's sad that reading them isn't one of them

Straight up, my bf's cousin showed me this video and it changed my life. I have 1800' of compacted clay that has pretty much defied me for 8 years. Last year I nailed the weeds but I needed help with digging beds. Morag has made my garden possible...cabbages, collards, 2x winter squash, zucchini, cukes, potatoes, carrots, onions, watermelons, bush beans, Lima beans, Somali pole beans, tons of herbs & flowers all over the place (plus a dedicated perennial pollinator bed), sweet potatoes, okra, and too many tomatoes to count. In March, I was feeling that same hopelessness...by April, I wanted another 900' Thank you so much, Morag. This is the real deal and if you saw my soil you'd agree!

In my eyes, she is a true child of Mother Nature. Just loved to watch her work on her land.

I've been doing a layered garden for 3 years now. You taught me something new and just in time to try it this coming Spring. A well done, excellent video. Lots of good information crammed into 17 minutes. Well worth watching!!! Thank you.

Man if this method works for me, I'll be a happy man. I have near to 0 % experience and judging by the comments below and by other videos I watched, It might be different in my case / country- mountain region in Bulgaria, but I'll certainly try this out. Thank you Morag. Great to see so many warm hearted people doing purmaculture. Thanks again.

Thanks so much. Your engaging manner and smooth voice make a great watch along with being informative. The method was clearly explained which is rare.

Priceless information Morag,If you take care for and cherish Mother Nature she will return tenfold.

Beautiful video ...I liked the way she is dressed for her garden . It means she loves and respects her work .. she can dress beautiful for it .. thumbs up ..where I live . We call this people . down to earth individuals... She is One down to earth beautiful lady

Thank you Morag your garden is beautiful and so are you Sandy

Hi Morag, Your video came up on my thread as things do when you are interested in something. I have written about my no dig, no weed gardens for thirty plus years (Lasagna Gardening) and during the first couple of years I dug, forked or raked my area before putting down paper or cardboard but in the end it was better for me to just lay down the paper or cardboard on top of weeds or whatever was growing in the space where I wanted a new garden. Less work, higher yield was what I was looking for. You have several good points but at 84 I don't want anything that moves the soil except earth worms. Thanks for a good video.

She's a hardy women no fear of anything and determined… I like her 😍

You are truly the Barefoot Contessa of Gardening! Thanks so much for your comprehensive explanation.

You have an amazing wise countenance. Great teaching spirit. Thanks for sharing with the world. With those like me who do not know anyone who can teach us this invaluable information.

Great tutorial morag. I have just used your method to make a no dig garden bed reclaiming a section of my sheep paddock in Bright, north east Victoria and am looking forward to seeing the results. Thanks for sharing your knowledge and making it ok for me to garden barefoot in a dress!

Wow❣️You have truly inspired me, I am so glad I found the perfect gardener to teach me well 👍The Lord Bless you and keep you, The Lord make His face shine 🌟upon you and be gracious to you, The Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you His Shalom💕🌱

Absolutely love your easy no-nonsense no-fluff approach. Useful, insightful, informative and straight to the point. Thanks so much!

Just lovely.....I had to show my hubby that other women garden barefoot, too!!! LOL I just love the feel of dirt beneath my feet as I work.....keeps me cooler! I can't wait til spring to give this a try. Makes sense!!

Morag, I always come back to this video. Your heart comes through with every word. You are a teacher.

I knew it!! :) I've always believed digging must do more damage than good to the soil, I've never had my own garden nor could I convince people to give it a go, having my own garden soon to start experimenting! When you mentioned decades of experience I knew you savee me a few decades, thank you so much for this incredible invaluable headstart!

Your bare feet your hard work shows everything about a hard-working woman needs to be praise with others God has blessed you❤ thank you for your video

I love your channel so much. You explain everything so well in such a calm and competent way. Perfect. I've watched this video over and over. :)

Thankyou so much for sharing all your experience, I can't wait to watch more of your videos. I am delighted to have found someone with such dulcet tones and calm demeanour making videos. We have brought land in central Portugal and it is very dry and sandy. I have taken a permaculture design course and am keen to create some no dig beds now I have lots of space. Last year I had a big problem with moles and voles so am going to try to create raised beds with some mesh as a barrier? I am plotting out my plan now but felt so inspired by you and your amazing garden as you remind me of myself in many ways...I have a passion for comfrey too...and also nettles..the locals think me very strange to be so pleased with my damp corners where nettles will grow!... I would love to garden barefoot but have a savage population of little black ants! I was meeting resistance from my husband about the idea of using newspaper but so well covered I am sure he will not even notice! I wondered if you have experimented with other mulch layers..I have a lot of bracken here but not sure if that is good for us? So I'm moving forward with new energy and inspiration...thanks again!

Very holistic, beautiful approach :) Thank you for this lovely video.

Last year, I followed this method as much as I could. Whilst I didn't have a lot of the resources mentioned, utilised the principles which allowed me to grow a bunch of cucumbers and some Jap pumpkins are still going strong in the front garden bed. Whilst I could have prepared the space a lot better, the layering method of placing the paper material (I used cardboard due to a lack of available newspaper) on top of the primary organic matter did an awesome job of making it available for planting. It helped my confidence as well which was a big deal given that this is my first attempt at gardening at an adult in spite of being in my early 40's. Over the winter, I intend to prepare a lot more beds ahead of the spring growing season. I am really looking forward to kicking things up a notch by expanding and growing some plants I haven't grown before. Thankfully, I should be able to source stuff like cow manure as there are a lot of cane farmers that also raise meat cattle. I have also made friends with some locals that seem interested in seed and plant swapping. This is all a part of the fun of gardening. You get to learn new things and make connections with people with the same interest.

Amazing,truly an intelligent gardener i can learn from and mother nature gifted us with her beauty also:)

Watched this last year, and watched it again today. I'm a newbie, so your knowledge is incredibly helpful!!!! Thank you :-)

Morag, First I want to say I love how you are doing all your this gardening with bare feet and bare hands! So glad to see you are sharing your expertise with the world via these videos. Thank you! I did your permaculture course about 10 years ago and FINALLY have my own place now to get things going (now in Oregon USA!), and it's awesome to be able to brush up on what I learned all those years ago by watching your videos, though I'm yet to learn all the ways gardening is different in the Pacific Northwest. Best wishes to you!!

Hello Morag, Beautiful garden. Love your down to earth methods. Just a wealth of garden knowledge. With Charles Dowding, Huw Richards, Geoff Lawton and now your videos I wonder when I will find time to actually garden LOL. Looking forward to giving some of your methods a good go. Thank you from Andy in Canada.

All I do is layer cardboard, dull cardboard and layers and layers of newspaper. Good soil with manure. Dump it on top and away I go. I never heard of forking. But then I do not have a big garden. I have been doing this for years. Every year I add more compost. Works fine for me,, With my small vegetable garden and my flowers. Works for me.

I love that you garden barefoot 😊😊 you get to tend & nurture your garden as well as your senses & soul while grounding in the garden. ❤❤❤ brilliant 🥰🙏🏼💕💕🩷

Old timers used to say, grow the soil and it will provide a bounty. Great this is coming back in vogue. Thanks for the clear instructions 👍

Lucky you, here in Ireland where I am soil is so compacted clay with about 85-90 % stone,, having a builders boots on and braking forks and shovels almost hourly if getting new plot(never mind bare foot-hopefuly some time in years to come) , the only way I found through years, is dig out a big trench/hole and get it filled with logs, branches, grass clippings etc as deep as I can get plus back fill with sifted from stones soil and then after one two years it becomes ok ish media and another few years adding more mulch and organic matter plus cover crops it is almost perfect, lot of work though

Very useful video. Love hearing the birds in the background. Quite different from here in north Wales.

That was a great explanation. You and Charles Dowding rule!

Morag, I was avoiding buying my dream home because the garden is huge and would be too much for me to dig. You have just made it possible for me. I had never heard of the no dig method before.

Detailed, informative, and pleasant to watch. There should be a 'Luv it!' button. Thanks for this.

Morag. Beautiful! Everything is just Beautiful. I have been homesteading and no dig gardening for 4 years and I just learned something new. Newspaper on the top. Thanks and cheers from Canada.

I am thrilled to find this new method. My Back to Eden garden is struggling...only the first year and it is predicted to take about 4 years to get in full swing. Your method looks as if the plants can get started and fill in much quicker than waiting for the BTE to become the rich, loose soil as seen in a mature garden. Will be putting in one of yours asap to see which one has the quickest results. My guess is yours will be a clear winner!

No shoes - hard core. Thanks for the lesson.

Fantastic video. Love to see folks who are not professionals working in the yard barefoot!! Really loved how you refused to throw away clippings but simply added them to the ground. Our farm does not use artificial herbicides an we try to build the soil by shredding all leftovers (corn stalks, bean plants, etc) through a shredder then cover the dirt in a thick blanket. Huge worm bins give lots of great fertilizer.

my chickens love eating my comfrey plants. I researched it and it's a perfect food for them, filled with nutrients. I need to plant more so I can use it as you do!

Thats my kind of wife. You've got a brilliant head on your shoulders. Keep on growing!

This was a joy to watch and learn from. I loved all the sounds of nature in the background. Thank you!

Classic. 5 years later and this is still my fave gardening video and method. Thank you Morag. Love from Alabama USA❤

Thank you for loving what you do, for us who like the simple life you are a beautiful inspiration, I was inspired by you to go and follow my dream of living in the country, great info and great video.

Hi Morag. So clear and simple. Thank You. Especially using the fork to just "lift" the soil. Kinder to the soil. Great idea!

Thank you for this,I've followed your method on my first two beds and they're looking good.Four more to go!All best wishes from the U.K.

Barefoot and bare hands! 🤩 I love to feel what I’m working with. Unfortunately though, something in the soil or plants lately has been irritating my skin. I can’t tell if they’re little bites or what. Makes me sad (and itchy… haha)

Wonderful instructional video. Love your tips, insights, suggestions & comments. I've been using corrugated cardboard on my walkways between my rows of veggies. It has seemed to hold up better and not break apart so soon in comparison to newspapers.

Thank you, Morag, for loving the earth, sharing your knowledge, and being an inspiration!

Thank you for sharing all you wonderful knowledge with us newbies in growing food.

Di from Cape Town, South Africa. Greetings. Will try this method. Love your quiet way and no unnecessary chit chat.

Its nearly spring on Vancouver Island - I'm gonna do this with my whole garden this year! Looks like it will get awesome results. Thanks Morag!

For men of culture organic garden is the way.

This is excellent! I have been gardening my entire life and really liked your thoughts and seeing your garden is proof for your concepts. Thanks for sharing

A beautifully natural woman, but I'm amazed at how her feet stay so clean, & mine wind up blackened by my soil & compost wearing open toe slippers!!! She has soil resistent fingers & toes!! I want me some of those! Excellent technique, I played around with this method, but don't have nearly the quantity of hay or Comfrey as she does (yet!!) Thanks for the inspiration Morag!

you are amazing ,I can tell you enjoy gardening, I JUST MOVE TO A NEW HOUSE, SO i will start my new garden, I will try permaculture. thank you for Sharing your information .

This is really for people who already garden. Still v helpful but not for person who literally steps outside and wants to start. 😊🤗

Fantastic video! I have 4 raised beds that I neglected and are now full of grass. I thought they were a lost cause but now I see they can be rejuvenated! Thank you for making this video!

The mother of the man in the middle of my profile picture (my father) was a Gamble . She was a "Daughter of the American Revolution" , and a master gardener with many accolades . She stoked my interest in herbology and organic gardening , before , it was cool . Cuban peppers were used in her garden to repel insects , long before anyone had heard of Habaneros (from Havana) . I remember her telling me they were so hot that they were poison to the pests . I also remember that scent . The smell of my favorite pepper , Habanero , is one I painfully adapted my pallet to over time . I try to propagate the most aromatic fruit's seeds of each year's crop . My tropical fruit pepper jelly is a favorite with my family and friends at Christmas . Looking forward to more of your posts . Thanks .

Comfrey has the most amazing healing properties. It used to be called bonemend for it’s healing ability for broken bones. I love it as well. It’s hard to kill.

I could watch your videos every day, I learn and enjoy doing so...

New subscriber here. I'm moving to a rural area in a few months and am really looking forward to living off grid as much as possible. My happy place has always been when im covered in mud and wearing wellies lol. Thank you for your uploads ~🌱~

I´m glad I just found your channel by watching this video. You really like and know what you pass on. The content is excellent. The tone of your voice, the gesture, the intimacy with the soil and creatures, walking barefoot, no gloves, simple regular dressing, the subtle smile. You captivated me. I think I fell in love (kidding, of course). I have my own 10000 sq.ft land to take care of which I left practically abandoned for a number of years. Thanks for this stimulating video and encouragement. Thanks. Thanks.

Also, this method would help to change my bad soil into a healthier kind while, I still use it to grow my vegetables above and in it.......Our soil gets hot and dry.....this would help me greatly with improving the soil and its water intake. THX!!!.

Please RU-vid, keep recommendeding me more of her videos more often.

barefoot, no gloves and in a dress. I love it.

Now I've got to go back and get the weeds I just spent 1.5 hours digging out of the garden bed and put them back in! I was guided to find you because I was going to dig out the whole bed, put cardboard down and then refill with the soil. I am now a happy woman who will be doing far less work! Thank you! I'll be back!

i really enjoyed this so helpfu thanks my dear

Excellent Excellent Excellent

Thanks Morag I like the news paper tip.

Very valuable information for a beginner gardener. I’ve decided this will be the method I use.

Thank you so much for this pack of knowledge, cooked so nicely in this video. I will try this and send you photos :)

What a beautiful presenter - so natural thank you

Thanks so much! We're going to plant for our pet bunny soon (in addition to gardening for ourselves). 🐇There's a lot of wild eastern cottontail rabbits where we live and so I'll need to rabbit-proof the yard and beds!

This is how I'm going to do my no dig garden, thank you Morag

Hello! Thank you for this great lengthy tutorial! It took a lot of work to make this! I just found your channel and I have subscribed. Michael from New York.

She's radical...I love this!

Hi Morag! I love this method and your video! Happy to be a new subscriber. Thank you so much for sharing your experience and knowledge, very refreshing.

Thanks I enjoyed watching this your garden looks great.I have started trying new things in the garden and I find posts like these really helpful. My garden is slowly changing from a boring cooch grass waste land into a more inviting space. The garden faces north west and it is a challenge to keep it going well in the summer.. I have planted a couple of deciduous trees and hope in a few years time the garden will be more productive in the hot months.

I feel inspired. Thank you.

Fantastic, thank you 😍🌱

Like your info very much. Yes the forking the ground as you did is a excellent idea for breaking loose the soil from a long winter of being dormant without disturbing the good critters and organisms.

What an inspiring and informative video! Thank you :) You must have some tough hands and feet, forking barefeet and ripping out a whole plant of comfrey without gloves. Impressive. I also love to walk around barefeet, but I haven't taken it that far yet. :)

Oh. My goodness, Morag! Thank you!

Hi, great informative video, many thanks. One comment that other gardeners might find helpful if they haven't used comfrey before - some people's skin will react badly to the comfrey sap or possibly the bristly surface. My daughter came out in raised, red blotches all over her arms after she'd gathered some for me. Best to check carefully first to see if you are going to react to it. Hopefully you won't, but you can just wear gloves and cover your arms while you collect and shred it if you need to.

Lady you might have nailed it. All gardens are not equal so what each needs do vary. Loving what you are saying Helpful

I'm late middle age, happily married. When I first saw you ,I immediately thought, " now that is a good looking woman". When I saw those bare feet digging I thought " damn that is my kinda woman! " all my best to you, you put a big smile on my face!

I love that you're in your garden barefooted:)

Hello Morag loved the video. Thanks to your instruction I may try to produce my own garden this year. Shalom

I went to a session you did on no dig gardens in the library at Caboolture a few years back. The idea of putting newspaper or cardboard on top rather than as the base has been sensational for weed suppression, worm numbers and reduced watering here on Mt Mee in our vege patch. We have also tried top and bottom layers as well and the worms and plants seem to like both ways as long as there is a top layer. Thanks for the tip , love your generous sharing and wealth of knowledge.