Video by Richard Perkins (speaker Sam) demonstrating how to build no‑dig/no‑till beds on Gotland. Sam explains the method (cardboard base, strong compost, weed‑free soil, wood‑chip surface), workflow for efficient construction using a frame + Avant loader (or wheelbarrows), and preferred edge construction. He emphasizes benefits for dry climates (water retention, low weeding) and logistics: 80 beds (~7.5 m² each), ~10 cm growing-layer depth, and even spreading of strong compost (peat moss + cow and chicken manure).
Questions this video answers
About 1.3 meters wide, covering a 75 cm bed and a ~30–35 cm pathway.
80 beds, about 7.5 square meters per bed.
About 10 cm deep of growing soil over compost.
Peat moss mixed with cow manure and chicken manure.
Four people working two days (with machines) can build 80 beds.
Chapters
Welcome back to another video, folks. And I'm on the beautiful island of Gotland, helping to prepare no Dig beds for a new farm here. Now, the Richdale style of no dig market gardening has influenced tens of thousands of farms around the world in the last nearly decade now. And I've never actually been able to show making beds from scratch because the farm was set up before I made videos. So I thought I'd show you along the process we're using here, building a farm from scratch. So the whole point with no Dig is we're doing a big load of work in the beginning and then there's going to be virtually no weeding to do in this garden for the whole summer, as well as much better water retention because the amount of carbon, one particle of hummus holding four particles of water. And so these beds are particularly important here in Gotland, where it's super dry and they run out of water and there's watering bands. It's a major problem on this island. So this is a new method for the community here to see how that fares with saving water in the dry summer months. So the basic process is putting out a roll of packaging cardboard. It's about 1.3 meters and that covers a 75 centimeter bed and a pathway about 30, 35 centimeters. And then we're putting a 75 centimeter strip of packaging cardboard under the bed using that wooden framework, both to have something to pour soil into, but also to set the depths of the beds so we can make them all equal in volume. And then we're putting down strong compost, which is peat moss with cow manure and chicken manure. It's the same compost that I put on my beds at Richter. And then we're using this soil that I'm picking up with the avant here and dumping into the beds. And then we put wood chips in the rows and big pathways in between the blocks. 80 beds that we're doing here, so seven and a half square meters per bed and the beds will probably extend in the future here. There's also big polytunnel that you can see in the background behind me. But it's quite late in the spring, so it's time to get the beds going. And so we're working pretty hard. I think four people in two days working like this can build 80 beds and all the edges and pathways in between and do a nice even tidy job. Something that's really important is putting down the compost equally. So I think there's a video I put out a Couple of years ago, the worst mistake I've made ever where I mixed two types of compost, one more fertile than the other. Trying to save team morale and save time by just putting down two composts and raking them flat. Here we're being very careful to put down the strong compost evenly on the base layer and then putting the soil on top. That's super important, otherwise you'll get very patchy growth. It's really important if you're using different types of amendments etc to place them evenly on the bed. It's a little bit more work but not much and you'll regret it big time if you don't. It took nearly a year for me to correct those problems on our beds at Ridgedale. See simple construction and this also marks the depth of the bed. And what's happening with these beds is we're putting some of the strong compost like I use on my beds at the farm and then covering it up with sort of neutral and weed free growing soil. And it's a bit late in the season but this project is only just beginning so it's time to really get the beds in, start planting. We're in zone one here, so it's a much warmer climate zone here than where I am living. This is a good method. I've seen a few people use it. I've always favored wheelbarrows because the way my farm is set up I can bring trailers close to some of the beds but I can't get in easily with machines. If you look back on old videos, you'll see we've made beds straight onto lawn without using cardboard underneath with rotten horse manure 12 to 18 months old. We've also tilled and then converted it to no dig here we're just going straight onto the old pasture and using an Avant, a front loader and we've also got a quad with a trailer here. We've been very careful to put down cardboard under the pathways as well as two of those under the beds because the grass has already started growing. So it's quite important to nip that in the bud. We're aiming for about 10cm deep with the growing soil and compost underneath it and then even surface with the wood chip so that everything's level and perfect. It. It's sam. So like everything, these jobs involve good workflow and that's something. It's been really fun to work together with this. It seems optimal with a machine like this Avant to have one on the machine running soil and picking up Compost. I'm just picking up bags of compost now. Have two working on the frame. So one is laying out the cardboard to flip the frame over, get in six bags of compost, open them up, rake them out, and then the event straight back with soil on top. So you want to keep a machine like this moving full time. So we found like, four is good, like one on wood chips, keeping up with the two on the beds. Sometimes we've got other people coming in and out. There's friends around just coming to help here and there. But four is a good team for a job like this in the way that we're doing it here. And it's all about keeping an optimal workflow. It took about an hour and a half to get into that workflow yesterday morning. That's the sort of thing I really enjoy. That's the processes I've always loved at the farm is optimizing every movement to minimize movements, minimize wastage of movement, to just keep things rolling. It's great for team morale. To just see this job come together in front of you like that is beautiful. And I think we're doing a really beautiful job here. Right now we're working on an edgeway, so I showed the folks how I do my preferred edges and that's what we're going with. And we've decided to cut with the edging spade straight vertically, then a kind of 45 degree cut with the spade. And then we'll have cardboard coming near the edge of that and then fill it up just below the soil surface with wood chip, like so. And that's got multiple benefits. What happens then is that the plants will air prune slightly, they'll get dry here. And so you'll be able to cut the lawn and keep this bit looking crispy clean with a lovely straight edge. The grasses will die back a bit on the edge and any creeping grasses that grow into the wood chip is a very easy job. I do once a year at my farm. Cut with the edging fork and just pull any buttercups or grasses that are coming into the bed. It leaves a lovely smooth edge. So here you see the edge that I was talking about. So we just dug straight with an edging spade. And that's really important. This face here is what you want because that will cause the grasses to air prune here. And then anything rooting back into the wood chip is very easy to come once you cut that with an edging spade and just tease out any roots. So that's a little job to do. All around the outside. But it's much more preferable to putting landscape fabric or something like that. I've seen people do that. But what happens when you put landscape fabric is naturally compost gets dropped on there. Plants like grasses will root through and then you're stuck. You can't ever get that out and that plastic's not going anywhere and in the end it's not doing anything for you. That's why I favour a wood chip edge. It's much neater, looks beautiful and it's easy to maintain and that's the key to success in the no dig setup. So we've had a mixture of different people helping out and I'm only here for a couple of days. So we're aiming to get 80 of these 10 meter beds done. This is the first day, it's about 3 o' clock in the afternoon and we've got this much done. So no reason why we can't finish that block tomorrow. Okay. So using the events to fill the trailer, this is the last of the wood chip. We've got nine more beds to go. So that's going to be 80 beds in two days. Pretty good. Hopefully it'll be just enough wood chip. It's going to rain here a lot the weekend but these beds should just get nicely damped down. That'll moisten the cardboard underneath which is perfect and they'll stay moist even in the hot sun. What song are we going to play during the there. Last words. So is this a good methodology? I think if you've got machines then definitely using a frame to just pour from a big pile, super helpful because you can just level it off and know you working to volume. If you don't have machines or you're working at a smaller scale, there's no reason to just not use wheelbarrows. I don't think you need a frame unless you're working with loose piles because it just makes it easier to tip and level off. When I built the beds at Ridgedale, we're just working with wheelbarrows to get into tight spaces and then it's easy to work with the volume of wheelbarrows. So many ways you can approach this and I think this is a great method for the context and tools and machines that we have here and as you can see, pretty straightforward. It's a lot of work in the beginning but these two days that set this garden up will last for a long time into the future and very easy to maintain. And the benefits of no dig are well known. Now it's a lot of work in the beginning, but a lot less work long term. There's going to be virtually no weeding to do this year. It's going to retain water, which is very important here in the context of Gotland where it's very dry and it's going to adequately feed high rotation crops into the future with small amounts of compost additions in the future. And there's a lot of forestry on this farm and they've been cutting brash that they'll be chipping to be able to replace wood chips down the line. And so hopefully as livestock come onto the farm it'll become circular kind of system with the no dig bed. So hope you folks found that interesting. It's been a pleasure to be here in a beautiful glorious weather. My season kicks off in a couple of weeks with the team arriving, although we'll be having a much more leisurely time because the farm is set up and ready and really looking forward to that. Thanks so much as always for watching folks. Don't forget you can find out a whole bunch more in the links below our books and online offerings. See you in a video soon. Bye for now. Sam.
