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When using the no dig gardening method with mulched vegetable beds, what do you do in fall with the old plants?

I know that in no dig you do not want to disturb the soil. Also when mulching it's best to leave the mulch at the surface.

But now it's autumn and I have to take out some annual vegetable plants. Some of them are quite big and have developed large root systems. When I pull them out a lot of soil comes away with the roots and some mulch gets mixed inside the newly created hole.

Should I keep uprooting or should I just cut the stalks where they meet the ground?

That seems less disturbing to the garden bed, but with some big plants it's leaving a lot of big hard roots in the ground. Since the ground is frozen in winter where I live I don't know if they will have time to rot down.

Gilles
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1 Answers1

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Even with a no dig method, it's still necessary to disturb the soil a little if you want to clear or plant, especially vegetable crops. Remove the plants you no longer need, uprooting them - it doesn't matter if a little mulch gets mixed in with the soil, shake off what soil you can from the roots you've pulled back over the hole. You will have to disturb it all over again in when you want to replant vegetables as well, so no dig doesn't really mean never, ever disturb the soil, it simply means don't actually dig it over and disturb it as little as possible. Ultimately, unless you've got permanent planting, some small disturbance is unavoidable.

Bamboo
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