Easy method to make a garden bed with no digging – and ‘works very well’

A social media content creator shared an easy method to make a garden bed with no digging required.

Beth, known as Beth’s Abode on TikTok, documents her ‘DIY bride era’ and home hacks. She takes her followers along with her as she plans for her wedding and gives gardening tips.

The bride-to-be tried out the ‘no dig’ garden bed method after being unsure of how effective it would be. She shared a TikTok video demonstrating how she used cardboard and compost to create and extend her garden bed.

Beth explained: “When I first moved into this house it had zero flower beds and I’m on a mission to start adding them slowly and surely. The beds that I am extending with the no dig method wasn’t actually originally a flower bed.

“It was kind of boarded off but it had loads of little slate pieces in it so the first thing I did when I started working on the garden was remove all of the tarp, move aloof the slate pieces and then created a mini flower bed.” For the no dig garden bed, Beth said all you need is some cardboard and a lot of compost, advising that you’ll “need more than what you think you’ll need.”

She added: “All you do is lay the cardboard down and then put the compost on top. It is as easy as that. Then you just need to leave it to do its thing. The cardboard will break down.

“That will stop any weeds from coming up and then it will be ready to plant in. So if all goes to plan this bed should be ready for planting in in a couple of weeks time.”

Beth said that there shouldn’t be any weeds that grow though, the grass should stop growing and the cardboard should start breaking down. She admitted: “This could still all be a massive fail so make sure you follow to find out if it works or not.”

After this, she posted a second video explaining what the benefits are of this method and why she tried it out. The main benefit she gave is how easy it is to do.

Beth claimed: “Just digging a garden bed might be really easy for some people but not everybody is able to do that and for some people it might take them a lot of time. Not everybody has the same abilities when it comes to being able to physically do gardening and this just opens the options to a few more people.”

Gardener and author Charles Dowding, who has pioneered modern no dig and organic soil management in the UK for the last 40 years, explained how beneficial this method can be in a blog on Garden Ninja. He said: “The cardboard helps prepare your ‘no dig’ beds by smothering weeds and preventing light, which stops weeds from germinating.

“This is a vital step for all ‘no dig’ gardens as this starts off the process of killing off weeds and improving the soil structure by not digging them up! The cardboard and compost dual-layer excludes light and acts as a barrier for weeds.”

He elaborated that this means weeds either die or get prevented from growing in the first place. Charles continued: “What’s really great about this is that it’s completely organic using cardboard, which is recycled by the soil.

“The key here is to exclude light, which kills off the weeds. There is no need for chemicals, toxic concoctions or back-breaking digging to get them out. The cardboard and mulch do all of this for you.”

Beth’s caption for her first TikTok video on the no dig garden bed technique reads: “Is this the easiest and quickest method for creating and extending your garden beds? Trying the no-dig garden method for the first time.”

It has amassed a staggering two million views, 35,300 likes and more than 400 comments. One user shared: “I have done all my gardens this way…my niece just purchased her first home with no landscaping. I am saving cardboard to assist her in starting her garden beds this spring.”

Another added: “I made one and it works very well.” A third commented: “Love this idea! Think I’ll be trying this!”