Our Demo Farm is in Pontypridd, South Wales. We continuously run trials on organically produced Fruit and Veg. In our first year we started with an abandoned field that was 50% covered in Bracken and Brambles. With just two machines we wanted to be able to get a harvest the first year rather than waiting two years cultivating the soil and waiting two years planting green manures. 

We did this by cutting swathes through the brambles with a two wheeled tractor with a 1 metre cutter bar and then laying a 1.5 metre row of cardboard in the autumn covered with 2 inches of HH-4 compost and leaving it down over winter for a minimum of three months. At the same time we sowed the seeds we wanted to grow, Usually starting with Brassicas in seed trays and potting them on into pots. We do this the first year as the ground will be lacking a good tilth. At the given time we transplanted the Brassicas into this bed and  attained a harvest the first year.  On each side of this bed we left a 1 metre grass path and this we did for several reasons:

1. Grass holds more  moisture than wood chip, earth or straw 
2. We need the grass in the manufacture of the HH-4 compost 
3. In any or most grasslands in the UK CLOVER can be found. By allowing the CLOVER to grow and seed encourages the proliferation of CLOVER. When it has a strong root system it will spread sideways into the composted row during the growing season and create an automatic green manure. This then 
acts as a living mulch for the Brassicas and is worked back into the soil at the end of the season by Mulching out with MYPEX.

The nature and properties of HH-4 compost is that it specifically generates fungi and bacteria that are the best thing for any No Dig system as these fungi and bacteria feed the Mycorrhiza network in the un dug soil and produce pest and disease free crops that are often 300% increased in size. 

Laying down a 20 metre row of HH-4   brassicas harvest the first year  one seed of purple sprouting broccoli.
The purple sprouting broccoli seed produced bushes that were four feet high and four feet wide.

To learn more about the work at Good Gardeners International and to get in touch, visit: Good Gardeners International | World leaders in localised organic waste management.