FROM GRASS TO gorgeous veggies

It is summer and no-dig gardener Stephanie Hafferty is thrilled by the speed and success of her new plot which only months ago was just a weedy lawn

- Stephanie Hafferty

My new no-dig garden is now three months old, and the beds are filling up. Every time I look out of the kitchen window I feel astonished that this abundant veg patch was a weedy lawn just a few months ago.

The shallow 5cm (2in) mulch on top of cardboard, which I laid on the weedy grass, is working brilliantly. There is the odd weed sneaking through, mostly where there will have been gaps in the cardboard cover: no matter how carefully I overlap the card there's always the odd bit. The cardboard layer acts as a light-excluding mulch, meaning that I can use a lot less compost on the beds as the weeds and grass underneath die off harmlessly.

The plant roots have worked their way through the card, which is decomposing under the compost, and into the soil beneath. This includes carrots and parsnips. Although I cannot yet see how things are growing beneath the surface, their leaves are looking healthy, which is a hopeful sign and it always worked well in my previous gardens.

HARVESTS APLENTY

We are enjoying the first plentiful harvests in our new home, enough to make meals with: annual and perennial herbs, peas, mangetout, white turnips, chard, beetroot, salad leaves, French beans, radish, Florence fennel, baby courgettes and early potatoes in growing sacks on the gravel driveway. There's even some ripe tomatoes, a great treat because I wasn't sure how they would do outside on a Welsh hillside, with no protection.

SLUG CAPTURE

It is not of course all plain sailing here. Slugs are often an issue in a newly made garden, especially one that has not been maintained much. Everyone told me before I moved that Welsh slugs are in a league of their own, so I had anticipated some problems here.