Five minutes with… Steph Hafferty

You are famous for ‘no-dig’ gardening. Please explain. 

When I first started no-dig gardening 13 years ago, I was a low-income working mum raising three children on my own.It hugely increased my garden’s productiveness. We now know that no dig methods protect vital soil structures and benefit the environment, locking in carbon (digging releases carbon). It saves time, there are fewer weeds, you can grow more food in smaller spaces.

 

And you recently moved to Wales?

I moved from Somerset where I had lived for 20 years to just under 1/2 acre in rural West Wales in mid-March, where I’m setting up a new no dig garden on weedy grass. 

The first harvests here were wonderful – salads, baby beetroot, chard, spinach, kale. A recent addition to the garden is a 14 x 45 ft polytunnel.

I call my gardening ‘no dig homesteading’ because it includes growing and cooking food, preserving, making alcohol, growing things for bodycare, herbal remedies, etc. 

 

And has the Guild been useful to you? 

I joined the Guild three years ago. Everyone has been so friendly and supportive, specially the Facebook Forum, and there’s no snobbishness, which is lovely.