Think narrow! Vegetables don't need to be grown in long boring rows! Once prepared and provided you continue to add lots of compost on the surface, you won't need to dig the soil, the worms will do the work so long as you don't tread heavily on the beds. Narrow beds (1.2m wide) will save a lot of work, look more attractive and enable you to grow a lot more, as plants can be grown much more closely together, crowding out weeds.

(For example, leafmould is a substitute for peat if you wish to add structure, but not if you wish to increase acidity, then you must use bark)

Well-rotted farmyard or stable manure can be dug in or, especially if mixed with other material, used as a surface mulch.

Leaf mould is valuable too. The easiest way to make it is to put the newly gathered leaves into black plastic bin-liner sacks, tied at the neck and forget about them for up to a year.

Carefree compost

There are plenty of special wooden or plastic compost bins on the market, or you can easily make your own by using a dustbin or building one (-or better still, two, and the bigger the better) like that shown in the picture. The idea is to fill up one side whilst the other is composting. (We recommend the HDRA leaflet ''A Step by Step Guide to Composting' available form the UWP office or HDRA)

Toss in a good mix of just about any organic ingredients you can find, preferably in fairly large and varied quantities. You can use fruit and vegetable peelings, salad trimmings and leftovers, annual weeds, cut-flower remains, grass clippings, egg-shells and the boxes in which you bought them, soft chopped-up garden prunings, and even shredded newspapers (but not glossy magazines).

Steer clear of meat, fish and cheese. Keep the compost moist and cover it with a lid or good thickness of old carpet to keep warmth in and rain out. Turning the material over now and again will help to speed up the composting process.

Whichever type you choose, aim at producing a dark, crumbly substance which feels pretty much the same as that which you might buy from your garden centre.