Digging: Step-by-Step
Digging breaks up compacted layers in the soil promoting better drainage and aeration. You can also take the opportunity to remove debris and weeds as well as incorporate organic matter. The secret of success with digging it to do it at the right time, when the soil is not too wet or too dry. The best time to dig heavy soils is in early autumn to allow frost action to weather the clods of earth, breaking them down into a crumbly tilth by the spring. Light soils are best cultivated in early spring. Do not walk on the soil after it's been dug. To dig, or not to dig?
Pros
- Good exercise
- Breaks up compacted layers
- Improves drainage and aeration on heavy soil
- Buries annual weeds allows the removal of perennial weeds
- Exposes large clumps of heavy soil to the effects of weathering
- Exposes soil-dwelling pests to birds
- Allows organic material to be
incorporated into the soil
Cons - Hard work
- Damages the soil structure if carried out when the soil is too wet or too dry
- Allows heavy rain to compact the surface of silty soils where vegetation is removed
- Breaks up the natural structure of good soils
- May bring infertile subsoil to the surface
- Brings buried weed seeds to the surface
- Exposes useful creatures such as earthworms to birds
How to cultivate your soil
If you are going to cultivate your soil, you will need to invest in the right equipment. Don't skimp on this, because cheap tools don't last and are uncomfortable to use. I like the traditional spade with a T- or D-shaped handle to turn over decent earth, but my own soil is so stony that I tend to use a fork for digging as it slides between the stones more easily than a spade. Forking
Simply push a border or garden fork into the soil to the
full depth of its prongs, levering it back and turning it over, breaking up clods and removing weeds as you go. Repeat until the whole area has been cultivated.
Good for Recently cultivated or light, sandy, and stony soils.
Simple digging
The basic form of digging with a spade that's pushed into the soil to the full depth of its blade (known as a spit), before levering back and turning it onto the same area. Chop up large clods and remove perennial weed roots by hand.
Good for Most soils and for removing perennial weeds.
Single digging
Similar to 'simple digging' but a 30cm (12in) wide trench is created with the soil placed to one side. A layer of organic matter is then added to the bottom of the trench. By moving back 15cm (6in) the next strip of soil can be dug up, turned and thrown forward on top of the organic matter. After two 15cm (6in) wide strips have been dug, the first
trench will have been filled and a new 30cm (12in) wide trench created. Repeat until entire plot has been cultivated, filling the last trench with the soil from the first.
Good for Impoverished soils and for removing perennial weeds.
Double digging
After creating the first trench as for 'double digging', use a garden fork to the full depth of its prongs in the bottom of the trench to loosen the subsoil and break up any compacted layers. Incorporate organic matter and/or grit as required to improve drainage, before following the procedure for 'single digging'.
Good for Poorly drained soils and deep-rooting crops.
Mechanical digging
Powered machinery can make light work of large areas of ground, but such equipment is very heavy and noisy to operate and difficult to manoeuvre. I've put them through their paces many times on Ground Force, where they can give instant results, but in my Hampshire
garden, a hired rotavator doesn't get an outing more than a couple of times a year. Repeated use of a mechanical digger can also damage heavy soils because it's always cultivated to the same level, creating an impervious layer just below the maximum depth of the blades. If the ground is full of perennial weeds you will need to kill these off first or run the risk of spreading the weed problem; couch grass, bind weed and ground elder love being chopped up by a rotavator; it spreads them about even better than nature herself