Back to basics – soil and its secrets – digging over

The first rule of digging is to make sure that the site is clear of all persistent weeds – if you dig with perennial weeds still in the soil, you are likely to spread their seeds, if they are self-seeding or their roots if they are suckering, which can increase their invasion of your plot exponentially.

Then you need to consider the depth of your topsoil, how well or badly the soil drains and whether or not your plot has been previously cultivated. These all determine the digging method required. Simple, single and double-digging are techniques to consider:

Simple digging - many gardeners simply lift a spade of soil, turn it over and drop it back in its original position. This is known as simple digging and is suitable for cleaning the soil surface of any debris and non-persistent weeds. This method is often the best option for working with irregularly-shaped beds or around existing plants.

Single digging – you should adopt this method on regularly-shaped plots, where it is important that the soil has an even texture such as where carrots or other deep crops will be grown or where seeds are to be sown. Single digging is also useful when large quantities of organic matter such as compost or manure need to be incorporated. Dig out a trench to a spade’s depth, known as a ‘spit’, and about twelve inches wide. Leave the earth on the surface while you dig a second trench and turn the soil from each trench into the next one along.

Double digging – this is useful when drainage needs to be improved, or if the ground has not been cultivated in the past, it’s intensive and time-consuming but delivers good soil. The soil is worked to a depth of two spades. Remove the soil from the upper and lower spits of the first trench and from the upper spit of the second, placing it on the ground in three clearly separated piles. The soil can then be transferred from the lower spit of the second trench to the base of the first trench, and from the upper spit of the third trench to the top of the first which ensures that the topsoil and subsoil remain separate. Continue digging trenches in the same way, until you reach the end of the bed where earth from the first trench fills the appropriate layers in the final one.

Digging photograph by CarbonNYC, used under a creative commons attribution licence

 

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