Digging the soil
Benefits of digging the soil
Digging the soil is one of the most labour intensive jobs in the
garden but also one of the most beneficial. Digging the soil will
improve the structure of the soil as it reduces soil compaction and
improves soil aeration. The effect of this is that there is more oxygen
available to the plant roots and the water drainage is improved. It
also makes it easier for plant roots to penetrate and ‘reach
out’ further into the soil.
The other reason to dig the soil is to dig in and incorporate organic
matter such as garden compost or rotted horse manure that help improve
the soil quality.
Digging the soil also has other benefits such as burying weeds (don’t
bury weeds that have produced seed or perennial weed roots though).
When the weed is buried it will naturally breakdown just as it would
on the compost heap.
Digging the soil also makes sowing / planting out easier as the soil
is more open and seedlings will find it easier to break through the
soils surface.
How to dig the soil
The most common method of digging the soil is to single dig. This
will prepare the ground for most types of well established plants
with a good root system including perennials, trees and shrubs. Smaller
plants such as seedlings and small annuals will require the soil surface
to be repeatedly raked to achieve much smaller soil ‘clods’.
To single dig you work in a systematic way, starting at one side
of the bed or border and dig a trench one spades depth and one spades
width. Pile the soil from this first trench into a wheelbarrow and
take it to the opposite side of the area that is going to be dug and
empty the wheelbarrow.
Go back to the trench you have just dug and using your spade add
a 4 inch layer of organic matter such as garden compost or well rotted
manure into the trench.
Now dig a new trench next to the first trench and upturn the soil
from this second trench into the first trench (on top of the organic
matter). Remove any stones and weeds from the upturned soil and break
this soil down with the tines of a garden fork so that the soil clods
are reduced to the size of a table tennis ball.
Repeat stage 2 but this time putting the organic matter in the second
trench. Now repeat the process working along the plot trench by trench
until you reach the far end. When you have reached the far end and
added organic matter into the last trench use the soil that you transported
in the wheelbarrow from your first trench to fill in the last trench.
The amount of organic matter you need to incorporate when digging
the soil will vary depending on the quality of the soil to start with
and the number of times you have previously dug organic matter into
the soil.
Double digging
Double digging is a more thorough method of digging that is used
by some gardeners when they are digging a plot for the first time.
It is harder work than single digging as it involves forking over
the soil in the base of the trench to the depth of the fork tines
before adding the organic matter. Some gardeners believe that double
digging is not necessary.
Digging tips
If the soil is too dry then the soil will be hard and digging will
be more of an effort. Choose a time when the soil is not to wet as
otherwise it will stick to your spade and footwear.
Dig at a steady pace as digging is very labour intensive, because
of this dig small areas to begin with and when you are familiar with
the effects and your body is accustomed to it build you can dig larger
areas.