Preparing the Soil

Most certainly not a favourite chore of the home vegetable gardener, digging over is done for three very important reasons. Firstly to ensure that the annual weeds that can plague your vegetable patch are buried or removed, to make sure that your seedlings once sown will have very little competition for key nutrients and water. Secondly to introduce compost or manure into the soil, and finally and very importantly to aerate the soil for the coming year.

This preparation is fortunately only required on a once a year basis and is best performed in autumn or early winter, allowing the harsh frosts common of the UK to break down rough exposed soil. Thankfully if this is done properly come spring merely superficial attention may be required ready for planting and sowing.

Carried out properly digging over should not be an unduly strenuous exercise and time out should be taken to ensure all be it a chore, the enjoyment of tending to your patch is not lost. People who find themselves exhausted after this task are often rushing in head first without planning and without regard for certain simple rules. Start off gradually and always use quality tools making sure tools such as spades and forks are the correct size for your height.

Single digging

Single digging is a method of turning over the soil to the depth of a single spade. This method as a rule is sufficient but if you believe an area to be in need of deeper enrichment, a double digging can take place. Either way the most efficient way of digging over the soil is by the use of the trench method. Working across the plot in orderly trenches of around 15 inches wide and back filling with a soil and manure mix. You must however check the requirements of the crop you intend to sow on the affected area as for some crops the application of manure may be unbeneficial. If your plot requires an application of lime you must add this to the surface to be washed in by the rain. If you have recently dug in manure to your plot it is not a good idea to add lime also as they react chemically.

Double digging

Double digging is an extra thorough way to improve the ground. This method is especially valuable on heavy soils or soils that tend to get waterlogged. Carrots, parsnips and other such root vegetables grow deep into the ground in search for nutrient rich soil and water. If they meet a hard layer under the surface they can deform and their growth is stopped. Many years of single digging may result in a compact layer, otherwise known as a pan layer, just below the surface. To solve this it will be necessary to double dig the affected area. Either way a compacted growing medium is a poor choice.