Remember when I was double-digging all the beds in the garden in 2010? Aside from marrying D, that was probably the best decision I have ever made. (I’d count E in there, too, but she was a gift, not a decision.)
Today I weeded, broadforked (for deep aeration), and used a regular garden fork over the top of one of the beds to prepare it for spring planting. The broadfork is heavy so requires some full body effort, but the entire job was manageable in two hours — even on a 100 square foot bed.
I found few rocks, hundreds of worms, and great tilth. After planting, I’ll put some top dressing on it, but this particular bed needs no ammendments this year.
The only thing it really needs is for me to figure out how this particular hen keeps escaping her luxurious digs down by the creek. Hens are *not* helpful in a just-planted garden. Today I put her back over the fence four times.
I remember when you were double digging, I was most impressed! Your beds are beautiful. My worry is that constantly digging ruins the tilth. I even worry about chopping in cover crops. Do you cover crop? The cover crop that was chopped in last year at Woodhaven left the soil in amazing condition. What are your thoughts?
Carrie, I don’t dig constantly. I double-dug *once* (in 2010) and may not have to double-dig ever again.
I have done cover crops. They help. We have used many in the past. Not this year.
In this situation, with this bed, year two, I am aerating the soil minimally with the broadfork. I am breaking up big clods on top with a regular garden fork. I am not digging at all. I am letting plant matter rot in place. I am bringing oxygen down to lower levels in a minimally-invasive way. I am letting the connective matter in the soil remain connected.
In this bed, there was no cover crop this year. On other beds, I even chop in the weeds the grow in the bed because they are there for a reason.
Does that respond properly?
And, I guess, in place of the cover crops this year, we are rotating crops more significantly. We used to do cover crops religiously in order to build our poor soil. Since the double-digging two years ago, we have done no cover crops because they haven’t been needed.
I may have a couple of beds in the garden this year that will need more ammendments because of what they grew last year, and perhaps they would have benefited from cover crops this winter, but — instead — I will plant something really different and top-dress with compost and let the plant roots and the worms do the work. If, this time next year, the soil doesn’t look better in those beds, then I will do some more intensive cover-cropping.