David is correct, my father only did the double digging on the root bed, he used a rotation method so the root bed moved year by year. It allowed us to grow long perfectly straight veg which won him prizes at the local show. We did not use modern grow them in pipes back then. We also had a midden for our horse manure and compost so that bed got well fed. Potato's have to be earthed up so no point in double digging. Dad an old fashioned gardener fed the family and extended family from our large garden with a little help from me, he did not believe in wasting his time so used the double digging method once in a year on one plot in the rotation, to him it was common sense and good gardening, end of lesson.
I only double dig if I have drainage problems, otherwise I use the no dig technique of piling organic matter on the top and letting the worms do the work. I have done this on heavy brick clay and after 4 years the soil is now friable down to about 8 inches, which is fine for the majority of vegetables and plants that I grow.
if anything double digging where large shrubs or even trees are going to go can be counter productive as it breaks the soil structure down so trees in particular blow over more easily. I had this problem where I planted a community orchard on an old allotment site and after a big storm five years later you could see which trees had been planted on former beds (lying down) or former pathways (still standing)!
Depends on what you are growing them for, show roots needed even then a tap root as long as the main body and showing was one of Dads hobbies along with his beloved Chrysanthemums and boxing he would go and watch all the boxing matches locally including my school, no H&S then. I would have thought it common sense not to dig near trees or shrubs our fruit trees were wall trained around three sides of the garden with a small orchard separate never dug. There are always more than one way to crack an egg, gardening is one of those pursuits with more opinions on how to do things than any other, take the easy route and get a crop, do it right and get a super crop, it is up to each person how they do it and as mentioned above there are no easy ways if you want the best.
We would need to ask one of the Agricultural Colleges Hostafan and what would it prove as we all have different soil, I live on a brick clay area and had to double dig to get through building rubble compounded clay from machinery (we bought new build 30 years ago) then loosen up the under clay to allow drainage, luckily we live at the top of a bank so the drainage went down hill across a falling field to a beck, double double digging. Most around went the other way building up with raised boxes and such. With many loads of manure from the farm plus digging in paper clothing the odd rabbit dead bird and an old dog we got a manageable garden. My Dad had a sand hill under his garden and was nearly two hundred years old with masses of manure from the start his top soil was three feet deep and yet with experience from years of digging he knew to double dig the root bed which with rotation meant every five years the same part got double dug then sometimes left fallow for a year. I never even after all my work got vegetables like he did so was that a good test, was it the soil, the masses of horse manure we used at home or just good husbandry on Dads part, we do not know and all the scientists could come up with different results, why change something that works I ask?
Each to his own, as an engineer I learned early on if it is not broke do not fix it though when we did have to fix it it was done by the book, that way we only did the job once. No one tells you how to cultivate your own garden but I prefer a job done properly it gets results. Around me new people are moving in and want to grow their own, they have to undo some bad past gardening plus we see skips full of decking and pavings before they can find the garden. We do not live in the same place for ever do not build up hard work for the next person I say.
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I know that's the theory David, but has there ever been a scientifically , double blind experiment to see if it's actually true?
Thanks dk.
David is correct, my father only did the double digging on the root bed, he used a rotation method so the root bed moved year by year. It allowed us to grow long perfectly straight veg which won him prizes at the local show. We did not use modern grow them in pipes back then. We also had a midden for our horse manure and compost so that bed got well fed. Potato's have to be earthed up so no point in double digging. Dad an old fashioned gardener fed the family and extended family from our large garden with a little help from me, he did not believe in wasting his time so used the double digging method once in a year on one plot in the rotation, to him it was common sense and good gardening, end of lesson.
Frank
I only double dig if I have drainage problems, otherwise I use the no dig technique of piling organic matter on the top and letting the worms do the work. I have done this on heavy brick clay and after 4 years the soil is now friable down to about 8 inches, which is fine for the majority of vegetables and plants that I grow.
if anything double digging where large shrubs or even trees are going to go can be counter productive as it breaks the soil structure down so trees in particular blow over more easily. I had this problem where I planted a community orchard on an old allotment site and after a big storm five years later you could see which trees had been planted on former beds (lying down) or former pathways (still standing)!
single digging goes down about 12". I've never grown carrots any longer than that.
Depends on what you are growing them for, show roots needed even then a tap root as long as the main body and showing was one of Dads hobbies along with his beloved Chrysanthemums and boxing he would go and watch all the boxing matches locally including my school, no H&S then. I would have thought it common sense not to dig near trees or shrubs our fruit trees were wall trained around three sides of the garden with a small orchard separate never dug. There are always more than one way to crack an egg, gardening is one of those pursuits with more opinions on how to do things than any other, take the easy route and get a crop, do it right and get a super crop, it is up to each person how they do it and as mentioned above there are no easy ways if you want the best.
Frank.
I take your point totally Frank, but
We would need to ask one of the Agricultural Colleges Hostafan and what would it prove as we all have different soil, I live on a brick clay area and had to double dig to get through building rubble compounded clay from machinery (we bought new build 30 years ago) then loosen up the under clay to allow drainage, luckily we live at the top of a bank so the drainage went down hill across a falling field to a beck, double double digging. Most around went the other way building up with raised boxes and such. With many loads of manure from the farm plus digging in paper clothing the odd rabbit dead bird and an old dog we got a manageable garden. My Dad had a sand hill under his garden and was nearly two hundred years old with masses of manure from the start his top soil was three feet deep and yet with experience from years of digging he knew to double dig the root bed which with rotation meant every five years the same part got double dug then sometimes left fallow for a year. I never even after all my work got vegetables like he did so was that a good test, was it the soil, the masses of horse manure we used at home or just good husbandry on Dads part, we do not know and all the scientists could come up with different results, why change something that works I ask?
Frank.
I'm with you tetley. My garden is lucky if it gets single digging.
Each to his own, as an engineer I learned early on if it is not broke do not fix it though when we did have to fix it it was done by the book, that way we only did the job once. No one tells you how to cultivate your own garden but I prefer a job done properly it gets results. Around me new people are moving in and want to grow their own, they have to undo some bad past gardening plus we see skips full of decking and pavings before they can find the garden. We do not live in the same place for ever do not build up hard work for the next person I say.
Frank.