Feeding the Soil: Double Digging
This a labour-intensive, but quick and effective way to remediate compacted/feed-depleted soil, that requires plenty of compost!
It will, however, repay you the effort many times over. I remember double-digging a bed, and it still produced super healthy plants for years after. It does disturb the soil, but the amount of compost you add compensates for any damage you may cause. Warning: If you have very heavy soil it could be very difficult work!
(A less invasive way but slower to remediate soil is through cover cropping where a bed is sown with a mix of different species depending on what your soil needs: their roots do the work over one or two seasons.)
Materials/Tools needed:
Spade
Digging fork
Wheelbarrow
Plenty of compost
Bokashi if you make it
Organic fertilisers eg rock dust (supplies wide range of minerals)
Diatomaceous earth (supplies silica)
Gypsum (for heavy clay soil)
Fish meal
Seaweed meal, etc
Note: Soil must be in Dark/Damp condition for this process. Not too dry, not too wet.
1) cover the whole bed with a generous layer of compost and sprinkle with any organic ferts you want to use
2) remove a spade’s depth trench of soil across the width of the bed and place in a wheelbarrow. Leave the soil in the wheelbarrow for the last step.
3) Use your digging fork to go as deep as you can in the bottom of the trench you have created and rock the fork gently to and fro to loosen the deeper soil. Do this across the entire trench.
4) Spread at least a 2 inch layer of compost in the trench, plus a good sprinkling of fert, gently mix into soil with your fork
5) Now start a new trench alongside the first: try to lift slices of soil from the new trench and slide into the first, keeping the upper layer up - in other words, do not turn the soil over. Transfer slices of soil across the whole trench into the first. It will look messy - that’s all right!
6) Now repeat steps 3,4,5 until you have dug the last trench and added in your compost etc
7) Transfer the soil from the wheelbarrow into the last trench
Rake the bed over and shape it. It will be raised up quite a bit as a result and slowly settle over time. Water well before planting.
