Prepare the Soil for next Season Early winter is a good time to prepare the soil for next season. There are various ways to do this depending on your soil type and condition. Avoid working on wet ground as this causes it to become compacted. Simple digging with a spade, lifting a chunk of soil, dropping it down and chopping it up and incorporating organic matter can improve the structure of the soil. Using a fork instead of a spade is easier on heavy soil, particularly clay and stony soils. It breaks up clods and helps to aerate the soil and can also incorporate manure or organic matter into the soil. There is a method called the “no dig”. This should only be used on soil with a good structure and involves laying a deep layer of garden compost, manure or organic matter over the soil in a 3-6in layer. This mulch should be added annually. On good loamy soils it may well be sufficient to drag a three pronged cultivator through the soil, much like hoeing. Single digging is a good methodical way of cultivation. Mark out a plot, divide it into two strips and dig a small trench about 12ins wide and a spades width from the end of the first strip. Place soil aside and then fill the trench with soil from the area just behind, thus making another trench, continue this over both strips and fill the final trench with the soil set aside from the original trench. Double digging is the same as single digging, except that when the soil is removed from each trench, dig down another spades depth at the bottom of the trench before filling. In these instances add organic matter as a top dressing and lightly fork it in.
Posted on: Sat, 09 Nov 2013 12:55:19 +0000
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