Double Digging
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 25 ส.ค. 2024
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Perfect soil might be a gardener’s dream. The reality, however, usually isn’t so easy. Most of us start with clay-choked or sand-filled soil. But we can create perfect soil. Doing so is our practice: that to which we regularly devote our time and energy and the most impactful way we can create strong, healthy plants.
But how?
We loosen it and add organic matter.
The lessons from our roots show us the wisdom of this approach: greenthumbgard...
As gardeners, we feel like we grow plants. But we don’t. At least, that’s not the whole picture-or even the most important part of it.
The wisest insight green-thumbed gardeners possess is knowing they don’t grow plants; they grow soil. Plants are merely a byproduct, a simple reflection of the quality of the underlying earth and the effort given to improve it.
With its roots in the older traditions of trenching and bastard trenching, double digging is the powerhouse of soil improvement, providing an amazing amount of soil loosening and tremendous amounts of mixed in organic matter in the form of cured compost.
Join us for this episode on double digging! And try it in your garden, especially for plants like tomatoes, peppers, and the bigger brassicas like broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage!
Also, check out our website for descriptions of each of the methods:
Trenching: greenthumbgard...
Bastard Trenching: greenthumbgard...
Double Digging: greenthumbgard...
And follow us on Twitter and Instagram!
Twitter Garden Calendar: / greenthumbgard3
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I like the depth you achieve with this method. Though especially exhausting due to disabilities, I could certainly try it out in a small area. It's not like I'd be doing this every day.
Those are all great points. It IS A LOT of work and would be especially exhausting due to disabilities. Trying it in a small area is a great idea, maybe only where you're planting tomatoes-or maybe also peppers and large brassicas like broccoli and cauliflower. Plus, you're totally right, not only do you not do it every day, but you also wouldn't likely do it every year. Over 25 years of using it and comparing it to many other methods each year, it has had the most profound impact on peppers, tomatoes, and large brassicas.
I did this for two years in my entire yard during the pandemic. I was in great shape when I was finished and so was the yard.
Hahaha, yeah, I bet you were and the plants loved it!
I'm 46, disabled and trenching it through compacted silt and...billions of tons of compressed river rock.
That sounds like a ton of work, Andrea! But kudos to you for knowing what your plants need and doing it!
Ive used this method it most definitely helps just miserable work in the hot summer
Agreed on both counts!
This seems a winter activity to me.
@@cmbells7736 for real if the ground wasn't frozen that would have been smart of me
@@cmbells7736 Absolutely.
What do you do if the soil is full of perennial weeds like horsetail and bindweed? Do you keep stopping to trace the root and pull it out?
Oooo, those are two tough ones. Like most persistent weeds, you have four options (none of which are mutually exclusive): dig/remove/weed, smother, use chemicals, and improve your soil. The short answer is that I'd 1) definitely get what I can while double digging and be really gentle with the roots so I'm careful to get every piece, 2) continue killing it with multiple strategies, and 3) work most diligently at improving my soil. Whatever you do needs to be done regularly, repeatedly, and over a long period of time (in the range of three to five years) because it takes multiple times to exhaust the extensive reserves of energy stored in the very large root systems. Bindweed roots are known to run 20 feet (6 meters) deep and 25 feet or more in breadth, being known to come up in neighboring fields and pastures. Horsetail roots routinely grow 6 feet deep. Plus, both have root systems that break rather easily and WILL REGROW NEW PLANTS FROM EVEN SMALL PIECES OF ROOTS LEFT IN THE SOIL. That's too large, too deep, and too far-reaching to be realistically removed by digging alone.
You can dig or weed bindweed and cut horsetail stems to the ground regularly over a long period (3-5 years) to exhaust the root system and finally kill the plant. Be aware that horsetails will resprout even more vigorously at first, but vigilant removal of top growth will kill them eventually. Likely, don't hoe or till horseweed since it will cut the underground rhizomes and create more plants. If you do, weed out the new plants before they start creating rhizomes (within a few weeks). Broken pieces of bindweed root sprout above-ground growth again in a couple of weeks, so remove it every three weeks all season.
Smothering also has to be done over a long period (two years or possibly more for horsetail) and over a large area. Otherwise, the vigorous horseweed rhizomes will grow to the edge of the smothering covering and put up tops there and the parts of the bindweed plant that remain outside of the garden plot will simply recolonize the bed after the smothering material is removed.
If you're fine with using chemicals (just giving options), repeated applications of glyphosate will work on bindweed and horsetail; it often takes repeated applications to get enough herbicide into the root system to kill the whole thing. Again, stay vigilant and stay the course, and you'll eventually kill the entire root system. To avoid the drift of herbicide onto other plants, dabbers are available. If you can't find them, ask and I'll share at least one source. Breaking the horsetail stems with a rake first (or walking on them) has been found to help them absorb the herbicide.
Finally, both bindweed and horsetail are also good indicators of soil conditions that are quite poor for vegetable plants and field crops. Horsetail indicates low pH, infertile, and poorly drained soil. Bindweed indicates compacted soil. Many report having the best luck control horseweed by improving their soil, making it increasingly inhospitable to it. Improve the drainage and compaction (double digging helps tremendously), increase fertility (add even more cured compost) while double digging, and raise the pH by adding lime in accordance with recommendations from a soil test (cured compost from some sources can also help bring soil into a more neutral pH).
@@greenthumbgardeningsecrets75 Thanks so much!
@@twelvesmylimit You're very welcome!
great video thanks
Thanks, glad it helped
Thank you for this video..... do you think you plants are more healthy with this method
You are very welcome. Yes, absolutely! Most end up much healthier (to the point where I've never had to use chemical or even organic pesticides--they can just defend themselves) but some much more than others (in order of difference: tomatoes, peppers, larger brassicas, beans, potatoes, sweet potatoes....). Because it's so much work, however, I personally, have decided to only use it for tomatoes, peppers, larger brassicas, and their companions, since it's easy enough to find more space for things like beans and make up the production. I address all of this and a little more in "Double Digging's Tips, Tricks, and Finer Points" (th-cam.com/video/F7a9_sPNYJY/w-d-xo.html th-cam.com/video/F7a9_sPNYJY/w-d-xo.html) and on my website here: greenthumbgardeningsecrets.com/double-diggings-finer-points/. Good luck!
Does this work for GA red clay soil? Or is it best to just dig the dirt up and fill the plot with useful soil?
Excellent question. It absolutely works in red clay soils. In fact, it's probably your best option, giving you the ion- and water-holding benefits of clay with all of the numerous benefits of added organic matter and loosening soil. However, I'd only do it for larger brassicas, peppers, and tomatoes, since they're the plants that show the most marked increase in growth, production, and plant health-which makes sense since they all have such massive root systems. I have more detailed explanations on all of this on my website if you're curious.
And if it's too much work, or seems like it will be, especially at first in the hard clay, check out the following two videos for less intensive options to help get that clay loosened up, and then you can always double dig once you've done this for a few years: 1) th-cam.com/video/64ZtG10iZrc/w-d-xo.htmlsi=iCgmaHmEKI6ox9hH, 2) th-cam.com/video/ev6ryzsIcRg/w-d-xo.htmlsi=o9bMUqIk71L263Qd. The first one is spading/forking, which incorporates organic matter and loosens the soil a foot deep as opposed to the two feet deep of double digging. It's outstanding for most plants, and, even though, in general, in terms of soil loosening and adding organic matter, you get back in production in direct proportion to the (meaningful and well done) effort you put in, this is one way to get really good results (if slightly lessened than double digging) without nearly as much work. In short, it's MUCH easier with still really good results. The second highlights another hybrid option between double digging and spading/forking that incorporates organic matter and loosens the soil 16-18 inches deep with an 18" broadfork. Those that long can be hard to find today, but it's another fabulous option that has been tried and tested in Europe for centuries. In the video, the great gardening friend I interview explains how he struggled in clay just like yours (he's in Knoxville), which he describes as more like cement than soil, for years, only to have his plants explode in growth and health once he used this method. He's really blossomed into one hell of a gardener who now influences all of his gardening friends because of exactly this method switch.
I gave you a thumb up for the effort. That was a back-breaking work. Hugelkultur seems much easier and I've had great results. Just my opinion.
😜 🤗 Thanks for the thumbs up. I appreciate your opinion, and I'm glad to hear you've had great results. The point is that you're gardening, right, and having enough success to keep doing it-and maybe even pass it on to the next generation. Every method has its pros and cons, right, and this one is no different. I discuss its pros, cons, and finer points in a separate video (th-cam.com/video/F7a9_sPNYJY/w-d-xo.html).
I think one-size-fits-all ideas about gardening methods make no room for different plants and different people. I don't, for example, prep my spot for my asparagus the same way I prep my spot for my carrots, and I don't expect an 85 year with limited mobility to use the same bed preparation methods as a 21 year old who's chomping at the bit to get the absolute greatest amount of production from a small plot.
That said, for accuracy, it's true that double digging can be back-breaking work, but it's also true that it does an incredible job of loosening soil and adding concentrated organic matter deeply and, by doing that, gets the best harvest results (I've tested all of the prominent methods next to each other for years) for deeper and wider rooted plants, namely tomatoes, peppers, and the larger brassicas--limiting the area done this way to a much smaller area than a whole garden. Plus, contrary to claims of losing the loosening with each rainfall, with a decent amount of organic matter added during loosening, the beds keep their super loose soil for almost a decade. With straw mulch (and others including using closely spaced plants and cover crops), it's even longer.
I think the reasons it outperforms other methods, including Hugelkultur and similar sheet-composting/planting-directly-in-a-long-term-built-compost-pile methods, in all of our tests are fourfold: 1) It's concentrated organic matter instead of organic matter yet to be broken down to a form usable by garden plants. This is the main reason I personally like it better than Hugelkultur and those methods similar to it. Just like I wouldn't buy my laundry soap already diluted in the tens of gallons of water of a wash cylce-so I don't have to lug around the extra weight for no gain-when I'm adding organic matter to my soil, I want the concentrated, fully-functioning form not something that will a) take time to break down to a usable form for my plants and b) break down to a fraction of its current volume. 2) The organic matter is mixed in with the existing soil. Most soils have at least some available macro- and micro-nutrients. Many have a great store of them. Why not use them? Plus, it mixes the nutrients of the soil and subsoil with the nutrients of the added organic matter so both are readily available together in all of the planting bed for your plants roots and the microbes and mycorrhizal fungi who do much of the real work of transporting and making these continuously available for your plants. 3) The end result is a bed that, while raised a little bit above the ground, doesn't dry out as quickly as higher beds do. 4) It works well for all vegetable garden plants. Some plants-like squash and pumpkins-love the partial decayed organic matter of a working composting pile. Others do better in compost that is fully cured.
Still, that said, one size does not fit all, like I said. I'm glad you're getting great succuess with Hugelkultur and that it has you fired up about it. May your gardens be plentiful and you always stay open to growing!
@@greenthumbgardeningsecrets75 You DO have a point. Thanks!
No dig, Charles Dowding, much easyer and better
Easier, yes. Better? For lettuce and other plants that have relatively shallow root systems-at least at the point early in their life cycle when you harvest them-it's almost as good, sure. For those with deep root systems, "No Dig" isn't even close. For example, one tomato plant in the bed from the video produced over 41 pounds of fruit! (41.575 to be exact!) That same year, in beds right next to this double-dug bed, the best of the beds using "no dig" produced 5.5 pounds of tomatoes; the worst "no dig" bed produced only 2.16 pounds! That’s between 7.5 and 19.25 TIMES the production. For many that kind of increased production is worth the extra effort. For those for whom it's not, "no dig" is a fine method and certainly much easier, but there are other methods that are about as easy and get much better results than "no dig."
Personally, I have no real dog in the seeming crusade "no dig" proponents seem to be on against any other method (see other comments below and on every other video I have of any other method other than "no dig"). I just want people to be able to garden if they desire to do so. Everyone is a little different in levels of interest and ability. I want them to know they have options between many very viable methods, so they can pick the one that best meets their needs. The best method is always context-dependent for plants being grown, people doing the work, and the native soil of the plot. One-size-fits-all ideas about gardening methods make no room for different plants and different people. I don't, for example, prep my spot for my asparagus the same way I prep my spot for my carrots, and I don't expect an 85 year with limited mobility to use the same bed preparation methods as a 21-year-old who's chomping at the bit to get the absolute greatest amount of production from a small plot. In this array of options, "no dig" has its place, but it is far from the best method out there for all people, all plants, and all places. Any regular experimentation will show this. Therefore, "no dig" is great for certain soils, shallower rooted plants, and people who want something easier and are willing to take a little loss of production from the deeper rooted plants like tomatoes, peppers, and the larger brassicas. In contrast, double digging is great for certain soils (compacted, clay, etc.), deeper-rooted plants, and those people who want to maximize their production in a smaller area.
Finally, the "no dig" method currently promoted by Charles Dowding has its own roots. He didn't invent it. It's not a revolutionary practice taking the world by storm. It's a method that has been used by gardeners for centuries at least. Planting directly in cured compost placed directly on top of the ground is an old practice, going back at least to the French intensive gardeners of the 1500s if not earlier. It's a method passed on to me by my father when I was five years old. It works. For some, it might be one of their better options. For others, it's a method that will hamstring them.
Yeah this is an absolutely outdated method. Which is also extremely labor-intensive and backbreaking. You can achieve the same result with no dig methodologies. Double digging is an absolute waste of time.
No you can't achieve the same results with no dig. No dig is just a lazy man's self delusion...
It's interesting. I find it outdated to maintain that one particular method is best for all people and all plants in all places. This is an incredibly productive method but not for all plants, and it's not for everyone.
This is why we have several soil improvement videos.
Those interested can find our other soil working videos here: th-cam.com/play/PLuk5ZHHXCFbyhyi_t4Q2Pa9gZV3S-mazu.html.
More will be joining them soon, including several “no-till” methods, including a few quite similar to the one you mentioned. They’re all different, and valid ways, to loosen the soil and add organic matter, which is what truly builds soil. More on loosening soil and adding organic matter can be found here: greenthumbgardeningsecrets.com/building-soil/.
Also, for anyone who watches all of it, I address those concerns in the video. And for anyone who follows the channel and website and blog, I address them in even more detail in the following video: th-cam.com/video/F7a9_sPNYJY/w-d-xo.html and on the website and blog here: greenthumbgardeningsecrets.com/double-diggings-finer-points/.
While it's true that "you can [basically] achieve the results [or at least similar results] with no dig methodologies" for some vegetable garden plants, others do tons better in more deeply loosened soil. For example, one tomato plant in the bed from the video produced over 41 pounds of fruit! (41.575 to be exact!) That same year in the same area of the garden, the best of the beds using methods like you described produced 5.5 pounds of tomatoes, and the bed most like what you described produced only 2.16 pounds! That’s between 7.5 and 19.25 TIMES the production. The proof is in the produce that you eat!
Plus, research on roots shows why many plants benefit so much from deeper loosening approaches: greenthumbgardeningsecrets.com/lessons-from-our-roots/.
But let’s back up a bit here.
Gardening is not a one-size-fits-all proposition, for plants or for gardeners. What works for one person in one location doesn’t necessarily work for another in another location. Plus, not all gardeners have the same goals, and not all have the same physical abilities. What works for an able-bodied 21-year-old, chomping at the bit for maximum production doesn’t necessarily work for a less-able, less-strong-willed, time-strapped, or much older gardener just wanting to still put seeds in the soil. And there is nothing wrong with people making different choices about how they garden. It’s actually a beautiful thing. The point is that they can garden the way they want, not that they garden in one particular "right" way. There is no such right way (more on this below).
Also, not all garden plants are the same and have the same requirements for as deeply loosened soil (much more on this below). This is why we show as many methods as possible, and this is just one of them, albeit a powerful one-so gardeners can choose the one that best fits them and their plants. There are many great methods, and gardeners are best served by being open to the whole array of options to best meet their and their plants’ needs.
However, you are certainly correct that this method is a lot of work, and it can be hard on one’s back. It, therefore, does beg the question: is it worth it? I’ve wondered that same thing many a time after digging beds like this. Again, as mentioned above, I address those concerns in the video, and I address them in even more detail in the following video: th-cam.com/video/F7a9_sPNYJY/w-d-xo.html and on the website here: greenthumbgardeningsecrets.com/double-diggings-finer-points/.
Still, we show this method and still do it ourselves for several reasons. Mostly, it’s one of the most powerful and productive methods to quickly build soil and vastly improve the production and health of plants quickly. As I say in the videos above, in the book, and on the website (greenthumbgardeningsecrets.com/), even though it’s a lot of work, in 25 years of experimenting with and comparing all of the above methods in yearly trials, double dug beds significantly outperform any other method every year, including those you mention, by at least twice the production in most cases and show obvious increased health and growth for most plants. We have videos in production, for example, that show one relatively-minor branch of a bush bean plant from the bed in the video you commented on that was larger than all of the plants combined in beds using the "no dig"/“no-till” methods just like the one you mention.
Double digging shines most brightly, however, for tomatoes, peppers, and the larger brassicas, which makes sense because of their massive root systems, which I describe more on the website here: greenthumbgardeningsecrets.com/lessons-from-our-roots/.
One will notice the tremendous depth and breadth of tomato, pepper, and larger brassica roots, with tomatoes having the largest root systems.
This has been exactly mirrored in our results from 25 years of experiments.
More recently, to show what we’ve learned about which methods perform best for which plants to the general public, we’ve done experimental and demonstration beds using all of the prominent “no-till” and soil working methods and taken video of the varying health of the plants and weighed and measure all of the produce (and have videos coming on all of it). Those videos when published will show vast differences in growth and production between double digging and the method you mention. Double digging far out-performs the others every time.
But is it worth it? That’s up to each individual. To each one’s own. Plus, all of the beds, till and “no-till,” performed admirably. They all work just fine. There is no right way. It’s a personal preference. We do find, however, that, personally, it helps to be open to growing when gardening, to be open to new ideas and methods and to seeing what works best for the growth of different kinds of plants, but the true point is to garden, to feel the fulfillment of growing your own food with your own two hands, not to be “right” about one way to garden.
We’ve also dug down in a bed like you mention after two full years of allowing “the worms to do the work for you,” just to see if they really did that work, and have video coming of what we found. To summarize, however, we found an absolutely hard layer of soil right where it had been when we started. It’s obvious in the video. The fork/and shovel just stop dead in their tracks at the hard layer. We then scraped all of the added compost and mulch aside and dug into the hard layer. While we did find a few worm holes here and there where organic matter had been taken a little more deeply, they were relatively few and far between and nowhere near what would be needed to fully integrate the layer of compost and mulch on top, hence the hard layer, and were nowhere even close to the looseness achieved by active methods like double digging and forking/spading. This lack of overall significant earthworm mixing of soil as is often claimed by proponents of the “no-till” methods and the hardness of the old soil layer perfectly explain why the plants in those beds don’t do as well as those in more deeply loosened beds, (Again, we’ve weighed all the produce from each of 13 different methods over two years and filmed it all. Those videos will be coming as we have time to edit them.) mirroring our 25 years of experience with experiments of the same kind and perfectly illustrating the extreme depth of some plants’ roots referenced in the research on plant roots linked above.
So who would want to do this? Plenty of able-bodied folks who are willing to put in the work because they’re trying to maximize their yields. They'll be rewarded for their efforts.
Personally, we’re not satisfied with mere survival or meager growth or production. Our goal is thriving plants at their absolute peak in health and production, but, if weren’t as willing or able to put in this effort, I’d certainly use other methods even for tomatoes, peppers, and the larger brassicas.
But, like you write, double digging is a lot of work. Is it worth it? For our experience, the extra effort is worth it for the massive extra growth and health of tomatoes, peppers, and the larger brassicas for the reason stated above. Even though everything else does really well, too, it’s just too much work and too much of a sore back to justify (for us) doing this method for anything else. One can grow massive bush beans, but does one need to when you can just plant a few more bean plants? Even for the plants it most benefits, however, I’d only recommend it for those who are willing and able to put in the effort for the payoff, and if I were 90, I’d definitely do something different for sure, and it would be just fine. The point is to get out and garden, not to do it in one particular or narrow way.
I tried no-dig on my new plot but the soil is solid, I am having to do this method now. I have used no-dig successfully in a previous plot. I don´t think it can be used on all soil.
I beg to differ. I'm solid compacted silt, volcanic ash and billions of tons of compressed rock. Labor intensive is GOOD for you!
@@joannaacevedoskipworth8747 Certainly does not work for mine-gotta trench out the ROCK.