[Aidy]

No dig here, like Snowdrops!
What is winter digging?  Is it fun??

It is a lot more fun and peaceful than stopping at home 

[Dev]

I'm with Snowdrop - why dig (unless you like the exercise). I've just spread rotted cow manure  on all the beds which covers any annual weeds. The manure soaks up the rain (well - nearly) and when it freezes it breaks up the clumps of manure. The worms certainly seem to enjoy it!

[New shoot]

It has always been the way with raised beds to not dig and just top them up with compost or manure.  I have several at home I have done that with them for years 

On the plot, I find digging stuff into areas works a lot better for some crops.  I have no beds there, just soil, as I tend to use it for bulk plantings and that gives me more usable space and flexibility.  My soil is clay and it benefits from being opened up every so often. 

I do enjoy the exercise and the satisfaction of working the soil.  It is a great stress buster and takes me off to my own little world with the birds singing and the fresh air.  I expect you are the same when you are shifting all your muck onto the beds.  Each to their own 

[John]

Even if my back wasn't bad, there's little that can be done on the veg plot. Our free draining soil is saturated with puddles on the surface. I can't recall it being quite this bad in the 9 years we've been here. Even the raised border in the walled plot had puddles the other day
Still, we play the hand we get dealt.

[Plot 1 Problems]

Same here, even my well cultivated raised beds have had puddles on them. I've got a fair amount of compost to spread out, I'm tempted to chuck it on top of the beds now to absorb some of the water.

[Aunt Sally]

There's no "one size fits all" with gardening.  You have to do what works for you, your soil and specific crops.

[Growster...]

It's a bit of an issue to ponder, but  when we took on the two Patches a few years ago, there were several of us old grizzlys still digging away as we'd always done!

Going back even further, when we had the same Patch in 1987, there were about twenty plots in full swing with regular digging being the norm. Sundays were bedlam!

My old friend on the plot next to the patch we gave up last year, has just told me that he's giving up as well, so there are no more from our generation, and just a couple of holders who are a bit younger...

The rest of the plots are all now with the next generation, and they're just doing everything differently now, with some serious digging in raised beds, well-built fruit cages, or smaller 8 x 4 beds, or, perhaps, very little except tinker around the edges.

I have to confess to not missing the sort of anguish we used to feel when the sort of awful weather we've had recently stopped us getting down there to dig it all over, and it really is a thing of the past now!

Hmmmmm, I still miss the 'buzz' when it all works, though...:0(

[snowdrops]

Good always to be able to discuss different ways of achieving the same outcome though😉

[Plot 1 Problems]

Good always to be able to discuss different ways of achieving the same outcome though😉

That's the great thing with growing, as long as you put the work in it doesn't matter what technique you use, we all end up with the same results!

[Enfield Glen]

I try to get my digging done as soon as I clear a bed, Only have left to do where the late Brasicas and Leeks are, which is just as well as it seems to rain every day here.