[Growster...]

We're rationalising our allotment beds now, having given up the other half-plot a week or so ago, and this leaves us with just one full Patch, where we have, now, twenty-five 8' x 4' beds for veg, and several others which have established fruit bushes sitting ready for next year.

The original digging took several months, and there were the usual suspects of couch, brambles, docks etc, to clear, but they're mostly gone now.

But the consideration for the condition of the subsoil has been bugging me for a couple of years, and since we invested my pocket money (for several years), in a Mantis, for the topsoil 12", it's clear that there has to be a programme of double digging, to break up the pan about a foot down.

I was interested to see that our Host and Master (John) tried a Mantis on the subsoil, but as an ageing Growster may (will definitely) have trouble getting a trench that wide, using a Terrex spade, I'll revert to a fork, and go traditional, with some serious mining, a foot down.

Luckily, we have all but one of the existing twenty-five beds still full of leeks, carrots, spinach etc, so I won't have to tackle the job all in one go, but I'm rather looking forward to 'going old-fashioned', especially as we've just taken delivery of a couple of tons of well-rotted farmyard manure, which will be a great 'tincture' for each bed..;0)

Which reminds me..;0)

[Yorkie]

Have fun (and I'm not saying which particular part of your post this comment is aimed at  )

[Growster...]

Have fun (and I'm not saying which particular part of your post this comment is aimed at  )

Thanks Yorkie!

You know me better than most..;0)

[NewSteve]

Having double dug around 5 beds that size this year, I can report that yes, it's hard work but actually doing the subsoil layer isn't that much extra work. After all, you only need a few decent cracks for the worms to get into and they'll do the rest.

[Growster...]

Having double dug around 5 beds that size this year, I can report that yes, it's hard work but actually doing the subsoil layer isn't that much extra work. After all, you only need a few decent cracks for the worms to get into and they'll do the rest.

Wise words, NewSteve - thank you!

As I'm supposed to be retired, I should really have the time to contemplate all this work, soooo, as I could have got away with it for another couple of years, I may as well use any spare hours now, doing what's necessary...;0)

[Kristen]

I'm surprised you have got a pan from repeat use of a Mantis - or shouldn't I be?

[boldondig]

Having done it with my beds ( 20+)- and having bent a few fork tines - the best thing I purchased was a mattock with a lightweight handle - I did have a really hard pan with thick clay and skerries - but the mattock did the job...

[beesrus]

I'm just wondering how important it actually is to double dig. Most of my plot on a bit of a hill doesn't really have much more than 16 inches of usable soil before shellet is hit in any case. But that doesn't stop me getting very fine food out of it provided I see to it's condition. In fact I have never double dug the plot and don't really see the point. I'm of the mind the soil is often best left alone if weeds aren't a problem. Not a no-dig convert yet, but certainly I don't bother with going deeper than one fork depth, if that, and then only once every 12/18 months around different harvesting times. I keep thinking I might upset everyone living down there.

[mumofstig]

It simply depends on how free-draining your soil is, whether double digging will benefit your plot, or not.

[beesrus]

I thought that might be the case Mos. Mine's just a normal neutral loam, not too clay-like. But I still have the opinion most veg don't really need much more than a good foot of tilled fertile soil. Rather than dig down, better to add on top. That's how nature has done it for ever.
If one grows on heavy clay, one person digging down deeper tan others to alleviate the well understood wet thing can result in that plot becoming a "sump" for everything around it.

[Kristen]

But I still have the opinion most veg don't really need much more than a good foot of tilled fertile soil. Rather than dig down, better to add on top. That's how nature has done it for ever.

Although I don't think that nature had to contend with a hard pan

We had a house, ages ago, which was built on what had been an agricultural field.  Tractor wheels running in the furrow when ploughing, hard to imagine how much damage that could do - after all the plough is several furrows wide, so the wheel would only run in a specific spot on average once every 4 years, or less.  Although the base of the plough share also pushes on the soil underneath it, I suppose.

I dug a trench for a hedge I was planting.  First spade depth easy, albeit that it was clay soil. I was digging the trench in spring, so the soil was not dry, and not water logged either - pretty much ideal time.  I went to loosen the soil in the bottom of the trench, with a fork, and I couldn't get it into the soil at all. I had to use a pick axe to break up the pan, and it took days - and I was young and fit in those days!

Whilst the plant roots may not go down that deep a pan makes a huge difference to drainage (and water moving upwards in the soil too), and probably the flow of nutrients moving upwards too.  Similarly in a new-build if the builders have buried all their waste, forming an impenetrable layer with sheets of plastic and slabs of cement from washing out the mixer and so on ...

[Growster...]

I'm surprised you have got a pan from repeat use of a Mantis - or shouldn't I be?

I reckon the pan is there from back before we took on The Patch, Kristen.

When I originally dug the beds, I didn't have anything other than a Terrex spade - the fork attachment came later (I think), but we dug and cleared the beds as one normally does, but only one spit deep for starters!

Now we have more time, we can get the job done properly, including manuring the trenches, which has never been done!

[Growster...]

Generally, we're on a slope from side to side, and last winter/spring, we had quite a lot of water hanging around in each bed, and I felt that it should have gone away quicker than it did.

I don't think I'll need to double dig for many years after this coming season, but there really is a painful jolt when the spade bounces off the subsoil, so while I can still loosen it all, I'm going to give it a bash - literally!

[Kristen]

There is a lot of discussion, and opinion, about No Dig, including starting with Lasagne method or similar and even adopting a Never Dug policy ... but I am sceptical, perhaps it is because I am on heavy clay as maybe on sand / Grade 1 Loam there is no problem with that, and personally I feel much more comfortable with an Only Dug Once [But Properly] policy

[Lardman]

personally I feel much more comfortable with an Only Dug Once [But Properly] policy

Those are my feelings too. In my sand pit where the subsoil is good enough to lay bricks with, I did the whole veg area properly first which improved the drainage dramatically. I've kept off the soil in the main since then and I've not seen the return of the problems.

I do enjoy a proper bit of digging too Mr Growster, it's very therapeutic but I'm also not as fond of hard work as I used to be  Perhaps you might like to try some of these deep rooted green manures to do the work for you on a couple of beds.