Hello everyone, what to do, what to do. The ground in the greenhouse is 'snug' so I need to open it up a smidge which got me to thinking, what do the no diggers do in these circumstances?
Cheers, tony.
I'm not saying everyone should do this (each and every gardener to his own etc.) but we would simply mulch the beds with two or three inches of homemade compost and let nature break up the compaction.
Naturally occurring bacteria and critters within the soil (including worms) will soon start the process and as mycorrhizal fungi arrives the glomalin it produces causes soil to form into crumb-like particles - not unlike fine gravel except it sticks together and is resistant to washing away, erosion or compaction.
We have wood chipped paths that haven't been dug for six years and I can push a half inch thick steel fence pin down by hand to the clay layer 18 inches below.
If you loosen the soil slightly before applying mulch it shatters any fungal strands already there and might ultimately slow the process of regaining the soils crumb-like structure.
PS - Having done this I found after just a few weeks the soil started to soften up below the mulch.