Soil matters.

[Ricard with an H]

I've picked up on a few articles recently advocating we do not interfere with our soil by digging, turning over or adding, the exception being compaction and if it needs attention. Surely the most inexperienced amongst us are aware of the myriad of good things we do to help our soil.

So what do we have here ? On the one hand, the author of an article struggling to find something to write about. Turn the page and we have adverts for all the stuff we can add to the soil to make it good for growing along with packets of nutrients specific to whatever crop is growing.

The marketing in our direction is getting more monsterous as each year goes by, a large part of the industry is geared towards those who need to grow in containers to such an extent you could be forgiven for abandoning soil altogether.

Then we have the monthly 'bleeding-obvious' comments to collect leaves in the autumn, right now there are a lot of 'bleeding-obvious' together with mostly boring none sense in articles and probably because of poor research by the author.

Unless you have a heated greenhouse with high spectrum lighting what else can we do this of year other than faff about with the soil in the hope of improving it and similar for the authors of gardening columns, we want or need to doing something. Well, some of us.

Like me, I'm very close to OCD. I've always got to me faffing about rather than keep warm and read a book.

[oldherbaceous]

Evening Richard, a very interesting topic, but quite a hard one to reply to.
The reason i say that is, these days with so many different ways to garden. We probably all use slightly different ways to each other, with a combination of the old well trusted ways and taking on some more of the recent developements in horticulture.

But what does annoy me is, when things are advertised as the newest, best idea that has ever happened, when people have been doing the very same things for years.

[Geoff]

Well I'm a digger! Simple argument. Growing your own food rather than being a hunter gatherer is usually regarded as the start of civilisation. Those early humanoids discovered if you saved some seeds and cleared a piece of ground so there was less competition and sowed those seeds in it you got better yields. Bit by bit they discovered if you prepared it more carefully by adding organic matter, and maybe fire ash and other bits and pieces, your yields were even better. They saved the best seeds for the next year and yields went up again so selective breeding began. These people were living on the edge with more work to do just to stay alive than there was really time for so the last thing they were likely to do was adopt unproductive regimes. Cultivation developed simply because it works.
I wrote some notes a few years ago for a group that were trying to encourage Grow Your Own - this is what I said about soil and I still stick by it:
Two things have the biggest influence on your growing success - soil and weather. You can do a bit about the weather, more later, but you can do plenty about the soil.
We all start from different conditions but we all strive for the same; deep, easily worked, healthy and fertile soil. I think how you get there is roughly the same whether you start from sand or clay or something in between. I am convinced the only way is to dig and preferably to dig deeply, regularly though not every year. When you dig you must add organic matter which can be compost you make yourself, something you buy in bags, various well rotted manures or even fairly fresh manure if that is all you can get. The important bit is to add something even if it isn't ideal, it might not work well the first year but each time you dig you'll be mixing in the layers from previous years - continual improvement.

[Motherwoman]

I agree with Geoff.

I was once seduced by the no-dig method and achieved the poorest, most disappointing crops I'd ever produced. The soil became hard, looked 'dead', grew lots of weeds which were difficult to eradicate, and the worms disappeared, despite organic matter (various) being spread on the top of the beds. Plants struggled to survive. My soil is stoney and free draining, inclined to be alkaline (well there is an old chalk pit a few hundred yards uphill of the site) and it did not like being no-dig. It took a couple of years of digging to put it back 'right' for growing.

This is on a 10 rod allotment it may work differently for an intensive, high input raised bed.

MW

[Pa Snip]

Add my name in agreement with Geoff and MW.

From a BBC website
The classic BBC radio comedy series "Beyond Our Ken" used to feature a gardener called Arthur Fallowfield, played by Kenneth Williams. His response to anyone who asked him anything was, always, (in a cod West Country accent) "the answer lies in the soil".

The above may have been part of a comedy program but I am of the opinion that whilst a no dig policy might not show significant reductions in yield at first it surely must do so before long.
We can't keep expecting various crops to take goodness out of the deeper soil without replacing it, apart from the fact we are providing aeration by deep digging.

Since making sure I have deep dug areas where I intend growing root crops I have had far more successful results at harvest than I used to get by only shallow digging.

[snooky]

When I had my allotment plots in Cardiff I had delivered a ton of manure every year and stacked using it the following year where I deemed necessary and always dug it in.I too am a digger and always will be but I also appreciate that people have different views even if I do not agree with them.

[PLUMPUDDING]

It looks nice when it has been dug, but I feel cruel slicing through all the lovely worms. I have had very good results by applying a thick layer of well rotted manure in early winter to half the plot and letting it act as a mulch and exercise for the worms.

Unfortunately I'm still waiting for it to be delivered as the farmer says the field he keeps it in is too wet for him to take the tractor and trailer on. With all the snow melting it doesn't look like it will be arriving any time soon.

[Primrose]

I think digging and mulching is just common sense really. You can't go on growing food year after year without putting back some goodness and keeping the soil healthy, and I think digging reduces compaction. I like to think that it also makes life a lot easier for the worms which contribute greatly to the health of the soil.

I have yet to dig out my compost heap and add its contents to my vegetable patch and borders but am sure whatever I'm able to add will help produce healthier and more prolific crops. The soil here is stony and dries out quickly, so without some regular additions of compost, manure, or whatever, it would soon become a pitiful growing area.

[Westi]

I don't dig or if I do just very superficially. All my compost & well rotted manure goes on at the end of the season & I cover it up with heavy duty black plastic.

The reason I do this is because I have a bad back, but I just love taking the plastic off when it warms a bit & can't believe the activity that has gone on underneath it. The surface is full of runs from all sorts of animals & worms keeping warm & dry under it so a lot of the compost is pulled down by these. It is so soft & dry and a quick rake of the beds or a stomp up & down where I want paths & I am ready to go.

It doesn't work as well without being covered by plastic though, that is the secret.

Westi

[Monika]

I am all for digging. Firstly, I greatly enjoy it and secondly, I think it does the soil good to be turned. Over the years, I have certainly found that just leaving the manure or compost on top is not as effective than digging it in.

We have just heard that a local farmer, our usual manure-provider, has had to sign an undertaking that none of his cow manure will leave the farm this year because the contractor who fertilised and weedkilled his pastures, has used aminopyralids. He will let us have horse manure but I really prefer the good rich cow stuff.

[Ricard with an H]

I know this sounds odd, I included cow poo by first removing a spade depth of soil so the cowpoo sits underneath. I do this in the hope that worms will do the mixing and whilst this moving soil about isn't good for my sore back.

Also, I was concerned that most plants find the cowpoo far too strong.

I still have one raised bed on the terrace that isn't protected against moles so I have to either move all the soil out so I can lay exmet down or let them be, to be honest I don't think they caused any root damage last year even though they had tunnels amongst my climbing beans, carrots and beet roots. When I strarted building these beds three years ago I couldn't imagine a mole making its way through that stony soil but the trench I had dug for the hedging had become a stone free mole-motorway and-so provided easier access to the raised beds.

[Pa Snip]

Richard, getting the manure down one spit depth doesn't sound odd to me at all. Good way of using the stuff.

There has been discussion about the dig versus non dig approach to gardening and some mention of moles and signs of animal runs under plastic when removed.
Moles and other vermin do not like disturbance so there is another 'pro' for digging I think.

[Ricard with an H]

Richard,
Moles and other vermin do not like disturbance so there is another 'pro' for digging I think.

So kind of you to give me hope, I know this is negative response to a positive hand-out but the moles come back once the digging is done and plants are settling in for their three months of duty.

Those of you without raised beds have cope by hoping the moles doesn't damage the roots, us with raised beds can lay a barrier down if we have the back for the work. I'm hoping that once the sea buckthorne hedges have heavy rooting systems that the "Mole-motorway" will close to traffic.

[Pa Snip]

Maybe the moles don't come back to my plot too often once they realise I wear moleskin trousers when working the plot

[oldherbaceous]

Or on seeing you in your moleskin trousers, Pa Snip, they might be going to return with their violent mates....