The importance of no-digging
This is, perhaps, the most important secret of organic gardening. For years, I’d wondered about the advisability of digging, despite it being an ancient tradition that supposedly helps to aerate the soil and enable manure to rot down and become plant food.
● I often found myself digging up long-buried materials that were virtually unchanged despite having been covered a spade's depth down a year previously. Why was this? Well, for a start, there’s not much air in the soil once you get about 25cm (10in) down, and nothing rots properly without air. In addition, the airways created by lobworms are broken and destroyed by digging. My advice is to spread compost on top of the soil and let the worms do the digging.
● The golden rule is never to turn the soil to bo om – if anything needs to be lifted, for example carrots or parsnips, then place a fork down the side of the row and lift, or prise, the soil up so that the carrot or parsnip pulls up easily and the soil sinks back down again. ● So, what tools and methods are necessary? What about hoeing to break up the surface and uproot weeds? I’ve found the best tool is a three-pronged cultivator instead of the normal 'slicing' hoe. To use it, start at the path, drawing the cultivator through the soil in front of your feet, uprooting the weeds. Pick these up as you move forwards walking on the soil you’ve just disturbed, pu ing the weeds in a bucket and moving it along with you. Continue moving forward to the end of the patch you’re weeding, pick up the bucket and now, working backwards, disturb with the cultivator the area you’ve just worked on, removing your footprints as you go. Having reached the path move sideways to your left or right and repeat the exercise.
● Why pick up the weeds? Never leave any green plant material on the soil as it’ll a ract and harbour slugs. The place for it is the compost bin or heap. Always remove your footprints with the cultivator whenever you walk on bare soil. The lines of the cultivator won’t penetrate the soil deeper than 5cm (2in) so the lobworm tunnels won’t be damaged to any extent. Having cleared the plot of weeds, I sow my seeds and, when shoots appear, sca er compost on the area seeded.
● Using these cultivation methods your garden soil will gradually improve, regardless of whether it’s light and sandy or heavy clay.