The activity of building the fertility of your garden soil does more to improve yield, taste, and nutritional content than any other two activities combined.
You’re about to learn one of the most important things you can do to improve your soil and your garden. Once you do this to your garden, you’ve taken a big step towards producing more and better tasting tomatoes. Better yet, you’ll improve all the other fruits and vegetables you grow at the same time.
Double-dig all your garden plots and you’ll grow the best garden you’ve ever grown.
So what exactly does the term “double-dig” mean?
Double-digging your garden soil means loosening the soil thoroughly to a depth of 12 to 24 inches. The closer to 24” the better. Typically, the first time you do this, most gardeners are able to get 18 inches deep. If you already have good soil structure in your garden, you’ll see improved growth and yield in your garden. If your soil is compacted or hard clay, double-digging makes all the difference in the world, and you should see some really good gains in productivity and growth in your garden.
This is probably the most strenuous activity you’ll undertake in your garden. Fortunately, you can do it in stages, and it pays big dividends for years to come.
Warning: Check with your doctor before undertaking any strenuous activity including double-digging your garden plots.
In order to double-dig properly, you’ll need a garden spade, a d-handle garden fork, and a wheelbarrow or a few 5-gallon buckets. A tarp could substitute instead of the wheelbarrow or the buckets. Just as important, you need some organic compost to dig into the soil as you go through the double-dig process.
As a side note, I don’t recommend using a rototiller to try to bypass the hard work. They churn the soil so completely, they tend to ruin the soil structure actually hindering maximum production in the long run. Beyond that, they can also hurt the earthworm population in your garden as well. Regardless of what you heard as a child, when an earthworm is chopped in two, it does not grow into two worms.
How to double-dig the right way
First, you should lay out the boundaries of the garden plot or bed you’d like to start using. It doesn’t matter if it’s a brand new spot you’ve never gardened before or an established growing bed. Either way, start by laying out a garden hose around the outside.
I recommend building garden beds or plots no wider than 5 feet across with access on both sides. This way you never have to walk on the growing portion of your garden, except during the double-dig process. During the double-dig you do need to walk on the portion you haven’t yet dug. Fortunately you thoroughly loosen the soil you’ve walked on as you go. Walking on the garden compacts the soil like driving a tractor on a field does, except not quite as much.
First step
Water your new garden bed thoroughly for a couple of hours. Then let the water soak in for 2 to 3 days before digging.
Start by digging a trench roughly one foot wide and one spade deep, along one edge (preferably the short side) of the garden bed. Place the dirt in a wheelbarrow or some 5-gallon buckets so you can move the dirt to the far end of the bed during the last step in the process.
Next, lay a 2 to 4 inch thick layer of organic compost in the bottom of the trench. Now pierce the dirt in the bottom of the trench you just created loosening the dirt and partially mixing the compost in by using the d-handle garden fork. Your trench should now be approximately 9 inches to one foot deep with another 9 inches to one foot of loosened dirt and compost mixture in the bottom.
Before doing any more digging, spread another 2 to 4 inches of organic compost on top of the rest of the garden plot.
The magic begins
Here’s where the real magic of double-digging takes place. Move over to the next one-foot wide section.
Using the spade, take the dirt from the second one-foot wide row and fill the trench you just created, mixing in the compost as you go. Next, loosen the soil in the bottom of the second trench, just like you did in the bottom of the first trench, after covering it with 2 to 4 inches of compost.
Now repeat the process until you end up with an empty trench, one-foot deep, at the other boundary of your garden bed. After composting this row and loosening the soil in the bottom, move the soil you removed from the first trench over to this last trench and fill it using the soil from the first trench. Cover this last one-foot wide row with compost and dig it in using the garden fork.
You’ve just created something your average gardener probably doesn’t realize they need. A new garden bed full of loose soil 24 inches deep. Because you’ve now injected air deep into the soil, your plants roots will now grow quickly, easily, and much deeper than ever before. The air helps plant roots grow very quickly, encourages soil microbes to multiply, helping to create good soil structure and improving nutrient uptake in the plants at the same time.
Magical garden soil created
By loosening the soil so much deeper than most gardeners ever do, you’ve created conditions where plants can be placed closer together, where they’ll produce better due to more available nutrients, and the soil won’t require as many amendments or fertilizers like required in a more conventional garden.
You are now one step closer to a highly productive garden or micro-farm. Fortunately, you won’t need to double-dig again for 4 or 5 years unless you walk on the garden bed itself, re-compacting the soil. You will need to loosen the soil each season and add organic compost, however this will go much faster and easier than the initial double-dig process you just completed.