If you want to avoid the aching back, then the best solution is to improve your technique when digging. I fractured my spine some years ago and had to adapt my technique to lift and dig. I dont get an aching back anymore, but my legs which you should use ache like crazy! Use gloves to keep the blisters down and after a while the hard skin will form to prevent them. Its tough being a gardener!
Richard, the job will be much easier with a spade. This shows the traditional way to dig a new veg patch - the nutrients from the turf are added to the soil. If you dig your patch like this before Christmas and then leave it, it'll be ready for you to get sowing and planting in the spring with just a bit of raking over.
If I had watched that video before starting gardening i wouldn't have. Looks too complicated and hard to me. All I ever do in new ground is spray, dig and leave it for the winter to break down. As Nepoleon found out you can't beat General Winter. Fork or spade? Dont have a spade. I always dig with a digging fork and make drills, ridges and beds with a worn shovel. Any area of the veg garden that is not being planted over winter is dug over after the harvest and ridged up like a large beds and will be seedbed perfect in spring time. If you don't want to spray weedkiller then cover the area of groune with black polethehe and the vegetation will die off. Happy gardening!
It's not at all complicated, quite methodical and simple, and you only ever do it once and then whether you're growing salad veg that only need a few inches of decent soil or carrots and parsnips that need deep friable soil you can use all your plot with no worry.
And if this 60+ year old woman (who spends most of her days either in an office or a car) could dig a totally new veg patch like that last year, 3m x 10m, turning in the turf and digging out the roots of mature ashtrees along the way, then virtually any gardener can do it.
I find a spade is best for digging; a fork is best for forking over
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Dove i've used this method myself and it is very good, don't get me wrong. It's the video presentation that gives no alternatives that is the problem. At least he could have mowed the grass a bit tighter before he started digging. I have seen double digging explained better. For our pal BT who is just starting it might be simpler to have the grass dead before he starts. Then you can leave the turning of the sod out of the equation. At 51 and after 30 years in construction my back is not up to long hours of digging. Wish I had an office job.
Pick axe and frost. You have done the digging so add organic stuff when the frost has worked. The black polythene over the top speeds up the worm action in Spring, incorporating compost, and also warms the soil germinating the weed seeds.
Firstly I don't envy the job you have ahead of you!!
I created a veg patch in my garden 2 years ago and after removing the turf I came across heavy clay which would even when hit with a pick axe a tiny amount would be broken. The plot I had created is 10m x 6m, I needed a more radical solution. I did have a tiller which went on my old Ryobi expand it strimmer but it wouldn't look at it.
I bought a 6.5hp rotavator which after several runs over and over it eventually started to dig into it and it it got down to the depth of around 12". I have been gathering leaves from my entire street and making my own compost with all my hedge and grass clippings and it is paying off now.
I would recommend renting a rotavator for a weekend and spend a couple of hours working with it then take a break for an hour then go at it again. It is still heavy going using a machine, but a lot better than double digging.
When you are done plant potatoes and they will loosen it up even more, but the more leaf mould/organic matter you can put in the better.
Posts
If you want to avoid the aching back, then the best solution is to improve your technique when digging. I fractured my spine some years ago and had to adapt my technique to lift and dig. I dont get an aching back anymore, but my legs which you should use ache like crazy! Use gloves to keep the blisters down and after a while the hard skin will form to prevent them. Its tough being a gardener!
Richard, the job will be much easier with a spade. This shows the traditional way to dig a new veg patch - the nutrients from the turf are added to the soil. If you dig your patch like this before Christmas and then leave it, it'll be ready for you to get sowing and planting in the spring with just a bit of raking over.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiFCfQ9AEeQ
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
If I had watched that video before starting gardening i wouldn't have. Looks too complicated and hard to me. All I ever do in new ground is spray, dig and leave it for the winter to break down. As Nepoleon found out you can't beat General Winter. Fork or spade? Dont have a spade. I always dig with a digging fork and make drills, ridges and beds with a worn shovel. Any area of the veg garden that is not being planted over winter is dug over after the harvest and ridged up like a large beds and will be seedbed perfect in spring time. If you don't want to spray weedkiller then cover the area of groune with black polethehe and the vegetation will die off. Happy gardening!
It's not at all complicated, quite methodical and simple, and you only ever do it once and then whether you're growing salad veg that only need a few inches of decent soil or carrots and parsnips that need deep friable soil you can use all your plot with no worry.
And if this 60+ year old woman (who spends most of her days either in an office or a car) could dig a totally new veg patch like that last year, 3m x 10m, turning in the turf and digging out the roots of mature ashtrees along the way, then virtually any gardener can do it.
I find a spade is best for digging; a fork is best for forking over
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Dove i've used this method myself and it is very good, don't get me wrong. It's the video presentation that gives no alternatives that is the problem. At least he could have mowed the grass a bit tighter before he started digging. I have seen double digging explained better. For our pal BT who is just starting it might be simpler to have the grass dead before he starts. Then you can leave the turning of the sod out of the equation. At 51 and after 30 years in construction my back is not up to long hours of digging. Wish I had an office job.
Pick axe and frost. You have done the digging so add organic stuff when the frost has worked. The black polythene over the top speeds up the worm action in Spring, incorporating compost, and also warms the soil germinating the weed seeds.
Sounds like a lot of hard work to me. Why not make raised beds, you can make them any shape/hight/depth you want, order topsoil to fill them.
a veg patch dug is free where a raised bed cost you money in wood and extra soil.
don't get me wrong I like raised bed's,If they are done right look nice
the reason why the sods are put back in the soil is free green compost the worms will bring it back up and down
James
Firstly I don't envy the job you have ahead of you!!
I created a veg patch in my garden 2 years ago and after removing the turf I came across heavy clay which would even when hit with a pick axe a tiny amount would be broken. The plot I had created is 10m x 6m, I needed a more radical solution. I did have a tiller which went on my old Ryobi expand it strimmer but it wouldn't look at it.
I bought a 6.5hp rotavator which after several runs over and over it eventually started to dig into it and it it got down to the depth of around 12". I have been gathering leaves from my entire street and making my own compost with all my hedge and grass clippings and it is paying off now.
I would recommend renting a rotavator for a weekend and spend a couple of hours working with it then take a break for an hour then go at it again. It is still heavy going using a machine, but a lot better than double digging.
When you are done plant potatoes and they will loosen it up even more, but the more leaf mould/organic matter you can put in the better.
As a former Dairy Goat farmer, I'm not used to hearing a lot of sense from a Billy Goat, but I thoroughly agree with that last post
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.