Best Practices- Double Digging
The group that I am in is bed prep and compost. Our group separated into two groups two on bed prep and two on compost.
I'm on the bed prep team, and so is Vanessa Alcaraz. The technique that we have started using for preparing the beds is called double digging.
Double digging is done too loosen the soil so that the roots could grow easier down in the soil.
Theses are the steps
Step 1:
The soil should've before hand been soaked with water for 2 hours and then dried partially for 2 days
Step 2:
Loosen the soil with a spading fork and remove weeds if there happens to be some.
Step 3:
Dig the first foot of soil and move to the top of the trench before that.
Step 4:
Take the spading fork and loosen the soil that was on the bottom of the soil that you just moved to the other trench
Step 5:
Starting from another trench did the first foot of soil and move on to the bed that you just loosened its soil for.
Step 6:
Spread a 3 inch layer of compost on top of the now finished bed.
For bed prep to get it done faster we think that it would be easier to have 4 people on digging 2 on one side and 2 on the other. One digging and the other loosening the soil with the spading fork. Also to have another person spreading out the compost on top of the done beds.
What if the roots want to grow farther down then where you have began digging?
ReplyDeleteHave you began this process already?
What do you do with the soil in the wheel barrel? Does it just go into the last section?
This is good i see we have already started this process however how long do you think this will take? a few more weeks?
ReplyDeletebut overal i think its a good work so far
Great detail on the double digging! Do you have thoughts or research about compost? Hard to organize people to actually do the work though huh?
ReplyDeleteWell descriptive and basic steps for your group to follow along.
ReplyDeleteAre you going to use the water system to soak the soil? Or are you going to use the hose at a shower mode to soak the soil? Also about the compost, are they any components that you will be using to enrich the soil?