Your own garden can be an excellent source of healthy food for the whole family. Some keep a garden to grow natural food, others use a small plot as a useful hobby, and others even make money from the sale of grown products. But everyone who is engaged in cultivating a small piece of land will say that digging up the soil is the most difficult thing. Today you can hire a person with a walk-behind tractor, but this service is not available everywhere, and not everyone can afford to pay for this service. All that remains is to pick up a shovel and use the old digging technique. But how to dig easily and make the process efficient?
Choosing a tool for digging up soil in the garden
In order to get to the answer to the question of how to properly dig up the ground, you first need to understand the tool. Today there is a fairly large selection of tools, ranging from forks, rippers, flat cutters and ending with a traditional shovel. The shovel will be our main tool for digging up the garden. This is a truly versatile hand tool that can handle any task. A fork can be used on an area with loose soil, but only a sharpened shovel will help you cope with compacted virgin soil.
If you don’t know how to quickly dig up a garden by hand using a shovel, then there are no special secrets here, it all depends on the tool. Summer residents often say that it is difficult to dig the ground with a shovel, it does not cut the soil well, and does not allow digging the soil to the required depth. But in most cases, the problem is precisely the sharpening of the blade. It will be much easier for you to dig your garden with a shovel if it is sharp. Using an old tool that has already seen everything, where the blade is not only poorly sharpened, but also crooked, you will significantly complicate your task. Even though digging with a new blade will be much easier, not everyone is willing to spend a little money on this tool.
Quotes again
A little about recommendations from dacha magazines. One of the readers says that for carrots she digs up the beds twice (in autumn and spring), applies humus and mineral fertilizers. The gorgeous harvest from the photo above was grown contrary to all these rules. And not for the first time, not by chance, but year after year.
It is known that carrots came to us from the Mediterranean. It was originally grown on cultivated former peatlands, so heavy soils are not suitable for it. In beds formed with virtually no outside participation, the root crop feels great. Need proof? – Go back to the photographs.
More about the rules of cultivation in the next video.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=PUAfcAUVnZc
How to properly dig up a garden
When wondering how to dig up a garden with a shovel, many people only think about the depth of loosening. Some summer residents say that it is necessary to dig a vegetable garden once a year and to the full length of a shovel, which is 25-30 cm. Others adhere to a simpler method of cultivating the land, digging up a vegetable garden once a year to a depth of only 4-5 cm. This The depth is enough for sowing any plants, as well as for their initial development; then the roots will go into more solid soil. If you choose the second path with a thinner layer of loosening, then you should understand that in this case you will have to create an additional layer of mulch, about 10-15 cm. If this is the first digging of the garden in a long time, then it is better to give preference to the first option, dig all the way shovel.
If the question arises about how to quickly dig up a garden by hand with a shovel and get pleasure from the process, then you need to work using technology. The classic technology of an experienced summer resident looks like this:
- We mark the future garden, install pegs around the perimeter and stretch the thread.
- We dig a trench along one side of the future city, the depth and width corresponds to the bayonet of a shovel.
- From the ground that has been dug up to form a trench, it is necessary to immediately remove the remains of plants, roots, and stones. After cleaning, this land is put aside; we will use it later.
- We dig a second trench parallel to the one that already exists, filling the first one with new soil, and carry out the cleaning again.
- We repeat the procedure until we reach the marked border. The last trench is filled with the earth that we put aside earlier.
This technology will be the right choice when you want to create a vegetable garden on your site that did not previously exist. By marking the exact area of the future bed, you clearly understand what work will have to be done, and you also get a flat piece of land that will be comfortable to work with in the future. If you just dig on an indefinite piece of land, then you will probably do more work, spend a lot of effort, do not set moral boundaries for yourself, and may even abandon the job halfway.
The second question arises, when to dig a vegetable garden in order to get a good bed for growing various crops. Many summer residents argue about when it is better to plow the land in spring or autumn, and there are those who advise performing this procedure 2 times a year. Experts recommend that you be sure to dig up the soil in the fall; this will not only make planting much easier in the spring, but will also save you from weeds. Weeds are perennial plants; if you don’t remove them in the fall, they will create a lot of problems next season. And even after a layer of snow, the ground becomes compacted; soil that has not been dug up in the fall becomes extremely hard for manual plowing. Moreover, in the spring the ground may be too wet, making digging a vegetable garden even more difficult.
If you want to find a way to quickly dig soil in your garden bed, then follow simple recommendations. Use a sharp, level shovel that cuts through the ground well. Dig up the soil in the fall to make planting easier in the spring. Use the classic technology of plowing the land, create clear boundaries for the future vegetable garden and clear the ground the first time you dig it up.
Where does dense soil come from?
Surprisingly, by trying to improve the soil, man himself spoils it. Experts are familiar with the phenomenon of plow sole. This is a dense layer of soil that forms between the plowed soil and the subsoil. Depending on the method of processing the area, the depth of this gap ranges from a couple of tens of centimeters to a meter.
It is impossible to avoid the appearance of arable sole
What is the harm of a plow sole? Impenetrable to roots. Moisture and most nutrients accumulate below the sole, and the roots cannot get through to them.
Please note that the thickness of this barrier also varies. In the beds it is only 10-15 centimeters, when cultivating the field with heavy equipment - up to 40 centimeters
It is impossible to avoid the appearance of arable sole. Even working with one shovel is still stressful for the soil. The weight of a person is quite enough to form a seal. In addition, people calmly walk around the site when there are no beds on it yet or no longer. Do you make circles, dragging sacks of potatoes across the field, or do you take shortcuts based on the rule that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line?
There are no plow soles in the forest. The soil is plowed by thousands of worms, and the likelihood that several living creatures will pass through the same area during the day is negligible.
All weeds, plant and kitchen waste - into the garden and beds!
The engine of further progress, as usual, was laziness. The organization of the compost heap somehow didn’t work out: folding, watering, turning - it’s such a hassle! And all the weeded and mown grass went first to raspberries, honeysuckle, and currants. With a layer of kitchen waste.
The berries became larger, the bushes were healthier, and the fishing worms, to the delight of my husband, sharply increased their demographic indicators. The next year, grass and weeds, of which there was no shortage, went into the beds, under potatoes, under strawberries. The plants liked it, and so did I - the number of weeds decreased, only malicious ones made their way through the layer of grass.
After that, I decided to take another drastic step, which caused a stormy protest from my husband: refusal to hill potatoes. The second hilling (he survived the first) was replaced with a thick layer of grass mulch. The harvest turned out to be no worse, but there was significantly less work. A bonus for all mulched plants was the reduction in watering - under grass mulch, moisture is retained longer, and dew also condenses in the morning.
The cycle of events in your life
When understanding why you dream of digging a garden, you should clarify for what purpose you did it, dream books suggest. So:
- planting vegetables is a good time to invest money in business;
- applied fertilizers - do not neglect the advice;
- collected root crops - gain valuable experience;
- worked for pay - you are wasting your time, keep yourself busy with something;
- cleared the black soil of weeds - It's time to get rid of those who are in the way.
Useful waste paper
This very original method will be effective if you carefully follow the instructions. To make it a reality, you will need rotted manure (you can use chicken manure, compost or humus). This composition must be evenly distributed over the entire area of the developed area and covered on top with black and white newspaper 5-7 layers thick. If you find this difficult, you can replace the newspaper with thick cardboard. Compost mixed with manure is poured onto the paper layer on top.
The advantage of this method is that you can make holes in newspapers in which you can plant any crops grown through seedlings. This is perfect for those who don’t want to wait a long time, being content with only potatoes and cabbage. At the end of the season, in addition to an excellent harvest of the crops you grow, you will also receive a clean area with soil enriched with vitamins and microelements.
For what purpose do gardeners dig in the fall? To dig or not to dig
And now some recommendations for gardeners about digging the soil.
Summer residents and owners of small plots of land, as a rule, dig up the soil by hand, which promotes reliable destruction of weeds, allows for even distribution of applied fertilizers, and destroys burrows and underground passages of rodents and other pests. True, some believe that digging has a bad effect on soil fertility and especially on the life of earthworms. However, most farmers prefer mechanical cultivation; it significantly increases the yield, and on virgin soils overgrown with perennial grasses, uncultivated soils, it is undoubtedly an indispensable agrotechnical technique.
Digging is an art that can be mastered over time. However, there are several rules that make it less tedious.
• Dig the soil when it is easier to work, not when it is very dry or waterlogged.
• Hold the shovel vertically; an inclined position does not provide the required working depth.
• It is necessary to place the shovel perpendicular to the furrow, take less land, but more often.
There is no need to dig up the entire area at once. It's better to do this gradually.
When digging the soil for a long time, the eyelids sometimes become inflamed, and conjunctivitis may even occur. Cucumber infusion will help eliminate unpleasant symptoms: pour 0.5 cups of chopped cucumber peel into 0.5 cups of boiling water, leave for an hour, then strain and squeeze. Periodically wash the inflamed eyelids with the prepared infusion or make lotions by applying gauze napkins soaked in cucumber infusion to the eyelids.
They begin autumn digging of the soil in the second half of September. After harvesting vegetables and potatoes, the area is cleared of plant debris (tops, stumps and other waste), as well as perennial weeds. Infected tops of potatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, and tomatoes are carefully removed from the beds, trying not to disturb the pathogen spores, and then burned. The ash can be used (scattered) for autumn or spring digging. The soil in heavily weeded areas is first loosened to a shallow depth with a hoe or rake to encourage weed germination. After two weeks, when their shoots appear, they begin digging or plowing. In this case, rhizomes of wheatgrass, dandelion, chafer larvae, wireworms, etc. should be removed. In case of severe contamination, it is advisable to dig up the soil with a garden fork.
