Double Digging

I know it's not permaculture, but this is an animated GIF I created for en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biointensive, showing the basic technique for "double digging" as popularized by Alan Chadwick and others. Double-digging uses a spade and fork to loosen soil more deeply than usual, while disturbing soil layers less. Loose soil has better drainage and aeration, to improve the ability of plants and other organisms to work their magic: creating, holding and finding what they need.
posted by Mac Rory on Saturday, May 3, 2008 - link to this photo
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2 Comments
Dan
Dan
online 19
Sat, May 10, 2008 - 4:09 PM
seams like a serious amount of work for what you stand to gain.
Kind of a milatary " turn that dirt over in the hole, it's upside down" kind of a thing
Mac ...
Mac Rory
offline 48
Sat, May 10, 2008 - 7:40 PM
Not at all. The point of the double-dig is to aerate the soil *without* turning the dirt over and disrupting the microfauna. Doing this the first time a bed is planted, usually assures that the same area only needs to be forked again, and because it increases the yield in a given surface area, it saves labor in the long run.

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