Homesteading Blog: Double Digging

One of our primary methodologies for growing vegetables is bio-intensive gardening via double digging. Double digging is a process that lets you deeply prepare a bed so that plants can send their roots far down into the soil with ease to get the optimum nutrients and growing room. It also lets you plant very close together, with crops in a 4’ x 25’ bed instead of spaced out in rows. This means growing higher yields in less space with fewer resources used (water, compost), and fewer weeds.

To double dig, you need a high-quality spade and fork. It’s hard to over emphasize the need for good metal tools. A flimsy spade and fork will bend and will make double digging even tougher than it already is. Get something that is hand-forged if possible, it is worth the investment.

First, decide the size you want your beds to be. We decided upon 4x25 feet because that equals an easy to calculate 100 sq. ft. per bed and since most adult humans can reach two feet with ease, addressing weeds from each side will not involve straining. Also decide which way your beds should be aligned. Think about the prevailing winds, shade, etc. For our beds, even though we would rather have them lay horizontally across our field (like this =) because of the specifics of our field, that would mean exposing their longest sides (25 feet) to the strong Northern winds. So instead we have aligned them vertically so that only the 4 foot side of the beds will be facing the northern side (like this II).

Next, layout your bed parameter with string and clean the surface of the earth of any weeds, rock and any other unwanted obstacles present. Then, cut in with the spade and make an approximately 1 ft. wide trench short-ways across the bed (width-wise in other words). Save the dirt you dig up from this first trench in a bucket or wheelbarrow. Then, take your fork, drive it deeply into the trench bottom and pull it back and forth, almost parallel with the ground, in order to loosen the soil way down. Next, move down the bed another foot, cut a new trench with the spade and dump that soil into the first trench. That way the loosened sub-soil is now topped by the next trench’s topsoil. Repeat until you reach the last trench. After forking this trench you use the dirt you saved from the first trench to put on top of the forked last trench. You may need to rake the bed to break up some larger dirt clods that come up.

One hint is to use a 4’ x 2’ piece of plywood to stand on as you work each trench. You move it back a foot every time you finish a trench. This helps with footing and also keeps your weight from packing the soil down before you dig it up.

Not going to lie, this is hard work; especially if your field hasn’t been cultivated in a while. You will be tired, sweaty and dirty, but you will have some of the best beds for plants you can make. Once you plant you can add compost, mulch and even a small hoop house over it to make the plants extra happy. Probably the best news is that once you establish the beds, provided they are minimally yearly maintained, you don’t have to do the full double digging process again for 5 to 7 years.