Glad it helped!

Glad it was helpful!

So you forked after doing two spade digs? Instead of 8 inches, you dug out 16 for example?

@@MrPotatoesLatkie As in he dug the first two layer dig bits, then dug out the fork depth of the first trench, then forked the second forking into the first forking, so the entire two layers of soil slowly rotate over time. That's the neolithic method, never heard of 'double dig' but our neolithic ancestors would dig an entire long garden bed / trench out, dump the soil on animal skin, and drag it all the way to the end of their field. Then they'd dig their second trench into their first. Rinse and repeat until you empty your last trench and have no dirt to fill it (if done right you ideally dragged your 'skins' to where the last ditch is) then tipped the skins of trench 1 into trench 10 or whatever the last trench was. That way the earth acted as if it were a constant conveyor belt always changing beds every re-dig. It is still, by far, the most effective method and is still used 150,000 years later. But it absolutely triggers the fuck out of 'no dig' worm loving hippies who think digging the soil is injuring mother earths powerful vagina chakra and punishable by stoning to death. You know the rabid types I'm talking about. They wig the fuck out when you speak about it. Or say digging is superior. It mostly stems from the fact their weak beta noodly arms cannot hold a spade let alone move a ton of earth per hour like a man can. :P (Yes, at this point I'm shitposting, but even though I'm admitting to it they'll still be foaming at the mouth reading it. It's almost like saying "Marijuana is degenerate and bad for you." to an American in a democrat state, they'll fucking flip their shit out so hard. Even if you tell them you're about to troll them they'll still get 'triggered'. :P)

@@bashkillszombies what can I Google to learn more about this? How do you know humans have gardened like this through history?very interested I’ll try to find something in it

@@bashkillszombies I'm all for no dig when possible as over time it has proven to out perform conventional methods of constantly machining the soil Spring and Fall. Now while u seem a bit zealous u gave me a chuckle n made valid points! While there is nothing wrong with this emerging fascination with no dig..... clearly some folks "kno not of what they speak. " Most parts of most Southern states (and others) in the US are covered in heavy orange red n brown clay.....not much is growing in that except pine trees wo serious intervention. Unless ur preparing beds for your great grandchildren.. no dig will be time consuming and EXPENSIVE on a large scale for initial seasons. Now if u have a century to wait..then yes...no dig is perfection. You and your kids and their kids spend lives producing compost and doing chop and drop for 100 years on your useless 100 acres because on principle alone u refuse to till in organic matter for a few seasons....THEN go to a selective no dig. Man to get this nice texture he has here.... from clay with no intervention.....would take decades upon decades or longer. ... After working in Maryland Mississippi and North Carolina.....im still amazed to see volumes of rich dark soil that falls softly from the palm after being gently crushed with one hand😍🥰😍 WTF😱 is this CGI? Godzilla truly seems more real to me! No dig is definitely something to aspire to but it cannot be a mandate.....most especially on virgin plots of expansive acreage... unless u have an equally expansive bank account for truckloads of EVERYTHING....... to blanket the site.

​@@bashkillszombiesthis is the way my dad showed me how to double dig, except he used well rotted farmyard manure and not compost. It's also called Bastard digging here in the UK. For good reason!!

Hey there, I'm double digging in East TN in Appalacian foothills and the soil is very familiar to that GA Piedmont where I grew up. I don't have a front end loader and so I'm going by hand with a pick/shovel/digging bar. It is absolutely arduos labor. I read a book from the 80's left by my grandfather that said to dig it to a 2 foot depth. What depth did you go to and did the clay recompact?

I’m going to be doing this with an excavator soon here in Puerto Rico clay you you had a good result using a excavator ?

@@syntropicfarms The compost you will be adding to the double-dig will be gone in ~2 years, if you want the soil to always stay (relatively) soft you should add biochar instead (if you're allowed to make it and if it's not too hard/expensive).

Thanks for the kind words!

lol just make raised beds dude.

@@brandonkrause6401 😂 I don't do that any more. Did 2 beds and gave up. I now just use my broadfork to loosen the soil. Put on my dry mix and water with Compost tea and Jadam's fertilizers. That worked GREEEAAAAT!!! LoL

Yes double digging to prepare compacted soil and then no dig method afterwards does seem to be a fool-proof method to cultivate the soil!

Glad it was helpful!

Glad it was helpful!

@@ucscagroecology i have heavy clay soil.....would it help to throw in shredded cardboard to encourage worm activity......forking clay is tuff so I want to do as much beneficial stuff as possible while I'm in there...

Yer right! A hoe works great for surface tillage and weeding, but the combination of a spade and digging fork is the best for this kind of deep tillage.

Thanks for the visit. Good luck with your garden.

You're so welcome!

Is it a lot a hard work

Happy to help

He mentioned that it was "skimming", or clearing the land, to prepare for the digging. He also mentioned that the biomass could be used for composting.

Do a soil test first to determine what types of additives you need to add to beef up the sand to successfully grow your food in.

You can't go wrong with compost. Composted manure is good to. If you have leaves in the fall they are great. Grass clippings make good compost to. Check some composting videos. I think if I were starting out where you are I would double dig and add a nice amount of compost or manure in the trench. then when you cover it, mix some more compost in to the top layer since you are starting with poor soil. Compost is magic. If you can't double dig[ it's a lot of work ] mix in as much compost as you can into the top layer with a spading fork. Do it in the late summer or fall if you can. Try to avoid working wet soil.

Get a Broadfork! www.themarketgardener.com/broadfork

Lmao

NO till?

@@BrushlessNitroSlayer Not no till, but minimum tillage. Make raised beds then till every few years and reshape beds if needed.

He stated at the end that this is not appropriate for annual use, but is best for establishing new beds when soil structure is difficult.

He made it very clear that this method is for starting a brand new garden bed. In our case our soil is more rock than soil, rocks that are as big as your head and bigger. This was the only, i repeat only viable method to allow vegetables to grow. We are digging out the first 12" completely piling all the topsoil on one pile. Then digging out the subsoil, next 12" down piling it on another pile. Then we sift both piles with a 1/2 screen. We then replace the soil amending with compost as we go. We did one bed like this last year and the results were nothing short of magical. Now we will go through and do this to the entire garden, this will take us at least 2 years to complete, but will be worth it at the end.

Thanks! Here's a link to a list of lots more gardening videos: agroecology.ucsc.edu/resources/instructional-videos.html