How do I improve clay soil? Last week I wrote about using the lasagna method to improve clay soil. This week, we’ll look at double digging. DD is a method many organic gardening enthusiasts swear by and it can be a very effective way to improve clay soils. The first step is the same as for lasagna beds: identify where you want your garden beds to be and where the aisles will be. Next get a good digging spade and a lot of compost/old manure. You can also mix in some raw organic matter like shredded leaves (not whole leaves), grass clippings or old mulch. For every 4 square feet of garden bed, plan to have 2 cubic feet of organic material (that would be 1 bag of most commercially sold amendments). Start at one end of your soon-to-be garden bed and dig out...
a trench 1 spade deep (about 10 inches) and a foot or so wide across the bed. Put the soil into a wheelbarrow or bucket and set it aside. Next, use the shovel to break up the next 10 inches of soil underneath what you just removed. Add in several shovel fulls of organic matter (the leaves, manure, compost) and mix with the shovel. Then, shovel the top 10” of the next foot in your bed onto this enriched base. Add organic material to the new topsoil and mix it in. You should now have a 1 foot wide mound of loosened, enriched soil and a 1 foot trench next to it. Repeat the process of breaking up the subsoil, adding organic matter, moving the next section of topsoil and adding organic matter until you reach the end of the bed. Use the material you set aside at the beginning to fill in the last trench. For pictures of the process see: http://www.communitycrops.org/doubledig .
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