Rough Digging

Rough digging allows you to remove any leftover plant material, amend the soil and leave the large clumps for frost to break down during the winter season. Next spring the bed will be easier to rake.

Late fall, when everything is dormant, is the perfect time to prepare the soil for next year's growing. Master gardener Chris Dawson uses a method called "rough digging" to turn and amend the soil. Rough digging is simply turning over and enriching the soil without raking it smooth.

1. Divide the space to be dug in half lengthways, marking the two rows or trenches you just created with a string. This will be your guideline as you dig.
2. Dig out a small section, six to eight inches deep, at the end of the first row and pile the soil in front of the second row.
3. Add a spade full of compost to the hole and mix in with a garden fork.
4. Create a new hole up the row next to the first hole. Put the soil from the new hole into the first hole.
5. Continue this process up the first row and back down the second row until you are back to your original leftover pile of soil.

Add a layer of mulch over the entire bed to improve moisture retention. Now the garden bed is ready for the next planting season. If weeds grow up in the soil, just dig them up in spring.

Note: Dig your soil only when it's reasonably dry. Working wet soil ruins its structure.

Also in this Episode

Seasoned Gardener : Episode SGN-310
•	Tree Pruning
•	Rough Digging
•	Fall Mulching
•	Cleaning and Storing Tools