How to dig beds with a shovel: instructions and when it is better to do it

For many summer residents and gardeners, the main tool of labor is a shovel. Digging a garden is hard physical labor. To ensure high yields and abundant growth of greenery, you need to know when and how to properly dig beds in spring and autumn with a shovel. Before starting work, it is important to determine the layout of the beds, the width of the row spacing, and the depth of sowing.

Pros and cons

Loose, well-fertilized and structured soil is the key to active plant growth and abundant harvests.

Advantage of shovel tillage:

• the least damage is done to the earth, since the fertile layer is not dug deep;
• easy to handle hard-to-reach areas;
• low inventory cost.

Of the minuses, it should be noted low productivity compared to mechanized processing of the site. It is also quite difficult to dig a large piece of land with a shovel - it takes a lot of effort.

When to do it?

Though tillage is usually done twice a season - in autumn and spring. There are specific reasons for digging.

Autumn

Basic rules for processing the site: work is carried out before the onset of heavy rains (late October-early November), large clods of earth are not broken, but turned over (so that weed seeds freeze out during the winter). In what cases is it necessary to dig up the soil:

• if you plan to plant plants in an abandoned area in the spring. During autumn digging, weeds are removed, the soil is fertilized with organic (compost, manure) or mineral additives (potassium and phosphorus mixtures, ammonium nitrate);
• to get rid of ant colonies. It is advisable to dig up a piece of soil after the first frost;
• when planting green manure. In early September, the site is cleared of the remnants of greenery, dug up and watered.

Autumn cultivation also has its downsides. In order not to disrupt the vital activity of earthworms, microorganisms, they do not dig up drained, loose soil in autumn.

Spring

It is important to properly prepare the soil for spring sowing. The soil is cultivated immediately before sowing, while its quality must be taken into account:

• heavy soil is dug up in the spring to a depth of at least 20 cm. Work is carried out with a layer turnover if the beds are clogged with weed rhizomes;
• depleted sandy or soddy lands are not dug up to great depths. It is enough to slightly loosen the top layer to prevent the soil from drying out.

If in autumn the plots were sown with green manure, in the spring the soil must be dug up along with the plants. It is advisable to simultaneously fertilize poor soils with organic matter or mineral additives.

How to dig beds with a shovel

For sandy or loose soil, you can use a standard shovel with a sharp blade. It is more practical to dig loamy dense soil with a pitchfork, since wet clods of earth can stick to the blade of a shovel. To make it easier to process the site, it is first dug around the perimeter.For most garden crops, it is enough to dig up the ground to a depth of 15-20 cm. It is more convenient to level the dug up earthen surface with a rake.

When processing the soil on the site, the following are taken into account: the relief of the site, the quality of the land, climatic conditions, the type of planted crops. Experienced gardeners recommend doing a rough digging of the earth in the fall and fertilizing. In the spring, you can limit yourself to loosening the arable top layer.

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