Intensive Garden Beds, Double Digging

This year I decided to double dig all my garden beds, so I put away my rototiller and bought a flat spade and a spading fork. Double digging is a way of digging your beds down to 2 feet fluffing the soil, so the roots of plants can go even deeper into the earth. The first thing you do is select a site for the beds, I like lay out the dimensions with stakes so I don't get off course while digging. The beds can be as long as you want but don't make them any wider than 5 feet, that way when you work in the beds you can always reach the middle, without walking in the bed, it doesn't do you any good to fluff your soil if you walk through it compacting it right back down.You can see a video of double digging here or you can read about it in how to grow more vegatables.

First you dig a trench with your spade.



Then you go back through your trench with your fork hence the term double digging.

Some bug cocoons I found while digging.



The finished bed.

Here's my watering system dripline with 1gph emitters every 18 inches,

Finally the bed is planted with intensive beds you don't plant in rows you plant on center. For this bed I planted all the cabbage and broccoli on 12 inch centers (the book says 15 inch centers) this means every plant is exactly 12 inches away from any other plant. You'll noticed the front of the bed isn't planted that's because I seeded in turnips.

                                         

Finished bed topped with alfalfa.

This is a double dug bed I planted a month and a half ago bok choy, kolrhabi, brussel sprouts, and broccoli.

Double dug lettuce patch that's a month and a half old,