Autumn dig?

[Dorothyrouse]

Do any of you, actually dig over your plot in the autumn? Just wondering, I know people used to, I was talking to another plot holder today and he was saying he always dug over his plot in the autumn.

I may pull out a few weeds, but mainly I throw manure on the beds and cover, until the spring

[Bren In Pots]

Dorothy I’m a no dig grower so it’s just a matter of adding more Dalek compost to my beds.
I do remember my Dad digging his plot from one end to the other, he said he found it satisfying.

[ameno]

I usually dig in the spring as I find that if I dig in the autumn then I have to re-dig in the spring, anyway, as all of the horsetail and bindweed I dug out has already started to grow back.
I only ever did in the autumn if it's a bed I plan to spread compost or manure on that autumn (again, to get rid of the bindweed and horsetail before I spread the compost).

[Dorothyrouse]

I think we have the ‘weediest’ plots in the uk, so even if I dug it over, it would be as bad as ever come Spring. I find manure/compost and being covered, makes it easier in the spring. I have a number of beds still producing produce, even though slowly!

I see some, constantly digging their plots, much too hard for me now!

[Penellype]

I think the general scientific consensus nowadays is that it is not good to keep digging soil as it destroys the soil structure and the network of fungi that are essential for good plant growth. I dig mine if it gets too compacted (I avoid standing on the growing areas so this is rare), if there is horsetail to remove or if I am planting perennials (I have just dug over the bed for my new raspberry plants), but otherwise I keep digging to a minimum. I mulch empty beds at this time of year with compost or the contents of the hotbeds, but I don't actually have that many empty beds as I grow winter crops in most of them.

[Dorothyrouse]

That’s what I thought tbh, thanks

[rary]

Hello Dorothy, as I use raised beds I don't dig, but when making my flower beds wider and deeper, I was taking in some of the drying green, I lifted some turf to allow for fitting in a wooden wall and a walkway which is level with the grass I simply put any turf removed on top of the grass inside the extended flower bed, removed any plants I wanted to keep and covered everything else with several layers of cardboard, this included perennial flower plants, couch grass, dandelion and bind weed, I then made up my bed which is about 10 inches deep, using shredded branches, garden compost, old compost, then covered with sheets of cardboard and finishing with course sand and the cheapest compost I could find, now after several years the only perennial weed that came through was bind weed which was easily removed, and have never needed to dig, other than to plant, and as Penellype has pointed out digging damages the soil structure, though I thought it was due to burying the microbes which exist in the top 3 or 4 inches of the soil

[peanut]

I'm a no dig gardener so all I do and have just done to my beds, is hoe over the surface and then cover with a layer of manure/compost.

[nick the grief]

I think we have the ‘weediest’ plots in the uk, so even if I dug it over, it would be as bad as ever come Spring. I find manure/compost and being covered, makes it easier in the spring. I have a number of beds still producing produce, even though slowly!

I see some, constantly digging their plots, much too hard for me now!

you've not seen mine

but I figure that as mine is covered at the moment with annual weeds like chickweed it works like a grean manure and the amount of rain we've had so far its bet to keep off. That said I will be going up and start marking out the beds, where the greenhouse is going and where my compost bins are going then come the spring I should be able to just hoe off anything thats still growing and I'll be good to go.