Warning - digging-in frosted ground

[nickdub]

I don't suppose even the nutters will be tempted by digging at the moment, but just a quick warning to check your soil when the weather does warm up, to make sure its not still frozen, before you start turning it over. Turning-in frosted soil will make it much cooler than it should be for several months, as the top layer insulates the cold stuff below it. So, unless you intend to leave it to warm up until mid-Summer, make sure there is no frost in your soil, before you start working it again.

[Jimmy]

I thought there was some strange way of telling if the soil was warm enough involving parts of your anatomy?

Currently my soil spike says the soil at about 2 inch down is 0.5 deg over night whilst the air temperature about 3 inch above was -7
Jimmy

[nickdub]

Well the old tales have it that some farmers would drop there trousers on a mild Spring day and try their bare behind on the soil, to see if it was warm enough to sow the corn - how true this was, or whether a rural myth I couldn't say.

I'd just like to encourage gardeners to show a little restraint - even if the air temperature rockets in to the '70's, the ground can remain frozen for several days after prolonged frost.

[casejones]

In some places farmers turn over frozen soil to kill pests.

[veggiechicken]

..............involving parts of your anatomy?

Currently my soil spike .............

Couldn't ignore that, could I??

[Mr Bones]

Well the old tales have it that some farmers would drop there trousers on a mild Spring day and try their bare behind on the soil, to see if it was warm enough to sow the corn - how true this was, or whether a rural myth I couldn't say..

Or maybe it was an excuse that came quickly to hand when someone was caught with their trousers down..

[Snadger]

I would imagine that some areas of fields are so wet that the only time they can get machinery on to work it without it sinking, is when ground is frozen?

[nickdub]

If the ground is as wet as all that its really useless for farming purposes in terms of crop growing, as none of the usual crops will stand such wet conditions.

Two basic approaches have been used in the past for wet ground - one is to drain the land so that it is dry enough to farm, the other is to use it as hay fields ie "water meadows", which implies leaving the ground alone to flood in the Winter and Spring, then cutting hay from it in the Summer and Autumn, these latter meadows were usually low lying land by a river.

I don't know about other places, but I've never heard of anyone ploughing frozen ground in this country.

[Chestnut]

I haven’t heard of ploughing frozen ground, but I was told by a local farmer that it can be a useful ‘dire straits’ backup plan for bringing in grass feed from fields which were too wet to mow at the end of a summer like 2017