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Digging a new border

Cutting out a new border by hand is backbreaking work.

I’ve nearly finished cutting out the borders in my dream garden. My plan is for each terrace level to have a border that accompanies it, and one that’s a reasonable width too, so that the planting looks lush and bold, rather than sad and cramped. I’ve started with beds that are at least 3ft wide, and am quite prepared to expand them further if needs be. But they’ll accommodate a good number of plants for the time being.

I used a new spade from Plant Me Now: my usual spade will stay at the allotment as I often catch the bus there and have grown more than a little tired of lugging heavy tools in a camping rucksack across town. This spade is quite snazzy, though, as it has a slightly angled handle that makes the act of digging and lifting a lot easier than you’d think.

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I’ve always known how to dig, as I’ve been gardening since I was a tiny little bairn, but I was amazed to learn the other day that not everyone does. Some people stick the spade in with their hands, as though they are at the beach,and try to toss the earth over their shoulder. It doesn’t work, or at least it’ll kill their back pretty quickly if they enjoy any progress at all. So for those who don’t know how to dig, you drive the spade using your foot, and then, still using your foot as a counterweight, angle it upwards to wrench the earth up.

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My soil is a reasonably deep chalky soil, which means it has a lot of chalky stones and flint in it mixed in with clay. The quality deteriorates the closer you get to the house, with the final bed that I’m digging out being about 65% chalk. This is not a happy state of affairs, especially given I had earmarked this bed for vegetables, so I am going to need to improve the soil using a variety of different methods in order to get a decent crop.

It’s hard, hard work, especially when I come up against a great deal of flint in the soil that slows me up no end. But it’s rewarding, and not something I’ll have to do every year. This is what the garden looks now, after a couple of weeks of hard digging:

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One Response

  1. Perrig

    I use a shovel made by Wolverine. I am in the States and don’t know if they are available on your side of the pond. They are steel-handle, too. They are for my business and are built to last. They would probably be a pass down if used residentially. Because of their heft one can actually just spear it into the soil and achieve pretty good depth.

    Are those Joules I spy? Sporting them on my side, too. Even bought a matching pair for my granddaughter Avery. No need to not be spot on fashion-wise just because I’m working.

    Great tips. Thanks for sharing.

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