Under the Choko Tree By Nevin Sweeney

Preparing the Veggie Beds

I am a busy fella! So when I first started out on this track I bought myself a Masport rotary hoe, to whip through the cultivation quickly, and I did that for many years. Eventually it broke down and I was able to re-evaluate what I was doing. Over the years I had learned a bit and it seemed that this was not the right way, it was comparatively easy but –

  • The action of the rotary hoe destroyed the soil structure creating hard pans at the bottom of the cultivation level.
  • It destroyed worms and gave the soil organisms a hard time by cutting through the soil and exposing them to sunlight.
  • It consumed fossil fuels and generated a lot of noise and fumes.
  • It raised my stress levels by refusing to start when I needed it to and requiring lengthy tinkering to coax it back into life.

No doubt about it, the rotary hoe, had to go – so it went! To a friend who had a use for it.

Without the rotary hoe it was time to use a bit of appropriate technology……. A spade and a garden fork, I was going to double dig! One word on tools before getting on to the mechanics of this process, there are times when you can get away with skimping a bit on the cost of your tools, this isn’t one of them. Only buy high quality garden tools that can take the pressure put on them by regular double digging eg Cyclone tools, the cheapie imports will fail very early in the process and require replacement – not very sustainable!

When double digging you mark out the area of the bed, and dig out a trench one spit (spade length) deep and wide the full width of the bed, place the soil into a wheelbarrow. Then, using the garden fork, open up the soil at the bottom of the trench so it is loose and will admit water, air and plant roots and add some compost or well rotted manure. The fill in the trench by digging another trench next to it, loosen the bottom with the fork and add manure or compost, then full it in with the soil next to it. Continue this process until you nave a trench left at the far end of the bed and fill this in with the soil form the first digging in the wheel barrow. The result is a vegetable bed that bulges above the previous soil level with improved aeration and drainage and natural fertilizer already incorporated.

If you are going to cultivate, the double dig method has much to recommend it.

  • The soil depth for roots is increased
  • The whole bed is aerated and drainage is improved
  • The compost/manure is where it’s needed – in the root zone.
  • No fumes or noise, just good exercise
  • The soil organisms are treated a bit more kindly.


The down side is – ignore what I said above about good exercise, it’s hard work! Even with press ganging my son-in-law to help it is slow and it is hard work. If you like to dig (and I know that there are hardy souls out there who do) then double digging is the way forward for you. But if you (like me) prefer the easy way, there is a better solution!

I haven’t double dug for many years now, I get animals to do it for me. I place chook tractor which is a bottomless chook house placed over the bed or area I want to be a bed for two weeks or more. The chooks dig up everything, including grass, and turn the area into a (fertile) wasteland. This provides chook poo as fertiliser and gets rid of plants, seeds and pests from the planting area – not much can survive the chooks. I then hoe the surface, even it out and break up any areas compacted by the chooks (which happens particularly in wet weather) and apply a 5 to 10cm layer of mulch. The mulch is usually straw that has been worked over by chooks in the shed, and keep the area moist. This attracts a host of worms that then dig the bed from underneath, aerating it, improving drainage and adding worm castings. The result is ideal growing conditions with very little manual input – your back will love you for it!


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