To Dig or Not to Dig?
Asking this question in the Czech heartland might be considered almost treasonous. After all, the image of ploughing forms the entire mythical foundation of our nation. Princess Libuše once proclaimed her vision from Vyšehrad:
"Beyond the village lies fallow land - Your future prince is ploughing there with two oxen. That man's name is Přemysl. His descendants shall rule this land for ever and ever…"
Digging and Ploughing
Digging and ploughing – a method known to humanity since prehistoric cultures – is meant to break up and aerate the soil, which increases yield by allowing the added oxygen to speed up the decomposition of humus and minerals contained in the soil. Plants receive the desired nutritional boost and their productivity consequently increases. Besides the air supply, the digging process is naturally also the moment for working farmyard manure, post-harvest residues or green manure into the soil. Some language purists claim it also partially prevents weed growth. The image of a green-and-yellow tractor crossing back and forth across a latifundium therefore seems rather idyllic and laudable to most people.
Today's Common Practice in Fields
But must we too, managing plots of diametrically different sizes – equal to our own garden – not consolidated by collectivisation, automatically adopt these methods? It's no secret that modern agriculture can no longer function without massive use of sprays and industrial fertilisers. The very telling label "industrial" hardly associates with a nature-friendly approach. Soil has essentially become just a holder for the sown crop over the past century; it itself is no longer meant to guarantee yield.
An Alternative Exists
However, regarding the established practice of farmers with their heavy machinery, this need not apply to us – gardeners. Views and approaches are multiplying (penetrating from Anglo-Saxon and Far Eastern countries to us as well) that consider digging and turning the soil almost criminal. Soil is after all the dwelling place of countless organisms and creatures which, while we label them as so-called soil-forming agents on one hand, we systematically disrupt their lives, bonds and relationships on the other with our regular gymnastic routines with a spade.
Far from all these inhabitants are as adaptable as the springtail and as tangible and beloved as the earthworm. According to this no-dig doctrine, healthy soil becomes lighter and aerated naturally through channels created by annelids, through the activity of thousands of other species of lower organisms, insects, or the remaining tunnels left by roots of dead plants. These channels allow moisture to penetrate smoothly and deeply, instead of causing compaction and creating a hard-to-penetrate crust of compacted soil that we sometimes see in fields. Permaculture and the associated mulching is the answer to back pain from digging beds. And this despite patriotic reverence for the legacy of the Veverka cousins.
Therefore, in November, rather sit by the stove with a warm tea and look forward to St. Martin's Day (now rather enjoy St. Martin's wine). Take the spade in hand this month only if necessary to dig a hole for a newly planted tree or shrub. As one of the previous posts encourages you to do.