Fall digging is a practice that has been practiced for generations. With the advent of organic gardening, this approach was questioned. Whether soil should be dug up in autumn depends on the type of soil and the weather conditions.
Digging in the fall has its perks
When digging is recommended
The soil type decides whether digging makes sense. In order not to unnecessarily disturb the sensitive life in the layers of earth, you should weigh up digging against loosening. Rearranging is recommended when snails have spread to the beds. They lay their eggs protected under leaves and dead plant parts. With the digging up, the clutches are transported to the surface, where they die off due to the sun's rays or frost. Creating a new bed also requires digging.
These are the benefits of digging:
- Promotion of plant and root growth
- improved water absorption capacity of the soil
- optimized air circulation
- elimination of compaction
Tackle light and heavy soils
Timing plays a subordinate role when working on light and humus-rich soils, since you do not have to dig up such soils. Loosening up with a digging fork or a sow tooth is completely sufficient. The soil is less prone to compaction, which is why you can do without digging and shifting. This will prevent unnecessary disruption to the soil structure.
Digging is recommended for heavy clay soils. Garden tools for loosening fail on these difficult-to-edit surfaces. Autumn is ideal because the low temperatures mean that soil organisms such as earthworms have retreated to the deeper layers of the earth. Early spring is also suitable for digging because of the low temperatures. If frost then occurs, the coarse clods of earth are blown open and you can loosen the crumbly substrate again before planting.
Note the water content
Both when loosening and digging, it is important that the soil is not too wet. When you step on and till a wet soil, the soil layers compact. The compaction can be so deep that you can no longer eliminate it with conventional tillage measures. Late precipitation in autumn ensures that the freshly dug soil silts up again. If autumn is very wet, you should wait for the first ground frosts or postpone the measures until spring.