HOW TO DIG
DIG FOR VICTORY LEAFLET NUMBER 20 (NEW SERIES)
ISSUED BY THE MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE
- Thorough digging is essential to success in gardening.
- Don’t do too much at first. Half an hour to an hour is enough for a start.
- Use a sharp spade. And keep it clean—while using it and when you put it away.
- Always use pegs and string to mark off the ground to be dug, and to keep your work straight.
1 SIMPLE DIGGING WHERE THERE IS NO TURF
If the ground is more than 15 ft. wide, deal with one half at a time. Nick a line down the middle with a spade. Across the top of one half dig the first trench. Work down this half from top to bottom. Then work up the other half from bottom to top.
The first trench is 15 inches wide and as deep as the blade of the spade. Move the soil over to the other half ready to put in the last trench.
With a plot narrower than 15 feet, dig the trench right across the top and move the soil to the bottom end.
1 To dig properly you must have an open trench like this in front of you. It is 15 inches wide and the depth of a spade. The soil from it has been put on the far side, ready to fill the last trench.
2 The soil is turned into the open trench, a spadeful at a time. If each piece is made the width of the spade and cut off at right angles to the trench, it will be easier to lift.
3 The spade must be driven in almost vertically, or the soil will not be dug deeply enough
4 For each spadeful, the spade must be pressed down to its full depth. Use your foot to do the heavy work.
5 Lifting a spadeful of soil. Notice how the digger has stepped backward with one foot.
Twisting the spade to turn the soil over as it falls in the open trench.
Proceed in this way, a trench at a time, till the whole plot has been dug.
II. DIGGING GROUND COVERED WITH TURF
(BASTARD TRENCHING)
Mark out the first trench .2 ft. wide.
Skim off the turf 2 inches deep. Then take out the soil to the depth of a spade.
Move the turf and soil to the bottom, or to the far side if the plot is wide, ready to fill the last trench.
1 Then break up the floor of the trench. Press the fork to its full depth with the help of your foot. Prise up the soil ; lift it clear ; twist the fork and let the earth fall back. Break up all lumps.
2 Skim off the turf from the next 2 ft. wide strip. Place it grass-side down on the broken-up floor of the trench and chop it with the spade into pieces 3 or 4 inches across.
3 Use the soil from the skimmed strip to bury the cut-up turf. Twist each spadeful over and let it fall. Keep the sides of the new trench vertical.
4 Clear the ” crumbs ” or loose soil from the floor of the new trench before taking the turf from the next strip.
Proceed in this way till the whole plot has been skimmed and dug.
HOW TO PLAN YOUR GARDEN OR ALLOTMENT
Send for ‘ Dig for Victory’ Leaflet No. I (new series), Grow for Winter as well as Summer.
This free leaflet shows you by means of a simple coloured cropping chart how you can have vegetables all the year round if you—
DIG WELL AND CROP WISELY
Copies may be obtained from :
Ministry of Agriculture,
Hotel Lindum,
St. Annes-on-Sea,
Lanes.
Photographs reproduced from ” The Vegetable Garden Displayed” by permission of the Royal Horticultural Society
September 1941
