Double-Digging Dirt & Doubt

Okay, I admit it. I'm an impatient gardener. I woke up this morning feeling more than a little frustrated and doubtful. I had been waiting for some money to start the garden, and realizing that the check isn't in the mail, I had a defeating little script running through my head.

But then I recalled a visit to the Cultural Learning Center at Ka'ala. Their philosophy is simple: Work is Medicine. So Giovanni and I made a spontaneous stop at Home Depot and purchased some locally-sourced, organic compost. We packed some tools and headed to the garden to "cultivate" the soil.

Some soil does not want to be cultivated. It wants to be coaxed, massaged, and teased out of it's dormancy. This soil did not want to be some kind of afterthought. It wanted real effort and intention. To be more precise, it wanted three hours of effort and double-digging.

The Double-Dig Process is used to develop soil structure so that plants will have a "living sponge cake" in which to thrive. This is what the process entails:

1. Spread compost over the entire area to be dug.
2. Remove the soil from the upper part (12" deep) of the first trench.
3. Loosen the soil an additional 12 inches.
4. Dig out the upper part of the first trench and move it forward to the first trench.
5. Loosen the lower part of the second trench.
6. Continue the double digging process for the remaining trenches.
7. Shape the bed by raking it.

We added an extra step by covering the beds with weed control cloth, since we aren't planting right away. After it was all done, my body hurt but my mind was at ease. I no longer felt frustrated, I got my exercise, and I can now move on. Work is Medicine. Let's keep growing! - Stacey Casco