"Derek wrote in message


Got two allotments (and since I was 35, arthritis of the lower spine) so
long hard digging has been a problem for many years especially as we
garden
on Thames clay/silt. I couldn't garden so much land without one.

err.. you could if you went no-dig organic vbg
--

Sorry Derek, I live in the real world!

I would love to grow organically but wouldn't grow much successfully down
here. You couldn't grow Leeks...Leek Moth; nor any Brassicas...Flea Beetle
(can't grow from seed outside even with chemicals); no outside
Tomatoes...Blight; Pea and Bean Weevil is another pest that has recently
found our plots.
Unlike others I am not prepared to lose a whole years crop or give up ever
growing a crop just because I won't use a chemical.

Then there's our Thames silt/clay soil which pans down to a hard solid bed
after the winter rains and all the animals have danced on it***(it's why I
dig in the spring), then the sun comes out, it dries, and if it's not dug
and broken up it cracks open through the roots. I just can't see non-dig
working on this soil, a nice friable sandy loam, yes, but not this stuff.

*** I dug and raked a bed last week and two days later you would not believe
it, there was not a pins point between the footprints of cats and foxes etc.
some nice deep holes too.
--
Bob

www.pooleygreengrowers.org.uk/ about an Allotment site in
Runnymede fighting for it's existence.