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| I've always heard that you can damage the soil structures if you start digging too soon in the spring, but this is the first time I've lived in a place where there winter stretches this far. We had snow flurries over the weekend, and are just now in the first flush of daffodils. But Bluestone thinks it's planting time and my order arrived a couple of days ago! The ground is very wet, and I have encountered some iciness near the surface in the shade, so I definitely think it's too soon. Does anyone have any good rules of thumb they follow about when to start digging? |
Follow-Up Postings:
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- Posted by ken_adrian z5 (My Page) on Thu, Apr 25, 13 at 7:39
| it would be important to know where you are .. z5/6 is half the US .... but ice for sure.. lol... you are jumping the gun ... you can dig whenever you want ... but when you are standing on damp soil.. your weight.. will compact where you stand .... go stand in a harmless spot ... dig a hole ... and see how the soil is ... then jump up and down a few times.. step back.. and dig where you were standing... you should see a great difference in soil compaction ... and that is what you want to avoid .... e.g. in my sand soil.. well trodden sand... becomes near concrete when it dries in july/august ... not good ... so basically.. stay out of the garden if your feet squish into the soil ... see link.. for an old post of mine .... it came to mind.. and might save me a lot of typing this morning ... good luck ... ken |
Here is a link that might be useful: link
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- Posted by gardenweed_z6a N CT (My Page) on Thu, Apr 25, 13 at 17:38
| Ken's got a good point about not compacting the soil in your garden beds. I normally don't even consider doing anything more than pull weeds & cut back ornamental grasses this time of year and always do so from the paths/lawn that edge or surround my beds. |
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| stepping tones in a border help limiting the damage plus you dont accidentally kill some sprouting thing. Do you have heavy, loamy soil? If heavy soil is too wet, it doesn`t crumble when you turn it with a spade but is rather putty-like. That`s bad and you should wait. and out of curiosity, where do you want to dig? In a perennial border it is not necessary and rather disturbs the plants. |
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