This article is a reflection on the shifting nature of gardening and considers how old methods like double digging fit into modern, sustainable practice.
I’m sure this could be applied to many activities, but if there’s one thing I’ve come to understand about gardening, it is that nothing stays the same for long: places, processes, people and of course plants themselves continue to change. There are many examples of how change plays out in life of course, but the one I pull from my gardening hat today concerns an old gardening task known as double digging.
Whilst in practice double digging wasn’t expected or carried out nearly as often as one might think, by the time I encountered the technique it was long established; a trusted method for preparing compacted or depleted ground. Whether working an allotment or old kitchen garden therefore, digging down two spits deep, incorporating organic matter and inverting the soil was considered a route to success.
Possibly due to my working situations, I didn’t often get to put my double digging skills to use, but I certainly held faith in the procedure. After all, like it or loathe it, the DD process adds nutrients and humus, opens and aerates compacted soil, and helps towards that happy place somewhere between not too wet or dry – what more could anyone possibly do to help plants grow?
The idea behind this text however, is not to deliberate on whether double digging or no dig is best, or if any gardening method is superior to another. My reflections here are wholly centred around the evolution of horticultural practice, of collective and individual learning, and of thoughtfully managing change.
As for many subjects, repetition turns once innovative practices into normal everyday activities, but once having comfortably found a groove, it is possible to become blind to the progress others are making. Horticulture, especially once someone is set free from mainstream learning, can also be particularly isolating, and keeping abreast of newly adopted rules, processes and equipment can be quite a challenge. Sometimes the day to day gardening is challenging enough on itself, given the physical and mental challenges associated with it.
Horticulture however is a discipline where the wheels of progress do relentlessly turn, and where innovation and down-to-earth wholesome knowledge can somehow remain out of sight. Some stay informed by looking out from the tops of hills with eager eyes for news of revolutionary new tools or thinking. Elsewhere though, in some landscape hollows, whole careers can be lived with taped up tools, leaky boots, no power to the tool shed and zero reception.
The reality is that whilst a gardener’s knowledge, intellect and experience can be respected, opportunities to stay informed may not always be forthcoming for one reason or another. In some quarters, individuals will not have the freedom or capacity to focus on learning, develop their creativity or modernise their practice; their focus and energy consumed by the job in hand. Personal circumstances like raising a family or having caring responsibilities can have a bearing here too.
All that said, each individual does hold the ability to control their own learning journey to a point. We may immerse ourselves in the garden, but if we’re to grow sustainably, we must stay familiar and informed as to the world around. Reading books, listening to podcasts or to BBC Gardeners’ Question Time, all these keep skills alive and inform us that gardening as a discipline continues to evolve. For sure, as tastes, techniques and values change, and as climate change threatens, our gardening inputs and expectations must adapt too.
Life-long learning and staying open-minded helps us to adapt, avoiding the need for anyone to needlessly go on double digging, chemically spraying, or leaf burning their way through an entire career. In recent years we’ve come to understand the importance of keeping carbon up in soils, of water harvesting, of not robbing peat from our moorlands, and we’ve established the benefits of circular horticulture. We’ve also realised the difference we can make as a community of individuals.
If you’ll allow me a minor rant, what we must not do is thoughtlessly trust every new initiative or garden hack that pops up on our timelines. It is more important than ever before to robustly scrutinise and challenge whatever initiative comes along. Double dig through every instruction yes, consider the true impacts, and question the motivation for change – as we should not be changing things just for the sake of it.
Evolving horticultural practice and expanding knowledge is core to helping fight climate change, of that I’m convinced. I am equally convinced however that in our search for sustainability, some goodness does remain in the old ways, the simpler ways, and that a balance must be found between tradition and innovation. In returning to my earlier example, whilst I’ve personally adopted no dig as a general method of cultivation, it doesn’t mean that I won’t dig on occasion, or that I won’t stay open to other methods either.
To finish, I would affirm that these words aren’t meant to consign any given technique to the history books, especially double digging where in places it still holds some merit, nor am I here to tell anyone how to garden their plot. These words are meant to inspire gardeners both old and new to continue their learning, and to that end I urge everyone to be thoughtfully engaged with every step on a spade, every turn of the compost or splash of rainwater. Consider your impacts, but always try be as informed as possible, being kind to people and place, and especially to yourself.
When did you last listen to Gardeners’ Question Time? 😉 (See some links down below for further inspiration).
Kind regards, Gary – Gardening Ways.
Gardening Ways 