Topic: Can ground be harmed by digging when frosty?

[powerspade]

What I dont understand is;- Why would anyone want to dig frozen ground in the first place. It hard enough to dig when unfrozen.

[tonybloke]

What I dont understand is;- Why would anyone want to dig frozen ground in the first place. It hard enough to dig when unfrozen.

I AGREE ! ;)

[brownowl23]

well it wasnt frozen just frosty.

As to why ..................well I get limited time down  the lottie as I have twin 3 year olds. who although love the fun seed planting bits and the picking obviously get bored when mummy digs, cnat blame them after all.
 So in order to keep the council off my back and get the beds dug and cultivated for when they do thier surveys I do all I can to get down there when the boys are in preschool.

needs must and all that

[saddad]

Sounds perfectly reasonable to me... I'd rather dig my clay when it's a bit crunchy than soaked or baked hard...  :-X

[Robert_Brenchley]

Digging clay soil when it's wet will do a lot of damage to the structure. Digging frozen soil - assuming you can get a fork or spade in, that is - won't harm the structure, but as others have said, it will warm up more slowly than if you'd left it.

[chriscross1966]

Also ATM my soil though frozen, is crumbly.... very easy to knock weeds out of, plus they are all in their tough winter skins.... fewer fragile soft bits to knock off and miss.....

BTW...Reuseable handwarmers (boil for 20 minutes to reset, click button thingy for heat when you want) a fiver fro Go Outdoors....

chrisc

[tim]

The soil is turning over beautifully at the moment.

[Digeroo]

Ours is still as solid as a rock.

[dtw]

Surely you would have to dig it all again in the spring.
So, apart from the good exercise there is little point.

[tim]

No more dig - perhaps a quick once over with the cultivator.