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Bethlehem CT

Thats a lot of work! I Hope it pays off!

4/8/2026 6:51:15 AM

Germany

That´s a lot of work, indeed. (Doing the same procedure here every year. My entire patch requires about 8 hours of that work...ouch!) Anyway, as I spotted some leftovers of the rye plants on top of the freshly dug-over soil, I thought I share one of my 'secrets' (it is especially helpful when I dig through the patch in order to get rid of the weeds in early spring, and it is useful especially when you try to turn the soil in a rather shallow fashion). So, I usually start with the mower (makes it easier for the spade to go through the patch), and then I turn the soil in the 'normal' manner (a spade deep) along one row only. For all of the next rows I sort of turn shingles of soil. That means, I insert the spade into the soil at an angle of about 45 deg, and the front third of the spade reaches under the already turned row of soil. So, what happens then (when you turn the soil) is that the rim of the already turned row collapses into the new trench, and then (when you turn the shingle of soil, which is on your spade, on top of that part) it will be covered by pure soil, devoid of green stuff, because you extracted that soil from some deeper areas. The part where you inserted the spade, where the green stuff is still close to the surface upon turning the spade, will then (in the next run) be the rim of the row, which will again collapse into the new trench that forms when you 45-deg-spade 1/3 spade far under that rim. Have fun! :)

4/8/2026 8:40:31 AM

Grittyville, WA

The hand turning skill was lost with the invention of horses, tractors, and glyphosate. The Irish used to grow potatoes by hand turning sod and adding seaweed. I guess they called it Minecraft and the kids helped too. Only the little Irish kids most addicted to this block digging behavior survived, which explains a lot.

4/8/2026 11:35:35 AM

Central NY

Yea buddy... want some, get some

4/8/2026 11:45:55 AM

Upa Creek, MO

Thanks Jorg, noted for later today! 99% of the rye is on the bottom (except for the one offs you see). After turning, I then hit each clump twice in a cross shape to put it into 1\4ths, but leave most of the soil as is. I then hard rake the surface at the end of each day to flatten the "canyons" out.

I went down the rabbit hole and on day 3 today. I hope to finish tomorrow, but doing less and less each day.

[Last edit: 04/08/26 1:05:38 PM]

4/8/2026 1:04:02 PM