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[Clansgian AT wmconnect.com]

> That is what I like to use of a bed that is easy to work.  I make the top 
> dig with a square shovel then loosen the bottom of that trench with the 
> fork.  The next trench dirt is dumped into the previous trench and the 
> process repeated.  On a good bed it goes quickly and is not much work.

I'm really pretty much with you on that.  I used to be a true devotee of Bro. 
John Jeavons and dug those 4' wide 24" deep trenches with a shovel, (although 
he too recommends loosening the bottom with a fork).  Experience gave my 
grave misdoubts about the use of such extreme digging.

Now of days my digging is some 8" to 10" deep at the most.  I'm about 
convinced that 4" to 6" does just as well.  The turning (horse) truning plow 
I use on 
the cornfield only turns 6" and that's more than enough for ground in much 
less tilth than the gardens per se.  

So I use a fork too, but only if I think the ground beneath the organic duff 
on top needs it.  Most of the time I conclude that it doesn't.  

This afternoon I had a small bed where I wanted to plant very early sweet 
corn,  4' wide and maybe 10' long.  It was tightly covered with Venus' 
Looking 
Glass and Ground Ivy (what some call Gill-over-the-Ground) and Heal All.  I 
skimmed the vegetation off with 1" of the soil and put it on the bed beside 
it.  
Then I turned over about 6" of the soil and raked it.  Into that I put hills 
of 
three corn seeds about 18" apart in each direction.   Over each of these 
"hills" I put a 2ltr soda jug with the bottom cut out.  This will thwart the 
cutworms, warm the seedlings, keep off the frost, and keep crows from digging 
up 
the seedlings.   Likely a late freeze will take the lot, but it's fun to try. 
  
Then between the jugs I put on 4" of old rotted leaf duff.

So the weed removal was skimming off 1" of soil with a shovel, and stilling 
was turning over 4" of loose dirt with a lot of black organic material 
underneath.  It took maybe 30 minutes from weedy bed to the last of the mulch.

If the ground had resisted the shovel, I'd have dug it 10" deep or else would 
have use the fork to loosen it without turning it further.  But the fork by 
itself would have left too many vigorously growing weeds in its wake.

Inside the inter sanctum of the garden where IC engines never defile the 'wa' 
of the place, I keep a hoe and steel rake, a D-handle fork, a D-handle square 
shovel, and a long handle pointed shovel.  The long handle shovel sees the 
most action as I ply an ancient dance of Shovel-jitsu.  But the fork and 
square 
shovel have their place and their uses.   </HTML>