Double-Digging: Why Do It?  Double-digging is hard work. Is the
payoff worth it?  By Anne Marie Van Nest   Double-digging also
improves soil drainage by breaking up compaction and removing
hardpan on soil that has been subjected to repeated rototilling.
However, it is claimed that deep digging disrupts the soil life,
breaking delicate strands of mycorrhizal fungi on many plant
roots and disrupting earthworm and beetle habitats. Also, so few
research studies have been done that the benefits and deficits
of the process are largely anecdotal: “I don’t like double-
digging,” says Linda Chalker-Scott, Ph.D., an urban
horticulturist for the Washington State University Extension.
“It’s one of the practices that sound good, but for which I
can’t find any reliable scientific evidence. We do know,
however, that working the soil unnecessarily brings weed seeds
to the surface, destroys soil structure, disturbs the roots of
nearby woody plants, and harms or kills soil organisms. As a
cheap and lazy gardener, I prefer to le