How To Break Up Tough Soil

Amending the soil with organic matter naturally helps to break up tight clay soils over the long term. The particles in the organic matter physically separate the clay particles in the soil that cause the soil to be tight. Organic matter in the soil also encourages earthworms to move in.

As earthworms move through the soil, eat organic matter and excrete castings, they help to aerate and loosen the soil. Their castings also are rich in nutrients that are more readily available to plants than the nutrients from the soil. Compost should be used for the organic matter, and other soil amendments based on what you want to grow should be added with the compost. Do a soil test to determine exactly what you will need to add. The flat blade of the D-handle garden spade is ideal for edging beds.When I began to garden seriously, I felt the need to double dig. That's the technique in which you remove the top 12 inches of soil with a spade and loosen the subsoil with a fork.

I went out and bought an English gardening spade with an ash handle and a forged-steel blade. The short shaft allows you to put your weight on top of the tool for leverage. And the 11-inch hardened steel blade cuts through the soil easily and holds up to any amount of leveraging.

In double digging, you use the spade to cut a chunk of soil and lift it carefully onto your loosened subsoil, setting it down like a piece of cake. The flat blade allows you to dig to a uniform depth. One common variation has three pointed tines, a good design for breaking up tough soil. My favorite, though, and the one I use almost daily, has three flat, 7-inch, chisellike forged-steel tines with which I can either chop or chip away at the soil.

Garden forks can be used to break up the top layers of soil. Unlike mechanical tillers, forks are more likely to preserve earthworms in the soil. Use a garden fork when you need to till the top layers of the soil to create a garden bed.

It also can be used to break up deeper soil layers by pushing the fork into the soil and moving the handle to loosen the soil. Use a fork with a D-shaped handle because this shape allows you to get a better grip on the end while moving the fork. A variation of a garden fork is a cultivator fork, which has the tines bent at a 90-degree angle. It is easier to use to break up extra tough clay soils if you do not have access to a mechanical tiller. By aerating your clay soil and adding an amendment, you can break it down fast and encourage new growth.

Wait until the ground's completely wet or dry, since it'll be harder to work with soil that's partially damp. Then, turn your soil by digging up small amounts where you want to put plants to aerate it. Once you've turned the soil, mix in an amendment, like compost, biochar, manure, or a commercial soil conditioner, to add some extra nutrients. If your plants still struggle to grow, lay an extra layer of topsoil over the clay. These tools, applied in this order, will usually persuade the soil to produce a garden.

Compaction is most likely to occur with heavier soils like clay and loam, but when heavy equipment is used, sandy soils can become compacted. These are soil particles that are packed closely together. The problem may be compounded by events that have happened to the soil over the course of years. The pore spaces are reduced to the point that air and water cannot move freely and plant roots cannot grow easily into the surrounding soil.

The soil could remain overly wet longer than is healthy for the plants growing there. Bring in a new layer of topsoil if your plants are struggling. Even after loosening the compacted soil and adding amendments, you may discover that your plants are growing slowly or not at all. One immediate solution is to purchase a fresh supply of topsoil from your local gardening center and lay it down over the clay.

You can then transfer your plants to the new soil, where they'll be exposed to better growing conditions. Hard, dense, compacted clay soil types can be a nightmare to get a shovel through, let alone raise healthy plants in. There's no reason to give up on your garden just because of a little stubborn dirt, though. Wait to aerate your clay soil until it's thoroughly dry or wet, when it will be at its most manageable. Then, follow up by working in a quality amendment like compost, biochar, or manure to make it more hospitable for emerging plant life. It's not an overnight fix, but it's faster than waiting for traditional solutions like repeated applications of gypsum to get the job done.

You can use a broad fork, garden fork, spade fork, fork hoes, hand rake, and so on tools to loosen the soil. You need to push the forks inside the soil and shake it to loosen. The plants, grass, and every organic matter of the soil remain unchanged. If you want to lose the ground of pots, you can use a simple chopstick. Contrary to popular belief, golf shoes or garden spikes are insufficient for aerating your lawn. They do not penetrate deeply enough to benefit the soil.

If you want to loosen the soil in your lawn without digging up the grass, use manual or mechanical aeration tools. Manuel aerators are pushed into the ground with your foot to remove small plugs of soil that measure 2 inches long, allowing air and water to pass into the soil. Mechanical aerators can be rented from garden centers and do the task of aerating the soil faster.

Tillers have good and bad points when using them. They are best for breaking up especially tough clay soils that have never been worked before. If you use a tiller, you are likely to kill earthworms in the soil, but if you are using the tiller to mix organic matter into the soil, the earthworms will come back eventually. To break up the lawn soil for a garden while mixing in organic matter, pass the tiller over it at the lowest setting in parallel lines. Turn the tiller 90 degrees and repeat going over the same area in parallel lines. Set the tiller to its deepest setting and repeat the process to break up the subsoil for planting.

For a large vegetable garden, another solution is to grow a cover crop at the end of the season, then mow and turn in the following spring before planting. The roots penetrate the compacted soil and loosen it. By mowing and turning the mowed tops in, the soil is additionally loosened.

Cover crops could include annual ryegrass, winter wheat, winter rye, buckwheat, oilseed radishes and hairy vetch. About half of a healthy soil is made up of mineral particles like sand, silt and clay plus organic matter. That is the room for air and water movement around the mineral particles. Pore space is required in order to have a healthy environment for plant roots and beneficial microorganisms and earthworms to break down plant residue into organic matter. After edging a bed with the spade, I use the fork and a cultivator to break up the soil in the bed.

How To Break Up Hardpan Soil If the soil is friable, the fork is sufficient to work it into plantable shape. (If it's tough, I use the cultivator first.) The fork comes in especially handy to loosen, but not turn over, the subsoil. I work the fork into the soil as deep as it will go, using a back and forth motion, then pull back on the handle to pry and loosen the deeper soil. This allows me to improve drainage and give future roots some breathing room. I'm careful not to try this around irrigation lines. The garden fork works like a water-witch; I've located and perforated far too many irrigation lines this way.

​For the best outcome, you will need to dig in the organic matter into about 10 inches of the clay soil. Also, you should be very careful when doing this to prevent further compaction as you dig it. A sturdy spade is the best tool to use when digging the clay soil but a electric tiller can also work well if you know how to handle it well. ​Grit sand is the another useful amendment that you can use as you break up and improve the quality of your clay soil. Applying an inch or two of grit sand on the clay soil before the organic matter can be very helpful because grit sand helps to break up even the heaviest clay soils.

Grit sand has a large percentage of larger grain sizes which is what makes it ideal for improving the clay soil. I like the feel of a level-head rake better than that of a bow rake. A bow rake seems to flex when you're breaking up soil. A strongly attached level-head rake transfers more force to the ground. And I use the back of the rake to smooth surfaces and make hills and raised beds. I also use the back to clean paths between beds.

A level-head rake also does an excellent job of mixing soil amendments into the top few inches of the soil. When I tackle a weedy, neglected bed, I use the cultivator first. After I work my way through the bed, I can simply rake out the weeds. Then another pass with the cultivator prepares the bed for amendments or for deeper cultivation with either the garden fork or the deep spader. When I'm adding manure or compost to the bed, I use the cultivator to chop and mix.

If the soil of lawns, gardens, and fields becomes compacted, it becomes difficult for the plants to spread roots and absorb necessary nutrients from the ground. Besides, the water of heavy rain cannot be absorbed by these types of compacted soil. In some areas, the soil is naturally high in clay, making the soil tight and compacted. This poses a problem for plants, because it does not drain well, and tight soil makes it difficult for roots to grow. Hard, compacted soil is difficult to work with. To grow healthy, vibrant plants, you need loose soil that allows water to drain effectively and your roots to absorb nutrients and receive air.

Once you have realized your soil is compacted, there are several things to be done. Resist the urge to routinely roto-till or cultivate the garden. Instead, consider adding organic matter by using mulch or compost over the top of a flower bed or simply hand-spade it into the top 3 to 6 inches of soil. For a vegetable garden, put 2 inches of compost on the soil surface and till in and repeat for a total of 4 inches in a season. A goal of 5 to 15 percent of organic matter would be advantageous.

Adding sand creates the opposite of the desired effect. Add organic matter such as compost, peat moss or leaf mold when loosening the soil. Build a raised garden or flower bed if you're still not having any luck.

There's no guarantee that your clay soil will ever produce the kind of flourishing plant life you'd like. If all of your previous efforts have failed, a few raised beds may be just what you need. Work organic compost into your freshly-turned soil. After loosening surface of the soil, pile on 2–3 inches (5.1–7.6 cm) of compost and use your shovel to spread it around until it's distributed evenly.

Compost comes highly recommended by experienced gardeners for improving clay soil due to its soft texture and abundance of organic nutrients. For the maintenance, you will only need to add an organic compound to the bed every year or planting season, and you can dig it in or leave it for the worms to take in. Also, another important aspect of maintaining the clay soil is to avoid working on it when it is wet because this causes compaction.

The first step in breaking up your clay soil entails adding the amending agents that will help to improve its quality and also in breaking it up. The most efficient one is organic compost, and you can use everything from lawn cuttings to rotted manure. Many gardeners are not aware that the difficulties with their vegetable garden or flower garden could be caused by compacted soils. You may find soil is difficult to dig in or till up and plants do not grow well. They do not develop as large of a root system as they should.

Water may collect after a heavy rain and will remain rather than soak in. If you can pick up the deep spader and hurl it, you're a god. You will need to work at it over the years by repeating the process though. Baked clay is almost impossible to break up, rotivate or dig, it's easier to spread the organic matter and grit and wait until the worms have done some of the work for you. Clay soils are the heaviest of soil types and are often considered the hardest to work with.

They hold onto water and often take longer to warm in the spring. Soil compaction and cracking is also a big risk of clay soils. To use the deep spader, you carry it to the bed you want to work and heave the tines into the soil.

Hold onto the handle and stand on the bar to which the tines are attached, as if you were getting on a pogo stick. As you rock the tool back and forth and side to side, the tines will sink into the earth. When they won't go any deeper, you step off backward and pull the handle toward you. As you pull, the spader will break up the subsoil without exposing it to too much light and air. Lift the giant fork out of the ground and repeat as many times as necessary. I can spade a 100-square-foot bed in about 20 minutes.

It's a workout but the deep cultivation is worth the effort. Rocky soil, without exception, should be covered thickly with compost and soil mix. The good news about rocky soils is that their drainage is usually excellent. Barren soils may be improved by a combination of compost, worms, and a version of the "no-dig" methods, in which the soil is lightly turned, but not actually dug deeply. There's no point in digging this sort of soil because it provides a lot of soil volume but it's basically filler.

The real work for plantings will be done by the imported soils. The idea is to break the surface and allow the new soil to "grow" downwards, as the live chemistry in the new soil breaks up the old soil. Organic matter seems to be a common theme amongst healthy soil articles, and that's because it does a lot for your garden. And yes, it can even help break up hard, compacted soil.

Which Is The Best Oxford English Dictionary

According to the publishers, it would take a single person 120 years to "key in" the 59 million words of the OED second edition, 60 years to proofread them, and 540 megabytes to store them electronically. As of 30 November 2005, the Oxford English Dictionary contained approximately 301,100 main entries. The dictionary's latest, complete print edition was printed in 20 volumes, comprising 291,500 entries in 21,730 pages.

The longest entry in the OED2 was for the verb set, which required 60,000 words to describe some 430 senses. As entries began to be revised for the OED3 in sequence starting from M, the longest entry became make in 2000, then put in 2007, then run in 2011. The Oxford English Dictionary is the accepted authority on the evolution of the English language since 1150. It is an unsurpassed guide to the meaning, history, and pronunciation of over half a million words, both present and past.

It traces the usage of words through 2.5 million quotations from a wide range of international English language sources, from classic literature and specialist periodicals to film scripts and cookery books. The OED includes all common words of speech and literature, including scientific/technical terms and foreign words in general use. The library owns several editions of the OED, both print and online. Oxford Dictionary of English is a free dictionary app that gives you access to more than 350,000 words, phrases and meanings.

Oxford Dictionary of English app also offers audio pronunciation for 75,000 words, both common and rare, including those words with varying pronunciations. While it's used for understanding the basic meaning of words, this English dictionary app provides you with immediate translations, definitions, and several other features. The first edition of the OED, titled A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles, took 70 years to complete. In 1857, the Philological Society of London embarked on a quest to develop "a complete re-examination of the language from Anglo-Saxon times onward".

It was originally planned as a four volume set that would take approximately 10 years to complete. The complexities and evolution of the English language, however, caused the editors to spend more time than anticipated on this project. The last volume was published in 1928 and the now ten volume set included over 400,000 words and phrases. Because of the large amount of time it took to complete this project, volumes may have different copyright dates. Now, while this statement is designed to slow down alarmed chatter that the print OED will soon be no more, it's also completely consistent with what Portwood told the Times.

They could continue to print any or all of these well into the future, even if the 3rd edition of OED goes digital-only. Indeed, Oxford University Press already offers a basic free online dictionary and subscription version with extra features. In 1879 an agreement was reached with Oxford University Press to begin work on a revolutionary New English Dictionary. The plan was to create a vast and comprehensive collection of English words, those from the Early Middle English period onwards, a lexicon of the language more complete than any English dictionary-maker had ever attempted. Fifty years later the first version of the dictionary miles of type - was published.

The revision is expected roughly to double the dictionary in size. The supplements and their integration into the second edition were a great improvement to the OED as a whole, but it was recognized that most of the entries were still fundamentally unaltered from the first edition. Much of the information in the dictionary published in 1989 was already decades out of date, though the supplements had made good progress towards incorporating new vocabulary. Yet many definitions contained disproven scientific theories, outdated historical information, and moral values that were no longer widely accepted.

English grammar has changed a great deal since the beginning of the twentieth century, and it is a subject that can provide a complex minefield of uncertainties within the language. This accessible and comprehensive dictionary comes to the aid of both the general reader and the student or teacher, offering straightforward and immediate access to 1,000 grammatical terms and their meanings. All the currently accepted terms of grammar are included, as well as older, traditional names, controversial new coinages, and items from the study of other languages. Concise definitions of the wider subject of linguistics, including phonetics and transformational grammar, are accompanied by examples of language in use, and frequent quotations from existing works on grammar. The Oxford English Dictionary is the accepted authority on the evolution of the English language over the last millennium. The online version includes the entire Second Edition, and is continually updated with new words for the New Edition.

The Oxford English Dictionary is perhaps one of the most recognized dictionaries in the world. With past and present definitions of over 600,000 words, the OED touts itself as a "historical dictionary" that includes not only the current definition of a word, but also its history. According to the OED About page, the OED uses "3 million quotations, from classic literature and specialist periodicals to film scripts and cookery books" to trace the history of the English language. Additional material for a given letter range continued to be gathered after the corresponding fascicle was printed, with a view towards inclusion in a supplement or revised edition. A one-volume supplement of such material was published in 1933, with entries weighted towards the start of the alphabet where the fascicles were decades old.

Also in 1933 the original fascicles of the entire dictionary were re-issued, bound into 12 volumes, under the title "The Oxford English Dictionary". This edition of 13 volumes including the supplement was subsequently reprinted in 1961 and 1970. The dictionary's editor, James Murray, appealed to readers around the English speaking world to get involved. Eventually hundreds of volunteers were working as word detectives, scouring historical and contemporary texts to collect evidence for as many words as possible.

They rummaged through literature , newspapers, specialist scientific or technological journals, song sheets, theatre scripts, recipe books, wills, and political documents, collecting a myriad of words and meanings. The readers sent millions of quotations to Murray, which were then checked, sorted and filed by his team of editors. The archive box shown here contains quotations for words beginning with the letter M in the range miler to mischief.

The Oxford Dictionary of English currently contains well over 350,000 meanings, phrases and words. It is therefore considered to be one of the most comprehensive smartphone dictionaries on the market. In addition to written text, there are more than 75,000 audio pronunciations; ideal for those who might not be native speakers. A handy search tool is also perfect while out and about, as words will be automatically completed so the user can choose the appropriate selection. There is even a "fuzzy" filter in the event that the user is unsure how a word is spelled. Unlike typical language dictionaries, which only define words in terms of their current uses and meanings, the OED is a historical dictionary.

Each entry lists a word's changing meanings , and illustrates those changes with quotations from literary texts and other historical records. In 1982, plans were made to integrate the supplements into the main text as well as transform it into "a machine-readable resource" to usher it into the electronic age. This five year, $13.5 million project employed 120 keyboarders who typed each definition and 50 proofreaders who checked the work. Lexicographers not only "reviewed, corrected, and edited this new electronic dictionary", they also added 5,000 new words. This Second Edition was published in 1989 and encompasses 20 volumes. Not only was this a space-saving measure, it also "revolutionized the way people use the Dictionary to search and retrieve information" and would lead the way to the current electronic version of the OED.

Though the dictionary was "completed", language is continually evolving. Because of this, the editors recognized that to keep the dictionary relevant, it needed to be updated. A supplement was published in 1933 and the set was reprinted as twelve volumes. It was during this time that the title formally changed to the Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford Dictionary of English is widely accepted as one of the highest authorities in the study and reference of English language globally, with more than 150 years of research behind it.

Regarded as one of the flagship products in Oxford University Press catalog of dictionaries, the app features advanced search and learning tools designed by a vastly experienced developer. Oxford Dictionary of English FREE comes with a 'Favorites' option, which lets you create custom folders with specific words from a wide range of entries and libraries. You can also check the 'recent list' to review previously searched words.

With 'Word of the day', you can learn new words and phrases every day. For an improved learning experience, the home screen widget provides random words continuously. Oxford English Dictionary app comes with thousands of region-specific entries, which reflects the global adaptability and richness of the English language. While using this app, you can leverage the strength of Oxford's research excellence.

With more than 75,000 audio pronunciations of rare and common words, you're able to learn a lot about different accents. Unfortunately, this feature is only available in the premium version. Moreover, the app gives accurate regional definitions, ideal for people who're travelling to unfamiliar regions around the globe. This dictionary app offers search options, learning tools, and a huge list of common and rare words. However, in the end only three Additions volumes were published this way, two in 1993 and one in 1997, each containing about 3,000 new definitions. The possibilities of the World Wide Web and new computer technology in general meant that the processes of researching the dictionary and of publishing new and revised entries could be vastly improved.

A new approach was called for, and for this reason it was decided to embark on a new, complete revision of the dictionary. If I could have chosen chapters, there is a more recent book, theOxford Handbook of Lexicography, which has a chapter in it by John Considine on the development of the idea of the historical dictionary. I think that would be a better introduction to where the OED came from. No, it's a dictionary that aims to tell the whole history of the English language by telling the story of each word. It's called a dictionary 'on historical principles.' The fundamental historical principle is that a word should be able to tell its own story by real examples of that word, showing how it has been used. You want to know not just what a word means now, but what it has meant at all stages in its history.

You need to collect evidence for what those different meanings might be, examples of the word in use over the history of the language, which is a great idea that people started to have in the 19th century. With the Oxford Dictionary app download, you're always up-to-date with the latest expressions and words. Since the company keeps updating the database on a regular basis, you're always up to speed with relevant changes in meanings, definitions, and pronunciations. With more than 350,000 words in the database, this is the most comprehensive collection of words, meanings, and phrases in the English language.

In The Dictionary of Lost Words, I have told an alternative story about the English language, a story about women, that lives between the lines of the Oxford English Dictionary and lurks in the whitespace of history books. It is a story that has never been told, though fragments of it exist—they can be found in letters and newspaper clippings; in the slips containing words and sentences; in annotated proofs and old family photographs. I have searched for them in the archives of the Oxford University Press, and at the Oxfordshire History Centre, and they have gained substance as I walked through the streets of Oxford.

I have collated information that others have overlooked, and I have interpreted its absence from the official history, but I have not tampered with the bones of that history. I have carefully woven my fiction through key historical events and people. I have not meddled with timelines and I have tried to render the personalities and motivations of real people as truthfully as a I can. The Oxford English Dictionary is widely regarded as the accepted authority on the English language.

Every three months updates to OED revise existing entries and add new words. This fully updated edition offers over 120,000 words, phrases, and definitions. Regarded as one of the flagship products in MobiSystems' large catalog of dictionaries the app features advanced search and language tools designed by a developer vastly experienced in the creation of dictionaries and learning tools. In 1971, the 13-volume OED1 was reprinted as a two-volume Compact Edition, by photographically reducing each page to one-half its linear dimensions; each compact edition page held four OED1 pages in a four-up ("4-up") format. The two-volume letters were A and P; the first supplement was at the second volume's end. The Compact Edition included, in a small slip-case drawer, a Bausch & Lomb magnifying glass to help in reading reduced type.

Many copies were inexpensively distributed through book clubs. In 1987, the second supplement was published as a third volume to the Compact Edition. Accordingly, it was recognized that work on a third edition would have to begin to rectify these problems. The first attempt to produce a new edition came with the Oxford English Dictionary Additions Series, a new set of supplements to complement the OED2 with the intention of producing a third edition from them.

In 1895, the title The Oxford English Dictionary was first used unofficially on the covers of the series, and in 1928 the full dictionary was republished in ten bound volumes. In 1933, the title The Oxford English Dictionary fully replaced the former name in all occurrences in its reprinting as twelve volumes with a one-volume supplement. More supplements came over the years until 1989, when the second edition was published, comprising 21,728 pages in 20 volumes.

Since 2000, compilation of a third edition of the dictionary has been underway, approximately half of which was complete by 2018. ' is immaterial because at the moment, the interim text of the dictionary, the text we've revised so far, is only available online. When we eventually finish the whole process, revising everything from A to Z, if there was a market for the printed version of the dictionary, then I'm sure OUP would print it. But, realistically, I think people now find works of reference of that size far more useful in electronic form.

Oxford Dictionary of English Free is a terrific English dictionary app with a variety of options. Search with handy predictions as you type, use the camera viewfinder to look up words easily, and enter keywords to search within words and phrases. The learning tools are helpful with sections for favorites, recent look-ups, and the word of the day.

The dictionary features 75,000 audio pronunciations of both common and rare words, dubbed in both British and American voice versions, including words with controversial or variant pronunciations. This edition has been completely revised and updated to include the very latest vocabulary, with over 350,000 words, phrases, and meanings derived from the latest research from the Oxford English Corpus. It provides the most complete and accurate picture of the English language today. Burchfield also removed, for unknown reasons, many entries that had been added to the 1933 supplement. In 2012, an analysis by lexicographer Sarah Ogilvie revealed that many of these entries were in fact foreign loanwords, despite Burchfield's claim that he included more such words.

What Is The Best Oxford Dictionary The proportion was estimated from a sample calculation to amount to 17% of the foreign loan words and words from regional forms of English. Third edition in preparationWebsite Oxford English Dictionary is the principal historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press . It traces the historical development of the English language, providing a comprehensive resource to scholars and academic researchers, as well as describing usage in its many variations throughout the world.

Detailing the origins and development of numerous words. The volume also retains such popular features as the hundreds of usage notes which give advice on tricky vocabulary and pointers to help you improve your use of English. Finally, the dictionary contains full appendices on topics such as alphabets, currencies, electronic English, and the registers of language , plus a useful Guide to Good English with advice on grammar, punctuation, and spelling. Depending upon your needs, requirements, and interests, Oxford Dictionary of English Free lets you use four different themes. Since the app has an intuitive and functional interface, it doesn't take much time to get used to the layout. With plenty of features, such as voice searches, camera searches, multiple filters, keyword searches, tap to translate, and more, Oxford Dictionary app is one of the most useful learning apps.

Oxford University Press also offers a free site, Oxford Dictionaries Online, that focuses on current language and practical usage. It is a comprehensive current English dictionary, grammar guidance, puzzles and games, and a language blog; as well as up-to-date bilingual dictionaries in French, German, Italian, and Spanish. ODO can be added as an option to your Firefox search menu, see Add-ons.