Has anybody used a broadfork?

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dnarcher

Full Member
Jul 21, 2016
59
15
Sheffield
Any suggestions where to get one in the UK? Something like a meadow creature or a treasure? Don't mind the cost, but the p&p is extortionate.
My garden, and I use the term very loosely, has lots of rocks in clay. Normally if I want to plant something, a pickaxe and digging bar are involved. I already have a Canterbury fork, and an azada, and they are a tremendous help. Trying to dig with a normal spade is just a non starter.
I want to try and make some beds, so breaking into the subsoil would probably improve drainage, and long term fertility.
Failing that, anybody got a jcb handy?
Thanks in advance
Darren
 
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woodspirits

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Jul 24, 2009
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If your garden is that bad a broadfork will be of little help, drainage will stop at the depth or the tynes. If you can’t get a fork in you have little chance of penetrating with a much weaker broadfork.

You don’t say how deep the soil/subsoil is, seems you have two options here, raised beds or turning your beds over to at least the depth of the Spade. if your still in clay then remove the soil and dig out to a about .5mtr, install perforated drainage pipes to a run off point backfill around the pipe with 20mm aggregate... I could go on but you get the picture. Major work that may require machinery.
 
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Any suggestions where to get one in the UK? Something like a meadow creature or a treasure? Don't mind the cost, but the p&p is extortionate.
My garden, and I use the term very loosely, has lots of rocks in clay. Normally if I want to plant something, a pickaxe and digging bar are involved. I already have a Canterbury fork, and an azada, and they are a tremendous help. Trying to dig with a normal spade is just a non starter.
I want to try and make some beds, so breaking into the subsoil would probably improve drainage, and long term fertility.
Failing that, anybody got a jcb handy?
Thanks in advance
Darren
Our place used to be the same, we are on top of a mountain & it is very rocky. I found the best tools for producing a garden bed were/are a pick, a mattock, a crowbar & a post hole shovel.
Keith.
 
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dnarcher

Full Member
Jul 21, 2016
59
15
Sheffield
Our place used to be the same, we are on top of a mountain & it is very rocky. I found the best tools for producing a garden bed were/are a pick, a mattock, a crowbar & a post hole shovel.
Keith.
Yep, that's my current planting set. A rabbiting spade can be your best friend.
 

Toddy

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Jan 21, 2005
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You might be easier creating lazy beds by rescuing what soil you can and layering it up with brash between the layers. Hugelkultur really, I suppose.

Digging rocky soil's a pain, we find huge great boundary walls and clearance cairns from the agriculture of the past. Mattocks are about the best we can find or a miners pick.

The other tool is a digging hoe. Takes a bit of getting used to but it fair saves your back.

M
 

Nomad64

Full Member
Nov 21, 2015
1,072
593
UK
Nothing much to add to previous suggestions - esp raising the beds, very popular with the no dig/no step enthusiasts.

I’ve never used a broadfork but these guys local to you seem to be fans but on kinder soil than it sounds like you have.

https://sheffieldorganicgrowers.com/blog/2016/03/27/the-broadfork/

I feel your pain though, I spent much of this winter planting around 3000 native hedgerow whips alongside tracks - but had not realised what a thorough job someone had done when laying the tracks - they were much wider than it looked so rather than just sliding whips in with a spade planting most trees required digging through 6” plus of compacted, quarried hardcore with a mattock and digging bar!

Good luck! :)
 
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demographic

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Apr 15, 2005
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I quite like something like grubbing mattock for that kind of stuff.
Problem is the new ones in the UK are often absolutely bleedin awful.
They look like someone made one, a kid drew it then someone else made a replica using the kids drawing as a engineering drawing.
Or maybe they gave a normal one to someone really big and dead dense, who promptly broke the it, took it back to the maker several times til the manufacturer decided to make it so big and numb that it would never break.
In the process they made then so bad that nobody wanted to use em.

Go over to other countries and they still have tools that weren't designed for the biggest dumbest person you ever met.
Lighter all round and with a shaft of less than tree trunk size.
 
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Dave Budd

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Jan 8, 2006
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i only opened this thread because an organic farmer friend sent me an email asking about boradforks recently and it reminded me that I haven't replied to him yet! oops.

From what I gather, not the right tool for the job here. I have stoney and heavy clay ground and I think the only way to break it up would be to hire a rotavator or something, but then have to keep on top of the stones. I think Toddy's suggestion of hugelkulture beds, or some no dig beds made up from compost and soil might be your best bet. I know that a lot of the allotments and the community garden near me do that ;)
 

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