4 tricks for spading your garden (and saving your back)

Spading can be hard and tiring work, but if you bear these tricks in mind, you can reduce the sweat and wear on your body, and also avoid injury.

Get a head start on spring by spading the soil in autumn.

• Leave big clods in place throughout the winter and let rain, snow and the alternate freezing and thawing of the soil help break up any clumps by spring.

• You can limit spading to every two to three years or so by digging deeply, incorporating plenty of organic matter, using mulch and never walking directly on cultivated soil.
• Instead, lay down a plank path to keep the ground from becoming compacted.

• Stand up straight when pushing a digging tool into the ground and as you draw the handle towards your body to loosen the soil.
• Bend your knees and lift the load with your upper body, supporting the handle shaft against your thigh for leverage.
• With heavy loads, don't twist at the hips when depositing soil to the side; instead, turn your body to face the pile. Never put the bulk of the weight on your back, as this is how injuries happen.

If you need to buy an ergonomic tool to save your back, do it: it's always worth it!

When turning over large areas, use a tiller to do the heaviest work.

• The size of the tool you're using should be in proportion to the size of the area you're working on.
• Otherwise, turning up the soil of a huge area with a small tool is like polishing a kitchen floor with a toothbrush.
• Once the bulk of the big soil work is done, finish by hand, using a fork to break up any clods, remove stones and dig up weed or tree roots.