I first saw a broadfork in use many years ago when Eliot Coleman demonstrated its use on his HGTV series, Gardening Naturally. A few years later, retired DNR warden Wayne Jeidy taught one of our Master Gardener classes and he had high praise for the broadfork. I’ve wanted one ever since.
A broadfork, also called a U-Bar digger, is basically a double-wide digging fork with two handles and long, sturdy tines. To use it, you push the tines into the soil with your foot, or as some of us here in clay country have to do, stand (or jump) on the wide bottom of the “U” to sink the tines into the soil. Then, just pull the handles back to lift the soil and allow air underneath without turning the soil. The two long handles provide extraordinary leverage, allowing a person of average strength to loosen large areas of soil in a fraction of the time it would take with a conventional spade or fork, and without the noise, smell and soil clumping and compaction of a rototiller. The advantage, besides saving your back, is that the soil is loosened but the soil strata is undisturbed.
Why is this important? The roots of plants need air spaces between soil particles to “breathe.” Roots, earthworms and other soil creatures do an excellent job of aerating the soil on their own. Soil compaction studies have shown that tilling or fluffing the soil with a spade or fork results in less air space in the soil than leaving it alone.
Nature has a system of soil layers that has worked successfully for millions of years. It is best to leave the subsoil down below and the topsoil on top and not mix the two, no matter how virtuous you feel after a hard afternoon of turning the soil.
The best way to improve your soil is by adding compost or manure to the soil surface and letting the earthworms and their cohorts do the job of mixing it in for you.
Then why use a broadfork at all? In nature and in human-made perennial beds, the roots of flowers, trees, shrubs and grasses are constantly growing and aerating the soil. In an annual bed or vegetable garden, with its short-term tenants, this doesn’t happen. This is where the broadfork comes in.
When shopping for a broadfork, make sure that the tines are at a slight angle to the u-bar part of the tool. This makes a much stronger tool and makes it easier to use. I have not found a broadfork at any of the local garden tool supply places but they can be purchased over the internet. Be prepared to pay over $100 for a quality tool. Broadforks are expensive but still cost much less than a rototiller, and the benefits and ease of using one more than make up for the expenditure.
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