U-bar: Difference between revisions
m catted, copyedited |
m Date the unreferenced tag (approx) using AWB |
||
| Line 1: | Line 1: | ||
{{unreferenced|date=October 2006}} |
|||
{{unsourced}} |
|||
{{linkless|October 2006}} |
{{linkless|October 2006}} |
||
Revision as of 11:23, 2 December 2006
 |
In biointensive gardening, a u-bar is a hand tool used to achieve deep tilling of the soil. A u-bar is meant to approximate the effects of the labor-intensive double digging technique.
A u-bar is similar to a broadfork, which is a manual tilling tool of supposedly European origin. A u-bar, however, has longer tines at 18 inches (or 457 mm) for deeper cultivation, since it is meant to be used in beds that have already been double dug at least once. A u-bar also has "elbows" that allow the tines to be raised above soil level when the handles are tilted all the way back. Thus, clumps of soil that get caught on the tines can be broken up by shaking the handles up and down, rocking the tool on its elbows.
Whereas double digging a one hundred square foot (9.3 square meter) bed can take several hours, tilling the same bed with a u-bar can be done in 20 minutes.