I WANT TO DIG BY HAND

(Music: I WANT TO HOLD YOUR HAND, Lennon-McCartney) (info./disclaimers [0]) (glossary [0]) (index [0]) (gardening guide [0])

Well I'll tell you something
I hope you'll understand
I don't want no rototiller
I want to dig by hand

I want to dig by hand
I want to dig by hand

Well tractors make me queasy
Their noise I cannot stand
Their fumes, they sure are stinky
I want to dig by hand

I want to dig by hand
I want to dig by hand

And when I touch soil
I feel happy inside
It's such a feeling
That my love for it
I can't hide
I can't hide
I can't hide

The soil stays uncompacted
The critters aren't so scammed
So when it's necessary even to mess with it
I want to dig by hand

I want to dig by hand
I want to dig by hand

Sometimes a garden fork
Is all you need
It does less damage
And leaves soil
So crumbly
So crumbly
So crumbly

But spades and forks, they keep me happy
I know you understand
I don't want no rototiller
I'll spade and fork by hand

I want to dig by hand
I want to dig by hand
I want to dig by hand

Comments: Garden spades (with rectangular heads) are far superior to pointy-tipped shovels for digging garden beds. Digging forks (whose tines are stronger than those on pitchforks and not flat like those on potato forks) are often even better. It's worth looking for long-handled tools, which can reduce back strain. The Beetless love this song, but are careful to whom they sing it. Many farmers who have occasionally employed them have never heard it. This should not diminish the validity of its message, which posits a world in which our convictions and our passions need not bow down before expediency and false economics.