What the devil is a dibble?
In case you haven’t noticed, we’re sometimes a sort of perfectionists. Usually perfectionism creates more work. But sometimes we find a serendipitous approach, or tool, which actually means less work overall.
Case in point is our new dibble. Late last winter I had a little fantasy about dibbles. (Or “dibber” as they are sometimes called.) I wanted to create the ultimate dibble for our raised beds. A dibble is nothing more than a tool that creates a hole in which to drop seeds. Most dibbles only make one hole. Like this fine specimen. They’re used to poke holes in stubborn dirt for bulbs, small plants, and seeds.
But what if we created a dibble that poked dozens of perfectly spaced holes which was designed to be just the right size for our beds? Wouldn’t that make our beds look gorgeous? We would have straight grids of crops so linear that they looked like they were planted by..I dunno…a raised bed garden robot. Plus, with this level of exactitude, we’d save money on seeds…no more thinning!
As is often the case with my fantastical dream projects, the first person I called was my Dad. He gets me. Or at least when he doesn’t, he humors me. This time however, he understood what I was thinking straight away, and wasted no time in designing the perfect solution – a custom made board with 2 inch spaced protruding dowels that would press into the earth to create 187 equal depth holes waiting for seeds.
Sounds like a dream doesn’t it?
At first I thought the dibble should be large enough to do one whole bed in just one press. But Dad convinced me that such a contraption would be too heavy and unwieldy. Plus, we sometimes plant two or more crops in each bed, often at different intervals. So we settled on making a multi-pronged dibble that would cover exactly one quarter of a bed.
Here are some photos he took while constructing it. He’s a pretty darn expert craftsman, but we think you’ll be able to follow along and can probably use his same methods for constructing one of your own.
First cut two pieces of plywood to the size you've designed for your dibble. (you'll see why you need two a little later.) Draw a grid on one with intersecting points at two inches apart. (For seeds that need to be planted one inch apart, the dibble can be pressed down into the dirt, lifted up, moved a little, and pressed down again.)
Use a drill, or drill press to drill 1/2 inch holes completely through the board.
After all holes are complete, screw your two boards together – the one with holes, and the solid backing.
Next, cut 1/2 inch diameter dowels into 2 1/2 inch lengths. (1/2 inch will be inserted into dibble so that 2 inches are left protruding to make holes.)
Once the boards are screwed together, dip one end of your dowel pieces in a wood glue, and insert into holes. Gorilla Glue works well also.
All dowel pieces glued in place.
Attach two heavy duty handles to the back of the dibble, far enough apart to easily lift the dibble.
To use the dibble, rake and prepare the soil as smoothly and levelly as possible.
Then press and slightly jiggle the dibble. It helps to wiggle your butt at the same time. Why? Because doing a "dibble jiggle wiggle" just sounds fun.
And voila! Isn't that beautiful?
One bean, per hole. Can't wait to see them sprout all in rows...
We’ll keep you posted with shots of our dibble doings…
39 Comments
Nice dibble! Wish I had that while I was poking all those holes with a piece of bamboo a month ago
Do raised beds always need to be boxed in? I have mine just sort of mounding out of pits I dug in my yard. The ground soil by me is rather high in lead (about 188 PPM) but I just threw the good dirt right on top of it. Am I risking my health here???
Thanks!!!!
hi greenpointer…nope, there’s no rule about boxing your beds in. the frames might help keep the soil in place a little longer, but other than that, i can’t think of a reason.
can’t answer your lead question. i would assume that if the roots of whatever you’re planting don’t reach through to the existing ground soil, your risk is minimized. but if someone else has another thought, please chime in.
Martha would be so proud. Perhaps even a little garden-green envy.
I’d never heard of a dibble before this post. But now that I’ve seen one, I MUST have one! I doubt I could make one, but I’ll find one….
they’re a perfectionist’s dream!
My sister-in-law’s maiden name is Dibble. Maybe her relatives were all dibblers? Hmmmm.
Are there rolling dibbles you push like a lawn mower? You could name your dibble Durwood( Daren?) Samantha’s husband! HA!
I would like raised beds about up to my waist. That’s the ticket!
Hi, Phyllis
We actually just had some of our friends build waist high raised bed for that very reason and they are working out perfectly.
I think a rolling dibble would be very easy to make. Find a log that is thin in diameter and not too heavy and then have it cut to the width of your bed. Go to the hardware store and buy precut pegs. Drill lines of holes in the log and insert the pegs. As you roll the log across your bed, you should make a perfect series of holes
I agree with Heath. Martha would indeed be so proud — to own one of these, but on another note, isn’t she always looking for projects like this to bring onto her show? This is a realistic project for people to make and then use in their own garden. If she doesn’t already have one of these I would be very surprised! You guys should ask her if she would like to have you on her show once again. (Bring your Dad Josh!) Meanwhile, I have a shop so I’m starting on making one of my own. Thanks for the tip and the step-by-step instructions.
Never heard of a dibble but this is brilliant! I am a big time perfectionist in pretty much everything I do. Though not as bad as Brent (really Brent!?!?! washing the pigs and barn windows!) I will have to build one of these to use in planting the garden. Keep up the good work. I fully enjoy watching you two on your show. You make me laugh….endlessly.
Josh,
You should be fairly safe. The things to remember are that plants take in very little lead. It is the contaminate on them that most likely to be dangerous.Leafy parts and outside of roots are more likely to absorb any lead contaminate than the fruiting vegetable. Since lettuce and cabages have shallow roots you should be fine, your main concern should be root vegetables. To be safe I would peel all root veghetables even if they did not reach the contaminated soil. Remember to wash all vegetables with a vinegar wash to remove any dust from surrounding soil. I did read that adding lime to the soil can decrease the plants from taking on any lead.
Been there; done that! Martha’s already demonstrated her homemade dibble this season on her show. Very neat idea!
Of course, we made our dibble two years ago. That Martha is always trying to copy us!
HI Josh,
I just found your show last night and I’m hooked! Even going to order you soap soon, you guys seem great
Anyways, I do raised beds and might try your dibble board. You might want to google gluing seeds on paper towels. I tried it this year and it was great. Works well for us who want to have a more “perfect garden”.
Best Wishes,
Andrea
Raised beds become acutely important when handicapped or elderly
Brilliant! I can’t pound in a nail without bending it or blackening a fingernail but I can do this! Great timing. I’ll be planting winter greens in our high tunnels in a couple of months. My dibble will get a lot of use. Thanks for sharing this with us.
for a Raised bed type of things I bought two large metal pots that are three feet high by three feet across from the Goodwill in the town I was living at a few years ago, (we get the Flower and Garden Convention in Orlando, FL once a year, the company’s give the Items they show to Goodwill so they do not have to pay for the shipping back to there company’s, so Goodwill sends the different Items around to the Goodwill’s that they know can sell them so just after the start of spring check out your local Goodwill stores to see what Gardening Items that they might have available), it did take 8 to 9 10lbs of potting soil, as well as cow manure and Organic Fertilizer … my Husband loves his hot peppers and it’s the right height for him he’s got bad ankles, of course every year I refresh the soil with new potting soil and Organic Fertilizer ***
Great idea, Sharon!
What a cute dad! I hope I am so cute when I retire and build things for my kids. Cant wait : ) !
What a cute dad! I hope I am so cute when I retire and build things for my kids. Cant wait : ) !
i’ve been gardening for about 5 years now, but you’d think i just started yesterday. i’ve had more failures than i can even bare to recall. and each time i learn something new, 10 questions arise in its wake…
don’t most crops require way more than 2 x 2 inch spacing? have you created a series of dibbles for various crops? and seed depth — they’re all different too, right? isn’t 2 inches way too deep for, say, lettuce?
okay, i gotta run. i’ve got a cranky groundhog that would like me to replant the beans and kale. again.
The dibble kinda looks like the thing they pressed into my back to test for allergies…
Holy crap!
Thanks for the inspiration.
I love the show! I discovered this concept by finding a spool thread holder in an antique shop locally. It is just like a Dibble except that the wooden dowels hang at an angle. This is perfect for hanging all of my husbands ties in the closet. I can hang one or several ties on each hook and must have about 200 ties on one square. Very efficient for use of space. Of course, necklaces and scarves would be perfect also.
I was impressed by your dibble when I saw it but am left questioning its purpose. Is it only used for starting the seeds before transplanting them? What kind of plants are you growing that close to one another? Other than scalions I am not sure what would survive being planted that close to each other. Do you have multiple dibbles for differing spaces or just skip holes? Thanks.
My friends at Sweetwater Organic Farm in Tampa FL made a dibble to pull behind the tractor. It is a blue 55 gallon drum with what looked like insulator knobs all over it in a symetrical pattern. It has a piece of pvc through it (from top to bottom) and it pulls behind the tractor.
The dibble could also be used for carrots, radishes, starting lettuces, then transplanting when bigger. Raised beds are wonderful. I don’t bend over to weed as well as I used to, this way I hardly have to bend for weeding, planting or watering. When constructing a raised bed though, make sure you do NOT use treated lumber.
Yes, Jesse, we simply skip holes for plants that need to be further apart. And if they don’t need to be planted quite so deeply (like lettuce) we simply don’t press down as hard into the dirt with it.
That is genius! You should market that, Josh. SERIOUSLY! You will make a FORTUNE! That is an awesome invention, and will save gardeners so much time and trouble and seed money! When I think of all the stupid, useless, gimmicky, crazy inventions that are on the market, it makes me ill to think of the factories that polluted the earth to turn those things out! Then I see something useful, smart, and money/work/time-saving like your Super-Dibble, and it gets my juices flowing! I seriously hope you get this on the market and let the garden supply catalogs and stores and internet sites sell this!
This would make gardening “fabulous!”
I just finished reading your book Josh “The Bucolic Plague”.I absolutely loved it! I was going to save it to take on vacation so I would have something to read on the beach. Forget it I got it Saturday and just couldnt stop reading! You are defiantly a wonderful writer. It is very hard to get a book that I can actually sit down to read as I am, yes, one of “those people” that just cant sit still. But for your book I did just that. Thank you for giving me time to sit still and enjoy life even for a brief moment. Again I thank you.
Josh
Thanks for the response. I’m going to build one this winter and try it in the spring.
I would love to see pictures of “how the garden grew”. Did you have to stake the beans as they are rather close and wondering if you had a unique solution for that also!
Keep up the great job…I now have a burning desire for a raised bed and a multi-dibbler!
The dibbler board is a marvelous invention!
For a quick raised bed, you can use discarded children’s wading pools. Often they can be found sitting at curbside on trash day, especially toward the end of summer. It matters not if they have a crack or a hole on the bottom; you may need to poke more holes anyway for drainage.
I came up with this idea a few years ago after a neighbor gave me a wading pool her child had outgrown – she thought my dogs might like it to dabble in on hot summer days. The terriers did not enjoy it any more than they enjoy baths, and I noticed it had a slow leak. What to do? Fill it with soil and grow shallow-rooted crops!
I have “repurposed” a dozen or so wading pools over the years; this growing season one has been host to Gonzales mini-cabbages, Thumbelina carrots, Giant of Italy parsley, and some dill volunteers.
This awesome. Have never heard of a dibble. My husband will, when he has to make me one.You guys need to sell seeds in your store.I never buy flower seeds, as I harvest from my own plants. Morning Glorys are abundent with seeds.Also very easy. From just a few plants you could have enough packages to sell in spring. Of course with Beekman 1802 logo.Any flower is easy. Harvest is in August with most seeds. Rememeber bulbs also multiply. People would love to buy knowing it comes from Beekman Farm.
Ok, you all. I am seriously your #1 fan, but this exercise made my brain overheat.
Can you see the smoke?
Hello; Just a small note on u-tube Victorian Kitchen garden (bbc doc) they show you how they planted at Chatsworth the gardens which supplied them year round. Your gardens are bueatiful. When will you have your seeds for sale on web? Love your farm and show.
This is great winter project to create!
I have a vintage “Dough Docker” that I have been using!
Keep on Gardening!
Mike
One Trackback
[...] http://www.beekman1802.com/general/a-homemade-dibble.htmlNext, cut 1/2 inch diameter dowels into 2 1/2 inch lengths. (1/2 inch will be inserted into dibble so that 2 inches are left protruding to make holes.) Once the boards are screwed together, dip one end of your dowel pieces in a wood … [...]