How to Dig a Ditch

By eHow Home & Garden Editor

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Ditches serve a multitude of purposes. They can be used to irrigate crops, install foundation waterproofing or used as fortification. Read on to learn how to dig a ditch.

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Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

Things You’ll Need:

Shovel
Measuring stick or tape
Spray paint or rocks

Step1

Chart your ditch before you start digging. If you want to make an irrigation ditch, make sure that you know where you are going to be irrigating. If you have a hard time remembering exactly where you want your ditch to go you can outline it on the ground in spray paint or just plot it out with rocks.

Step2

Start digging at one end and make your way gradually to the other end. To avoid spending all of your time walking rather than digging, try to dig all the way down to your goal depth before you move further down the line. Sometimes your ditch might backfill a little bit as you dig, this is alright for now, but try to keep it under control.

Step3

Use a long ruler to check the depth every couple of feet. Level out inconsistencies in depth as you discover them either by digging more or backfilling as needed.

Step4

Make sure that your hole is deep enough. If you are trying to dig a ditch for irrigation, especially if you want it to hold standing water, you are going to have to dig into the water table. This will be easy to detect since the ditch will start to fill with water as soon as you have dug into the water table.

Tips & Warnings

If you have tender hands, you will want to wear gloves.
Avoid lifting with your back, and use your legs and arms instead. Using your back to lift can cause injury.