In spring you should only do light digging. The real preparatory "digging" (in fact airing the earth and turning it over) has to be in the fall. That's when you can integrate in your soil manure of various types, enriched old compost of various types, and the lime necessary in acid earth. These elements have to remain in the earth all winter to be effective in the spring when it is not necessary to turn over the earth, just air it and de-pack it. Note the fall earthwork has to go along with weeding it systematically, for your long-range compost (I work on up to seven-year-old compost). Not digging, but using these rotative mechanical "spades" that blend the earth, the weeds, and their seeds, the worms into hamburger vegan meat, etc is the REAL ENEMY OF NATURE AND THE GARDEN.