Organic Gardening How To on Soil Preparation
Finally, winter will soon be ending. That’s what brings me to this organic gardening how to – soil preparation.
With the approach of spring, most avid gardeners are getting excited, just as I am. Soon, we will all be getting our hands in the dirt and start our spring planting.
One of the very first things we need to do in preparation of planting is to prepare our garden soils. This is so important! If properly done, our gardens will thrive in the spring, summer, and fall months.
Begin by removing any old foilage that is in your garden area. Remove rocks, twigs, branches, or anything else that does not belong there. You may want to remove and weeds that have grown there to help prevent them from growing back after your garden has been planted.
Dig a hole in your garden, down to 8-10″. Check the soil to see how loose it is by grabbing a handful of soil and squeeze it into a ball. Slowly open your fingers and check to see what the ball of dirt does. If it crumbles as you open your fingers, the dirt is fine. If it stays in a ball shape, you probably have too much clay in your dirt. This will cause problems with water drainage. If you have this problem with your soil, you will want to add sand to your garden area before tilling it.
Immediately after the last frost in your area (see my article Start Your Organic Vegetable Garden to determine estimated last frost dates in your area), it is time to till your garden area. This means digging your garden area up and turning the soil over. This will loosen the garden soil, mix in nutrients, and aerate it. This will me much healthier for your new plants.
Till your garden area twice. The first time, do as I described above. Within 4-7 days, till it a second time. This time, however, add 2-3″ of fresh organic compost to your garden bed before you till it (read Organic Garden Compost for more information on compost). This will insure you that your soil has plenty of rich, organic nutrients within the soil.
There are a number of tools that you can use to till your soil. If you do it manually, you should use a pitchfork
If you are new to organic gardening or would like to learn more, try either one of these two great eBooks: Organic Gardening Magic and My Organic Food Garden. Or, try them both! Satisfaction Guaranteed for your organic gardening how to, or your money back.
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