Planting a garden requires some preparation of the soil in which the vegetables will grow. Scratching a furrow with a hoe doesn’t work very well if you want good, healthy vegetables. Some preparation upfront will reap a lot of benefits later.
Removing Weeds From Your Plot
First, you have to get to the dirt. If there is grass covering your plot, you will have to remove it. The temptation to till it under is understandable, but that is a big mistake. Tilling cuts the grass and weeds into small pieces. In effect, you sprig your plat and the grass will return with a vengeance and overwhelm your plants.
Till The Dirt
Once you have clean dirt, you need to till it loose to a depth of six inches. The dirt should be free of clods and rocks. It isn’t quite ready to plant in yet, though.
Add Compost
Next, spread three inches of compost on the plot. The compost should be rich and dark and smell like good, clean dirt. If you can see anything but that, the compost isn’t finished and you should return it to the store.
Till Compost Into The Dirt
Till the compost into the dirt until the compost is evenly spread throughout the six inches of loose soil. The dirt should be a rich color with lots of organic matter in it. Now you plow it into furrows and get it ready to plant.
Plan Ahead
The preceding steps should be done about three weeks before planting. This allows the soil to settle before you plant.
Planting The Seeds
Just before planting, run a rake over the area you are going to plant to break up any crust on the soil. Now you can make a rut the proper depth for each type of seed in each row. Plant the seed and water it in. Happy gardening.
Want to learn to garden? My first attempt at gardening ended up in failure. The weeds took over and squeezed the vegetables out. I was very frustrated by this waste of good seed, time, and money. So I became a master gardener and spent a lot of time helping other people avoid or overcome problems in their garden.
In order to help others garden successfully, I have written a book, Vegetable Gardening from the Ground Up, available in an ebook or a paperback from Amazon. It is also in Kindle Unlimited.
The process described in this article really does help. I would add one item to the list of things to do–test the soil. Take a soil sample to your local garden center or send it off. They’ll be able to tell you if the pH is out of balance, or what nutrients are needed. We did this along with adding three inches of mushroom compost this year, and our garden went absolutely crazy!
Stan Horst
Publisher: BetterBenches.com
That is true, you need a soil test. But I cover that in a separate post, so didn’t include it here. In fact, if you sign up for my mailing list, you receive an eBook that walks you through the whole process, from site selection to post harvest plot care.
Oh goodie, I was going to leave a comment on another blog to ask for ‘very’ basic tips to get rid of weed. Thanks for that, and for the pleasant time.. I like it here and I am absolutely sure I am going to learn tons of things from you! Keep doing what you’re doing, appreciate it a lot!
Thanks for providing some great tips in preparing the soil for your seeds. I also use my handy-dandy soil test kit to measure the pH balance in the soil. This article is especially helpful to first time gardeners who think it’s as simple as putting seeds in the ground.