How to Prepare the Soil Before Planting a Garden

Simple garden preparation make soil ideal for growing vegetables and plants.

Successful gardens start with proper soil preparation. The texture and nutrient quality of your soil predicts the yield and beauty of your flower or vegetable garden. Fortunately soil tests are easy to complete at home, after which you can modify your soil with widely available amendments. Preparing your soil for a garden takes only a few hours once a season yet enhances your beds year round.

Things You'll Need

• Shovel
• Hoe
• Rake
• Soil amendments
• pH test

Instructions

Analysis

1. Roll some soil in your hand in late spring. If it sticks together, your soil is clayey. If it falls apart easily, your soil is sandy. An ideal loamy soil just holds together in a ball.

2. Use a pH test purchased from a home and garden store to analyze the acid content of the existing soil. The ideal soil for vegetables and flowers will be slightly acidic, in the pH range of 6.0 to 6.8.

3. 

   Level or graded soil provides proper water drainage.

   Note low areas and use a rake and shovel to level them. Shallow pools can develop in gardens where the soil is not properly graded, drowning plants.

Preparation

1. Add lime to raise pH or sulfur to lower pH if needed per your pH test. Till these amendments 8 to 10 inches deep, being careful not to compact the soil at the same time.

2. Spread 3 to 4 inches of organic material such as peat moss, compost or composted manure onto sandy soils. A clay soil will benefit from 1 to 2 inches of coarse sand and 3 to 4 inches of organic material. Apply this depth over the surface of the entire garden to correct soil texture.

3. Apply a nitrogen-based fertilizer to counter the carbon content of wood and compost additives. One lb. of ammonium sulfate fertilizer per 100 square feet per inch of woody mulch is the recommended rate. Use one half of this rate if using green manure. For vegetable gardens, apply ammonium nitrate at a rate of 1 lb. per 100-foot row after fruits set.

4. Mix amendments into the soil. Use a rake or hoe to gently turn in additives. Alternatively, practice a no-till method and simply layer organic materials on top of the soil. Unless you are incorporating lime or sulfur to correct pH, tilling is not necessary or recommended.

5. Rake the soil into a level surface.

Tips & Warnings

• In areas of very difficult soils, try a raised bed garden filled with purchased top soil.

• If you hand rake or till, spread the work over a period of a few days to reduce fatigue and chance of muscle injury.

References

• Ohio State University Extension Fact Sheet: Improving Soils for Vegetable Gardens
• Utah State University Cooperative Extension: Preparing Garden Soil
• University of Missouri Extension: Vegetable Gardening
• "Secrets to Great Soil"; Elizabeth Stell; 1998
• "Great Garden Companions"; Sally Jean Cunningham; 2000

Resources

• Extension: Soils and Composting: Soil Testing