Preparing Your Garden with the Right Soil
By Bob Chapman
Your garden may have areas where vegetation no longer exists due to the freezes of this past winter. You can hardly wait to get out and get your garden ready for planting any of the myriads of flowers available this month. But rains can still come along, spoiling our plans. But, be patient, as working the soil too soon can have disastrous effects.
Step One: Your soil must be dry enough to work
Wet, sticky and heavy soils must be worked when the moisture content is just right. What is "just right" for your garden? If you have a moisture meter, be sure and use it. (Available in our stores in the inside garden department is a combination meter: moisture meter, light meter and a pH meter. It's an inexpensive tool, around $11.00). If you don't have either one of meters use this time-tested method: Insert a clean, sharp shovel or spade deep into the soil. Then remove it. Check for any dirt clinging steadfastly to your shovel. If your shovel is clean with no dirt particles on it, your soil is safe to work. Working soil that is too wet can compact it, making it very hard for air and water to penetrate during the growing season and possibly stunting your plants.
Step Two: Spreading a complete fertilizer.
Spread Superfine Lawn Fertilizer over the area to be worked. Superfine Lawn Fertilizer is the least expensive and most complete fertilizer for bulbs, plants, trees and shrubs on the market. It contains all the right amounts of the major nutrients (nitrogen, phosphorous and potash) as well as a complete array of the minor nutrients. Spread it at the rate of four pounds per thousand square feet using a wheeled drop spreader or hand-held broadcast spreader. Putting fertilizer into your soil at the time of working it will give your young plants a quick boost when their roots extend into the native soil.
Step Three: Adding aluminum sulfate
Use a pH meter to check the acidity/alkalinity of your soil. If your soil has a pH higher than 7.0, the neutral point, most California soils do have a higher pH, consider spreading up to 15 pounds of aluminum sulfate per thousand square feet (or 1 ½ pounds per 100 square feet or ½ cup per ten square feet). This will lower the pH about one point and your plants will grow much better.
Step Four: Adding organic amendments
Before you dig up your garden, spread organic matter, such as compost, peat moss, redwood soil conditioner, well-rotted animal manures or mushroom compost, to cover the soil one to two inches deep (you can add more, up to 3-4 inches deep). Organic matter helps loosen heavy, clay-based soils. It adds materials that will hold moisture and nutrients in sandy soils. Organic matter feeds the gazillions of the bacteria, fungi, algae, insects, worms, grubs and actinomycetes in the soil needed for decomposing the organic matter. It helps plants get nutrients through the roots by ionic exchange. Lastly, the addition of organic matter to the soil allows air to reach the root zone, needed by the roots to grow properly.
Step Five: Spading (or rototilling) it all in
If the area is large enough, renting and using a rototiller is the more effective way of mixing the fertilizer and amendments into the soil. These machines do a great job of mixing in the amendments to about six inches deep. If spading your garden, ensure that the amendments are thoroughly mixed in. Old-timers use the shovel to break up any clods in the soil, often mixing or spading the soil again immediately after lifting and turning over the first spadeful of soil. It takes a little more time but the rewards in having healthy, happy and productive vegetable crops or flowers make it well worth the extra effort.
Step Six: Raking it smooth and level, ready for planting
Freshly tilled soil, raked, smoothed and brought to grade is a pleasure to look at. If planting a flower bed, for example, start putting in the taller transplants at the rear, then the medium height ones and finishing up with planting the low growing or border plants in the front of the bed. Vegetable gardens are laid out with rows in a north-south pattern to give your vegetables the maximum amount of sunlight.
In Summary:
Following the above suggestions will result in providing a happy, healthy environment for your plants in the coming season. You will be rewarded in seeing beautiful flowers all season long or by eating nutritious and tasty vegetables.