Preparing Garden Soil For Next Year
Mark Twain famously advised, “Buy land, they’re not making it anymore.” If you’ll forgive my mangling Mr. Clemens’ aphorism, allow me to alter that advice: “Don’t buy soil, there’s no need to make any more.” Or something to that effect.
On to business: One of the most common themes I hear when talking to people about starting a vegetable garden is the need to “buy soil.” I’m frequently asked what kind of soil is best to buy, or what kind of soil is best to buy for a raised garden, or, most distressingly: “I’ve dug all the soil out of my garden area and thrown it away; what should I buy to replace it?”
With a very few exceptions, if you have a plot of land, you have all the soil you need.
Frequently, the upshot of the assumption that soil is a commodity is the decision that one can’t possibly plant a garden until one can “afford” soil, or until one’s husband finishes building the raised beds, or until the nursery re-stocks a particular brand of vermiculite, or until one finds a better “soil recipe” than the one used last season. This is nonsense. With a very few exceptions, if you have a plot of land, you have all the soil you need.
What you need (especially if, like me, you live in a desert region) is to improve the soil you already have, and that is very simple indeed. Select your garden spot and clear it of grass and weeds. Layer on top of your existing native soil a good 5 to 6 inches of organic amendment such as compost, or a combination of compost and manure. Using your spading fork, turn that layer into your existing soil to a depth of 10 to 12 inches. Rake it out, break up the large clods, and you’re ready to go.
Do you now have perfect garden soil? No. Good garden soil is not something you can buy, nor is it something you can achieve instantly. Good garden soil develops over time and there are no shortcuts. (You’ll notice the title of this piece mentioned something about “next year”.) Each season, as you prepare for the next planting, repeat the process: layer, dig, rake, plant. In warmer climates with multiple growing seasons you can amend your soil three times a year.
Start now, and by next year you’ll have very good garden soil; by this time the following year, you can modestly call it “almost perfect.”
