how do you prepare a garden plot for spring planting in the fall?

Question

I want to get as much somewhat ready this year as possible, what do I need to do ? it is currently grass and I was told it takes all winter to break down, we live in iowa

Answer 1

Lasagna Gardening-No Tilling

From gardener Arden:

Create a new gardening bed without tilling or pulling up grass and weeds:

Once you have a well defined garden bed, no need to clear it of grass or weeds, just layer about 6 or 8 newspaper sheets or cardboard over the bed area, water the paper or cardboard to the soaking point (this method will eventually smother whatever is growing there).

Over this paper or cardboard, you can build up layers of organic materials by using already made compost from your own pile or bought in bags from a nursery, chopped up leaves, grass clippings, chipped up prunings, produce trimmings, aged manure (not dog or cat), whatever you can gather that will rot. Pile it on as thick as you can and be sure it is kept well moistened as if you are watering a garden each week. This is known as lasagna gardening.
Or you can mix everything together and then pile it on top of the paper or cardboard if you prefer.

If you would like to have a top layer, wood chips can often be found at your city's Parks & Recreation Dept., or you can check with your local nurseries. This will make a good top dressing to keep moisture in and to keep wind from blowing away your lasagna.

This material will break down and become a rich, loose loam. Keep adding to this each year and you will have a very nice gardening bed.

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And here is another way from gardener Merrybelle:

Lasagna gardening:

Lasagna gardening is simply a short cut to digging and tilling up an area for new beds. I live on a hillside and part of our now yard used to be pasture land , so not only is the land compacted, it's also clay based with wild Bermuda in a goodly portion of it.

To lasagna, you normally spray the grass with a grass/weed killer (I'll get creamed by the environmentalists on this one).

Then you lay down your cardboard/newspapers.

On top of this you put compost, top soil, potting soil, shredded leaves, etc.

You are now ready to plant your beds.

When using newspapers, they need to be thick, that's why I prefer cardboard. It suppresses the greenery underneath while decomposing, thereby enriching the soil. For some reason, the papers/cardboard draw earthworms like crazy, which is also good for aeration of the soil.

You obviously cannot till in your dirt mixture immediately, that's why most people let the topsoil/compost/potting soil/shredded leaves sit for awhile on top of the cardboard/newspaper layers, to give them time to decompose. This is esp. true if you are going to be digging holes for shrubs, roses, anything that required more than a minimum of root cover.

Being the impatient person that I am, I normally plant immediately on top, but then, I'm planting shallow rooted things like lilies, etc.

All of my beds are lasagna'd - ie, layered.

So in a nutshell, lasagna gardening is layer gardening, a quicker way to create new beds, esp. for us older folks who can't double dig, or who have very poor soil.
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Here are several very good above the ground/raised flower beds links for you:

http://www.eartheasy.com/grow_raised_beds.htm

http://www.pioneerthinking.com/raisedbedgarden.html

http://agnews.tamu.edu/dailynews/stories/HORT/Feb1601a.htm

Answer 2

yes, start preparing the soil now for next season's planting. You can chemically kill the grass with Roundup to speed up the process (it's safe, no residual). Or you can put down clear plastic and cook out the grass. Then either remove the dead grass or turn it into the soil. Add manure now to help break down the grass. This would be a good time to have a soil test done by the state university lab (contact the Extension Service for more info). The test will tell you what nutrients you need to add to the soil. Then this fall add compost or manure and turn into the soil. Over winter the freeze/thaw will help break down clay clods into a nice crumble soil. Next spring more compost (not manure close to planting) and you'll be ready to rumble.

Answer 3

in case your backyard remains under 5 ft of snow, there is not something you're able to do. if it is sparkling, you may aerate the soil with the help of turning it over. yet why have your different gardens not been powerful? Take a soil pattern in to a nursery and characteristic it analysed. you're able to could desire to characteristic some thing to alter the ph or to augment the nutrition in the soil. Then think of approximately how plenty sunlight your backyard plot gets - component of the project could could desire to do alongside with your decision of vegetation, so once you're in the nursery getting your soil examined, you ought to ask them for innovations. stable success to you. sparkling greens are continually stable!

Answer 4

spade it up. rake out all the weeds and get them out of the space. Maybe get some cow manure and work it in to the soil so that it has plenty of time to break down over the winter months. and in the Spring spade it again, rake it out , and plant,

Answer 5

I would spray the area with round up to kill the grass. After it dies, then till it up and cover it with mulch. You can use pine straw or dead leaves, anything. If there are any weeds there that have dropped seeds-they will come up in your garden. Pluck them up as soon as you see them .