When should we prepare our soil for a new garden? Fall or Spring?

Question

We live in MN, have 1950 square feet to use, and would like to do whatever neccessary to plant in the springtime. I think we are supposed to first remove the grass and then till the soil, but when should we do this, and what should we add to the tilling process? Thanks.

Answer 1

Fall.

I would rent a turf cutter from your local hardware or rent-all place, and slice off the grass first. Don't till the grass in; it will leave you with tons of weeds and grass seedlings to pull! You can use the layer of sod you cut off to fill in any bare areas in other places on your property.

Then get a whole bunch of composted manure...any local horse farm should have piles of it sitting around. Till this into the soil. Also shredded leaves, to balance the pH.

Cover the tilled soil with straw (NOT hay, which contains weed seeds) to prevent erosion over the winter and keep any weeds from sprouting. (If you're planting any garlic, it goes in in mid-October...keep this in mind!)

In the spring, your soil is now ready for planting. Wait until the soil is well drained, warmed and not muddy. It should crumble in your hand, when you squeeze it it should not hold together very well. Plant right through the remaining straw, it will act as a mulch and keep spring weeds down.

The reason for tilling in the fall, not the spring, is so that the worm populations have a chance to recover. You need worms for soil aeration--roots need air as well as water, and the worms' droppings are wonderful fertilizer delivered at root level. Tilling destroys the worms and their air channels in the soil. It also just plain harms the structure of the soil. Till once when you start a new garden, and then disturb the soil as little as possible ever after. Worms are nature's tillers. Next fall, pile more manure and shredded leaves and straw on the surface of the soil, and the worms will pull it down and throughout the soil in the healthiest way all winter!

PS~~I totally agree with planting a cover crop, as mentioned below... :-) Just thought since you were beginners you might not want to mess with that just yet.

Answer 2

Till the existing grass under. If you do this a couple of times before winter, the grasses and any weeds will largely be knocked out.

Get your hands on as much organic material as you can. If your city/county has a leaf composting program, contact them and get some.

Horse, cow, chicken, rabbit manure, composted or not, can be added as well. Add your grass clippings and leaves as well. There are lots of sources of free material and buying peat moss or potting mix to add to the soil should be considered as a last resort. In a few weeks you should have lots of leaves laying around that should be tilled into the soil.

What you are basically doing at this point is composting in place. Whatever you till under this fall will have decomposed by next spring.

Early next spring or in late winter, take a sample of the soil and have it tested if you wish to see if there are any major deficiencies in your soil.

Next spring you have the choice of tilling the soil again or using one of the "no-dig" gardening systems.

Whichever you choose, use lots of mulch to keep the inevitable weeds at bay. Again try to use whatever is free and plentiful. Grass clippings are one of our favorites, they are usually plentiful and they cost nothing.

Visit our website for more soil improvement ideas at-
http://www.gardening-at-the-crossroads.com/soil-improvement.html

Good Luck and Happy Gardening from Cathy and Neal!

Answer 3

I would till the soil under in the fall, to help with the breakup of plant material that's already there. You may want to add fertilizer at the same time, as well as the sort of herbicide/pesticide that will kill things already in the soil. Talk with a nursery near your home to find out what products are best. Once winter is over, the work you do in the fall will make planting your spring garden MUCH easier.

Answer 4

LOL, I guess you've noticed by the various answers, there's no perfect answer. Personally I like to add manure in the fall so the salts can leach out with winter snows, then add compost.....or sometimes more manure...in the spring several weeks before planting......salts again. If I need to ammend the soil and plant immediately, I use compost as the salts are already out of it.

If you do prepare this winter, remember an open soil is more prone to blow away if your winters are dry. This is why so many arid area gardeners will plant a fall cover crop, say vetch, clover or buckwheat and then plow it under in the spring before planting time. The plants cover....sometimes dead plant cover.....protects the plant from soil erosion.

Answer 5

I would wait until spring if you want to till. You want to soil to be freshly tilled and ready for seeds. If you need to add something to the soil, I recommend a potting soil mix you can buy at any big store. Free of chemicals and dyes is preferred. I also use mulch, but I put that on TOP of the soil, around the plants I have put in the soil. The mulch helps the soil/plants retain water and prevents sun scorch.

Answer 6

Yes to both, till in the fall and apply compost to winter over (leaves, grass, rotten veggies, etc) and it will rot and stew all winter long. In the spring till it all over a couple of times and by planting time it will be nice and rich. I have done this for 4 years and my soil in the garden is very nice.

Answer 7

we did ours in the fall and in the spring but we put compost on it in the fall to let it sit over winter then tilled it in the spring and tilled sum cow manure into it but you dont have to do that if you dont wana

Answer 8

i like to do all that in fall more time. when tilling add some peat moss and some compost. and in the spring your ready to go

Answer 9

Mix the ash a Little at a time to your compost pile.

Answer 10

Yes, that's a good point