Vegetable Garden Preparation is the next step, after Planning your Vegetable Garden! Site Preparation is essential to having a great, successful harvest!
Once you have done all of the Planning for your Vegetable Garden, you are ready to prepare your future site for planting. Great Vegetable Garden Preparation is one of the most important things you can do to ensure a great outcome from your garden this summer and fall!
- Stripping the Sod
- Tilling the Soil
- Raised Bed or Container Garden Soil Preparation
- Building Structures
- Weed Blockers
- Apply First Application of Fertilizer
- What Fertilizer Should I Choose
- Fertilizer Types
- Irrigation
- Recipes to Make From Your Harvest on Binky’s Culinary Carnival
- Summary
- Tools I Use For Vegetable Garden Preparation
- Recipe
- Vegetable Garden Preparation
Stripping the Sod
The first chore is to strip the sod from the intended garden space. The sod roots only go down about 6″ so this is not a difficult process. It can be accomplished with a flat spade, or, for larger gardens, you can rent a sod cutter from local equipment rental companies. There are also landscape companies that you can hire to help with the soil preparation.
Tilling the Soil
Once the sod is stripped, the soil needs to be worked up to a depth of 12″-14″, with a spade. Place 3-4″ of compost or aged animal manure on top of the soil. Then dig and turn the soil, or use a mechanical rototiller. This will incorporate nutrients into the soil and it will aerate the soil so that the vegetables’ roots will have an easier time growing.
Raised Bed or Container Garden Soil Preparation
To prepare your raised bed or container garden for planting, if reusing, aerate or till soil because the soil will compact over time. Add fresh compost and peat moss and till these into existing soil. Add your preferred fertilizer, according to directions on package (more on fertilizers below). If reusing pots, it doesn’t hurt to scrub the inside with a brush and a mild bleach solution, just to kill any fungi that may be on the pot. This isn’t necessary, but can be helpful, if you had a fungal problem the year before.
If you are starting from scratch, I recommend a mixture of 2 parts topsoil, 2 parts peat moss, 2 parts wood mulch and 1 part horticultural grade vermiculite or perlite. If the topsoil is terribly heavy, I may add 1 part all purpose sand to the mix, as well! These proportions are not crucial, just eye it. This mixture will give you great drainage, along with, great water holding capacity. All of these materials are available at your local garden center, and are economical. For larger containers, water retaining polymers can be added, to help you keep them watered, especially in dry, or more arid climates. Here is a good article from Fine Gardening regarding soil for containers
Building Structures
In our sample design, above, we have planned on a trellis, or fence for our cucumbers to grow on. This can be as simple as a piece of chicken wire strung between two posts, or as complex as your imagination takes you! The other structure in our design is a teepee for the pole beans to grow on. Again, this can just be a few wooden poles strung together with string, or a pressure treated/ metal structure that is more permanent. Just make sure it is strong enough to hold the bean plants as they grow up it, in addition, they should be movable, so that you can till next year. Create any paths that you will need to access your vegetables, for planting, fertilization and harvesting.
Some plants, like squash, pumpkins and melons, prefer to be planted on a small mound, or hill of soil. Mound the soil up at least 6″ above the level of the rest of the garden. Make the hill about 2′ wide and plant seeds on the mound. Usually 5-6 seeds per mound. Then they are thinned down to 2-3 plants per hill.
Weed Blockers
Consider the fact that you will have to weed the garden for the rest of the growing season. To make your life easier, consider using some sort of weed blocker between the rows and in paths. There are many products available commercially to assist with this.
Landscape fabric, is a great commercially available product that will last several years, if removed in the fall, an reapplied the next year. 6 MIL plastic sheeting (make sure you buy black, or weeds will grow under it) is a good alternative, if you have somewhere to recycle it. 4″ of wood mulch or straw are great, organic options. Make sure that you source aged mulch, or the mulch will leach nitrogen from the soil. Leaf mulch is another good alternative.
Once you have installed the weed blocker chosen, cut rows, or holes for single plants, according to garden design plan.
Apply First Application of Fertilizer
Add commercial or organic fertilizer to rows or to holes prior to buying your plants. Water the fertilizer in thoroughly.
What Fertilizer Should I Choose
A brief lesson on fertilizers. Don’t fall asleep, this is important! 🙂
The important function that fertilizer will serve to your growing garden is to supply nutrients for your plants’ roots, stems, flowers and fruits. Fertilizers all have a 3 number classification on them. This group of the 3 numbers is the most important thing on a bag of fertilizer. The first number represents the nutrient nitrogen (N), the second, phosphorous (P) and the third potassium (K). So N/P/K.
These 3 nutrients perform different functions in the plants. This is a very consolidated explanation! Nitrogen produces lots of healthy, green leaves. Phosphorous is important for root and bud formation. Potassium helps with root, bud and fruit growth.
Now that you have that information, think about what we are looking for out of our gardens. We want a great harvest, right? Well, to obtain that great harvest, we need a nice healthy plant with strong stems, enough roots to supply water to our plants and lots of flowers to produce the fruits!
So for most flowering and fruiting plants we want fertilizers with a lower (or equal) N number and higher P and K numbers. Most generic garden fertilizers sold are 10/10/10, 5/10/5 or 5/10/10. I prefer 5/10/10. Some high end (read high $$) fertilizers will bump up the formulation to 18/18/21 or 15/15/30. Any of these will work, but as a general rule, you want all of the numbers close to them same, or with a little less nitrogen. The lower the number on the bag, the more often you will need to fertilize, unless the bag specifies long acting.
Fertilizer Types
Fertilizers are broken up into 3 major categories.
- Natural, ie; aged animal manure, food scrap compost, etc.
- Commercially available Organic
- Inorganic, man made chemicals
Each of these categories has advantages and disadvantages. Here is a general overview;
Natural fertilizers are beneficial in the fact that waste products, that may find their way into landfills or leach into water systems can be recycled and will be turned back into soil as they decompose. The risk with using natural fertilizers can vary, depending on the source of the compost. Animal manure can be dangerous to new plants if it is not thoroughly aged. If you use fresh manure, you risk burning your new plantings with soluble nitrogen. This could potentially kill them.
The advantage to using aged manure is that it’s a source of quick feeding. It is NOT as long lasting as commercially organic, or inorganic fertilizers. Another disadvantage is that you do not know the actual formulation, that we talked about above, so you really just have to guess how often to reapply. Depending on the source, it may be very low in phosphorous and potassium , so you may have to supplement with P & K from a commercial source.
Think of natural fertilizers as quick acting and commercial fertilizers, whether organic or inorganic, as slow release, as a general rule, just like medications for humans. The nutrient levels, in commercial products have been tested and are accurate, so that you know how often and how much to fertilize.
Irrigation
Before you plant your garden, you have to have a plan for how you will irrigate your garden! Your plants and seeds will need to be watered right after they are planted!
Your irrigation can be as simple as a garden hose and sprinkler attachment! You can get very complex with your irrigation, setting up drip irrigation to individual plants or rows, but this is totally unnecessary for most home gardens. Just make sure that you have enough hose so that you can reach your entire garden, either by moving sprinklers, or adding additional hose lines.
Most home stores and garden centers sell timers that you can attach to your spicket and set to water at specific times. Some timers even have rain sensors, so that if it rains, they will not go on. These are superior, because you do not want to overwater your crops! Always plan to water either early in the morning, before the sun gets too hot, or in the evening. Although, do not water after dark, as this may encourage fungal growth. In addition, do not water when the sun is highest because the sun may burn the leaves through the water droplets!
Recipes to Make From Your Harvest on Binky’s Culinary Carnival
Summary
Vegetable Garden Preparation is an important step in successful gardening. Preparing your site and soil properly for your vegetable garden will ensure that your harvest will be the best it can possibly be. These initial steps are crucial to a successful harvest. You have done the best you can do, now you just have to hope Mother Nature cooperates and gives you a great growing season!
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Don’t miss the next article in this series, Choosing Plants and Planting Your Vegetable Garden! If you missed it, the first step to successful gardening is in the planning! See Planning Your Vegetable Garden to get started right! Thanks for stopping by today!
Enjoy! And have fun cooking!
Xoxo,
Tools I Use For Vegetable Garden Preparation
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Vegetable Garden Preparation
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Laura
Another great article, the fertilizer section is very interesting. I had the ground prepared and I am not using raised beds, they require too much earth to be filled, too much money. For the watering system instead, I will use pipes and connections I already have but one area of my garden is covered by sprinklers. I will have to treat with copper but the drip is not very efficient here during the summer and will have to put it on for hours to get a good watering. Definitely using the cover for weeds, I like low maintenance
Beth Neels
Low maintenance in key this day and age. We just don’t have the time anymore to do it all! Thanks so much Laura! I appreciate you checking out the series and I’m so glad it is helping you!