ArtsAutosBooksBusinessEducationEntertainmentFamilyFashionFoodGamesGenderHealthHolidaysHomeHubPagesPersonal FinancePetsPoliticsReligionSportsTechnologyTravel

How to Prepare Your Soil for a Garden

Updated on June 2, 2015

The first step in any garden project is knowing what soil you're dealing with. The soil you plant in will directly affect the quality of your harvest. Some soils, such as heavy clays and sand, do not make nutrient readily available for your garden crops. Luckily, for those of you with these soil types like these, it is easy to remedy problems and create an ideal soil to plant your garden.

Know What You're Dealing with

The first thing to do is to dig a small hole, about a foot deep, into your garden area. The most obvious way to see what type of soil you have is to actually look at the layers in your garden. Ideally you would be working with dark (almost black) soil, but this is rarely the case. Clays are identified by a grey color while sand is a lighter tan. Darker layers indicate that there is a higher level of organic matter in the soil which helps with water conservation as well as holding nutrients and making them available for plant life. If you see a reddish brown color, your ground is well drained. We know this because the color is caused by oxidation of iron in the soil. Drainage of water allows air to permeate which causes this colorization. Lack of drainage creates an oxygen poor soil which is what gives clay its grey color.

How to Make the Right Change

In soils that are high in clay, there is a common misconception of adding black dirt or topsoil to them to loosen the soil. This is not effective. While it will increase the amount of nutrient rich soil, black dirt is dense and does not help in soil aeration. Using peat moss will loosen the soil and help with aeration of the soil. This is because the high organic content in peat moss creates a soil that is less dense. Soils that are very sandy benefit most from the addition of black dirt. Sand and clay do not hold nutrients well and therefore do not make them available for your plants. While clay will hold water well, it does not allow it to drain, which also keeps nutrients from being taken in by plants. Sand also does not hold minerals well, and will allow water to drain too quickly. This allows any nutrients present in the soil to wash away quickly.

Understand the Role pH Plays in Your Garden

Once you've figured out what kind of soil your dealing with, it is a good idea to test what mineral content your soil has. This can be done with a soil test kit that you can purchase from your local hardware retailer such as Home Depot, Lowe's, or online from Amazon. This lets you know what the pH level of your soil is, as well as the levels of key minerals such as nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorus. A deficiency of key minerals will cause problems in rooting, growth, and tolerance to pests and drought.

The pH level of your soil is very important because every type of plant grows best in a different pH range. A good range of pH is between 5.5 and 6.5 for most garden plants. However, knowing your plants will help in understanding what will need to be done to get your pH in the right range. Plants such as blueberries like soils that are more acidic than other garden plants such as tomatoes, carrots, and peppers. Adjusting your pH, however, is not difficult. If your pH level is too high, you can reduce it through mixing peat moss or other organic matter into your soil. If it is too low, you can increase pH by adding lime. Lime and peat moss are easy to find and are available at most hardware stores or where ever garden supplies are sold in your area.

Understand What Fertilizer You're Using

The nutrient levels of your soil will dictate what kind of fertilizer you use. The three most common nutrients that you will find in fertilizers are nitrogen (N), phosphorus, (P), and potassium, (K). When you purchase fertilizers, they will have three numbers on them in this form: 10-10-10. These numbers correspond to the percentage of nitrogen by weight. The other two values (P and K) are actually the percentage by weight of their compounds, not the actual element itself. These percentages are always given in the order N-P-K. Sometimes a fourth number is included, this number is always Sulfur (S).

So for example, if your soil is low in Nitrogen, you will want a fertilizer higher in nitrogen, meaning the first number is higher. There are many different fertilizers available and knowing what the numbers mean will help in determining what one you need. If your soil is within range, that doesn't mean that occasional fertilizing won't be necessary. 10-10-10 is a very common garden fertilizer for keeping nutrient levels at an optimal level. Using fertilizers on a continual basis in small doses helps keep good soil from becoming poor.

Once, you've gotten your testing done and soil amendments made, you'll want to till up the ground your planting in. If you're using ground that is currently in sod or grass, you'll need a heavy rototiller to get through the dense root systems and thoroughly break up soil. Even in areas where grasses weren't growing, using a rototiller will make your life easier. If you have a larger area your going to be cultivating, you may want to buy a rototiller if you don't already have one. If it's fairly small and you don't want to buy one, you can rent one from a rental company. Roto-tilling your soil also makes it easier to blend soil amendments like grass clippings, straw, peat moss, top soil, or compost. Once you've broken up the ground to the point that dirt clods are gone and the soil is soft, your ready to start planting. Now that you know more about your soil and how to identify issues with it, you can fix them and move on to planting. Happy gardening!

When was the last time you made any soil amendments?

See results
working

This website uses cookies

As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.

For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy

Show Details
Necessary
HubPages Device IDThis is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons.
LoginThis is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service.
Google RecaptchaThis is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy)
AkismetThis is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Traffic PixelThis is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized.
Amazon Web ServicesThis is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy)
CloudflareThis is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy)
Google Hosted LibrariesJavascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy)
Features
Google Custom SearchThis is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy)
Google MapsSome articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
Google ChartsThis is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy)
Google AdSense Host APIThis service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Google YouTubeSome articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
VimeoSome articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
PaypalThis is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook LoginYou can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
MavenThis supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy)
Marketing
Google AdSenseThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Google DoubleClickGoogle provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Index ExchangeThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
SovrnThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook AdsThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Unified Ad MarketplaceThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
AppNexusThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
OpenxThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Rubicon ProjectThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
TripleLiftThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Say MediaWe partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy)
Remarketing PixelsWe may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites.
Conversion Tracking PixelsWe may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service.
Statistics
Author Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy)
ComscoreComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Tracking PixelSome articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy)
ClickscoThis is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy)