Growing
season is finally here! You gaze upon your garden beds with excitement,
imagining how, in a short time, you will be harvesting juicy tomatoes,
succulent cucumbers, and crisp peppers. The secret behind a successful veggie
garden begins before the first seeds are sown, when you prepare the soil for
planting. The first step is soil
amendment, which is the process of improving the physical properties of
your soil.
It’s a good
idea to know what kind of soil you have (sand, clay, loam) when choosing an
amendment. But no matter what the type, amending with compost will help any
kind of soil. Compost is organic
matter that has been decomposed and recycled as a fertilizer and soil
amendment. It improves the soil structure, balances pH, adds organic matter,
and improves drainage. In order to work effectively, soil amendment must be
thoroughly mixed into the soil. (Note that amending is not the same as mulching, which is left on the soil
surface instead of mixed in, and serves a different purpose.)
There are
several methods of mixing the soil amendment with the soil. Tools such as the
garden hoe, steel rake, spading fork, and shovel will get the job done, but
require time and energy. Amending soil with a rototiller makes soil preparation a lot easier. The rototiller is a
machine with rotating blades that aerates and breaks up the soil, and kills
fully grown weeds. It saves time and effort on soil preparation, especially if
it’s a large piece of ground.
Before
proceeding with the rototiller, however, you should be aware of the drawbacks.
Rototilling kills adult weeds, but it also exposes weed seeds to sunlight,
encouraging them to sprout. It’s also very easy to till too deeply, which kills
worms and fungi (important to plant growth), destroys the shallow root systems
of many vegetables and flowers, and causes the soil to dry out more rapidly.
If you use
the rototiller to mix your soil amendment, be aware of the proper tilling
depths for your garden. Tilling slower will grind the soil more effectively and
help ensure proper depth. After the initial amendment for the season, do not
use the rototiller again, as it will break up the soil structure and destroy
the food web that insects have created.
If you have
any questions about how to proceed with your garden, we are more than happy to
help!
