Preparing soil for vegetable garden

Before sowing or transplanting your horticultural crops, a suitable preparation of the soil is of primary importance in order to guarantee correct development of the root system of each individual plant and, consequently, excellent vegetative growth as well as abundant fruiting.

This is a process that significantly influences the final result of cultivation with the main aim of creating a seeding or transplanting bed that is permeable to air and water, therefore soft and able to retain humidity avoiding waterlogging.

<rhe ideal time to begin is when the soil is in mellow condition, i.e. when it is neither too dry nor too wet and the clods are very crumbly. In fact, it is necessary to avoid working on soil that is too wet, as it is heavy and has clods that are impossible to break up; vice versa, even arid soil is not suitable because it is too hard, compact and difficult to work.

The main tillage consists of a slight shaping of the ground, i.e. the creation of a rise above the surface of the ground high enough for allowing the root development of the horticultural plants we decide to cultivate; to facilitate the passage and the following cultivation care we can divide the area into plots with an average width of 100 to 120 cm, then trace, using a shovel, walkways or paths approximately 30 to 50 cm wide.

Let’s understand step by step how to best prepare your soil

  • First of all, pass along the demarcation lines and make a cut perpendicular to the ground which will subsequently help to improve the grip of the soil. The total height is given by the depth of the excavation to create the passage path plus that of the soil that is placed above and from the excavation itself. A small trick to consider is that the wall of each individual plot should be shaped at 45° to avoid the possibility of subsidence.
  • Subsequently, by leveling with a hoe, the clods are chopped up, the crop planting surface is leveled and at the same time any roots of weeds or previous crops as well as bulky stones or pebbles are eliminated.

  • Another important thing to do is the so-called basal dressing by ploughing organic or chemical fertilizer to provide the necessary nutrients in the early stages of vegetative development. After applying the base fertilizer, the clod chopping up operation can be carried out.

  • Then proceed with raking to level and give a final shape to the seedbed or transplanting and finally prepare the furrows in which the young plants will grown seedlings, positioning the stakes support if necessary.

How to prepare a land that has never been cultivated, or waste land

If the land you want to use for a vegetable garden has never been cultivated, it requires initial cleaning stones, gravel, roots, stems, parts of weeds such as Bermuda grass (Cynodon dactylon), bindweed and Broom corn, and then a tillage 40 to 50 cm deep, an operation to be carried out every 10/15 years with the aim of till the soil while promoting the aeration of the roots and the drainage of excess water.
Then we can adopt steps listed below, as for land already used as a vegetable garden.

How to prepare a land regularly cultivated as a vegetable garden

If the cultivation of your vegetable garden takes place regularly year after year on the same plot, the preparation is basically reduced to:

  • skim ploughing, at a depth of 20 to 25 cm that gives rise to the formation of clods of approximately 10 cm wide by 20 cm deep
  • manual removal of any weed roots or parts containing seeds
  • ploughing of organic or chemical fertilizer
  • finally levelling of the surface with preparation of the planting furrows at a right density aimed to guarantee the correct growth of each individual plant.

The essential tools:

Let’s now deepen the correct tools to use for manual soil preparation:

  • the spade which is used to turn and turn the clod making the soil soft and permeable,
  • the shovel to create the banks, i.e. the artificial elevations of the soil designed to avoid water stagnation and facilitate the drainage of excess water,
  • the hoe used to crush the clods and roughly level the soil,
  • the rake to refine and level the soil surface.

Remember to always keep your tools clean and store them in a dry place, protected from bad weather.