Tilling and other preparations for new gardener

9 years ago

Hi there. I'm fairly new to gardening. In the past I've always just bought a container, some premixed soil in a bag, a plant, and voila, success!

Too easy I guess. Anyway, now I'm wanting to plant in the ground here in my new home. For sustainability as well as looks. First of all, I have very hard, compact red soil that lumps together like clay if it's wet. When it gets dry (summer months) it cracks on the surface and, if I can break it apart, it sifts through my fingers like sand. So I'm not sure what to categorize it as. Maybe a healthy mix of both sand and clay?

Anyway, my question. I need to till this stuff so that I can plant. I'm completely on board with the idea of letting nature do the tilling and mulching (worms + leaves), but for this property's first time gardening I really need to get rid of the large concentration of roots and rocks in the soil. And make it soft enough for me to actually get my hand shovel into, otherwise it's like concrete.

So far I've been tilling by just shoveling it and turning it over. This is back breaking work that the mosquitoes appreciate, but I'm thinking there has to be a better way to turn this dirt and make it useable.

So any suggestions on good tools for this type of job would be much appreciated. I don't want to use power tools because I don't plan on torturing myself with this task very often, only when the soil gets too compacted for me to work with.

Thanks,
Habs

Comment (1)

Tiffany, purpleinopp Z8b Opp, AL
9 years ago
If you are experienced at container growing, why not do it one more summer, on top of a new 'lasagna' garden? Smother and cover with all the organic matter you can find this summer, with potted plants sitting on top. Next spring - voila! Lovely garden is ready, no hard labor necessary (except to find, spread OM.)

The only tools I know for such chores are tillers, shovels, maybe a maddock if you can't do anything with a shovel.

Sand + clay = concrete, no doubt it's hard to dig in! Organic matter added to the soil will make it darker, softer, more moderate to both high and low moisture levels. Mulch, leaves, lawn trimmings (as long as you've mowed before grass made seeds,) small clippings from other plants, compost, pine needles, anything you have available should help. The more diverse selection of materials you use, the more help it will be to the soil/plants. As they decompose, the microbes and other organisms in the soil will move the bits of material to the proper levels to be used by the plants.
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