How do you prepare your garden soil for gardening?
By oscarbartoni
@oscarbartoni (2581)
United States
March 24, 2008 10:21pm CST
I am constantly putting vegetable scraps on the garden soil and will turn it under when I turn the soil over in the spring before planting it. I will also add as much composted manure and peat moss at the same time. I am hoping to be able to put a 3 to 4 inch layer of manure and maybe as much peat moss. I know that I have better soil than I began with because of the number of earth worms that are in the garden as opposed when I first started gardening a couple of years ago. With the number of worms in the garden I do not have to turn the vegetable scraps under because the worms will consume then and actually incorporate the vegetable scraps in very short time. That plus I do not have to take up room for a compost pile. If I wind up with a rather large amount of vegetable scraps I will dig them in the garden where I will plant something over top of the dug in scraps.
4 people like this
8 responses
@RawBill1 (8531)
• Gold Coast, Australia
23 Mar 10
Having the worms in the garden itself instead of a worm farm is the way to go as is putting fruit and vegetable scraps straight into the garden. You get the most nutrients out of the scraps as they are rotting down, so it makes sense to have this going straight into the rots of the plants. 
We actually produce way too much fruit and vegetable waste to do this all of the time, so I just put it into the compost and then get it into the garden before it fully composts.
We actually produce way too much fruit and vegetable waste to do this all of the time, so I just put it into the compost and then get it into the garden before it fully composts.@oscarbartoni (2581)
• United States
23 Mar 10
When I lived in another area I had a garden and my now ex wife did not like the looks of the "mulch" on the garden so I dug trenches where I would walk and the other soil was to be planted in, As I got compost material (mulch if used on top of the garden) I would put it in the trenches and lightly cover it . The next y;ear I would dig the trenches where the plants were growing the previous year and do the same thing, putting compost material in the trenches to be composted by the bacteria and worms etc.This would also help keep weeds down bu covering them fairly deep would also put straw or even newspaper on the walk ways to help keep the compost moist. Cardboard could also be sued on the walkways.I try to use as much as possible so as to avoid throwing away things that are still useful/
@RawBill1 (8531)
• Gold Coast, Australia
24 Mar 10
I did not know whether my comment would receive a reply as this discussion is so old. I am glad to see that you are still active here.
What you do is great as feeding the bacteria and other soil critters is the most important part of gardening. Healthy soil means healthy plants and as we plan to eat most of our plants, that means we will be healthy also!
I also use all of my cardboard in the garden. I recently made a new garden on top of our lawn by placing cardboard down to kill the grass and have built a border out of hay bales which I filled with all of our compost and some mushroom compost as well. I am going to start winter planting in it very soon. 
What you do is great as feeding the bacteria and other soil critters is the most important part of gardening. Healthy soil means healthy plants and as we plan to eat most of our plants, that means we will be healthy also!
I also use all of my cardboard in the garden. I recently made a new garden on top of our lawn by placing cardboard down to kill the grass and have built a border out of hay bales which I filled with all of our compost and some mushroom compost as well. I am going to start winter planting in it very soon. 
@draconess (650)
• Canada
29 May 08
I have a compost pile set up behind the garage, all year I bury all my organic waste and yard clippings there, so when I plant in the spring I have a big lovely pile of fantastic composted soil ready! The plants really love it, I usually apply a layer in the spring when I first plant, then later make compost tea to feed the nutrient loving squash and veggies (soak a bag/old pillowcase of compost in the rainwater barrel for a few days to make the compost tea). Not only is it great for my garden, it's great for the environment- the organic scraps don't go in the garbage, and I can water my plants from the rainbarrel instead of wasting household water.
1 person likes this
@casita (237)
• United States
26 Mar 08
I also use vegetable scraps. Really, anything organic that comes from my kitchen: onion skins, banana peels, eggshells, orange rinds. . .
I tend to avoid coffee grounds myself because they attract fruit flies if you don't bury right away.
I also collect as many leaves from my neighborhood as I can in the fall. I completely cover garden areas, both vegetable garden and flower garden. In the spring, we turn the dirt over. My neighbors think I'm crazy, but my tomatoes grew over 7 feet tall last year!
1 person likes this
@jsitko (1169)
• United States
25 Apr 08
Nothing goes to waste here at this house. All of my veggie scraps go into the compost along with coffee grounds, egg shells, ripped up or shredded newspaper and our mulched leaves. I have a separate area where I put our old flowers and grass clippings because I don't want the kind of seed in my garden. It is great for the gardens and saves on the trash pick up bill. We also recycle our aluminum cans for cash and plastic and bottles go to the town recycle bins.
@olivemai (4738)
• United States
26 Mar 08
I like to use coffee grounds and anything that can be composted! I have had to go out and buy worms and ladybugs to help my garden grow!
@rebecca1957 (265)
• United States
12 Apr 08
That's a great way to prepare your soil. We plant rye after the final harvest. Rye contains nitrogen essential for the soil. In the spring we will till in the rye. We've also added a little wood ash since we have a wood stove. A little wood ash is also good for the garden. If you grow corn at all, corn requires a lot of nitrogen so the nitrogen should be replaced into your soil in the fall. Chicken manure is also high in nitrogen. We have about 40 hens that free range. We gather the manure from under where they roost. In the spring we make a chicken 'tea'. We water it down quite a bit and stir it every day. Then, we will put the chicken tea into the soil about two weeks before we plant. We had excellent success last year with the tallest corn we have ever grown.
1 person likes this
@drannhh (15219)
• United States
8 May 10
I was so excited when I first found worms in my compost this spring. Yes, that proves it was going to be a success. I add strips of newspaper and other easily decomposable paper scraps as well a citrus rinds and clippings from the garden.
Here in the desert it is possible to make small batches of excellent compost very fast in the spring, fall, and summer.
@avrosoft (1)
• Australia
16 Jun 10
I have recently stared putting my vegetable scraps into my garden beds. I dig a shallow hole add the scraps and cover lightly with soil. I hope this will work out ok. I don't like to leave them on top of the soil because of vermin.
Val Gascoigne
Australia
