How To Prepare Your Vegetable Garden Soil For Planting

It’s very important to take the time to properly prepare your vegetable garden soil before planting your beds every year.

In fact, it’s the first step for success, because healthy and productive veggie plants starts with rich and fertile soil.

In this post I will show you exactly how to prepare a garden bed for planting vegetables, including details about building the best soil, and tips for adding amendments.

One of the community plots we rented a few years ago was new to us, but someone else had used it the previous season. So it wasn’t terribly neglected before we adopted it, and it only took a few easy steps to prep it for our spring planting.

I created this tutorial to show you how I prepared last year’s garden for this year. So, if you have an existing bed like mine that’s not completely overgrown, then this step by step guide is for you.

On the other hand, if you’re looking for information about starting a brand new bed, or preparing one that is currently covered by grass or weeds, then try the no-dig gardening method instead.

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Amendments For You Vegetable Garden

Before jumping in the step by step instructions for prepping your beds, I wanted to touch on the topic of amending the soil for your veggies.

Don’t get overwhelmed by this, it can be a complex topic. So I want to simplify it for you. Below is a quick list of the amendments I use and recommend:

• Compost or well-composted manure – Compost, cow, or chicken manure are great natural fertilizers that you should add you beds every year. They work to amend any type of soil, whether it be clay, sandy, or rocky. Plus, they’re inexpensive to buy in bulk.

• Natural amendments – Grass clippings (weed-free!), dry leaves, and other organic materials are also great to add to your vegetable garden. I dump all of the leaves over my beds every fall, and then turn them into the soil in the spring. By then they’ve already started breaking down.

• Slow-release granules – Organic fertilizer pellets are very easy to use, and there are lots of great options you can try. A few of my favorite brands that I highly recommend are this organic fertilizer, this all-natural one, or these all-purpose granular pellets.

• Worm castings – What’s a more natural amendment that worm castings (aka: worm poop)? If you have access to buy this in bulk, even better. Or you can add it to enrich your compost/manure.

Related Post: Guide To The Best Fertilizers For Vegetable Gardens

How To Prepare Soil For Planting Vegetables

When you have an existing garden plot, preparing the soil for growing vegetables is pretty quick and easy. Below are the steps you should take to get your beds ready for planting.

Tools Needed:

• Shovel
• Garden gloves
• Compost or well composted manure
• Bow rake
• Weeding tool (optional)
• Cultivator or tiller (optional)
• Soil test kit (optional)
• Amendments (optional)

Steps By Step Instructions

Step 1 – Remove weeds and grass: The first thing to do is to remove all of the established weeds and any grass that’s creeping into the beds.

You don’t need to get every single tiny little weed, just pull the large ones. Using a shovel to cut around the garden edges and turn the soil will make it easier to pull the grass and weeds.

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Step 2 – Turn the soil (aka cultivate the soil): It’s important to break up the crusty top layer that forms over your beds during the winter to prepare it for planting. This will soften the soil, make planting easier for you, and help the small starts and seedlings become established faster.

For this step you can use your shovel, a pitchfork, or a handheld garden claw if your beds are small. Otherwise, to make quick work of it, or for larger plots, it’s much easier to use a small cultivator or a large tiller.

Step 3 – Test the soil (optional) – This step is optional, but I highly recommend testing your garden soil, especially if you haven’t done it in a while (or have never done it). That way you will know exactly what amendments you need to add in the next step.

If you don’t want to do a full test, then at minimum, you should check the pH level. Vegetables grow best in alkaline soil, so it’s important to know if yours is acidic. You can quickly check it using either a simple probe tool or an inexpensive pH test kit.

Step 4 – Amend the soil: I recommend adding a layer of compost or manure to your beds every spring. It’s the easiest way to amend any type of garden soil and prepare it for growing healthy veggies.

You should get enough to add at least a 1-2″ deep layer over the top. But 3-4 inches deep would be even better – especially if you’re working with poor quality soil. For example, our community plot is 10′ x 20′, and I added one yard of compost to it.

Once you’re done with that, add any other amendments that your soil needs. You can simply sprinkle them over the top of the compost.

Step 5 – Turn the soil: Once you’re done spreading your amendments over the top of the bed, you should mix them into the soil by tilling or turning it again.

You can simply repeat step 2 to cultivate your bed again. When you have everything mixed in, use a bow rake to smooth out the top layer so there aren’t any large mounds or holes.

Step 6 – Add a thick layer of mulch: Mulch is the key to keeping the weeds down, and it also retains moisture in the ground so you don’t have to water your garden as often.

Plus it adds even more nutrients to the soil as it breaks down over time, helping to build rich, fertile beds.

Before mulching your vegetable garden, you could lay down a thick layer of newspaper to help with weed control if you want to.

I mulch mine with straw because it’s inexpensive and readily available in my area. But you could use other types of mulch for your vegetable garden, like leaves, for example. That’s it, now you’re done with the prep work, and your plot is ready for planting.

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Adding compost and other amendments, tilling or turning the soil, and mulching are all important steps to prepare your garden beds for planting vegetables. Once you get into the habit of doing it every year, it’ll be quick and simple.

More Posts About Growing Vegetables

• How To Fertilize A Vegetable Garden
• How To Design A Vegetable Garden Layout
• A Beginner’s Guide To Companion Planting
• Lasagna Gardening 101: How To Make A Lasagna Garden

Share your tips for how you prepare the soil in your garden for planting vegetables in the comments below.

Printable Step By Step Instructions