I would go with the layering first since you want to get as much humus in the ground as possible. The cover crop would be a good overwinter technique for next year.

You may want to get a soil test done since the field has been pasture for decades. That way you will know if you have any nutrient imbalance and can add some specific amendment this fall ( since organics tend to be released slower it would be available when planting rolls around in '08 )

Are there many weeds? That's another consideration. Good old cardboard works miracles on weeds. Tilling might bring up many buried weed seeds.

Karen

What kind of a garden are you looking at? Assuming vegetables, have a look at Steve Solomon's latest book on growing food. It may be appropriate for you since you appears that you will have a large garden to work with. The idea is to provide plants with a substantial spacing to reduce the water requirements.

Since the land hasn't been used for some time, it probably doesn't need a cover crop.

Take your cardboard and newspapers back for recycling. Vegetable gardening requires the soil to be turned. You don't have to double dig, just dig the depth of the shovel or fork and remove grass roots and other weeds. You'll be amazed at how well that reduces next season's weeds.

Here is a link that might be useful: Vegetable Gardening

I have to disagree that vegetable gardening requires the soil to be turned. It doesn't even necessarily require soil.

It is really up to the gardener and situation as to what type of garden they want to grow. If you already have really good, easy to dig soil, then traditional gardening might be appropriate. If the soil is poor, difficult to dig, or gardener just doesn't like digging, the lasagna type garden might be appropriate. If the gardener is into tinkering with technical stuff, then hydroponics might be to their liking.

My soil is almost pure sand so lasagna it is for me.

In my one experience of turning the soil, I had just the opposite results that Cowgirl reports.

Only once in about 20 years in this house did I not plant tomatoes in my little plot of my suburban yard. The soil became rock hard. Reason told me that turning over the soil the following year would improve things. I used a digging fork, my husband a shovel, and we worked like the devil to turn over that rock hard ground, just to the depth of the fork and shovel. Darn near killed me!

To my dismay, within days, the weeds emerged. And emerged. The more I pulled, the more I got. I finally resorted to RoundUp, and lots of it, all summer. The tomatoes had a lot of competition. That weed emergence continued all summer and into the next year.

Apparently we had unearthed years worth of buried weed seeds. I'll never try that again. For me it's cardboard and layered organic matter. I now use only that approach, it has worked well for me. I know that some people love the effect of tilling. It just didn't work for me.

Karen

That there is little earthworm activity should tell you that your soil is not "good loam" and that it lacks sufficient organic matter to support earthworms, and that is an indication that the Soil Food Web is also disfunctional. Start by contacting your local office of the Mississippi State University USDA Cooperative Extension Service about a good, reliable soil test. With that to guide you and after digging in with these simple soil tests you will have a much better idea what needs to be done to make that soil into a good, healthy soil that will grow strong, healthy plants.
1) Structure. From that soil sample put enough of the rest to make a 4 inch level in a clear 1 quart jar, with a tight fitting lid. Fill that jar with water and replace the lid, tightly. Shake the jar vigorously and then let it stand for 24 hours. Your soil will settle out according to soil particle size and weight. A good loam will have about 1-3/4 inch (about 45%) of sand on the bottom. about 1 inch (about 25%) of silt next, about 1 inch (25%) of clay above that, and about 1/4 inch (about 5%) of organic matter on the top.

2) Drainage. Dig a hole 1 foot square and 1 foot deep and fill that with water. After that water drains away refill the hole with more water and time how long it takes that to drain away. Anything less than 2 hours and your soil drains too quickly and needs more organic matter to slow that drainage down. Anything over 6 hours and the soil drains too slowly and needs lots of organic matter to speed it up.

3) Tilth. Take a handful of your slightly damp soil and squeeze it tightly. When the pressure is released the soil should hold together in that clump, but when poked with a finger that clump should fall apart.

4) Smell. What does your soil smell like? A pleasant, rich earthy odor? Putrid, offensive, repugnant odor? The more organic matter in your soil the more active the soil bacteria will be and the nicer you soil will smell.

5) Life. How many earthworms per shovel full were there? 5 or more indicates a pretty healthy soil. Fewer than 5, according to the Natural Resources Conservation Service, indicates a soil that is not healthy.

Here is a link that might be useful: MSUCES

I should elaborate.

I planted vegetables in the area last year, using fertilizer. Good success (especially with the &@^%#&% !!zucchini), but weeds ended up running us out of the garden. Now, we (I) made many mistakes, starting with putting my rows too close together, making it almost impossible to navigate in late summer.

My soil is a good loose clay, sand, loam mix. It drains well and breaking ground was pretty easy. I did have a soil test done (my dad actually owns a private soil lab), and my soil is pretty balanced, with a pH of 6.5. All in all, pretty good. But i just seems like it lacks natural activity (worms, bacteria, etc).

My plan is to make 3' wide beds that are to be permanent. I'm going to have them 1 tractor width apart, so my overall garden area is going to increase by almost 5 times, although the actual square footage of planting area will probably be the same. So the 20 x 30 area that I tilled up last year will now only have 3 or 4 beds in it. So next year I will be dealing with a mix of brand new beds, and beds made out of last year's garden area.

It's those brand new beds that I'm concerned about. I want to do things correctly from the beginning this time. It sounds like the cardboard layering technique is my best bet to start the beds off on the right track. I guess that I can always cover crop next year.

Should I plant a cover crop in the now empty 20 x 30 old garden area?

If these are going to be raised beds with paper/cardboard on the bottom to slow down weeds, you will probably be best off to lay down the paper/cardboard now and start layering organic matter on top. The nice moist place under the cardboard will probably attract worms so long as there isn't too much chemicals keeping them away. Anyway, this will give you time to collect the materials for layering and building your beds and time for the materials to decompose.

There are some plants that you could plant in a new lasagna bed but timing is the trick and many cover crops kinda require tilling which might not work well in a raised bed.

Another option which doesn't do as much to control weeds but may encourage worms and perhaps easier to cover crop with would be to spread a layer of compost or composted manure and sprinkle your cover crop seeds and cover with a thin layer of mulch. (I sort of accidently did this under my citrus trees. For a while we had some "weed Fabric" down under the trees since I heard that you shouldn't mulch under citrus. Well the weed fabric just makes it impossible to hoe or pull the weeds so I yanked it out-which was pretty tough since all the weed roots were holding it down. I learned that with my sandy soil that a thin layer of mulch-under 3"- is ok for citrus but don't let it pile up near the trunk. I put down a half inch of mushroom compost and sprinkled some cracked corn as I couldn't get a big bag of corn meal then covered with an inch of wood chips. Several days later I noticed much of the cracked corn had sprouted. Luckily now without the weed cloth I was able to rake the mulch to uproot the seedlings. When I did that raking I noticed many worms and the mulch had been down less than a week.)

Sounds like you have kinda nice soil to work with, you may just be lacking organic matter. One way or another you need to add organic matter wheather you want to do lasagna layering, just amend and mulch, or grow a cover crop and mulch is kinda up to you. Perhaps you will decide to try a few different methods in the different beds and see what you like best. Or you may choose what type of garden bassed on the intended crops for the beds. My experience is that a brand new lasagna bed is not really the best choice for corn or sunflowers as they need to sink their roots deep right away and the cardboard might still be too tough. If the lasagna bed Has been left to decompose for a season then the roots will probably manage to get through the cardboard. One way or another you should cover that soil with something.

After trying numerous different techniques over the years, I would advise tilling in the first year, but adopting no-till practices from then on. If it were me, I'd spread a layer of compost on the beds now and till it in, then plant a cover crop. Next year, switch to no-till, and feed the soil from the top with layers of compost and mulches.

-Diggity

The lack of earthworm activity strongly suggests a lack of sufficient organic matter. You can increase that OM level with a cover crop, or you could mulch it with shredded leaves, either way, but do not leave the soil bare and exposed to the ravages of the wind, rain, and sun over the winter.

Layering....

.....after cutting the grass/shrubs/what-not as close as possible. Or if you have a tractor and plow, go that route, and then layer. Layering and moisture will bring in the wormsies.

I've found that if I soak the newspapers (in a wheelbarrow) for several days, so they fall apart when you take them out of the water = excellent, because they stay put and decompose easier = you can compost more of them. Soaked cardboard (appliance stores have lots) is great as well. In my area, wood chips can be had for the asking, and they are great for the walkways and to top everywhere, but the'll need to be raked off the beds come spring. Clear your dawers of old t-shirts and the like, soak, and layer.

Good luck, and please follow up with what you did, and how it turned out.