If it were me, I'd let the worms do the work for you. Weed it, for sure, then spread out any compost / organic matter you have along the lines you want to plant, and use grass clippings as a mulch. The soil sample? Eh...... I've never done them because I just dump on a whole bunch of compost anyway.

I use "lasagna" method aka sheet composting and never dig. Ever. Very happy with my results. Used no fertilizer last year--you're basically growing in compost. Patricia Lanza says digging is harmful, as it disturbs the worms and the whole natural composting process.

There is some work in gathering enough organic material, but less than digging.

I make the beds in fall, plant in Spring.

Hi Ian,

I turn the veggie garden over once in spring shortly before Im gonna plant. I started with really heavy clay in most of it, and have been adding cheap store bought compost every year for four years now, and last year, for the first time, I had enough home-grown compost to start adding that. My soil still has a ways to go, but itÂs WAY better than it was that first year. I donÂt fertilize at all in the veggie gardenÂtheyÂre on their own! And like David, IÂve never had the soil tested! If I ever start having a major problem with something I might consider it, but IÂd probably be more inclined to just add more compost and other organic matter and keep on keepin on! So far, even the year they were in the worst clay, almost everything has done really well. I have a problem keeping lettuce and spinach from bolting, but I really think thatÂs the result of not getting it in early enough, and the temps getting too hot, too fast; and I had a problem with the rhubarb not doing wellÂthey REALLY donÂt like being planted in clayÂso I dug it up last spring and replanted it in mostly home-grown compost. IÂm hoping for a good crop this year, and IÂve been offered a division from an established plant if mine still doesnÂt do wellÂit was started from a 2" size plant!

I know commercial farming operations need to check their soil, but IÂve always kind of thought that for a home gardener it might just give you something to worry aboutÂthat you donÂt really need to worry about. IÂm sure if I got mine tested and found out what was "wrong" with it, that IÂd worry about it! For me gardening is all about go-with-the-flowÂit should be about fun, not about worrying.

And I donÂt worry about the worms when IÂm turning it over. Actually I vermiculture directly on the surface of about 75% of my veggie garden all winter long. I discovered by accident a couple years ago that when I left the bags of fall leaves laying on top of the soil (until there was room to put them on the compost pile), the worms, which are insulated from the cold by the leaf bags, happily eat and reproduce out there all winter long (I have TWELVE HUGE bags laying out there this year). I had friends over on Sunday and when I lifted up one of the bags to show them, the whole surface of the soil was covered with worms and they almost fell overÂthe people, not the worms (the worms rapidly retreated into their holes!) The first year I planted out there, there were almost no worms to be found, and now much of the veggie garden is thick with them. I love it! And I figure that when I turn it over it helps distribute the worms more evenlyÂif I notice one spot that doesnÂt have as many, IÂll toss a shovel or two of soil over there from an area that has way lots.

Turning the soil over will definitely bring some of the weed seeds to the surface, but thatÂs getting less and less for me each year. I hoe or pull out small weeds as soon as they start, and I never, ever let weeds go to seed out there, so IÂm finally down to pretty much just the weed seeds that blow inÂor get dropped or "placed" there by animalsÂyou knowÂoak trees and such!!!

After the veggies are planted I doÂlike DavidÂmulch with grass clippings, and I continue to add more clippings all summer, every time I cut the grass. Since grass clippings decompose quickly, they work their way into the soil gradually over the summer and then the ones that are still on the surface get turned under with the soil in spring each year, adding more organic matter.

So thatÂs MY method! You knew you were gonna get lots of different ideas on this one, didnÂt you Ion?

:-)
Skybird

P.S. If youÂve had a pretty thick layer of leaves on your garden all winter, Ion, you probably had a worm farm going on under them all winter too. Pull them back in a couple places and look!

Thanks! It's good to have support for just about anything I choose to do... ;)

I'll probably take the lazy man's way and just work in some compost. Thanks all for your help!

Ian

Ian, I'm a little late to this subject but I've been giving it some thought because I'm about to begin cultivation duties here.

My big veggie garden is tilled mechanically, by a big Ford tractor. I show up later with a smaller tiller, shovel, rake, and other implements of destruction . . .

This isn't my preferred method for cultivation but it almost seems necessary in that rocky large garden. Besides, it is a community effort since my neighbor and I are partners in hiring the tractor guy. I have wondered what he thinks of my "corduroy garden" with so much of the ground "gathered" into 4' wide beds between 2' paths. But, he has such a large tractor I suspect that he scarcely notices.

Where I've cultivated longest (in my smaller veggie garden and cutting gardens), the paths are permanent and the beds are cultivated to the depth of a spading fork, about 11".

About every other year, and sometimes once a year, these beds are dug out with a spade. I only go 8" or so deep, however. Into this trench goes rough compost or that season's frost-killed plants - plants if I'm doing the work in the fall, compost it it is done in the spring.

Either way, and even if I'm back with the spade in 12 months, the material has all but disappeared the next time the soil is removed from the bed. Fertilizer, not compost, is cultivated into the top few inches after the trench is refilled and before sowing or setting out plants.

I do bring in my rototillers to keep down the weeds in the paths in the little veggie garden. It's about 2,500 square feet so there are a good number of paths and I don't use herbicides in there. A final tilling at the end of the year means I have a fair amount of shovel work to do out there in the spring but some of those beds will be dug and composted so . . .

I actually enjoy going over the beds that are not dug out with a long-handled spading fork. Digging them out with the spade, ain't too easy. Double digging, for all sorts of reasons, is out of the question!!

Steve's digits and fragile back

I dig compost and organics into my raised beds in the spring. I have trouble keeping enough nitrogen in the soil, other nutrients always seem to be fine. So last fall I planted alfalfa seed in the empty parts (I have garlic growing in some places), and it's greening up now. I'm hoping that when I dig it in in May the alfalfa will help with the nitrogen problems a little bit.

I fork, I don't turn. I like to keep the critters together as much as possible.

Dan

I think you should do single-dig and work in some more compost. This will help you to increase the amount of tomatoes.

To think:

After all that work over all those years . . . moving dirt, making compost, cultivating, tilling, composing thoughts, hammering away at the keyboard . . . only to have it taken advantage of by a spammer!

I've got a spade, dpfoc! And, I know how to use it! And, I'm coming after you!

Steve's digits

I'll join you, Digit! You bring the spade, I'll bring my fork! REAL fork! That thing he's trying to sell looks pretty dumb to me!

He must be a paid spammer! On other forums he's advertising electric griddles, dehumidifiers, display refrigerators ???, and bottle coolers! For several of them he seems to be working for a specific company right now---in the UK!

You're not welcome here, Idiot!

I till twice. The first time is done early to turn under the manure and rotted newspaper from the year before. Soon after, weed seeds from the manure start growing. The second tilling is to turn under those newly started weeds.
This is done with a large rear tine rototiller.

I hand turned the garden a few decades ago. It would kill me to do it that way nowadays. Or at least make me wish I was dead.

Never. Raised beds, lasagna method in the beds. I've never dug any of them. Works great, once you get the bed established.

The alfalfa really helped from last year. This year I just forked the top layer to loosen it up and added some compost and cottonseed meal. This is for small raised beds, so they don't need real digging except the first year I create them. Nice to see lots of small worms in the beds this year too. I think they like the spring rains we've had.

Me too for raised beds. If you don't walk on it, you don't have to fluff it either. Just add compost, plant/seed and water. Its almost chia pet easy LOL. Thats what I am doing this weekend. Going to get more steer manure to top the beds with then plant all that stuff I brought home Sunday at 8:00 ish.

Billie

Digit and Skybird - I got the garden weasel!!

I just finished planting tomatoes in my new-as-of-last-year garden 'humps', or raised beds on the cheap. Three weeks ago, we emptied the compost bin and put a heaping shovel full of compost in a pile along the humps where we wanted to plant the tomatoes.

Today was a pretty good objective lesson on what worms can do for you. Under every shovel full of compost, the worms had gone to work, and the soil was amazingly soft and easy to scoop out for the tomato roots. Every scoop had numerous happy worms.

Just beside these compost mounds, the exposed soil was considerably denser and more difficult to work.

And when I brush off the dried grass clipping mulch, you can see dozens of little worm heads disappearing back under ground.

Last fall, I emptied the compost bin onto our raised veggie bed, let it sit all winter, and then this spring we forked it once and smoothed it out. The soil turned out beautifully! The dirt was so nice and soft to plant in, and all the chunks left in the compost were broken down and largely unnoticeable. I think I'll try to do the same thing this fall as well.

The "big beds" get mulched with compost and grass clippings all summer, but no tilling. When I plant in the big beds, the soil still seems very clayey and dense, but the plants are doing fine, so I guess that's all that matters.

I never dig in my vegetable garden. I use raised beds lasagna style. I do find that the beds seemed to get packed down some after the long winter, so I will add a layer of compost to the top of the bed and use a hand claw spade to break it up a bit before I plant. That's it!

Yesterday I made a potato bed by laying down a huge piece of cardboard right on top of the ground weeds and all. I then enclosed it and made a border out of wood planks that I had laying around. Emptied a pile of chicken manure shavings that's been sitting all winter, a few buckets from the compost bin, and a few bags of more than a year old potting soil in the garage and I planted the potatoes right in it with a layer of straw. We'll see how it goes!