We’re approaching springtime and it’s time for gardeners to start thinking about the year ahead. The last frost of the year in Utah usually comes at the end of April, so it’s not quite time for planting — at least, not for planting everything — but that doesn’t mean there’s nothing to do.
What should you be doing now to prepare your garden bed, and how can you start to make improvements to your soil which will keep building year after year? Michael Caron at the USU Extension in Orem shares his advice for the inexperienced gardener.
“We can’t stress organic matter enough,” says Caron. “It’s the savior for pretty much all soil types. It helps clay soils to drain better and helps sandy soils to hold more water.”
His primary piece of advice is to cover your garden bed with organic matter, whether that’s commercial compost, dead leaves, mulch, animal manure, or kitchen scraps. Everything that goes into your garden needs to decompose in order to help the soil: if you keep a compost heap, that will be a great source of fertilizer right away, but things like woodchips and animal manure need more time.
“Animal manures are typically very salty,” says Caron, “especially poultry, but if those materials are retained and stockpiled for a year, or put on the garden in the fall so that winter moisture can move those salts out of the soil and let the compost mature, that’s a lot more acceptable.”
If you don’t have your own source of compost, you have a few options. Anything that will break down quickly, like leaf matter and vegetable scraps, will help. Apply it now, and let the next couple of months transform it into rich, dark soil.
Commercial compost can be good, though more expensive. Additionally, Caron recommends getting compost from county landfills. “They grind up wood materials and then compost that with the solid waste from the sewage treatment plant. Some people feel squeamish about using that waste, but the studies have shown that it’s quite safe to use. These products work really well. Just put them on as a mulch and then till them in the following year.”
The Provo compost yard, North Pointe Solid Waste in Lindon, the Salt Lake Valley Landfill, and many places offer compost for $10-20/cubic yard.
Another thing that will improve your soil’s quality is simply growing things in it. “Growing plants is probably the best way to get organic matter into the soil,” says Caron. “They can be grown just for the roots, and in some cases also the top mass can be incorporated.” If you have a portion of your yard that you don’t plan to use for a garden this year, but would like to use it next year, grow a cover crop. The roots will break up the soil, helping fight compaction and spread moisture and supporting the fungal system already living there. When the plants die, those roots will decompose under the earth, nourishing it from within. As Caron suggests, you can also use the leafy matter from the rest of the plant, either leaving it to slowly decompose or tilling it under the surface of the soil. Remember this if things don’t go as planned this year! Everything you grow will improve your soil and move you towards a more fruitful harvest next year.
Another thing that may improve your soil, depending on your needs, is taking measures against compaction. Caron says he sees this problem in places where nothing has been growing. (“In most cases soil will be usable if you’re growing a lawn on it now,” he assures.) “Compaction can be somewhat alleviated by tilling,” he says, “but that only goes a few inches deep, and a lot of people have much deeper layers of compaction. I recommend something like a broadfork that will go deeper into the soil and fracture the deeper layers.”
Breaking up compact earth is important. Otherwise, water will have a hard time soaking in and reaching the roots of your plants. However, take a sample of your soil and see if this practice is really necessary for you before you start digging up your garden. “Overall, tilling is pretty destructive,” says Caron. “The main reason it’s required is just to prepare a seed bed, but it dries the earth out fast and destroys the soil structure, so it’s recommended only maybe once a year. Any time that you have organic matter on top and till that in, that helps tremendously to mitigate damage.”
The same is true, of course, of the work you’d do with a broadfork, so if you decide it’s necessary, work plenty of organic matter underneath the surface as you go.
As far as when to till, wait for relatively dry conditions. Tilling wet soil exacerbates compaction. “The moisture is right if you can squeeze it into a ball and it will stay, but if you poke it and it crumbles apart, it might be too wet. It should be damp but not soggy.”
If you’re planting cool-weather crops like lettuce, broccoli, and peas, you could till the soil and plant your seeds any time now. For warm-weather crops, wait until May or start seedlings indoors.
“Just try it!,” exhorts Caron. “Just grow plants and learn as you go. USU Extension takes calls and emails and is here to help.”
Feature Image by Jed Owen on Unsplash.
