Preparing Your Planting Beds
Plants can grow in less than ideal conditions, but having planting beds in a good spot with great soil is essential for robust plant growth and bountiful harvests.
Finding the Right Location
The first step in prepping planting beds is picking a good location in your yard. When looking around your property for a spot, there are some questions to keep in mind.
Is the Ground Relatively Flat?
Look for a spot that doesn’t have a significant slope. That way, yu won’t need to worry about soil erosion or low areas that tend to stay wet with level ground.
How Much Sunlight Does it Get?
Your planting beds need to get six to eight hours of full sun every day. It’s also important to check the spot at random times of the day to make sure it doesn’t get unexpected shade.
Testing the Soil Composition and Nutrients
After you’ve decided on a possible location, it’s time to look at the soil texture, pH, and nutrient content.
What is Soil Texture, and Why is it Important?
Soil texture is determined by the amount of sand, silt, and clay (in percentages) that make up your topsoil.
- Soils with high clay hold many nutrients but hold onto a lot of moisture, so the ground stays wet.
- Soils with high sand do not hold very many nutrients or moisture. They do drain quickly, though.
Ideally, you want a blend of all three, or what is known as a loam type of soil. This soil type gives you good drainage while holding onto a respectable amount of soil moisture and nutrients.
What is Soil pH, and Why is it Important?
Soil pH measures how acidic or basic (i.e., alkaline) the soil is, just like the acidity we are familiar with regarding liquids like vinegar or lemon juice. Knowing your soil’s pH is important because it directly influences the nutrients in the soil. If the pH value is too acidic or basic, it can make nutrients unavailable to the plants or create toxicities.
Ideally, you want the soil to be neutral or slightly acidic — most plants like a pH value between 6.0 and 7.0 because it has the best nutrient availability.
Why are Soil Nutrients Important?
There are just over a dozen nutrients required for all plant growth: nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium, sulfur, boron, chlorine, copper, iron, manganese, molybdenum, and zinc. Each of these nutrients has specific roles, and if any of them are deficient, it affects plant growth.
Over time, these nutrients can become depleted from the soil, and fertilizers are used to get them sufficient again. But it’s essential to know the nutrient content of your soil to help you determine how much fertilizer — and what kinds — to apply.
How to Determine Soil Texture, pH, and Nutrient Concentration?
First, you need to collect a soil sample from the planting bed. Collect small shovelfuls from a dozen spots, digging down six to 10 inches and then putting them in a bucket. Mix the soil and pull out any rocks and debris.
After collecting a sample, spread it out on a newspaper to dry overnight. The soil pH is easy to check yourself, but a commercial soil testing laboratory best analyzes the texture and nutrient content.
Preparing the Planting Beds
Once you have looked at the soil, it’s time to start preparing the beds for planting.
The first step is to add amendments to improve the soil texture, water holding capacity, soil pH, and nutrient capacity.
- Add two to four inches of organic material such as finished compost or fully decomposed cow manure.
- If your soil is too acidic, add lime to raise the soil pH.
- If your soil is too alkaline, add sulfur products to lower the soil pH.
- Add the recommended amount of fertilizer based on your soil test results.
Dig down to about a foot deep to loosen the soil adequately and incorporate the amendments, working the ground well by hand or with a rototiller. Loose, crumbly soil lets water move quickly through the soil profile and allows roots to grow down and outward without interference.