How to Prepare Your Garden for Plants:

1. Cut down any previous vegetable or flower crops, leaving the plants’ roots in the soil if possible (if they aren’t too massive). Leaving roots in the ground helps to build good soil structure, and is a wonderful source of organic matter for soil microbes, which feed on organic matter. You also keep more beneficial microbes in the garden this way, since they congregate in root zones! –

2. Remove any grass or weeds by their roots. 

3. Activate the native soil by watering deeply, saturating the soil 6 inches. Soil microbes require water to thrive and reproduce, and so will your plants. 

4. Open up your soil. To do this, use a garden fork or shovel, and gently push down and pull up, without completely flipping over the soil. The goal is to introduce oxygen, reduce compaction, and make physical space for new roots to grow, without disrupting the structure and life in the soil which takes years to establish and is hard-won!

5. Add a layer of compost and gently rake it in. Source the highest quality compost you can find (the better the compost, the more microbial life). Locally sourced compost is the most ideal! 

6. Work in some aged chicken manure as a nitrogen source, which is necessary for green leafy plant growth. If you can find local chicken manure it will likely contain lots of beneficial biology, some even native to your area. If you can’t locally source this, they do carry bags at Home Depot.

7. Water again very deeply. Then, cover with cardboard, or a tarp – or mulch with leaves, straw, or wood chips. Mulches provide food for the microbial communities in the soil, snuff out weeds, help with water retention, and protect living soil from the elements. 

8. Allow your soil to rest, covered, until you’re ready to plant!