Hi all,
I'm new to gardening and tomorrow I'm gonna roto till for the first time my new garden, it's only 20ft by 20ft and virgin ground with the grass still on it. After I get it tilled can you please give me some advice on what I should mix with the soil like pete moss, furtilizers ect also I live just south of Chicago so am I correct to wait until the end of May before I plant my tomatoes? Any other advice or tips you can think of for a new gardener will be greatly appriciated.
Thanks so much,
Paul
Compost compost compost, that is 3 great thing to add to new soil. Tat will get the microbiology in the soil jump started. As well as adding tilth to you soil.
Best single thing you can do for your garden is start a compost pile! Browse in our compost forum if you aren't familiar with composting. But that won't help you for right now. If you start now, you will have some compost ready for fall.
For right now you have a couple different choices to get started: till or no-till. Tilling up the garden is the traditional way to start. It you do that, you will turn up a bunch of weed seeds that will then sprout, so really you need to till it all, wait a couple weeks, put down your soil amendments, and then till it again, so you are tilling under all the weeds that sprouted. Good soil amendments include well aged composted manure, mushroom compost, earthworm castings. Instead of peat moss you can just use some potting soil, which contains the peat moss and some vermiculite and usually some fertilizer and helps lighten up your soil. Not saying you need all of those things, just that they would be good choices.
The no-till option would just be to cut out your sod (usually if you cut under the roots, you can just peel it up like a carpet) in a wide row. Flip the sod grass side down, on top of the row next to it. Wet it down, cover it with a couple thicknesses of cardboard or many (8-10) thicknesses of newspaper and soak thoroughly. Cover that with soil, compost, leaf mould, any of those other amendments mentioned, several inches deep and plant into that. If you are putting in plants, not seed, you can cut holes into the newspaper to help the roots go down into the soil.
Tilling is traditional, easy, and will definitely work, though likely starting from lawn, you will be battling that grass wanting to keep coming back. It also kills the earthworms and disrupts a lot of soil biology. The no-till method may be a bit more work getting started, but it is one time work. Over the course of the season the newspaper/cardboard will decompose, the grass will get smothered and you will be left with a nice deep row of very enriched soil. It preserves all the soil biology and holds water better.
Obviously, you can tell which way I lean, though I tried to stick just to statements of fact. And people tend to be very passionate on both sides of this question, so since I put the controversy out there, we may hear from both sides, defending why they do what they do. Being new to gardening, it's probably too early for you to know much about what kind of gardener you want to be (I.e. how important is organic, being "green" to you.) But before all the defending responses pour in, let me be very clear that I am saying that either way will work and you can produce a nice, productive garden either way.
End of may seems conservative for your tomatoes. (You are talking about tomato PLANTS, right?) If you are past danger of frost and the soil does not feel cold when you put your finger down into it, plant the tomatoes. My tomatoes have been in the ground for a couple weeks and have survived a couple nights when the temps went back down to near freezing. Not saying they liked it, but they survived it.
If you till in the sod and wait a week then till it again, you will kill most of the grass and also kill a lot of weeds thet will germinate in that week.
Plots just reclaimed from sod are very fertile the first year. You have received good advide about adding compost to maintain the fertility. The amount of organic matter and the fertility will drop drastically in two years if you fail to keep adding organic mater.
Mulching is a good way to keep the organic matter up, and you can also do what is called sheet composting, which is to add large amounts of organic matter in the fall after the crops are done and till it in. Leaves are good for this.
Before you start the tiller, check the dampness of the soil. You never want to till if it is wet enough to make clods.
PS: I prefer to just till in the sod. All that organic matter is what makes the plot so fertile the first year.
Well, Gix summed it up pretty good. One thing that I can say is to read this WHOLE thread: [url=https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=17097&start=0]ACT[/url]. You will learn a lot about the microbes that live in the soil.
Yes, as Gixx and Jal-ut already stated... till, and then till again.
Then, you will likely need to keep a Rake and Hoe handy to regularly cultivate the soil to "stay on top of" stray weeds that want to pop up.
When you first start a newly tilled garden, weeds can be one of the biggest set-backs ... and can be a major frustration for beginning gardeners. Stay proactive and patient, and you should do fine.
Also, you don't have to be "no till" to use newspaper and cardboard. Those are great items to use as mulch around your plantings; great to choke out any weeds trying to get a foothold.
Any bare soil is an invitation to weeds; so keep it planted or covered.
I want to thank all you guys for the good advice, I really appriciate it, I just tilled it yesterday, and will till it again this week-end, and start planting. I plan on spending alot of time in my new garden, but I keep seeing the advertisment for Preen on TV, what do you guys, and gals think of the use of preen to help with weed control?
Paul
I'm assuming you do mean the one specific to VEGETABLE GARDEN -- primary ingredient Corn Gluten, and not the other chemical ones for ornamentals.
Preen, as a brand, is pre-emergent control. That means it keeps seeds from germinating. Do you intend to sow vegetable seeds like beans, corn, peas, radish, carrots, etc. or are you just planting transplants?
I, personally, hate to put any type of chemical on my garden. Although this "garden version" of Preen may be OK (though, I always have to wonder), I agree with Apple in that it will probably have a strong negative effect on your see germination.
