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Tips on preparing your garden

Whether you are planning on planting in your established garden or have a brand new palette to play with, here are some tips intended to make it easier to help you have a great, productive garden:

Get your soil tested, if you haven't done so already. This gives you an accurate idea of what additional amendments you may need to add to your soil to make sure you get maximum growth and production from your plants. If you have questions on how to do soil samples correctly, please see my article here at Helium at this site http://www.helium.com/items/93 4116-really-successful-garden- early.

Once you have the results of your soil test, you need to add any additional amendments necessary for optimum growth. Don't have time to get in a soil test to the lab, you can use one of the over the counter type test kits for a quick and dirty idea of what you need. They are not as detailed nor as accurate as the lab test, but it does give you a general idea of what you need to add to you soil.

The easiest way to add additional organic material to your bed is with a tiller, however, if you don't have access to a tiller, don't want rent one or have some do the tilling for you, I suggested you try the lasagna method. The Lasagna method is a no-till method based on books by Patrica Lanza. It consists of layering various amendments to the area you want to plant. It is basically sheet composting on a smaller scale.

You begin by adding a several layers of wet newspaper (only the black and white section, do not use the colored advertisements) or wet cardboard cut to fit the area you are working with (avoid the waxed type, it is very difficult to wet down). Earthworms love newspaper and cardboard. They are essential to healthy soil and a great garden. You then add a layer of spent coffee grounds, vegetable waste including banana peels, vegetable parings, etc. then cover with another layer of newspaper. Then add a layer of compost and then a layer of peat moss. Cover with grass clippings of mulch. The layer will look very thick, but over time the worms will reduce the layers to a nice level area. You can plant directly into these bed, just use a garden trowel to get through the layers and plant your flowers or seedlings. For seed, I suggest you not use the mulch, but sprinkle your seed directly on the area and cover with a thin layer of soil, compost or peat moss. Water well. One of the real advantages of this method is that anyone can do it, most of the ingredients

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