Caring for soil

Garden Life

If the soil has not been weeded since autumn and is covered in garden rubbish or if there are the remains of autumn or winter vegetables on it, it first has to be cleared - either by removing everything or by digging it in. If you have carefully sown green manure into the beds for the winter, the same procedure applies. If, in contrast, your garden soil has spent the winter as a cleared, tidy area, it just needs harrowing in when March comes along.

Areas that you now freshly dig over should first be exposed to the rain and you must wait two weeks for the soil to settle before harrowing. As soon as the soil has dried out a little after harrowing, level it with a large rake (e.g. a GARDENA rake), separate the remaining lumps of earth and smooth it all down with a fine pronged rake. Then the bed area is ready for sowing and planting.

When caring for soil in spring, it is also advisable to make loamy or clay soils smoother using coarse sand. Depending on how solid the soil is, around one barrow (around 80 litres) of sand per two to five square metres of beds should do the trick. Conversely, you can replace the sand with loam if the soil is sandy.

Areas dug over in autumn

Areas which you have already dug over in autumn are loosened up thoroughly to a good depth using a Sow Tooth or Grubber prior to sowing seeds in spring. Then you can smooth off the finely-crumbed bed area using a rake. As you do this, add a little decomposed compost (approx. 2 l/m2) - unless you are planning to sow out carrots or horse radish here.