How to prepare a vegetable garden

So you've decided to prepare a vegetable garden and have gone through the checklist to ensure that your garden will get enough sun and its soil will be well drained.Here are some tips to consider when taking the next steps.

• Once you've chosen a site for your vegetable garden, prepare the soil. Strip off any sod and remove any weeds.
• To do so, you can work the soil by repeat tilling. To till, use a spade or a spading fork for a small area. Rent a rototiller for a larger plot, or if you find the digging tough.
• Consider hiring a teenager or two for this work if your back is prone to injury.

• To make sure you have killed any unwanted plants, solarize the soil. Place clear plastic sheeting over bare soil for three to four weeks.
• This will kill most pests and weed seeds in the top few centimetres (or inches) of soil.
• After removing the plastic, you can plant your new garden.

• If possible, avoid using herbicides in a vegetable garden. If you must use an herbicide, make sure it contains glysophate as its only active ingredient.
• Glysophate is less toxic because it degrades into naturally occurring ingredients: nitrogen, phosphorus and carbon dioxide. If you use such a product, follow the instructions on the label.
• Vegetable gardens require soil that is loose enough so seedling roots can thrust their way through, but dense enough to support the roots.
• All soil intended for growing vegetables will benefit from digging in 2.5 to 7.5 centimetres (one to three inches) of compost spread on top. If the soil is clayey (forms a dense ball when squeezed), also spread and dig in 2.5 centimetres (one inch) of sand.
• If it's sandy soil (won't hold together when squeezed), spread and dig in an inch of peat moss.

• Dig or till amendments into the soil when the soil is slightly moist. If it's too wet, it will form large clods; if it's too dry, it will be too difficult to work. (Give it a soaking with a sprinkler, if needed.)
• Till the soil to the maximum depth possible, usually about 30 centimetres (one foot).
• You can rent a tiller or hire someone with a tiller to do this for you.
• To do an especially good job of preparing the soil, spade down another 15 to 30 centimetres (six to 12 inches) and loosen the layer of soil beneath the tilling. This assures better drainage and better-formed root crops, such as carrots.

• Vegetables grow best in soil that has a pH of 6 or 7 (pH is measured on a scale from 1 [very acid] to 14 [very alkaline]).
• If your soil is too acid, you can treat it with a dressing of finely ground limestone; treat very alkaline soil with peat moss.
• To find out the pH — and the nutrient content of your soil — you can buy a kit that gives a reasonably accurate reading.