Preparing Soil in Our Community Garden

Reader Contribution by Lisa Dermer
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Waiting for a plot in our community garden, we were rich in time and poor in land. Now that my family

received a plot in our community garden at the end of January, we’re short on time and rich in garden dreams, especially with twin babies at home!

So what’s the fastest, most economical way to get started gardening while treating the Earth with respect? Thanks to what may have been the warmest, driest January ever recorded in California, our soil is dry enough to get started right away. (We can determine if the soil is dry enough to work with the classic test: When I squeeze a ball of dirt in my fist, I ask “does it crumble or form a muddy ball?” If it crumbles, you’re good to go. If it forms a ball, you risk creating soil clods and causing soil compaction.)

Once we’re sure the soil is dry enough to work, next comes the much harder question of just how to work it. For getting started in sod, Steve Solomon’s technique from Gardening When it Countswill get you harvesting faster than any other method I’ve come across. Solomon tells us to forget the row crops: Garden like the Native Americans by digging up 18-inch-diameter hills on four foot centers. Get your crops started, then worry about working the areas in between the hills.

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