We have been asked the same question quite frequently lately- How do I prep my garden for the new gardening season?

This is a great question and since every garden needs a little refresher once a year, we are going to go over the basics today! I am going to focus a lot of this post on prepping raised beds, but the same principles apply to traditional gardens as well. I will also discuss how to prep containers at the end.

Raised Beds

I have two raised beds that I built last year when my family moved to San Antonio. I filled the boxes using the 60/30/10 rule, which means that I filled them each with 60% garden soil, 30% compost, and 10% coconut coir.

I live in zone 8, so I started conditioning my soil in early January in order to be ready for planting at the end of January. It is a good idea to prep your garden several weeks before planting to give the compost and other ingredients time to cool off and rest before planting.

Over time, soil in raised beds will settle, so you will need to purchase enough supplies to fill the soil to the top of the bed again. I chose not to continue to follow the 60/30/10 rule to refill the boxes, but chose instead to refresh with soil and compost only.

My boxes each measure 8 feet by 4 feet and each needed 2 cubic feet of garden soil (I purchased Miracle-Gro) and 1.5 cubic feet of compost to be filled to the top. I chose a humus and manure soil conditioner by Scotts and some leftover llama manure from a load I brought home from my dad’s house last summer as my compost options. I purchased all of my supplies from Tractor Supply and spent about $24 total for all of my supplies.

My boxes still had a little but of mulch from last season lingering on the top and I have a few perennial herbs (one of the benefits of living in zone 8), so I added the soil and compost evenly on the existing soil then gave everything a good stir with a shovel, working around the herbs. One of the benefits of a raised bed is that the soil does not get compact from stepping on it, so stirring was super easy!

While I was stirring the soil, I looked out for any loose roots, caterpillar larvae, weeds and generally anything that didn’t belong in my garden, such as leftover garden ties. Caterpillar larvae are fat, white caterpillars curled into a “C” shape. You will want to get rid of those because they grow into evil, garden destroying menaces.  

And… that’s it. Easy, right? The total time I spent shopping for supplies and then working through the garden was one morning. And that was because I had to drive a little ways to get to the Tractor Supply store!

Traditional Gardens

Traditional gardens are conditioned in almost the exact same way with two differences. One- you will not need to purchase garden soil as you should hopefully have plenty already. And two- you will probably need to use a tiller instead of a shovel to stir up your soil.

You will need to purchase compost- or better yet, use some that you have made yourself! I really want to make my own compost, but since another move is one our horizon in the next couple of years, I am choosing to wait until I have some more permanent roots. However, Lauresa is the queen of composting and wrote a fantastic section of one of our chapters in the Black Thumb Garden Club Workbook all about compost. Check it out here!

If you have not had your soil tested, springtime is a great time of year to do so. Traditional gardens sometimes lack certain nutrients that are ideal for best garden growing. A soil test will reveal what your soil needs or doesn’t need.

To conduct a soil test, you will take a sample of soils from several places in your garden and will take the soil to your local university extension office. You will get your results in the mail a few weeks later. They will tell you exactly what you need to add.

Once you are ready to plant in both raised beds and traditional gardens, be sure to practice crop rotation principles to keep your soil happy and healthy!

Container Gardens

Lauresa and I differ in the types of gardens we have. As mentioned above, I garden in raised beds while Lauresa rocks the traditional garden. But we both grow several things in containers each year.

If you are growing an annual in a container, you will need to either purchase brand new soil for your container or sanitize the current soil. (We discuss how to sanitize soil in our workbook!) With both methods, you will need to remove the soil from the container. While the container is without soil, disinfect it with a mixture of 1 part bleach to 9 parts water. This will ensure that you have a nice clean container for growing.

If you are growing perennials in a container, you will actually want to repot them each year. You can repot them in the same container and just refresh the soil, or you can put them in a larger container if they need it! Be sure that you are adding fertilizer regularly!

Be sure that the soil you purchase is potting soil and not garden or top soil… your container plants need soil that is light and breathable!

Pretty easy, right? Before long, you will have healthy soil that is home to lots of beautiful plants!

Happy Gardening!