Planting a garden as part of your prepping plan could help you ensure you have a sustainable source of fresh vegetables, herbs, and fruit in times of food scarcity.
And one thing that will help you have a garden that helps feed your and your loved ones is great soil.
Why is Soil Preparation Important?
Preparing your soil properly is essential for ensuring a productive and resilient prepper garden. Healthy soil provides essential nutrients, structure, and drainage for your plants. If the soil is too compacted, acidic, or lacking nutrients, your plants may not grow properly.
Soil preparation includes:
:: Improving soil for better root growth
:: Adjusting the soil pH
:: Enhancing nutrients
:: Improving drainage and moisture retention
When soil is prepared properly, your plants will have a better chance of growing strong, healthy, and productive.
Identifying Soil Type
Soil is not just dirt. It’s made up of microbes, minerals, porous particles, and surprisingly, small creatures. And not all soil is the same. Soil types depend on where you live. Identifying your soil type is vital to managing its specific needs and characteristics.
Soil can be classified into four main types:
:: Clay – Retains water but can be too compacted
:: Sandy – Drains quickly but lacks nutrients
:: Silt – Fertile but may erode easily
:: Loam – Ideal mixture of clay, sand, and silt
So how do you identify your type of soil? It’s simple. Wet a handful of soil and squeeze it. Clay-heavy soil will form a tight, slightly moist round shape. If it’s sandy, it will crumble easily and feel like grit. Dry silt feels soft and flour-like, while wet silt feels smooth and slippery, but not sticky. Wet loam will hold together loosely but crumble when squeezed slightly, the ideal balance. Loam soil provides balanced moisture retention and nutrient levels making it the ideal type of garden soil for vegetable and herb gardens. If you have clay soil, you can add some organic matter to avoid compaction.
After identifying your soil type, now you can look to improve its nutrients.
Test the Soil’s pH and Nutrient Levels
One of the first things you need to do when preparing your soil is to test its pH. You can do so by using a home test kit or sending samples to a lab. This will tell you what your soil needs. The pH of the soil affects how well plants absorb nutrients. Some plants prefer acidic soil while others prefer alkaline soil. A neutral pH of around 6 to 7 is ideal for most plants.
How to manage your soil if it’s too acidic or too alkaline:
:: For acidic soil (pH below 6): Add lime or wood ash to raise the pH.
:: For alkaline soil (pH above 7): Add sulfur or peat moss to lower the pH.
Once the soil test provides the current pH level, you can proceed with incorporating organic matter like mulch, compost, or manure to help improve nutrient content.
Protect Your Soil With Mulch
Mulch acts as a protective blanket covering the soil, typically organic material that will break down and improve your soil. Mulch stops water from evaporating, trapping it underground for plant roots to access in addition to preventing weeds from sprouting, pests from infesting, and diseases from infecting.
Organic mulches typically include:
:: Bark
:: Compost
:: Hay
:: Leaf mold
:: Manure
:: Peat moss
:: Shredded leaves
:: Straw
:: Wood chips
Wood-based mulches are better for shrubs and trees than for vegetables. Consider using nutrient-rich mulches, like compost or manure, when planting a vegetable garden.
Compost and Manure
Compost is a type of mulch made up of organic material like food scraps, straw, leaves, livestock manure, and shredded leaves.
Compost has several benefits for improving soil quality:
:: Acts as a fertilizer, providing nutrients.
:: Improves soil structure, loosens hard soils and tightens up sandy soils.
:: Holds moisture while also improving drainage.
:: Adds useful probiotics to your garden.
Another organic matter to consider is manure. Animal manure, aged for a few months or up to a year, can help improve garden soil’s health and fertility. Manure from chickens, cows, goats, horses, rabbits, and sheep can provide nutrients for the soil. Note: Manure from carnivores (like dogs, cats, and bears) or pigs should NEVER be used.
Whatever organic matter you choose, spread a layer of compost that’s two to three inches thick over the soil, and then work it into the top 6 to 8 inches of soil. Remember to add it to your garden twice a year, in spring and in autumn.
Loosen the Soil
You’ll want to loosen the soil to improve air circulation and allow the roots of your plants to grow freely. Compacted soil can restrict root development and make it harder for water and nutrients to reach the plants.
Ways to loosen soil:
:: Digging: If you have a small garden, use a spade or shovel to dig and loosen the soil.
:: Tilling: For larger gardens, a tiller can break up compacted soil quickly and efficiently.
:: Aeration: With a garden fork or aeration tool, you make a series of small holes in the soil to improve air and water circulation.
Fertilize the Soil
Once the soil is better balanced and loosened, adding fertilizer, also known as essential plant food, will enhance the vegetables, herbs, and fruit that you harvest. Fertilizer provides critical nutrients, such as nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. The best fertilizers for optimal soil quality are organic. Organic fertilizer is made from animal waste, minerals, and plant waste, and take longer to decompose and feed plants than conventional fertilizer.
Here are 3 common fertilizer grades:
:: 10-10-10: Equal nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium ideal for a wide range of crops.
:: 6-12-12: Ideal for root vegetables and plants requiring more phosphorus.
:: 5-10-15: Suitable for harvesting most garden vegetable types.
Note: Over-fertilizing can burn plants. To avoid overfertilizing, perform a soil test to reveal the pH, structure, and fertility levels of your garden’s soil. Once you have the results, you’ll know exactly which nutrients to add.
Let the Soil Settle
Once you have prepared the soil, simply allow it to settle for a day or two before proceeding to the planting stage. This step allows the compost and fertilizers to blend with the soil effectively. It also helps to prevent soil compaction as further digging or tilling wet soil can compact and damage the soil. In addition to letting the soil settle, watch where you walk as the healthy soil possesses many pockets that hold excess water, air, and microbes that benefit new crops. Stepping on the soil may compact the soil further and squeeze these vital pockets.
Maintain Soil Drainage
Good drainage is essential for most plants. If the soil retains too much water, it can lead to root rot, mold, and other issues.
Here’s how to test soil drainage:
<1> Dig a hole about 12 inches deep
<2> Fill it with water
<3> If the water drains within a few hours, your soil has good drainage.
<4> If water remains after 24 hours, your soil may be compacted or too clay heavy.
To improve drainage, you have a few options. You can add sand into clay-heavy soil to break it up and increase drainage. You can add perlite or vermiculite, both lightweight materials that can be added to improve aeration and drainage. Or, if your soil has serious drainage issues, raised beds can allow the plants to have adequate drainage.
Avoid or Limit Pesticides
Before you use pesticides, consider the fact that it’s normal to see insects in the garden. In fact, most do nothing wrong and for every insect, there’s another insect ready to eat it. Predatory bugs and beneficial pollinators will naturally help control pest populations.
If you see a pest problem, don’t immediately grab the pesticide. Pesticides are toxic and can contaminate the soil while harming ecosystems, and damage worms, microbes, and other creatures in the soil. In fact, residue from pesticides can affect the vegetables, herbs, and fruit that you eat from your garden. If you must use pesticide, avoid broad-spectrum pesticides because they can kill bees, birds, butterflies, and moths. Select products that target the specific pest you need to eliminate.
Importance of Prepper Gardening
When your prepper food supply runs out or stores are closed, growing your own harvest is an important way to get more food in a long-term disaster scenario.
Advantages of prepper gardening …
:: Provides a reliable source of fresh, nutritious, organic food
:: No longer rely on store bought produce
:: Embrace the freedom of self-sustainability
:: Growing your own is cost-effective
And now that you know how to prepare the soil for planting, it’s time to get your hands dirty and start your garden. Remember that healthy soil is the foundation of a successful garden, so take your time to prepare it properly. By testing the pH, adding organic matter, improving drainage, and fertilizing as needed, you’ll set yourself up for a bountiful garden. Healthy soil leads to stronger plants, fewer pests and bigger harvests.
