How to start an organic garden and prepare soil for planting

Creating an organic garden

Organic allotment garden with raised soil beds and grass paths- in process

The first step is to have a plan in mind. Think about the layout and measurements of the paths. Take into account the size of slabs you may use, and the size and number of the beds you want. Ideally you should be able to access the centre of beds on all sides with a hoe. You should be able to move around the garden easy, such as with a wheel barrow. Think about whether you want wooden or slab path edgings. Also you need to think about what you want to plant, when you are going to plant it, and in what order. We planted as we went along preparing the garden from early spring.

We want to avoid the use of any artificial, unnatural and questionable chemicals in our soil. This includes all commercial weed-killers, fertilizers and pesticides. We want our food to be the most natural, healthy, healing, tasty, satisfying and purifying. Digging and preparing the garden is very simple.

To prepare the beds, first measure out the paths with a tape measure, and then mark them out with twine and pieces wood or sticks. The next step is to carefully dig the top of the surface with a spade to remove any turf, nettles and any other jumble of growth. This can then be bagged up to be buried, left to rot down somewhere as compost or given away to your local recycling dump or local farm that collect garden waste.

We dug below and behind the fences to remove all rubbish and growth to create a walk-able path. Blackberry brambles were left behind the fence

When we first took over this garden you could not see half of it as it was coverd in vegetation. Even when the jungle was cleared you could not see the wall in the above picture, as the fence behind was full up with rubbish. No one else wanted this garden because it needed so much work. A whole kitchen, motorbike parts, household waste and trees were chucked over and lodged behind the fence.

It was a big job to dig, get behind it and throw the rubbish out. We agreed to take away all the rubbish if the person stopped throwing stuff over. He agreed and was very happy that we cleaned it out for him. Now he makes us cups of tea with biscuits and regularly comes for a chat, and we give him vegetables. We gave the wood away for use on a log fire, and also for it to be burnt and used for potash.

How to prepare a raised bed of soil

You can start by digging a trench. The soil from the trench can be used to make up the levels afterwards.

Paths and raised soil beds marked out with poly twine and wood sticks. A trench is dug across the width of the bed, with the depth and width of a spade

When you start digging, turn the earth over into the trench as you move along row by row, working backwards as you go. It is important not to tread on the soil once it has been dug and aerated. Keep the earth at a raised level, taking into account that after it has rained the earth will settle down and compact. Keep the bed level as much as possible. It is also beneficial to fork through the earth to make sure you are finding and removing all the roots.

Moving backward row by row turning over the soil into the trench to make the correct levels of earth

Digging the earth with a spade, and a bucket to put all the roots from the soil

This above bed was easy to do because it had already been dug over before as I previously buried a lot of garden waste there in deep trenches. When you are digging the earth over for the first time it is more difficult. Especially to deal with the weeds, if the garden had previously been a jungle before like ours was. When we took over the garden the earth was completely full of couch grass and bind weed roots.

Digging out weeds

The main aspect of preparing the soil for organic gardening is digging out the roots. There were 3 most important common types of roots to remove from the soil.

Couch grass. This looks like grass, but is a very poor type of grass, and underneath is a network of roots that completely clog up the soil and make things difficult to grow.
Bindweed. Same with bindweed roots, which is very similar. Even just a very small piece of bindweed root left in the soil will start growing and cause an infestation. The white snake like roots form a complex network and start to choke up the soil and plants.
Mares tail. The third one to watch out for is mares tail. This is one of the most durable and ancient weeds, which have been around since the dinosaurs walked the planet. The roots extend down upto 5 feet into the subsoil, and keep on growing and coming up. Finally after constant hoeing, photosynthesis can no longer take place and they will eventually rot down.
Other weeds to remove that are not so bad. These may include nettle, dock leaves and dandelion roots

Bucket of couch grass roots taken out of the soil whilst digging and turning over the soil

When you first start preparing the garden for the first time, now is the best time to clean out the soil by removing the roots as you go. Otherwise your future life as a gardener will be a constant fight against weeds. After the soil is completely cleaned out it becomes very easy to maintain the garden and keep on top of the weeds.

Bindweed roots and couch grass removed from the soil

After this is done, your future life will be made easy. The garden then becomes easy to maintain each year by hoeing the soil on a weekly basis. Apart from that it becomes easy to lightly fork the earth and turn it over with the spade, at the beginning and end of each season.

It may take many hours, days or weeks to remove these weed roots from the soil in the prepearatory stages of preparing your garden, but it is necessary and well worth it.

Wheelbarrow full of bindweed and couch grass

All these roots can then be taken away to the recycling dump and given to the local organic farm who collect garden waste. They leave it to dry out and rot down in the sun on massive heaps. The other option is to let it dry out and then burn it for potash to use as a natural fertilizer for the soil.

The problem with using weed-killer on these roots, is that it may kill everything, including all the wildlife. The birds need calcium from insects, in order for their small bones to form. Due to insects being killed off by herbicides, there are less birds now than previously before. All the wildlife is being killed off. Bees are also important for open pollination, but the herbicides are killing them off too.

A piece of Mares tail root. Each small fibre will start to grow, spread and shoot

If you want to be organic there is no other real way to get rid of the roots, but to remove them manually through digging and forking the earth. Even organic farms often produce a smaller crop due to such roots clogging up the soil. For organic farmers it is often a constant battle with weeds.

Also with too much herbicide use, the weeds will start to adapt and produce resistant super weeds. Therefore farmers are using more poisonous and toxic weed killers all the time in order to compete with the weeds. This creates more of a need to go organic.

One old method by farmers is to rotate the fields and leave one spare every year. They then put pigs on that field. The pigs eat these roots for their livelihood.

The pigs feet are like ploughs and they dig up the soil. Being a member of the elephant family their noses are also like ploughs and used for digging. They dig out and eat all the roots. Then at the end of the year you will not find any roots. Their manure also rots down and provides excellent nutrition for the soil.

Little Robin

Lots of little birds will come to see you and hang around while you are digging. This little Robin was watching me dig. He knew that since I was disturbing the soil plenty of insects and worms would be available. If I had used weed-killer he would have gone hungry.

Little orange breasted Robin sitting on the wire fence among black berry brambles watching and waiting for insects and worms

Bucket with Robin sitting on my spade near the fence scanning for worms, taking advantage of the recently dug earth

After finishing the digging you can make up the levels of the soil with the earth taken out of the trench. You can adjust the levels further using a rake.

Raised bed of soil levelled out with a rake, surrounded by paths near the wire gate and wooden fence

When you dig over the soil many little seeds lying dormant in the soil will begin to surface and start to germinate. Even seeds that are over 100 years old may still awaken and start to grow.

A little green weed starting to grow after turning over the soil

Use the hoe on the earth to control the weeds and keep the soil aerated

Use the hoe to maintain the soil and chop the heads off the little weeds. They will then rot down and provide nutrients for the soil.

Generally the soil in our garden is very rich, so it is not necessary to add anything else to the soil for up to 3 years. But we will have a composter going just in case and leave horse manure to rot down at some stage for a natural fertiliser. Potatoes love rotted down manure.

Take into account that different plants and vegetables prefer different types of soil. Some crops like potatoes love very rich soil. Whilst carrots will multi-root in rich soil and will grow better in poor soil. Show carrots are often produced in a tube with sand.

Ready to plant

Now we are ready to use our newly dug soil bed for planting. Use a line attached to two pieces of wood to measure out straight lines. If for any reason you need to step on the soil then use a wooden board or plank to avoid compacting the soil. We are now ready to plant our autumn broad beans and garlic.

Planting several rows of broad beans down the side of the soil bed near the path using a line with two pieces of wood

We planted broad beans down the side near the path for easy access and shelter from winds, and where there is good drainage. Also consider the shade they may cast on other plants. They were planted in stagger rows 12 inches apart and 2 inches deep.

On the other side we planted several rows of garlic clothes 12 inches apart and staggered from each other so they do not block each others light. Plant them so that the roots point down and the tops just poke out of the soil.

A line with pieces of wood are used to create a straight line to plant garlic on the other side of the soil bed