Prepping Your Vegetable Beds for Planting

It is April, y’all! This is by far my FAVORITE time of year. Here in south Texas the weather is warm during the day and cool at night, and all of the plants and flowers are starting to really come alive under the sun.

Preparing for spring and summer planting is a big topic at this time. You may need to clear out old plants or vegetables that are meeting their ends, or revitalize an area that took a hit over the winter. A big part of this is prepping the soil.

But how the heck do you do that??

Let’s go through the steps you can take, as well as my favorite products to use, in order to get your beds ready to go!

Be sure to check out my YouTube video here!

Step 1: Remove Old Plants from Your Beds

Whether your lettuce is getting to the end of its life cycle and starting to bolt, or a recent storms decimated your broccoli, it is time to go through your garden and get rid of anything dying. You may choose to feed it to your animals, throw it in the compost, or use it in the kitchen.

Be sure to clear out all of the roots and any seeds that may have dispersed. This is also a good time to remove any rocks or other debris that may have accumulated in the soil.

Step 2: Evaluate Your Soil Conditions

Now if you have raised beds like me, you know what all you have put in them thus far. Depending on how old they are, they likely have a good amount of nutrients and minerals still in them. However, certain vegetables can alter the composition of the soil. You need to make sure you are rotating your vegetables to prevent an accumulation or deficiency of these nutrients. For instance, legumes like green beans will put a lot of nitrogen into the soil. This is great for a lot of vegetables, but not root crops like carrots. So if you just grew beans, don’t follow with carrots. In practicing crop rotation, you shouldn’t have to amend the soil too much.

You can also get a soil test done to see if it is lacking any nutrients that you need to add in. I would highly recommend sending samples through Texas A&M Agrilife Extension here. You can usually look up a local service providing soil testing, usually through a university.

Step 3: Add in Fresh Compost to Your Beds

Your plants will appreciate a fresh dressing of compost mixed into the soil, especially heavy feeders like tomatoes and peppers. Compost does several important things for your soil:

• Adds in micronutrients like iron, zinc
• Improves moisture retention
• Adds in important beneficial microbes
• Supports important soil organisms like earthworms
• Helps balance pH

There are numerous different types of compost, but I prefer leaf mold compost for vegetable planting. I buy mine locally and I would advise you to do the same if you can.

Step 4: Add in Minerals Once a Year to Your Beds

Everyone knows that nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium are important for healthy plants, but what about other minerals and nutrients? That is where using trace minerals comes in to play. In using this you are adding back in things like sulfur, iron, copper, zinc, etc that all plants need to thrive.

I find that adding in trace minerals once a year is perfectly adequate for my backyard garden. As with evaluating soil conditions, if you want to utilize a soil analysis to find out specifically what your soil is lacking, that can be helpful for larger areas.

Here is where you can find my favorite trace minerals off Amazon.

Step 5: Add in Fertilizer to Your Beds

I find that adding in a general fertilizer for vegetable planting has benefit. It overall boost the amount of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium in the soil that may be lacking from previous planting. I also use specific fertilizers for the plants themselves once they are growing, but that is a whole other topic!

Here is where you can find my favorite general fertilizer.

Step 6: Get to Planting!

I hope you all found this helpful! Comment below if you have any questions, and be sure to check out my YouTube video!

Happy gardening, y’all!