Preparing the Soil For Butternut Squash
One of the most important steps in gardening is preparing the soil.
Getting your garden's soil abundant in oxygen and nutrients will ensure a flowering and thriving garden.
Before we begin to improve your soil's health, start by clearing the site where your garden is to be.
You will need to clear the surface of any rocks, brush, and plants, including their roots.
Clearing an established grassy area will take some extra work.
Mow the intended area for your garden.
Use a flat spade to 'scrape' or strip the sod.
If you have a large area of sod to clear, you may want to use a sod cutter.
Keep and stack the sod which later can be used for compost.
I am a bit lazier then that.
I use black plastic to clear new areas.
All the living plants will die under the plastic after about a month due to lack of sunlight.
Use enough plastic sheet or rolls to spread across your whole garden area, overlapping when necessary to keep sunlight out.
You can hold everything down with rocks, boards, or anything with some weight to it.
After about 30 days get rid of the plastic and till the entire garden area.
Just till all the dead plants into the soil.
This will organic matter to you garden.
Watch for any weeds that may appear and keep them pulled.
A friend of mine uses newspaper.
It is her way of recycling.
She spreads newspaper in the same way that I use plastic, only with five or six layers of paper.
She does this in the fall season.
She tops the newspaper with mulch and let's it sit for about three or four months until the newspapers decompose.
She then tills it into the dirt.
If you aren't in a hurry and have plenty of time, there is another method, although I have never personally tried it myself.
The 'repeated tilling' process will add organic matter and it will kill the weeds but it takes much of all the growing season to accomplish.
In this process 'green manuring' takes place.
It involves the soil planting, in this case broadcasting seeds until the crop is about 6 inches high, then tilled into the soil for the purpose of soil improvement.
In my area, legumes such as soybeans may be used.
Let the cover crop decay, usually in a couple of weeks in warm weather, and till again and get ready to plant.
The soil in your garden will be rich with nutrients to make those butternut squash thrive like crazy!
Getting your garden's soil abundant in oxygen and nutrients will ensure a flowering and thriving garden.
Before we begin to improve your soil's health, start by clearing the site where your garden is to be.
You will need to clear the surface of any rocks, brush, and plants, including their roots.
Clearing an established grassy area will take some extra work.
Mow the intended area for your garden.
Use a flat spade to 'scrape' or strip the sod.
If you have a large area of sod to clear, you may want to use a sod cutter.
Keep and stack the sod which later can be used for compost.
I am a bit lazier then that.
I use black plastic to clear new areas.
All the living plants will die under the plastic after about a month due to lack of sunlight.
Use enough plastic sheet or rolls to spread across your whole garden area, overlapping when necessary to keep sunlight out.
You can hold everything down with rocks, boards, or anything with some weight to it.
After about 30 days get rid of the plastic and till the entire garden area.
Just till all the dead plants into the soil.
This will organic matter to you garden.
Watch for any weeds that may appear and keep them pulled.
A friend of mine uses newspaper.
It is her way of recycling.
She spreads newspaper in the same way that I use plastic, only with five or six layers of paper.
She does this in the fall season.
She tops the newspaper with mulch and let's it sit for about three or four months until the newspapers decompose.
She then tills it into the dirt.
If you aren't in a hurry and have plenty of time, there is another method, although I have never personally tried it myself.
The 'repeated tilling' process will add organic matter and it will kill the weeds but it takes much of all the growing season to accomplish.
In this process 'green manuring' takes place.
It involves the soil planting, in this case broadcasting seeds until the crop is about 6 inches high, then tilled into the soil for the purpose of soil improvement.
In my area, legumes such as soybeans may be used.
Let the cover crop decay, usually in a couple of weeks in warm weather, and till again and get ready to plant.
The soil in your garden will be rich with nutrients to make those butternut squash thrive like crazy!
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