Loosening the Dirt of your garden

Loosening the Dirt
The next step to preparing the land for your garden is to loosen the
dirt. This is an important step because loosened dirt makes it easier
for the roots of your plants to grow and to spread. This also helps
them create a stronger hold within the dirt. The better the roots
grow, the healthier and stronger your plants will be.
Use Your Handy-Dandy Shovel Again
You have a couple options available to you for loosening the dirt.
Your first option is to use your spade. To loosen the dirt with your
spade, you will shovel the entire area to the depth the spade allows.
Each time you dig up a load of dirt with the spade, turn the clump of
dirt upside down and move on to the next section of the garden
plot.
If your dirt is somewhat sandy, flipping the dirt clumps upside down
may be all that is needed to loosen the dirt. If your dirt has a great
deal of clay to it, however, the ground will likely remain in a hard
clump when you dig it out of the ground. If the dirt does not break
apart and loosen when you dig it up and flip it upside down, you will
need to use your spade to break the dirt apart.
Let a Machine Do the Work with a Tiller
An easier way to loosen the dirt for your garden plot is to use a
tiller. A tiller is a machine with rotating blades at the bottom that are
specifically designed to tear up dirt for a garden. These tools can be

pushed and pulled while you remain in a standing position, similar to
a push lawn mower.
If you are creating a small garden, you really don’t need a large tiller.
Large tillers are more expensive than smaller models and can be
quite heavy and cumbersome to operate. On the other hand, they
are capable of covering a greater surface at one time. I personally
use the Mantis brand tiller. This tiller is small, lightweight, and easy to
use. I have had it for about five years and it is still running strong and
I have never had to replace any of its parts.
Using a tiller is a much simpler method for loosening the dirt in your
garden plot, but it is more expensive to purchase a tiller than it is to
purchase a spade. Therefore, it is up to you whether or not it is
worth the expense.
An added bonus to a tiller is that you do not necessarily have to
remove the grass and weeds before loosening the dirt. A tiller can
tear right through the grass and weeds for you. Be careful when
using this option, however, because some weeds will propagate when
they are chopped up. If you do decide to use the tiller to cut
through the weeds and grass while also loosening the dirt, you will
need to comb through the dirt with a garden rake in order to
remove the grass and weeds. Otherwise, they can re-establish
themselves in your garden.
Using a Garden Rake
A garden rake is not the same as a leaf rake. Both garden rakes and
leaf rakes have a long handle and tines at the end, but the design of
the tines is different. The tines of a leaf rake are loose and long in
order to allow the rake to glide softly over the ground without
damaging the grass. Garden rakes, on the other hand, have shorter
tines that bend at a 90 degree angle. The tines of a garden rake are
also very stiff because they are meant to rake through the ground,
not over it.
After you have tilled the entire garden plot area, use your garden
rake to comb through the loosened dirt. If the dirt has been
adequately loosened, it will sift right through the tines while they
catch hold of the grass, weeds, and other plant debris that needs to
be removed. When you are all done, the dirt should be smoothed
out flat with several ruts running through it that have been created
by the tines of the rake.
Even if you do remove the grass and weeds from your garden area
before you loosen the dirt, you should use the garden rake as your
final step of the dirt loosening process. This is true whether you use
a tiller to loosen the dirt or a spade. In this way, you can be assured
all large clumps of dirt have been broken down and you also have a
nice, smooth surface to work with.