A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2003 To till or not to till. That is the question.

Hi there! I'm new here, so please forgive me if I sound dopey. I have started a flower bed by creating my design, and taking out all of the existing grass, weeds and what ever else may have been there. I have soil that has a pretty good mixture of clay, dirt and small rock. I have stripped it to a depth of about 2 inches. Next on my agenda is to put down a layer of manure compost and peat hummus. Then my plan is to till all of the soil, and mix it up fairly well, then to top off that layer again with more hummus and compost. Is this the way that I should be doing that? I am planning on planting some tulip and daffodil bulbs, a few perennials, and filling in the gaps for now where the bulb plants will eventually be with annuals. Any advice that anyone has would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Georgianne

Doesn't sound dopey at all, Georgianne! All of gardening is a learning experience. Sounds like you're really doing things right. When I started my garden, I took off the turf, put down peat humus, got a friend to roto-till it all in to a depth of about a foot, and started planting. It worked great! I didn't put a second top layer on, but that'll probably be even nicer, especially if you're putting seeds in. Your plants will love their new home. Good luck!

My garden is now ten years old and due for a make-over this fall. That means I'll be picking up plants and replentishing the soil with compost. Sounds like a big job, but remembering how great everything looked when the soil was newly fortified will get me through it. Has anyone else done this?