Around the first of April, check the weather and assess what the precipitation outlook is for the first two weeks of the month. If it calls for a lot of rain, stand pat, until drier weather is forecast. If the little rain is on the horizon, then you are ready to go.
The first step in preparing your bed is to till (turn over) the soil. This can be done one or two ways. The easy way is to buy, rent, or borrow a motorized rotor tiller, or you can use a spade shovel and some elbow grease. If you go the old fashion route, you will have to bury the head of the spade completely in the ground, lift the soil, and dump it over. This will have to be done for the entire bed. (Note: Do not think you are getting out hard work if you go the mechanized route. You will have to fight that machine to get the job done right; they constantly want to jump side to side as you are attempting to plow straight ahead.)
Once you have the ground turned over, check the texture of your dirt. If it has a clay texture and displays the tendency to stay in big clumps, then there is an extra step you are going to want to take: you will need to go to your local garden center and purchase a bag of sand and a bag of peat moss. I would recommend one bag of each for every 80 square feet of garden bed. With your sand and moss in hand, you are going to want to spread both out evenly over your bed. Then, you have to turn the ground over again, mixing in the sand and the moss. The goal here is to obtain a nice loamy soil that you can scoop up in your hands, which will allow for proper water retention and aeration of you garden bed.
3. The final step after turning over your ground and ensuring proper soil texture, is to take a bow rake and level out the bed. When you are done, you will have a nice level garden bed, ready for planting. Check back next issue for tips on when and how to plant your garden.