Yard Work In January?

The weather has been up and down this winter and today as I squished my way across the yard I thought I might try to see if I could turn over any beds in the garden since the soil was so soft.  We had been getting a lot of wet snow and rain lately, so the normally hard packed clay soil was very soft and easy to work with.  I was surprised that it wasn't too sticky in the beds and seemed to stay nice and fluffy as I turned it over.

This fall when I turned over a few beds I had made a point of adding organic matter to the beds that would break down over the winter.  The free organic matter that I had on hand this time was bags of leaves that I had collected a few months ago.  I dumped a bag on the bed and spread the leaves out to cover the whole bed.

The next stages involved hoeing the leaves into the soil to mix everything together.  The hoeing also breaks the leaves into smaller bits which helps them decompose faster.

Each pass over the bed mixes the soil with the leaves better and fluffs up the soil.  I usually go over the bed two or three times or until the leaves have been worked deeply into the soil.  The chickens were eager to lend a helping hand while they scratched for snacks.

The final stage is just leveling the beds with a rake.  There are a few more months to go before I will be able to plant  any crops in this bed, but now I will have that much less prep work to do in the garden before I need to get the seeds in the ground.  The leaves will continue to decompose in the soil over the next couple months and will add much needed organic matter to improve the health of my garden soil.  The soil will settle a little bit, but will be ready to go once planting season arrives.