So what does it mean

[desertcat]

The phrase "as soon as soil can be worked in the spring"?

Usually, we have fairly dry winters, but this one is a little on the wet side and I'm not long on patience right now. Sooo, is soil workable when it doesn't turn the garden tool into an adobe popsicle, or is there some other criteria?

 

[wifezilla]

In Colorado it means "as soon as the ground isn't frozen solid" which is sometime in March or April.

 

[lesa]

If it's not underwater or frozen, plant in it!!!! Lucky you!

 

[vfem]

Yep... you want the soil frost and flood free. Looks like its going to be a late one here, we're just mud everywhere!

 

[obsessed]

Your doing raised beds right? So your soil just be able to be worked for quite a bit before the ground is thawed. Just provide frost /freeze protection to what ever you are planting or start indoors so that you will have starts rather than seeds or seedlings as the weather gets milder.

Like my ground doesn't freeze. But I am starting my collards, tomatoes, peppers now so that they will have a good start before I plant. My last frost is in March 21. Most of my seedlings should be good healthy starts before then and some may even go in the soil.

Peas should have gone in the ground last month and I could plant them now but they wouldn't produce much before it got too hot. So I am going to wait for fall for them. Hope this helps!

 

[patandchickens]

If your soil is very loose beautiful loam, or on the sandy side, 'can get a shovel into it and not underwater' is probably good enough.

If however you have clayey soil, it is a bad idea to work it when it is too damp b/c you end up really messing up the soil structure.

The traditionally-used test is to take a fist-sized clump of soil up with a trowel, then squeeze it lightly in your hand - if it crumbles, the soil is workable, whereas if it molds to the shape you squeezed it into and stays in one piece, it should not be worked til it has dried out further.

Pat

 

[wifezilla]

If however you have clayey soil, it is a bad idea to work it when it is too damp b/c you end up really messing up the soil structure.

And then you get invasive weeds that will not die! Ask me how I know that

 

[boggybranch]

If however you have clayey soil, it is a bad idea to work it when it is too damp b/c you end up really messing up the soil structure.

And then you get invasive weeds that will not die! Ask me how I know that

Let me quess........ (been there, done that) LOL

 

[digitS']

When I was a kid, we lived on level ground that had once been the bottom of a shallow lake. I'm essentially talking about prehistoric times that it was covered with water but flood irrigation worked fine and there were boggy areas in the fields.

We could not plow at just anytime during the year. This was southern Oregon so often the ground would not freeze over the winter. However, clods as a seed bed are very difficult to deal with.

My brother and I needed something to throw at each other, so clods did have their value. Without a rock to be found for miles, clods, cow chips, and hay bales were an important part of play time.

Steve

 

[wifezilla]

Steve

That brings back memories! Hee hee hee

Our parents frowned on the damage caused by rocks so we used dirt clods and pine cones (those little hard green ones) to pelt each other