When a gardener starts to prepare a new garden, whether it is a traditional outside vegetable or flower garden, or if it is a container garden to grow in a condominium, preparing the gardening soil is the first and possibly most important part of the gardening process since it lays the foundation of all the plants need to grow and flourish. Gardening soil not only holds the plant up by allowing the roots to grow deep down into it, but it also helps hold moisture that the roots drink from and contains the nutrients that allow the plants to grow healthy and strong.

Preparation

Before a garden is planted, there are some supplies that a gardener must gather in order to prepare the gardening soil. If he wants to do organic gardening, he needs to prepare at least a couple of weeks in advance and probably longer in order to start a compost pile from which he can gather the nutritious mulch for his garden. There are mulches that can be bought in gardening supply stores, both organic and otherwise, so a gardener does not necessarily have to have his own. However, compost piles are free to start and maintain, only requiring grass cuttings, leaves and organic kitchen scraps to be continuously laid upon it to decay and create mulch.

There are also some tools necessary to prepare the gardening soil, such as shovels, hoes, and trowels for breaking up the dirt in the garden area so that it is no longer compacted but loose and free in which the roots can grow. Sometimes the gardener has a choice in where to put the garden, which is important not only in the gardening soil that might be found in different places in the yard, but also in the amount of sunlight the garden will get, which will help to determine the type of plants to grow in the garden.

Once the soil is broken up, then the mulch from the compost pile or store is mixed into the gardening soil so that it becomes richer in nutrients than the soil by itself. If it is going to be plants rather than seeds or seedlings that are going to be planted in the gardening soil, then fertilizer is sometimes added first if the soil is particularly devoid of nutrients and mulch is not enough. When the gardening soil has been sufficiently prepared, then it is time for the gardener to get the plants or seeds that he is going to plant in the garden.