Breaking up hard soil is a laborious task most gardeners must tackle. We all know that hard, dense, compacted soil is challenging to work with. And hard soil makes it difficult for ornamental plants, vegetables, and flowering shrubs to grow. Therefore, achieving the best results in your garden requires knowing the best way to break up hard soil.
One of the easiest ways to deal with compacted soil is to use a tiller. You can till hard soil either by using a hand tiller or a garden power tiller.
To use the tiller, you let the tines or blades break up the soil. Using a hand tiller involves pushing the tines into the ground and twisting them back and forward. A rototiller is easier to use because a gas-powered, electric, or battery-powered engine does most of the work. All you must do is push the tiller.
However, tilling is just one method to break up hard soil. And in some cases, over-tilling the ground can cause soil compaction. Therefore, it’s crucial to know the best ways to break up heavy clay soil and how to avoid compacted soil in the first place.
This article contains helpful tips on the best way to deal with patches of clay soil in your garden or vegetable patch.
4 Reasons Why Your Garden Soil Is Hard
The obvious reason garden soil is hard is because of clay or heavily loamy soil. But other reasons can be causing regular soil in your garden to become compacted. These reasons are over-tilling, mixing sand into clay soil, heavy foot traffic, or working wet soil.
Understanding why garden soil is hard helps prevent compaction and makes working in the garden easier and more enjoyable.
1. Over-Tilling Garden Soil
Tilling is a way to break up compacted soil. However, tilling the ground too much can have the opposite effect. But why does breaking up hard soil too much lead to issues with compaction? An article in the journal Soil and Tillage Research reported that over-tilling ground could cause a compacted layer of soil up to tillage depth.
The reason why over-tilling garden soil makes it hard is that healthy soil should be in pea-sized lumps. This allows tiny air pockets in the soil and allows for earthworm activity—which also helps to loosen the soil.
However, tilling multiple times breaks up the tiny soil particles too much. Therefore, when it gets wet, the water can’t pass through. The result is pooling on the surface, and when it dries, the ground resembles alligator skin.
2. Amending Garden Clay Soil with Sand makes it Hard
Some gardeners make the mistake of trying to loosen compacted soil by adding sand. Sand and clay soil don’t make a good combination because it forms a concrete-like mass. According to the University of Illinois, equal amounts of sand and clay soil are required to loosen the ground. That is a tremendous load of sand to add.
3. Heavy Foot Traffic causes Hard Garden Soil
Extra weight on garden soil and lawns causes the ground to become hard and results in barren soil. Soil compression can happen when vehicles drive over the ground or people repeatedly walk on the same areas. Even your lawnmower tires could result in compacted turf and a hard soil surface.
4. Hard Soil Develops after Working Wet Ground
It’s never a good idea to till a garden when the ground is wet. Otherwise, you risk compacting the soil even more. Tilling wet soil breaks it up too much, and the excess moisture forms a stiff mixture when it dries.
How can you know when it’s OK to till garden soil? First, take a handful of soil and squeeze it into a ball. Next, gently poke the ball of soil. It should easily fall apart and crumble. If it doesn’t, then the soil is too wet. You also see with your own eyes how overly-damp soil becomes compressed.
How To Loosen Compacted Soil
The easiest way to loosen compacted soil is by amending the soil with plenty of organic matter. Adding compost or mulch should be the first step to achieving loose soil before getting the tiller out.
All you need to do is work in compost or mulch with a spade into the top three to six inches of soil. Alternatively, loosen the tough soil by covering the surface with two inches of compost and then tilling. The goal is to increase organic matter by five to 15 percent to loosen compacted soil.
Adding compost and organic matter to loosen compacted soil has another advantage. You add essential nutrients and improve the soil structure, fertility, and health.
How to Break up Compacted Soil
Using a power rototiller is one way to break up compacted soil. However, this method only works on hard soil if you don’t overwork the soil and it is suitably dry.
How to Till Hard Soil
Here are some helpful tips on using a tiller to break up compacted soil.
- Remove debris, stones, and other obstacles from the soil surface.
- Dig down a depth of six inches to test the moisture content of the soil.
- If the hard soil is too dry, water it thoroughly and wait for three days before attempting to till hard soil.
- If the compacted soil is too wet, let it dry for a few days before testing it again.
- Set the tiller to its shallowest setting when tilling hard soil and move slowly over the soil.
- Then do a second pass; this time, set the tilling depth for six to eight inches.
It’s vital to remember that tilling dry soil can result in soil erosion. In contrast, tilling wet soil makes it even more compacted.
How To Soften Hard Soil
The easiest way to soften hard soil is to water it thoroughly in some cases. The trick is to apply water using a sprinkler system rather than saturating to ground too fast and too much. You should water the soil enough to soften it up to a depth of a few inches. However, don’t use so much water that it becomes soggy.
6 Ways To Prevent Your Soil From Being Hard
Knowing how to prevent soil from becoming hard is crucial for every avid gardener. Heavily compacted soil can’t hold water or nutrients, restricts earthworm activity, and prevents plant roots from growing.
Here are six easy ways to avoid soil compaction problems in your garden.
- Avoid over-tilling garden soil and never till the soil when it’s wet
- Don’t walk on areas where you plan on planting crops, shrubs, or flowers
- Install stepping stones or paths to avoid foot traffic in growing areas
- Try to avoid creating garden beds that are wider than twice your arm’s length
- Use organic soil amendments to loosen soil and only till occasionally
- Use raised beds or put fencing around garden beds to prevent pets or children from walking there
- An application of gypsum will help reduce the salt content and prevent clay soil from developing a hard crust
How To Prevent Your Garden Soil From Being Hard When Using a Tiller
Over tillage can cause garden soil to become rigid. Although tilling is used to break up hard soil or loosen compacted soil, it can have the opposite effect when not done correctly. What are the correct tilling methods to avoid having hard soil in your garden?
Till at the Proper Times
Tilling is not the recommended “go-to” method of loosening hard soil. However, tilling is helpful in the garden when starting a garden bed, turning a lawn into a planting area, or breaking up already compacted soil. As part of your regular garden maintenance, breaking up the soil is best done by hand and adding organic matter to the soil.
Don’t Till Wet Soil
Breaking up compacted soil that is soggy or wet will only result in further compaction. Therefore, it’s best to wait until the soil is only slightly damp. To test if it’s the right time to till, use the soil ball method. A clump of soil compressed into a ball should gently break apart when you poke it.
Avoid over Tillage to Prevent Hard Soil after Tilling
A mistake many gardeners make is thinking that working the ground repeatedly with a rototiller will break up hard ground. Unfortunately, over-tilling will only make the ground rock-solid after the next rainfall.
Conclusion
There are several methods to break heavy soil that is compacted. If you are in the habit of amending the soil with organic matter, rotten manure, and leaf mulch, you will avoid many of the problems with soil compaction. However, if there is a thick, solid crust on the soil surface, a tiller may be your best option to make the soil loose.