Get the soil ready for planting
Learn how to use tools to prepare the soil ready for sowing seeds and planting.
Learning objectives:
- Learn to choose the correct tools required for the task
- Learn that for plants to grow well the soil needs to be carefully prepared
Curriculum links:
- Science: Learn soil preparation techniques, plant needs, and the importance of healthy soil
- Maths: Measure soil areas and calculate quantities of organic matter needed
- PSHE: Foster teamwork and responsibility in outdoor tasks
Key vocabulary
Soil | Fertiliser | Compost | Digging | Tilling | Planting | Aeration | Texture
Preparation and equipment
Preparation
Gather gloves and the tools you will need. Make sure children are familiar with tool safety.
Equipment
- Gloves
- Hand forks or large forks
- Hand trowels
- Hand rakes or large rakes
- Kneelers
- Buckets for weeds
- Organic matter (home-made compost or bought in bagged soil conditioner)
Step by step
- Using forks, push the tines deep into the soil and carefully loosen, lift and turn the soil, breaking up any large lump with the tines
- Remove any old plant material and weeds, making sure you dig out all the roots and shoots. Carefully shake off the soil from old plants and weeds over the beds
- Collect old plants and weeds in buckets, composting what you can
- Fill up buckets with organic matter using a hand trowel
- Add in a bucket of organic matter to every square metre of soil and mix the organic matter into the soil surface using a fork
- Now collect a rake. Rake the soil level, by moving the rake gently over the soil surface forwards and backwards in long strokes, gently tapping any lumps with the teeth of the rake
- Return all tools to the tool stop or shed and clean off soil with a brush
Hints and tips
- Always work from the edge of the beds so you don’t stand on the soil
- If you have to stand on the soil, use a plank of wood. Standing on this, work in a line, forking in front of you and then moving the plank backwards