How to Keep Soil From Packing

Hard, packed garden soil prevents plant roots from penetrating and establishing deeply in the bed. The hard soil also repels water and nutrients, instead of absorbing them, making it difficult to grow most plants. Soil with a heavy clay content tends to pack down and become hard, but even good soil can become packed if it's allowed to dry out too much. Loosening the soil, then ensuring it doesn't pack down again, makes it easier to grow plants and tend to them throughout the growing season.

Compost or peat moss
Drip irrigation system
Mulch

Instructions

- 1
  Amend the soil heavily with organic material before you plant. Add 2 to 6 inches of compost or milled peat moss over the top of the bed. Till the amendment into the top 8 to 12 inches of soil. The organic material loosens the soil so it's less likely to pack down.
- 2
  Create narrow beds with walkways between them. Make beds only wide enough so you can comfortably reach the center of the bed without walking on the soil. Walking on the soil in the bed compacts it and makes it hard.
- 3
  Use drip irrigation or irrigate slowly at the base of the plants instead of using overhead irrigation. Drip irrigation seeps deep into the soil slowly without packing down the soil surface under the force of the water.
- 4
  Mulch the bed with organic matter, such as wood chips or pine straw. These mulches break down during the gardening season and provide organic materials to the soil, which helps keep it loose.
- 5
  Replenish the organic amendments annually in spring. Spread 1 to 2 inches of compost over empty annual beds prior to planting and work it into the soil. For perennial beds, mulch with 1 inch of compost around the plants.

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