How do you cultivate a garden? What does that even mean? It’s pretty simple actually. It means you are improving the soil for planting. You wouldn’t expect to throw some seeds down in your front yard and expect anything to grow without giving the soil a hand.

When you cultivate the soil, you prepare it for the plants you are going to grow. To begin, lets assume you are just starting a garden and only have your grassy yard. Ideally, you will use a motorized tiller. A tiller takes all the hard work out of cultivating your garden. You just turn it on and push it across your garden. It will break up all the grass and ground for you.

A tiller is the best to use, but they aren’t cheap. If you know someone who already owns a tiller, you can borrow theirs if you’re lucky. If you are serious gardener and plan on doing a lot of gardening for years to come, you might want to buy your own.

If you don’t have a tiller, that’s okay. You can still cultivate your soil without it. If you don’t have a tiller, you need at least a shovel and preferably a pickax as well. Use whichever tool works best to trace out the plot of land you want as the garden and to start breaking up the grass.

If you have rocky soil, clay in your dirt, or very tough grass, a pickax can be a huge help. First remove all the grass and then keep using the pickax to break up all the rest of the dirt and large clumps. Use a garden hoe to finish chopping up the rest of the smaller clumps.

Finish breaking of the remaining small clumps with a garden cultivator and use it to rake out any rocks and roots that are left. This will get your soil smooth and ready.

When the soil is ready and cultivated properly, add in some nutrient rich compost or soil and some fertilizer. Now you can start gardening and planting. Keep using a garden hoe to cultivate the soil around the plants throughout the season to keep them healthy.