Prepare soil for new season

Dear fellow gardeners,

First wishing everybody a happy new year and a good garden season. It was my first season growing vegetables and was pleased with the results. Now I am planning the garden for a new season. I kept up with weeding but I am wondering if I need to enrich the soil before I plant new vegetables. I will plant cauliflower, broccoli, peas, green beans, lettuce, spring onions, radishes, tomatoes and strawberries. Do I need to mix the soil with manure? Meal and bone or seaweed. I used seaweed last year and was quite pleased with the result. I would like your advice please as I know some plants don’t like manure etc. plus this is Ireland and the weather might be a factor as well.

Look forward to your comments.

i have just spread well rotted manure on all beds only about an inch or so thick then let the rain and worms do there thing by planting time it should be ready to go   by the way we are no dig  hope this helps  we dont manure where we will grow carrots,

I’m in the no dig camp so I just apply a mulch of either manure, or homemade compost. I even manure my carrot & parsnip bed, the secret is not to dig it in to stop them forking, but a stone etc if they hit it will make them fork.

My quandary is which vegatables prefer loose soil and which do not!

Cheers,  Tony.

I notice in the original post you mentioned using seaweed. I think this is a very underrated form of nutrition for plants. If it worked last year I would use it again. This won't improve the soil structure

Soil pH is useful, but a cheaper alternative to a meter would be a soil pH test kit.  Cost about $15 (£12).  Every few years, or more often if you want, send a soil sample to a lab for a more thorough soil test, pH and nutrient analysis.

pH meters that are offered for £20 or so are nearly useless because they can't be properly calibrated (a proper pH meter will be £200 to £300 and up, plus necessary supplies such as buffering solutions).

Why is pH important?  It has to do with nutrient availability to plants at different soil pH.  See https://www.canr.msu.edu/news/more_reasons_for_soil_testing for a useful chart, note that most nutrients are most available when the pH is around 6.5 to 7.  Note that nutrients are available over broad ranges of pH. You just need to know roughly where you are in terms of pH to determine if your plants will be able to get necessary nutrients. For example, using the chart, if your soil pH is lower than 6, your plant will struggle getting enough phosphorous. Soil pH is easily raised by liming the soil.  Brassicas require boron, but will struggle with boron availability if pH is near either 4 or 8.5.

Another useful link explains what specific nutrients do for the plant, and how to recognize some nutrient deficiencies: https://nrcca.cals.cornell.edu/soilFertilityCA/CA1/CA1_print.html  This article focuses on plant micronutrients: https://www.cropnutrition.com/nutrient-management/micronutrients

Do you need to worry about testing for all of the micro and macro nutrients each year?  Probably not.  Provide the main macro-nutrients each year in the fertilizer of your choice (manure, blood meal, etc., or a chemical fertilizer if you prefer). Adjust soil pH as needed. Provide calcium, magnesium, sulfur (gypsum and Epsom salts as needed).  Most of the remaining micro-nutrients will only rarely need to be provided.