Soil test kits are readily available, relatively cheap and very reliable. As
suggested dig in as much organic material as practicable. It might have helped if you'd
done it last fall, when manure would have had time to breakdown. Try compost now.
Where I live we can get free composted leaf/grass mix from the county. Free.
Double digging can be done with a shovel or a rototiller. Till the top layer, dig
it out and keep it, then rototill the deeper strata, and dump the upper dirt on top. I
mix the two a bit. It worked, but biointensive folks may take exception to my
mechanical methods. I used a shovel & fork as a kid and it worked. Anyway double
digging does produce results regardless of you're methods.
Check the squarefoot gardening site and book, also biointensive methods, and search
"ATRA" and "echonet.org" for interesting perspectives.
For compost, search for 'cornelcomposting'. Compost is not called blackgold for
nothing.
To get rid of grass, it is recommended that you cover it with plastic for a few
weeks until totally dead. I have covered mowed grass with several layers of newspaper,
heavy 'free' compost/mulch, then planted the following spring. Worked fine.
Everything else herein sounds good, too.





Pat Kiewicz wrote:

Richard Periut said:
snip description of lot
I have had good success with individual pots in which I've grown
Habanero peppers, some tomatoes, and some cukes.

But I want to expand this year, and grow more stuff.

Any suggestions? Should I raise a bed, and if so, can I do it on top of
the grass? Or should I have to rent a tiller and till the whole thing?
My soil seems sort of sandy and compact.

My personal preference would be to strip the sod, let it dry out a bit,
and shake out as much of the soil clinging to it as you can manage.
Tilling sod into sandy soil was a bad experience for me -- way, way
to much survived. (Plants that run, run far and fast through sand.)

It would be best to get a soil test before you do anything else. That
would let you know what your limiting nutrients are, and give a pointer
to what mineral amendments might do your soil some good. For
instance, my own sandy soil was short of potassium but OK on
phosphorous, and maybe a little shy of calcium and slightly acid.
I add a lot greensand and a little bit of dolomitic limestone when
I start new beds. These might be appropriate amendments for you;
a soil test would help determine that.

(I must admit, I only got the soil test *after* a poor first-year veggie garden.
The soil here was much different than where I last lived. The soil test helped
me fix things.)

If your soil is sandy all the way down, all you have to do is till it. Till in as
much compost as you can get, and whatever other amendments are appropriate.
If you have a sandy topsoil over a more clay-like subsoil, you might want to
consider double-digging. It's a lot of hard work, but can be enormously beneficial.
Do it right (and treat your soil well afterward) and it only has to be done once.

http://hcs.osu.edu/mgonline/Herbaceo...02/07gen02.htm

(I renovated a large flower garden for a dear friend who had a thin layer of
top soil over heavy clay. It was heavy labor to double dig that, but the results
were spectacular.)

--
Pat in Plymouth MI

Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.
(attributed to Don Marti)