Never let your soil sit bare. You can plant the next crop as soon as you harvest the last one. If you continually add plenty of a variety of organic materials there is no danger of over working the soil. So harvest, add compost, and plant.
Compost/Mulch. Use a layer of compost or a mulch of leaves or straw to cover the soil whether it is planted or not. Mulch helps to control the temperature of the soil. It also reduces the amount of water needed by slowing evaporation.
Plant crops in wide beds rather than rows. Space seeds or seedings so that the mature plants will shade the entire bed. For example, if the lettuce seed packet or catalog says "thin to 4 inches in the row," broadcast your lettuce seeds across the entire bed and then thin to 4 inch spacing between plants in all directions.
Cover Crops. Winter or Fall cover crops like buckwheat, clover, or vetch add nutrients and organic matter to the soil when growing and when turned under in the spring.
Planting in beds, mulch, or cover crops provide another benefit: they prevent weeds. Because weed seeds need light to germinate, a three- to four-inch layer of compost or mulch (or both, mulch over compost) or crops planted closely together, will keep the weed seeds in the dark, preventing germination.
Peas and Beans. These plants extract nitrogen from the air and fix it in the soil. After harvest is done, cut the tops off of these and leave the roots to rot in the soil.
Carrots and Daikon Radishes. Break up hard soil without turning a shovel. Put an inch or so of compost over your hard soil, sprinkle the radish or carrot seeds over the surface, rake the surface lightly to cover the seeds, and water. When the plants mature, cut off the tops (below the crowns) and leave the roots to rot in place, adding nutrients in the soil.
Make compost right in the garden. Why make compost bins or piles in one corner of the garden and then haul it to where you want to use it? more
Use earthworms to make your compost and improve your soil. Earthworms can make compost faster than any bin or tumbler system. Some worms (Eisenia foetida) can eat up to half their bodies weight in garbage each day. If you have ten pounds of worms in a bin, that's up to five pounds of garbage/mulch converted to compost each day.
Plant Basil with Tomatoes. Some say that both the tomatoes and basil will be healthier and taste better. Others say that the scent of the basil confuses the tomato hornworm moth--she won't as easily find your tomato plants on which to lay her eggs. Plant a row of basil along side your row or bed of tomatoes rather than interspersed in the same row so the tomatoes don't shade the basil.
Plant sweet alyssum with lettuce. Alyssum attracts predatory insects that feed on aphids.
