How to Turn Soil and Remove Roots Before Planting.
How to Turn Soil and Remove Roots Before Planting
After clearing the overgrown land at Raikana Primary School in Pretoria, Gauteng, the next stage was to work on what was underneath the vegetation.
Clearing the land had opened up the garden area, but the job was not finished. The soil was still dry, grass roots were spread through the ground, and there were rocks and other unwanted material underneath the surface.
Before we could create our raised beds, I needed to loosen the soil, work through it and remove as many of those unwanted roots and materials as possible.
This was the second major stage of preparing the garden for planting.
If you have not seen the first part of this project, I documented the clearing process here: How to Clear Overgrown Land for a Vegetable Garden .
- What the soil looked like after clearing the land
- Why I turned the soil before creating raised beds
- How I used a spade fork
- How I removed grass roots from the soil
- Why unwanted roots can become a problem later
- Why loose, workable soil matters for vegetables
- How I dealt with rocks and other material
- Working with dry soil
- Why soil preparation does not mean digging forever
- What I learned from this stage of the project
The Soil Was Not Ready for Planting Yet
Looking at the land after clearing, it might have appeared that the hardest part was already finished.
But clearing the surface and preparing the soil are two different jobs.
Once the tall grass and other vegetation had been removed, we could see that the ground underneath still needed attention.
There were old grass roots throughout the soil. There were also rocks and other material that needed to be removed before we could properly organise the planting area.
The soil was also very dry.
There had been no rain at the time, and we were not irrigating the area before doing this work. The land had also not been used for planting since around winter 2025.
So we were not working with freshly watered garden soil. We were working with the actual conditions that were in front of us.
Clearing vegetation does not automatically mean the soil is ready for planting. Always look underneath the surface before deciding that a piece of land is ready for vegetables.
Why I Turned the Soil
My goal was not simply to make the garden look neat.
I needed to physically work through the soil so that I could find what was underneath the surface.
Turning and loosening the soil allowed me to expose grass roots, rocks and other material that would otherwise have remained hidden.
It also helped break up sections of hard, dry ground so that we could prepare the area for the next stage of the project.
That next stage was going to be the creation of our raised beds.
So I wanted to do the heavy soil preparation while the garden was still empty.
The Tool I Used: A Spade Fork
The main tool I used during this stage was a spade fork.
A spade fork has strong metal tines that can be pushed into the soil. It is useful for loosening, lifting and working through soil without relying on a solid blade.
In this garden, I used the fork to work through the dry ground, lift sections of soil and expose the roots and other material underneath.
The photographs show how physical this work was. This was not simply a matter of running a tool across the surface. I had to push the fork into the ground, loosen the soil and work through it section by section.
How I Worked Through the Soil
There was no need to try to prepare the entire garden in one movement.
I worked through manageable sections of the ground, loosening the soil and looking at what was being brought to the surface.
The basic process was:
- Choose a manageable section of soil.
- Push the spade fork into the ground.
- Loosen and lift the soil.
- Look through the soil for roots, rocks and unwanted material.
- Remove the material that needed to come out.
- Continue working across the next section.
It was physical work, especially because the soil was dry.
The important thing was not to rush. Working systematically made it easier to see which areas had already been prepared and which still needed attention.
Removing the Grass Roots
One of the most noticeable things I found while working through the soil was the amount of grass root material underneath the surface.
The first photograph gives a close look at this part of the process. You can see the dry soil, the remaining grass material and my gloved hand working through the roots.
This is why I did not want to simply clear the vegetation from the top and immediately start planting.
There was still a living root system underneath.
I removed as many of the unwanted grass roots as I could while the area was still empty.
Gardening Lesson
When clearing land for vegetables, do not only look at what is growing above the soil. Persistent grasses and weeds can leave roots underneath the surface, and those plants may return later if their root systems remain.
Why Unwanted Roots Can Become a Problem
Not every root left in soil is automatically harmful to vegetables. The bigger concern is when the roots belong to persistent grasses or weeds that can grow again.
Once those unwanted plants return, they can compete with vegetables for resources such as water, nutrients, light and growing space.
They can also create additional maintenance work because you may have to keep removing them after your vegetables have already been planted.
That is why I preferred to deal with as much of the unwanted grass root material as practical before creating the raised beds.
Why It Was Easier to Remove Roots Before Planting
Timing was important.
At this point there were no vegetables growing in the garden. That gave me the freedom to work through the soil without worrying about damaging the roots of plants that we wanted to keep.
Once vegetables are planted, digging around them becomes much more delicate.
You have to think about the roots of the vegetables themselves, so heavy soil disturbance is better dealt with during the preparation stage whenever the site requires it.
This was therefore the right stage for us to remove unwanted roots and prepare the ground before creating the raised beds.
Why Loose Soil Matters for Vegetable Gardening
Soil preparation is not only about removing weeds.
The physical condition of the soil also matters because vegetable roots need space to grow through the ground.
Very compacted soil can make root penetration more difficult and can affect how air and water move through the soil.
By loosening the ground, we were creating a more workable area for the next stage of the garden.
This would make it easier to shape the soil into raised beds and eventually plant our vegetables.
The goal is not to turn soil into fine dust. Good soil structure matters. For this project, I was loosening the dry ground because it had been recently cleared and contained roots, rocks and other material that needed attention before the beds were formed.
Removing Rocks and Other Material
The roots were not the only things underneath the surface.
As I worked through the soil, I also came across rocks and other unwanted material.
Turning the soil brought some of these things to the surface where they could be seen and removed.
Removing larger stones and debris was useful because we were preparing a defined growing area rather than simply leaving the entire piece of land untouched.
It also meant that when we reached the next stage, we had a cleaner and more workable area from which to shape the raised beds.
Working With Dry Soil
One detail that is easy to miss when looking at the photographs is just how dry the soil was.
There had been no rain at the time, and we were not irrigating the area before doing this work.
Dry soil can be much harder to work, especially when it has become compacted or has not been cultivated for a long time.
That meant the work required patience and physical effort.
I wanted to document this because gardening does not always happen under perfect conditions. Sometimes you are working with the soil exactly as you find it.
What About the Roots We Removed?
Removing weeds and roots also raises another question: what should you do with the material you remove?
Not every weed should automatically be thrown onto a compost heap.
Some persistent weeds can regenerate from pieces of roots, rhizomes or other plant material. If you are not sure about a particular weed, it is better to identify it before deciding how to dispose of it.
For this stage of our project, the main priority was getting the unwanted roots and material out of the growing area so that we could continue preparing the garden.
Turning Soil Does Not Mean Digging Forever
There is an important distinction between preparing soil and disturbing soil unnecessarily.
For this Raikana garden, we had a specific reason for working the soil. The land had been overgrown, the soil was dry, grass roots were present and we were preparing the area for a new vegetable garden.
Once the soil is prepared, however, there is not necessarily a reason to keep turning it over every season.
Gardening methods such as no-dig gardening also show that soil can be managed with much less disturbance once a growing area has been established.
For me, the important lesson is to understand why you are disturbing the soil rather than simply digging because that is what gardeners have always done.
From Bare Ground to a Growing Garden
Looking at the wider photographs, you can see how much of the garden area had already been opened up and worked.
The vegetation that once covered the land had been cleared, and now the soil itself was being prepared.
This is where the garden started changing from an overgrown piece of land into an organised growing space.
We were not planting yet.
We were building the foundation for what would come next.
What I Learned From Turning the Soil
-
Clearing the land is only the beginning.
What is underneath the surface can require just as much attention as what grows above it. -
Roots can remain after vegetation is removed.
Persistent grasses and weeds may return if their root systems remain. -
Dry soil requires patience.
Working hard and working quickly are not always the same thing. -
Soil preparation should have a purpose.
I turned this soil because we were preparing recently cleared ground for raised beds. -
Prepare before planting.
It is easier to remove unwanted roots and larger material while the garden is still empty. -
Do not confuse loose soil with destroyed soil structure.
The aim is workable soil that supports plants, not soil that has been repeatedly pulverised.
Gardening Lesson
One of the biggest lessons from this stage was that a vegetable garden starts below the surface.
Before thinking about seeds, seedlings and harvests, you sometimes need to understand the soil you are actually working with. At Raikana, that meant dealing with dry ground, grass roots, rocks and other material before we could build the raised beds.
What Came Next?
After turning the soil and removing as many unwanted roots and materials as practical, the next stage was to give the garden structure.
We were ready to take this prepared ground and shape it into the raised beds that would become our permanent growing areas.
This is where my previous experience at Alkemetic Vegetation Farm and St Francis Primary School became useful again, because raised beds had already taught me important lessons about soil organisation and water management.
Next article: How to Make Raised Beds for a Vegetable Garden
You May Also Like
- How to Clear Overgrown Land for a Vegetable Garden
- How to Make Raised Beds for a Vegetable Garden – See how we turned the prepared soil into organised raised growing beds.
- How to Mulch a Vegetable Garden Before Planting – Follow the next preparation stage as we continued getting the garden ready for vegetables.
Evergreen Hideout Gardening Journal: This article documents the soil preparation work carried out at Raikana Primary School in Pretoria, Gauteng, as part of our 2026 vegetable garden project.
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