Tomatoes and peppers should not grow in the same spot two years in a row. Neematoads will build up in the soil.

If you want to get a jump on next year the easy thing to do is pile some leaves where you want your plot next year. It will smother out the grass and make the soil softer. Then you can bury your kitchen scraps in the leaves all winter for compost.

1. That depends on what they soil now has. A good reliable soil test will help here.
2 and 3. Many people, with not very heatlhy soil, will tell you that you cannot plant stuff in the same place more than once every 5 years. But if you work and make that soil into a good, healthy soil you can. I have grown Tomatoes in the same 2 x 6 plot for 10 years now with no disease problems and I correspond with people all over the world that do the same.
Start by contacting your local state universities USDA Cooperative Extension Service about having a good, reliable soil test done and then dig in with these simple soil tests that will help lead you toward a good, healthy soil;
1) Structure. From that soil sample put enough of the rest to make a 4 inch level in a clear 1 quart jar, with a tight fitting lid. Fill that jar with water and replace the lid, tightly. Shake the jar vigorously and then let it stand for 24 hours. Your soil will settle out according to soil particle size and weight. A good loam will have about 1-3/4 inch (about 45%) of sand on the bottom. about 1 inch (about 25%) of silt next, about 1 inch (25%) of clay above that, and about 1/4 inch (about 5%) of organic matter on the top.

2) Drainage. Dig a hole 1 foot square and 1 foot deep and fill that with water. After that water drains away refill the hole with more water and time how long it takes that to drain away. Anything less than 2 hours and your soil drains too quickly and needs more organic matter to slow that drainage down. Anything over 6 hours and the soil drains too slowly and needs lots of organic matter to speed it up.

3) Tilth. Take a handful of your slightly damp soil and squeeze it tightly. When the pressure is released the soil should hold together in that clump, but when poked with a finger that clump should fall apart.

4) Smell. What does your soil smell like? A pleasant, rich earthy odor? Putrid, offensive, repugnant odor? The more organic matter in your soil the more active the soil bacteria will be and the nicer you soil will smell.

5) Life. How many earthworms per shovel full were there? 5 or more indicates a pretty healthy soil. Fewer than 5, according to the Natural Resources Conservation Service, indicates a soil that is not healthy.

But those of us who don't know any better might still do things differently. My tomatoes and peppers have grown in the same bed for over 20 years with no apparent problems. I had so many tomatoes from 8 little plants this year that I couldn't get rid of them.

The reason I haven't "rotated the crop" is that I've read that they should be moved something like 100 feet. If I tried that they'd be in someone else's little suburban yard...

All I do is mulch the bed with leaves in fall (it's covered with about 6 inches of them now) and add compost every couple of years if I can spare it. It's worked OK so far.

Karen

WOW, thanks so much! I will get my soil tested asap. I can't even tell you how many bags of leaves are feet away from me right now so I will get my bed covered.

Much like you Karen I can't "move" my little 'grave' garden. I live in a trailer park and I'm very lucky that the owner was okay with my 2 1/2 x 5ish (I never measured) spot.

I did containers as well and will again next year but I will certainly incorporate my mistakes to hopefully get a better yield.

Many thanks plantermunn, kimmsr and Karen.

As long as you keep feeding your soil (with compost and living mulches), you should be able to get by with re-using the same space for the same crops. Soil borne diseases and nematodes can sometimes be a problem, but a healthy soil is the best defense. If you can, start a compost pile. If you can't, then see if you can find somewhere around you that sells finished compost - a few buckets full per year should be all you need. Many compost facilities will let you buy small quantities - usually it's BYOB (bring your own bucket), and they'll charge, say, $2 per 5 gallon bucket.

Stay away from the compost sold in bags at the big box stores. It's very low quality and can do more harm than good.

Another way to improve fertility is to keep layering on living mulches. If you have restrictions where you live, then you might not want to tempt fate by dumping ALL your kitchen scraps on the garden, but I'm sure nobody would notice if you surreptitiously brought the coffee grounds out. Coffee grounds are a great source of nutrients and they are roughly the same color as soil, so chances are nobody will even realize what you're doing.

-Diggity

Shredding the leaves first, then soaking them down immediately after spreading will help keep them in place. You don't want them to blow away in the winter wind.

Don't tell kimmsr that I've never had a soil test done in the 24 years that I've lived here. I'm just a home gardener who grows stuff for pleasure. But as for now I grow terrific tomatoes and fabulous flowers so since it ain't broke I ain't likely to fix it.

Good luck to you.

Karen

You do what you can. Your little grave garden sounds like a wonderful start. I was gardening in containers when I lived in my apartment. I was also composting on my 9' by 9' patio.
If you have issues with squirls, try planting garlic and onions in your containers. I noticed that the squirls seemed to stop digging up the plants in the containers where I had planted the garlic and onions.

One nice way to keep the leaves contained on your little garden over the winter might be to surround it with some plastic or wire fencing or even hardware cloth and then pile the leaves up in that contained space. It will also be an easy place to bury your green kitchen scraps into the leaves. Come spring you can removed the excess leaves, if there are any, and get ready to plant. Other things you could layer into your bed include grass clippings, shredded paper, urine, old potting soil, and almost anything that can rot without attracting neighborhood dogs.

Good luck!!!!
Enjoy, about the only thing I know of better than a garden is a compost pile!.

There are people that have never had their soil tested and there are people that test their soil weekly. Adding soluble nutrients to your gardens soil without knowing what your soil is and has can be a tremendous waste of your time, energy, and money as well as a cause of pollution of my environment because the nutrients not used flow out with the water and pollute downstream from you, cause problems for someone else. Because soils change slowly testing weekly is a waste of time, energy, and money too.
It has only been since the 1950's that people have been told they do not need to know the basics about their soil, I was taught from the start that you start with the soil and build from there. There are many people that will not use the services of their state universities USDA Cooperative Extension Service, a service you have paid for through taxes. That to me is kind of like throwing money away, to not use a service you have already paid for.

Kim: I use little or no commercial fertilizers, and if I do it is usually a small amount of organic at planting time. I compost and use that as well as organic mulch (leaves, grass clippings, and wood) twice a year. That's it. The exception is potted flowers. I'm not poisoning you.

I looked into soil testing a couple of years ago only to find that it is no longer free at Ohio State. They closed their lab in 1998. See posted link. Recommended labs offer it for a fee, pretty cheap for basic, but very expensive for testing for things like biota present. Not everyone in this world can afford such luxuries. The person who posed the question here has a little "grave garden" and lives in a trailer park, soil testing might not be a viable altetnative for her. I just don't think it fair to discourage her from gardening because she doesn't own acerage and her options might be limited. Everyone with a desire to garden should be encouraged to give it a shot without making it rocket science.

Our organic lawn service does a basic soil analysis as part of the service. That was OK. Since my planting beds are scattered here and there around our suburban yard, I think the lawn samples were probably pretty representative of most of the soil on the property.

I have no doubt that you have great knowledge of soil science. But we all start somewhere, and above all, our hobbies should be fun.

Karen

Here is a link that might be useful: Ohio State soil analysis

Do you have a compost box? Since you are in such a tight place, one of the black plastic ones with a tight lid wouldn't take up much space and will allow you to keep your kitchen scraps, etc. tidy. Since you are in Z7 it would work over the winter, especially if you turn it and it would be ready to use in the spring. I started with a grave size garden many years ago and grew a lot of produce which we enjoyed. Gardening is fun.

No I don't have compost and honestly knew nothing about it until I came to the soil form to post.

I am still in the reading phase and well now I know and will be getting one started I guess this spring.

I got some compost put it over my grave then piled on the leaves so hoping that the soil test works out for me.

Thanks again to all... I'm excited to be able to grow better :)

If you use a deep mulch you don't really need to compost. Every thing composts right on your garden plot. Just a little slower. It is less work too.

You might look an the Vermicomposting forum. You can use the worms to compost most of your paper and kitchen waste in a bin under your sink. Then you can divie up the goodies to each plant.

Here is a link that might be useful: Vermicomposting

Make it a lot easier. Go talk to a local nursery man. He will tell you what the typical local soil conditions are. He might tell you to add a little sulfur to lower the pH or some lime to raise the pH. Also, he can tell you what kind of fertilizer to use. You can save yourself the cost of soil testing. I would suggest that you don't try to get too organic with your garden patch. Miracle Grow might be just the trick.

If possible, make a compost bin. If not, just turn a lot of leaves into your soil. If you can still find some grass clippings, mix those in, too. Do this now, don't wait for spring. My neighbor across the street just turns leaves into his garden. Always a beautiful vegetable garden.

Your local nursery man will most likely have a lot of misinformation. We have one here whose property is in a clay area nad so he thinks everyone around here has clay for soil, apparently totally unaware that Lake Michigan is a tad west and most all of the soil along the lakeshore is sand. Several of the hardware store people know what the manufacturers of the "fertilizer" they sell says about applying it, and if you look closely at those recommended rates of application they are way too much, especially for sand, and most of the nutrients applied by those "fertilizers" will simply flow out of this sand into the ground water and pollute the water you drink.
In Michigan the basic soil test is $12.00 for pH, NPK, CEC, and recommendations to correct deficiencies. It is too bad that Ohio, New York, and some other state universities have stopped testing soils probably because some idiot legislature thought that was competition for private labs that were not doing that anyway. Even if a basic soil test were to cost $25.00 that is $5.00 per year, not at all expensive and it could save you much more money over that time because you would not be buying product you do not need. Why would someone buy a popular brand of "fertilzer" to spray on their garden and not have a good, reliable soil test done? Most likely that is money wasted and because of unbalanced nutrient loads the plants are more attractive to insect pests which means you now spend lots more money on poisons to control the insects which wil also kill off any beneficial insects, and the bees that pollinate your food crops, that might help control the insect pests.
Saving the cost of a good, reliable soil test is false economy.

Every three years I put these on the garden for 1000 sq.feet.
40 lbs.---Soybean Meal
10 lbs.---Bone meal
10 lbs.---Oyster Meal
5 lbs.---BRICK LAYERS sand that has been soaked in ALGAE water.
Every year all the HORSE COMPOST the tires will hold.
Jackman

I think the issue though is that while a soil test is a safe recommendation, it's probably overkill for a small garden. We have given suggestions to add various different organic nutrients (compost, and nutrient rich mulches and compostables). In a grave-sized garden, how can that course of action NOT produce good results? Especially when the OP has already successfully grown a garden on this plot once, and merely wants to continue that success?

Certainly there is nothing WRONG with a soil test. If one wants to know, then by all means, do the test - regardless of the size of the plot. I'd also advise a soil test for anyone who is *SERIOUS* about their gardening - meaning someone starting a market garden or who plans on raising a significant portion of their family's food on their own land. In this case, the stakes are higher so a soil test is probably a good idea.

At the same time, though, people have been raising crops for thousands of years without soil tests. I haven't had one in years and don't feel the need to do one now. Most other gardeners I know have never had one. Seasoned gardeners rely heavily on experience and observation to tell them what to do. Granted, newbie gardeners lack experience and observation skills, but that's what we're here for! Chances are, most of them would not know how to interpret a soil test either, and would thus end up right back here for advice anyway, but $30 poorer.

Again, I have NOTHING AGAINST soil tests - how could I? They are a powerful tool in certain circumstances. I just think that there is a lot of other advice and encouragement we can give before we play the soil test card.

What's more, I'll bet that scarcely 1 in 10 gardeners who are given the soil test spiel here on this forum actually take the advice. Most people simply aren't going to get that involved.

Don't get me wrong, Kimmsr - I'm not trying to offend. Any of us who have been on this forum for any length of time know that you have a wealth of knowledge and experience to bring to the table. I personally keep an eye out for your posts, curious how you will weigh in on any particular topic. I just think sometimes the whole soil test thing is overkill.

-Diggity

A major problem with our water today is nitrate poisoning, because of too much Nitrogen fertilizer being used where it does not need to be used. Another problem is excess phosphorus in our lakes and streams, from too much unnecessary phosphate fertilizers being applied. Both sources come mostly from Joe Homeowner trying for that lush, green pasture around his house applying way too much fertilizer way too often and doing so without a good, reliable soil test. Minnesota has banned fertilizers with phosphorus, unless you have a soil test showing that your soil needs that nutrient. The Michigan and New York legislatures are looking a the same ban, but that legislation is being held up by the major fertilizer companies that would loose sales if those bans went into effect.
A good gardener, environmentally concerned, will periodically have a good, reliable soil test done to see what his soil really needs before spending money on fertilizers that may not be needed. To simply pour some stuff, organic or synthetic, onto your soil without the guidance of a good, reliable soil test is not a good environmentally, or economically, sound practice.

Once again, I have to agree with kimmsr. I did the soil test and found disturbing results that caused me to correct the conditions by adding a good deal of organic matter to the soil. I've never seen such impressive results. The switch from commercial ferts to organics was just plain amazing. My plants, veggies, were fat, strong and very productive for the first time ever. Oh, yes, I've had good or let's say acceptible results before but in only one year the organic method has blown me away. Thank you kimmsr, your knowledge and contributions have put me on the right track. Yes, you can be a bit firm at times, but you really do know your stuff. This next year should be incredible using your techniques. What's more to say. Thanks.

Thank you for that compliment. How I sound depends on how you read what I write and I may well sound firm sometimes when trying to get the point across. But I am sharing what I have learned over the past 50 or so years with people here, so that hopefully someone can benefit from the mistakes I have made and not make those same mistakes.