Loosening Garden Soil With a Pitchfork

[RyanRVA]

Hello Everyone,

I am fairly new to gardening so please excuse me if this is a dumb question.

I was wounding if its OK to loosen up the soil in the mounds of my already planted vegetable garden using a pitchfork?

Im not sure if by doing this it my overly disrupt the freshly planted veggies.

Attached is a picture to reference.

Thank you for the advise!

 

[Chuck]

If the soil needed loosening up it should have been done prior to planting. And a pitchfork isn't the right tool to use anyway. If you are going to loosen the soil around your plants us a little hand cultivator and stay away from the base of your plants. You don't want to disturb their roots at all.

 

[marlingardener]

You have the plants mulched? If it were my garden, I'd just leave everything alone, and only fluff the mulch if it starts to compact and repel water. It looks like the mulch is fairly coarse, so it shouldn't compact, but do keep an eye on it. Meanwhile, find a three or four tine cultivator (looks like a hoe, except there is no blade but tines) for next season.
Ryan, there are no dumb questions, especially when it comes to gardening. What you ask, and the answers you receive, may help a lot of other gardeners--so please keep asking!

 

[grouie]

Unless the plants are well rooted it would not be wise to do that. You can wait for a while.