Opening up a new garden area - cover crop and/or till

Hi all,
Previously I have been blessed with being able to put in raised beds one at a time in my fairly small back yard.  I now have access to a much larger backyard area with full sun and due to the cost, I'd like to try the first year's crop in the ground.  The soil is sandy in some areas and hard packed and difficult to dig in others.  I was thinking about putting in a cover crop of turnips this year to add organic matter and also break up the ground.  The other problem is that this area has previously been neglected and you don't have to dig too far in several spots to come up against bricks, rocks, trash etc.   So I was thinking about tilling it (hopefully just once) just to try and clean up that first layer of soil.   I'm just wondering what order to do these two things in.

- Till now, then add the radish.  I'm wondering if this could give the radish seed a better grip on the soil to start off with
- Add radish now, then till in the spring right before planting.  Theoretically, let the radish do the work and then make the tilling easier.

Or... something completely different?

Thanks!

If you think there is buried junk, I would dig a few sample spots with a shovel or hoe and see what comes up, what the soil looks like, how far down until you get through topsoil, etc.

Depending on what it was used for in the past it might even be worth getting a soil test done to make sure there isn't anything nasty in there.

I never tested my soil... but I'm assuming (never a good thing to do) that our soil wasn't even exposed to anything too crazy. But I do unearth artifacts every time I dig - hammer heads, plastic sheets, seed packets, twist ties, flower pots, and sometimes weirder more inexplicable things.

If it is really rocky or bad, you could always just build hugelcultures on top!

Have you thought of planting daikon radishes?  While pulling them up after they are grown then start removing trash you find.

I would cover the turnips or radishes with wood chips.

I recommend reading Dr Bryant Redhawk's Soil Series:

https://permies.com/wiki/redhawk-soil  

Cris,

Others have made very good points here.  I like Anne’s suggestion about using daikon radish to improve the soil.

I think that if you are going to build a new garden bed, there are basically two options—go down or go up.

Normally I would recommend going no-till on a new garden.  I believe that all fertility begins with the health of the soil and thus I would disturb it as little as possible.  But in your case, if you have actual construction debris, bricks especially, it may be worthwhile to either make a single deep tillage pass once to get rid of the debris or go digging to find those bricks and get them out.  So maybe dig/till once if you want to go down.

If you want to go up, have you thought about raised beds?  All my garden beds are raised up with 2x10’s laid on edge, so they are raised just shy of 1 foot.  Going up takes more up front work and is more expensive, but my beds, while smaller, are more productive than when I had beds in the ground.  I fill my beds with wood chips and break them down with mushrooms (Wine Caps).  The decaying wood drastically improves the soil beneath and the plants love me for it.

I have blathered on about wood chips and Wine Caps again, but I would still use a similar approach to a bed in the ground, whether you make one tillage pass or not.  Organic material on the surface does wonders for the soil below with the help of microbes.

So really either/all is your choice.  I would certainly not blame you for getting debris out, but after doing that, help the soil heal by getting good organic material on top.  By all means, Dr. RedHawk’s soil thread is an amazing resource.  Have more questions, please don’t hesitate to ask.

Eric