digging/working soil too early?! help!

[pdxcox]

i couldnt help yself this weekend. It was sunny and beautiful and we dont get a lot of that in portland this time of year so I took advantage and did some prep work in the garden, built my raised rows, amended with compost etc.
now i'm worried I ruined my soil for the year as I read articles about making sure things are dried out enough before working in the soil or ending up with bad texture all year.

did I make a huge mistake?

and one other question about this, how do I get peas and other early veggies planted if I dont work the soil first?

[Ruthiegirl]

Don't sweat it to much. Sometimes you just don't have a lot of choice of when you can work the soil.

The only time I have really damaged my soil was when I let my son fill a hole in the garden with water until it was a mud pool and jump in it. Once the water drained and soil dried out, it was very hard packed. I dug it up, added a mess of compost and recently harvested beautiful kale from that section.

So, unless the soil was soaking wet, you will be just fine. And even if the soil structure is damaged, it is easily repaired.

[lmonter]

If I weren't a few days post-partum I would've been out this week at least cleaning up the garden and getting things ready to go. If you can sorta work the soil, I call it fair game. It is marginally possible you might get another frost or three this year (since your area's gotten more snow than mine - apparently we got all our snow last year instead), so I'd hold off on planting a few things for a little bit.

[bendmom]

pdx I was in portland yesterday and drove back to Bend through Salem. I kept calling my partner and pointing out that things were BLOOMING over there. I am so jealous... but I wouldn't worry about digging in the soil to early. I know over here I plant my pea seeds in March becouse I get antsy. They take longer than if I were to wait until April, but this winter has been really grey and wierd, so I might end up getting things going to early just out of weather frustration!

[Pepper44]

My grandma always said that the soil was ready for tilling and planting when you squeeze a handful and it doesn't clump.

I don't think working the soil early forever ruins it, you just might find when you go to plant that it's too clumpy and you'll need to plow it. Not a big deal! Sometimes it's nice to get a head start, anyway.

[goldfinches]

The only time I've had trouble from working the soil too early was from tilling. It sounds like you used hand tools? I wouldn't worry too much if this is true. If you tilled, though, watch out. You'll have chunks in a month. Wait to plant until you can till again and work out the chunks, and re-do your beds.