how to prep the yard for a veggie garden

[alarosalpn]

My usable yard is up a hill..once you get up there it's flat..
We never use it so DH and I decided to turn it into a garden (less he has to mow!)
we plan on digging the top layer up(grass layer) and thought we should put manuer(sp?) down as well...
I really want to lay something down before we build the garden because many years ago this whole street was farmland..apparently they used part of the farm for garbage...wanna guess who ended up with that part of the property?!
We put orange fencing up around the worst part of it so the kids stay out of it but in any given part of the yard you can pick up tons of nails and screws....During warmer seasons I remove more and more but its never ending...
that's why I'm thinking a thick layer of newspaper might be best first...
Anyone have any ideas/suggestions?

[Contrary Housewife]

Layers of newspaper will help you kill the grass, which makes it easier to dig up. After that you will want to rent a tiller to turn over and loosen the soil. You need to be careful here, because if you have buried trash it could damage the tiller. Your other option is to turn it over by hand. It may be safer, but it is backbreaking work.

If your land has not been tilled in a while you will have big clods to break up. This is where a small tiller works wonders. At this point you need to assess your soil type and quality to determine what to add to it (if anything). Aged manure and compost are both usually good additives if you have poor soil without a lot of organic material in it. There are websites which will help you identify what kind of soil you have.