Lindsay Schramm, owner of North End Organic Nursery in Garden City Idaho, describes the process required to properly condition your garden soil in order to have a successful season.
Unless it’s already been premoistened, brand new garden soil needs to be slowly wetted in order to convert its nature from being hydrophobic (water repelling), into being hydrophilic (water retaining). Failure to do this can cause new plants to become instantly dehydrated and die. Once done initially, the soil will have a tendency to retain moisture and unless it is allowed to become bone dry again, re-conditioning should not be needed.