Tiller operation in a fenced garden

[cmhyland]

Thanks Lou,
I just going to start the garden this spring.... Your pics are very helpful.

Thanks,
Chris

[Lou66]

Chris my rows are 8 feet apart I do this for two reasons,, first my wife is an amputee,, she has one leg.. this way she can drive her gator between the rows.. the second I till between the row every two to three weeks to keep down on the weeds.. very little hoeing.. Lou

[cmhyland]

Thanks Lou,

I wis thinking of something like this to keep the weeds down between the rows..

Trimmer Plus Cultivator Attachment for Split Boom Gas Trimmers, Model# GC720 | Trimmer Heads Blades| Northern Tool + Equipment

In the garden I had years ago I was out ther a couple of times a week with the hoe and the file.... Ever use a wheel how? I never have.. I wonder how they work.

Thanks,
Chris

[Lou66]

I used one for a season Chris,, well most of the season gave it to my son in law at the time.. it didn't do as well as I thought it would.. lot of work,, it was faster with a hoe and the hoe is alot lighter.. I invest now in landscape fabric and cover my rows,, does a fine job.. I still have a little grass but nothing my wife can handle.. lol..Lou

[cmhyland]

Thanks Lou for saving me a hundred bucks.... LOL

[cmhyland]

I used one for a season Chris,, well most of the season gave it to my son in law at the time.. it didn't do as well as I thought it would.. lot of work,, it was faster with a hoe and the hoe is alot lighter.. I invest now in landscape fabric and cover my rows,, does a fine job.. I still have a little grass but nothing my wife can handle.. lol..Lou

If you wanted to carry around that much weight you'd carry a sixpack cooler and a hoe... LOL

[Lou66]

plus that six pack cooler makes a fine stool.. you can hoe around on a stool.. lol..Lou

[spruce Deere]

I till a few fenced gardens for a few folks. The best ones are the kind that you can turn the tractor around inside the fence easily, till in any direction. And that generally means a big garden area and a big fence. Ironically, the worst garden is my own... but doing tractor work for generous and more "real" gardeners, I dont need a big garden

The best one is a for a couple that grow stuffs for locals, markets, and farmers market is around 150 foot long and 100 foot wide. It has all the fruit trees in rows on one end wich is right at a quarter of the garden, the main garden area takes up the other 3/4 of the garden with a green house nestled in one corner. There is about an 8 to 10 foot space between fruit trees and main garden that allows easy manuvering of the tractor when tilling, bed forming and other stuffs.

A 10 foot gate on each side of the main garden is nice also, with room on both sides so one can get vehicles in-out such as a pick-up or a flat bead to bring in manure or ease of hauling off pumpkins, rows of beans or harvesting corn with the stalks.

I like the room it gives me when tilling, subsoiling and forming raised beds. I can work the soil any direction and have room to manuver.

When setting up a garden a little bigger is generally better, but you can only use what room you got

[YesDeere]

Mine is 100' by 100'. I till it with a 4310 and a 60 " tiller. I just use the split brakes and leave a little bit of room at each end. I use a one shovel one wheel cultivator for weeds. Here are some pics so you can see what I'm talking about. I'm far enough away from the house that I have to bring the water to the garden in a tank.

I had a trencher for a weekend for another project so I decided to really groundhog proof. That fence is 2 feet in the ground and 2 feet above. There are 3 electric lines above that.

[Ted Summey]

I use a Kubota MX5100 with a 6 ft tiller behind. I marked off my row length then drove my tractor to the end of the marked row and made my turns on each end. This showed me how much room my fence needed to enclose. It turned out to be 150 ft long - 100 ft rows with 25 ft on each end for turning. It is tight and if I have my loader on I have to raise it to pass above the fence. Works fine without the loader. I have a lane down the side of my garden that allows me to get the tractor in the fence. The lane is just a section that doesn't get planted. Dimensions of the garden are length 150' the width is 100' on one end and 80 on the other. One side has an "L" in it to create the 20' lane.

I have a Farmall 140 cultivating tractor that I put the hiller discs on to make my lists/beds. I occasionally borrow my neighbor's 3 pt hitch bedder. The draw back on the 3 pt bedder is it doesn't plow out the tire tracks.