plowing up my garden

[Oleozz]

There is an "art" to plowing and yours looks pretty good. Speed is important, you go to slow and the ground will not turn over, you also don't want to go to deep or the sod will stand on end.
I agree with everyone else about a disc or tiller. I have a 7 tine heavy duty field cultivator and the biggest problem is that it will turn the sod back up when working ground that's been in heavy grass or cover. After discing I use a spike tooth harrow and it does a nice job.

 

[rickmacheske]

The best thing about using a tiller and using the tractor wheels for aisles is that the ground is fully ready for planting after a couple passes....no raking required.

 

[Farmwithjunk]

Plowing sod is like pushing a rope up a hill. It doesn't usually go where you want it to. All in all, your plowing doesn't look too bad. Not only have I seen worse, I've DONE worse.

When you plow sod, it needs to be worked as soon as possible. (i.e. disc, tiller, or whatever secondary tillage tool you'll use) Let it lay in the sun a few days and you've got your work cut out for yourself. A disc OR a tiller will get the job done. A tiller will do a BETTER job most likely.

I never was the brightest crayon in the box of 64 colors. Never did listen to my parents. I HAD to marry young, start a family too soon, and struggle to make ends meet. In those early years, our garden was all that stood between me and hunger at times. It was essential to make it work. The #1 trick I learned? READ THE LITTLE PLASTIC TAGS THAT COME IN THE PLANTS and/or THE PACKAGE THE SEED COMES IN. Lots of valuable info there for the taking.

#2 trick? I plant TWO gardens. No, not 2 of everything, but 2 seperate plots. That allows me to rotate things year to year. i.e. Never plant your tomatoes in the same spot 2 years in a row. (disease) Broccoli and cauliflour need to be as far apart as possible to prevent cross-pollination.

Don't try to over-think things. Mother Nature will do her best when you don't try to interfere too much.

Don't try to rush the seasons. Planting too early won't make veggies earlier in most cases.

Good drainage is VERY important. You can always ADD water if needed, but when your garden turns in to the Everglades, you're outta luck.

Two old sayings from baseball legend apply directly to gardening.... You win some, You loose some, and some get rained out..... and..... There's always next year. Not every crop will be a bumper crop. Take what you get and remember what you did right as well as what you do WRONG and carry that knowledge to the next season.

I'll load up a tractor and plow and drive halfway across the state for an opportunity to plow ground. That said, The ONLY time I plow a garden of mine is the first year to flip the sod. After that, two words, MINIMUM TILLAGE. I've got 3 (running) tractors, 3 plows, a 3-point tiller, 2 "walk-behind" tillers, 2 disc's, and a field cultivator. All I use in the garden is the smallest of the 2 walk-behind tillers. Soil generally does its best when you don't work it to death.

I'm at my happiest when I'm out crawling around in the dirt planting something. Don't turn it into a job. ENJOY it.

 

[Oleozz]

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When you plow sod, it needs to be worked as soon as possible. (i.e. disc, tiller, or whatever secondary tillage tool you'll use) Let it lay in the sun a few days and you've got your work cut out for yourself. A disc OR a tiller will get the job done. A tiller will do a BETTER job most likely.



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That's my problem now, I'm waiting for my neighbors disc. The sod was plowed the beginning of the week and I probably won't be able to get his disc until next Monday or Tuesday. He's a good neighbor and told me that I could leave the disc here after I use it this year so that's good news.

 

[RalphVa]

Here's what I have:

o 50 by 80 plot of 20 rows down below: 5 rows of corn, planted 1/2 row every 10 days; 1 row of asparagus bean growing on a fence; 2 rows of bush beans, planted about 1/3 every 10 days; 1 row of okra; 1 row of watermellons; 1 row of cantalope; 2 rows of squash; 4 rows of potatoes; 1 row of carrots. This is enough to feed our entire congregation of about 120 people with veggies and us 2 here. We usually eat 4 or 5 veggies for our supper in the summer.

o Up here, I've an asparagus plot that's about 8' by 20' with maybe 40 plants in it.

o A rhubarb patch with 12 plants.

o A small garden that I rotate. This year, it's mostly squash to grow on the fence (in past, I've grown peas, pole beans and cantalope on the fence) plus some swiss chard and bush beans and a short row of carrots. Some leaks. Often grow onions around borders of this and asparagus patch. There are a couple tomato plants in there now.

o Thornless blackberry are starting to invade this little garden. They were originally put along the fence that runs alongside the pool about 3 or 4 feet behind the garden. These are Navaho thornless.

o A BIG Hereitage raspberry patch of about 30' by 30'. If the rain is good, we get enough to eat all year, freezing what we can't eat on our daily cereals.

o Fourteen, small-so-far blueberry bushes, 2 bush cherries, 1 pear, 2 apple, 1 almond, 1 peach, 1 plum, 1 nectarine, 2 paw paw, some other nut trees in various sizes (some just put in bare root this year), 2 black currant.

I put the potatoes and carrots and some lettuce in little cold frames in about St. Pattie's Day. I started the first 1/2 row of corn about the middle of April. The rest was put in just recently. Around here, the 1st or 2nd week of May is our average last frost date.

 

[schmism]

funny how quick the purchase order is approved by the CFO when its something she wants

 

[rickmacheske]

Looks like a nice tiller!

 

[CFHartman]

I've read a lot of very good info here today. One thing I would like to add which I may have missed. (Don't plow or till when the soil is to wet.) If you take a handfull and make a ball and it sticks togather it is to wet. It should fall apart. When the moister is right it is much easier to plow or till.
Charlie

 

[schmism]

well the tiller is (as the kids say) da-bomb!

Ive got some video of it makeing the turned sod into seed bed in about 3 min.

Yesterday i did the neighbors garden 2 His had been a garden before, but not for a year or 2. I should have practed my plowing skills, but instead i just attacked it with the tiller!.... in 20 min i had made 8 50' long passes

The HST with cruise worked great.

The other project i was dreding was dealing with the front yard that was backfilled on the new drain feild. What was left was 2tall 4' wide mounds of clay/dirt in clumps the size of basketballs. (straight from the backhoe backfill)

The tiller at full depth pulverized the plies into soft mixed soil that was a pleasure to move with the FEL. I spent nearly an hr useing extra dirt in that area (still have lots of dirt to move) to fill in holes and low spots around the yard.

Garden is planted, although the tomato's didnt get in yet as they are going in the existing asparagus rows and we didnt have room for them in the area i plowed anyway.

Ill get video and pics posted later today