Advice on finishing a large garden plot...

[TerryinMD]

Spring is here and the planting season is upon us.

New asparagus rows planted. Potatoes in the ground. The main bed has been plowed to turn under the green manure and the first tilling to break up the large clumps. However, I need to get the plot leveled out. The plowing left some large piles of turned soil and grass and the tiller hasn't "smoothed" them out.

I've been thinking about purchasing a chain harrow or a disk. Which would work better or do they have distinct uses?

Your thoughts.....

 

[RoyJackson]

Hi Terry,
The attached picture is of a spring harrow (I think that's the name).
It's old..real old, but not rusted up or anything. The handles still move and springs pivot freely.

I bought a backblade, and this thing got thrown in...I've absolutely no use for it. If you don't mind a drive to York County, PA..I'll give ya the thing. You will need a pick up truck and some tie downs or rope.
If ya want it, e-mail me directly...if not, please reply here and maybe someone else will want it.

By the way, I drag this thing with my 670...you'd have no trouble with your 4100.

 

[rdln]

I would keep going over with tiller those other tools will bring up clumps that the tiller buried.

 

[RoyJackson]

Closer view of the same harrow...

 

[TerryinMD]

Roy,

The only thing I can't figure out is how the dang thing works!! I do not see any 3pt hitch mounting points. I'm interested but need a little more info. As a matter of fact, I will be in Harrisburg on Sunday for the Mason-Dixon Kennel Club show at the fairgrounds. If I'm not mistake, you should be about an hour or so away. I should be able to break away around mid-day.

Either respond here or send me a private message. Man - TBNers are the best!! /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif/w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif/w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

Terry

 

[Slamfire]

Around here them things sell for $40. You'd better grab that one Terry. You pull it behind your machine with a chain. Nice paint job Roy. ;^)

 

[Mosey]

Terry, I don’t know what kind of tiller your using, but if it’s a 3pt PTO driven one, then that’s your best bet for smoothing out the clumps in your garden. You’ll just have to keep going over it, if you have sod to break up it takes a long time to get all the clumps chewed up.

The spring harrow Roy has is not going to chew up the clumps, but might help get them all in one area so you could work on them with your tiller some more, or just drag them out of the way where they can rot out. We have a similar one on the farm where I grew up. You just drag it behind you with a chain.

That sure is a nice offer Roy, you could easily sell that for a few $ to an antique collector.

 

[TerryinMD]

Mosey,

I have a 58" Landpride and it does an excellent job. The clumps are gone. It's just that when I plowed I created some large mounds/humps/piles of soil that leave some high spots. The garden plot is on a fairly level piece of ground and I want to remove the possiblility of having low areas where too much water gathers.

If Roys cultivator is not 3pt compatable, I will pass on his generous offer. Also, the CFO is getting our major shipment of plants next week and she needs to have the garden ready.

So this leads me back to my original question, which is a better way to go. Chain or disk harrow? I'm going to stop by a TSC store today to price things out and probably buy one or the other.

Terry

 

[MikePA]

After the farmer plowed our 3 acre pasture, he used a disc harrow to smooth everything out.

 

[Mosey]

OK, now I understand. Sounds like what you need is either a box blade, or a landscape rake or York rake or what King Kutter calls a yard rake. Take a look at the thread “landscape/york rake”. Don Felgar stated “One time you will really want a rake is to smooth out topsoil that you have deposited in small heaps with the loader. The blanket harrow and tiller will tend to leave these heaps in place, but the rake will smooth them right out. In my opinion the box blade is inferior for this task.”.

I really don’t think a disk harrow will smooth out the high and low spots. We have one of those at the farm also, and it works good for breaking up the soil and will level it out somewhat, but not as well as you might think. My neighbor used one on my garden the first year I put in a garden (I didn’t have my tractor yet, so he plowed and disked it for me). The disk helped, but didn’t “level” the garden out. After I got my tractor, I borrowed it and spent more time trying to smooth the garden out. If I zig zagged enough, I could finally get it fairly smooth. Last year I got a rear tiller and it did a better job than the disk, but I really think a rake would work better for smoothing. I could be wrong though, since I haven’t actually tried one yet.

I’ve been thinking about getting a King Kutter yard rake myself. I missed out on a good deal when Quality was going out of business because I didn’t have the money then. I think they should still be fairly easy on the pocket book even at full price from TSC, but I haven’t checked yet.