Garden from lawn - stripes?

[Cliff_Johns]

I'm thinking of putting in some garden area next year where lawn is now.

My thought is to till a 2 or 3 foot wide stripe about 50 feet long, then leave 4 feet of grass which I would mow, then another stripe of garden next to the first (parallel). This would allow me to get full access without spending too much time avoiding the wandering vines and garden plants and still give me the weeding access I need. Also, the tractor would straddle the cultivated area allowing me to water more easily from the tractor if needed.

I think it might look cool too.

Does this make any sense at all, or are there specific reasons that this would be a bad idea? I'm thinking 4 stripes right now.

We had gardens when I was a kid, but I have no experience with them myself.

Cliff

 

[DUMBDOG]

The first thing to do would be to kill the grass first, after it is dead till the area. The minimum width of your garden strips will depend upon the width of the tiller.

Your idea should work quite well to get access to the produce.

If your other post you mentioned squash and cucumbers, if you want to plant these, you will need wider strips as both of these plants like to vine out.

Planting your own garden is a rewarding experience and the end result is fresher and tastes a lot better than what you can find at the super market. You never know what was used as fertilizer to grow the product.

 

[HGM]

Sounds like it should work well.. As Dave mentioned you'll have to give some thought to how you plant.

In my experience, 4' widths would be ok for a single squash plant, of course you could add more down the line. Squash I have found it a very hardy plant. Depending on how much you eat it, my family can only keep up with one plant. After they start producing, its about a squash or two a day. If you neglect to pick them, the plant will die.

Cucumbers and watemellon will sprawl out all over the place unles you control them. I would recomend a trellace or fence of some type for the cucumbers to grow upward onto. This takes less space and makes them easier to pick.

Each year we plant tomatos,cuc's,squash,and corn... Sometimes we'll add something else but thats the standard.. Its fun, but requires more work than you may remember sometimes /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif.. I would also recomend a soil sample, you may need to lime and fetilize prety heavily the first year....

BTW, I sprayed my grass the first year with a good weed killer with as good surfactant(sp?). I think thats right, it makes the stuff stick to your grass.. Then I burnt the grass before tilling it under. It might be best to till it a few times over a couple weeks to make sure the grass and weeds are dead..

Good luck, we've only been doing a garden for about 6yrs, since we moved to Ga. but really enjoy it for the most part. Plus the veggies taste so much better, it might have something to do with the self reliance /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif..

 

[EddieWalker]

It sounds like a great way to create a garden. You have good access on your lawn with everything in easy reach.

My first concern is maintaining the border from lawn to garden. It seems kind of labor intensive.

This made me think about the raised garden beds I've seen. There's probably a good reason to raise those beds for gardening and the plants. I just don't know why.

But is sure would be a good way to define the garden and seperate the two areas.

Eddie

 

[HGM]

I've been told that if you raise the garden bed, you can control the dirt better. Basicly containing the good soil specificly to your garden. This also will help with proper drainage and its easier on the back..

Now, if I could figure out how to get my tractor up on one and till it up nicely w/o falling off(I dont have ROPS) I may consider doing it..... /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Na, probably not......I'm a bit lazy and cheap to do that /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif..The theory I have heard sounds prety good though....

 

[Chuck52]

I put in a couple of 4x22' raised beds this year using concrete blocks as edging. The area I put them in gets pretty soggy during really wet spells, so raising them gives me some control over that. I also have very invasive fescue in that area and I first killed it with Roundup before tilling it under. I used some cheap city compost to build up the soil before making the raised beds, tilled that in good, and then raked the soil into the center of the area to be raised. After putting in the blocks, I just spread the dirt to fill. A raised bed gives you better control of weeds, too, since they can't spread into the bed as easily. I got the idea for the concrete blocks from a guy who does it in the Ozark area of Missouri where the soil can be pretty poor. You can easily use pieces of cattle panel and pvc pipe to make trellisses or covers or whatever, and use the holes in the blocks to hold those structures. If you get your soil right in the raised bed, you really shouldn't need to till it more than could be handled using one of the little EZ hoes or equivalent. One of my beds is dedicated to strawberries, and they really grew over the summer. This is the third time I've tried strawberries in that location, and the other two times the fescue invaded so badly I couldn't keep up with it. This time it was very easy to keep the weeds down. The other bed will probably be for salad greens and such, and already has garlic in one end. It was also easy to enclose the two beds in cattle panel fencing, to keep the @#$%^ deer out. I put some pieces of pvc pipe in the holes in the blocks just to discourage the deer from jumping into the 15x25' enclosure. Kept them out of the strawberries all summer.

Chuck

 

[Cliff_Johns]

Chuck,
Are your raised beds the height of a concrete block, or did you stack them higher?

Cliff

 

[Cliff_Johns]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( My first concern is maintaining the border from lawn to garden. It seems kind of labor intensive.)</font>

I'd thought to just put a 2X4 in the ground on edge at the border. I figured if I tilled the ground, it should be easy to etch a little trench and drop in the 2X4.

What to use as a wabbit border to keep my garden from being the neighborhood smorgasboard may be a different problem.

Cliff

 

[Cliff_Johns]

So if I till my mostly clayish soil how much does it fluf? How much higher than the surrounding soil would it get?

I plan to add some sand and some organic enhancement, but I'm wondering how much the soil will fluff without that.

Or maybe it doesn't really fluff at all.

Cliff

 

[HGM]

Here in Georgia, we're known for clay soil... When I worked mine with the tiller it fluffed up nicely, though it didnt "raise" too much. More like it got really soft. When walking through afterwards, I sink to my ankles. I plan on adding sawdust and manure to it. I'm told the sawdust will keep the soil loose. After a couple of hard rains now, it goes back to being pretty well packed.

 

[Chuck52]

Cliff,

I just made my beds one block high. That should give me all the advantage I need for weed and water control, and the blocks can get expensive unless you find a good deal on them. The design makes it pretty easy to add rabbit fencing. Cheap pvc pipe, or whatever you have as supports in the holes, and then run chicken wire around them. You can get fancy and concrete in some pieces of pvc pipe as sockets if you like. You can then do stuff like make arches of pvc pipe and put netting over it for rabbit and bird protection. The design also lends itself to plastic frost protection, etc.

A rabbit fence made of chicken wire around a 4x?? bed would probably also prevent most deer damage. I doubt deer would jump into that narrow a space. The guy I got the idea from stressed making the length a multiple of 16' for ease in using cattle panels. If the bed it 4' wide, that also lets you make 4 trellises out of a cattle panel to span the bed. That is really nice for vining crops and tomato supports.

Chuck

 

[DAP]

Cliff ... raised bed gardening is the only way ta go! Give it a shot ...

 

[Cliff_Johns]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Cliff ... raised bed gardening is the only way ta go! Give it a shot ...)</font>

OK, but then how do I use my tractor? /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif

I admit, goofy as it sounds, that part of my reasoning for doing the garden was to learn more about using the tractor in different situations. /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif I have not used it for ground work yet, and I thought a tiller would be a good choice.

A raised bed sounds like it has lots of advantages. Ideally it would be raised about 30" so I wouldn't have to bend over,

but I don't want to lose track of my objective -- seat time which will be practice for when I retire and buy 20 acres or so in PA to "farm" on.

The fresh tasty veggies are a delicious by-product of my tractor training.

Cliff

 

[MossRoad]

The grass will keep growing back into the strips. It will be a chore to keep it in check. I had the bright idea of planting wildflowers in a strip around the outside of my vegetable garden... turns out wildflowers are weeds! Who'd a thunk it? /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

 

[Jstpssng]

If I may add to the good advice already given...
The first year with any garden can be tough; but with perseverance, each year will get progressively better. Your stripe idea has merit;the plants don't really care what the rows between them look like. Instead of trying to till a 30 x50 foot garden, you can concentrate on the areas where your plants will be. Just be diligent about keeping the paths mowed... as you pointed out, even wild flowers are weeds. (I once took the advice of an organic gardening magazine and let the clover grow between my rows; it choked out my peas.)

The first thing you should consider is a soil test; for a nominal fee you can learn what nutrients your soil may lack. Click HERE for an index of labs in your area.

Once you get the results back and your strips are tilled, it's time to start planting. Here's something else I've learned; instead of worrying about final preparations in the entire tilled strip, concentrate on where the plants actually will be growing. Vine plants such as squash and cucumbers are easy; simply work an area about 12 inches deep, and 2 feet in diameter with a shovel; then mix in the desireable amounts of organic matter, nutrients, ...and add your seeds. (I actually dig a hole with my backhoe, mix it up with peat moss or horse manure in a wheeelbarrow, but I tend to be lazy) The same technique works well for seedlings. Row crops are a little more time consuming, but you can still concentrate your efforts on the area where your seeds actually will be planted. (Once again I dig a trench with my backhoe, then work organic matter into the soil. Have I mentioned that I tend to be lazy?)

Given that your soil is clay, I suspect you'll want a LOT of organic matter. It may take a few years to get it to where you want it but the results will be rewarding.

DumbDog mentioned killling the sods first; one of the most important things to do. When my TroyBuilt was all I had I would run it at a high setting, so it would only go down about 2 inches; I would then rake the sod off and put it into the compost pile. You should be able to adapt this technique to your tractor tiller. ( My garden is expanding every year; this year Itook an old black lumber tarp and covered the area which I plan to turn next year. It kills all the grass; next year when I till it, it'll enhance the soil.)

After the soil is prepped another great weed control is a physical barrier; either black plastic or a fabric meant for the job. Some recommend newspaper, saying it'll eventually enhance your soil; I've found it mostly enhances the tree trunks downwind, while the weeds grow rampant.

I could go on and on... I grew up in a greenhouse on what was the family farm dating back to the 1850's. I got away from it for a while but now gardening is becoming a passion, so I tend to ramble. Good luck. Hope I've been of some help to you.

 

[Cliff_Johns]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( If I may add to the good advice already given... )</font>

Thanks. Every bit of advice is helpful.

The more I read, the more I think maybe I should start small and get used to the idea. Right now, I think I will just make a 4' X 8' tiny raised plot -- perhaps raised a couple feet to keep the rabbits off and plant something that I like and is fairly easy to grow. This should get me in the gardening mood and set me up for the next year. I imagine I will learn a few things doing this.

Concrete blocks sound like a good strategy. Easy to move and stack etc.

Still, I wish the tractor entered into it more. As it is, I get concrete blocks, buy some soil (my pile is pretty much gone) and I'm off. The FEL will get used, but not much more. I may dig out the area with my Back Hoe and mix the old and new soil with sawdust, fert, manure whatever -- I'll have to so some googleing on that. I did want an excuse to buy a tiller, but that's the way it goes.

Cliff

 

[DAP]

Advantages of Raised Bed Gardening:

1. Use the FEL to move the garden soils
2. Complete control of the composition of the soil. Since you are in effect creating the 'bed', you can do so in any compositional fashion you like - i.e. grow some non-native things based on soil creativity etc.
3. You can put the garden where YOU want it ....
4. Helps horesy lovers get rid of manure ...

The list goes on ...