Garden from lawn - stripes?

Chuck52 · Dec 21, 2005

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 · Dec 21, 2005

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

Cliff_Johns · Dec 21, 2005

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

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 · Dec 22, 2005

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 · Dec 24, 2005

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 · Dec 26, 2005

( If I may add to the good advice already given... )

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 · Dec 26, 2005

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 ...