Gardening prep question....need your advice please!

[kubota4me]

OK.. wait.. this garden is being established for EOTWAWKI. So right off the bat you need to take out gas powered maintenance in your planning. I would be looking at what you could get a horse or steer through pulling a plow. stay away from raised beds as watering will be a nightmare.

I was looking for a diesel powered tiller. There are some available as I understand. All my vehicles run on diesel except my car. Diesel with a good stabilizer will last up to 10-12 years in some circumstances. With a large tank of diesel, they would operate at least for awhile given you can defend your property.

 

[NorTracNY]

If you're planning for a end, I assume you already have animals? Protein and fat are very important. Don't rely on the wild deer population.

 

[charlz]

You already have a large tractor to do the heavy lifting type work... why not add a small one? Depending on where you live you might be able to pick up an older b7100 or the like that was used as a mower and get a 4' tiller for it. Don't need the loader etc. you already have that covered and that would help keep the cost of a used one down. Without the loader it would be a lot more maneuverable with fences etc. Sometimes I wish I had a bigger tractor but really the small size suits using it as a 'garden tractor' etc. much better. Also gives you another tractor to tow trailers etc while you load with the big tractor etc.

Growing an EOTWAWKI garden should be a great experience. I think a lot of people severely underestimate what it takes to grow a garden you can actually live off. I see on prepper shows etc where people have tons of seeds saved but no garden started and probably no real idea on how to garden. I have experimented with growing 'in bulk' for a few years. It has some unique issues, like a lot of the same foods all ready at the same time etc. For a garden to support a family year round you have to look at canning, freezing and bulk storage. Since I haven't gotten into canning I have sort of arrived at only growing a few staple crops that store. Winter squash and potatoes are pretty easy to store. Corn I freeze some but in your case (EOTWAWKI) freezing isn't really something you want to have to rely on.

If you over plant or otherwise find yourself with large amounts of vegetables 'ready to go' and no time to process them don't forget about your local foodbank.

 

[Fishmansdad]

I have a couple of questions in regards to getting my garden ready for next spring. I have designated a garden on my land with the approximate dimensions of 120 ' x 100 ' with the potential to enlarge it more if I wanted. I had a neighbor plow it last spring with his farm tractor with the idea I would then till it and work it. Heart surgery got in the way of that so the garden was put on hold for another year. I am starting to plan again now for next year. I will be erecting an 8' or 9' fence around the garden because of problematic deer.

I either want to purchase a really good tiller or put the money I would have put in the tiller in raised beds. I am 58 years old and I don't know how my back will hold up over the years bending over gardening. I had some thoughts that if I didn't go the raised bed gardening route, I could make the rows far enough apart so that I could take a rear tine tiller and cultivate between the rows making weeding less tedious. With raised beds, I could sit on an edge or rail of the raised beds and therefore be less taxing on my back. Mulching would also help.

In regards to tillers, the only tiller I ever saw that looks like it would hold up would be the old professional Troy Bilt tiller that was mostly cast iron, but they don't make that tiller in that quality anymore. The BCS is really nice, but is 3k-4k. I could buy a three point tiller for that price for my Kubota L4400 tractor but wouldn't have enough room to turn around in the garden or till between rows after the garden started coming up. I originally thought the Husqvarna DRT900 was a great tiller for the money, but some reviewers that purchased it called it cheap.

Any thoughts you had regarding whether to invest in a nice tiller or go the raised bed route would be appreciated.

I admire your ambition for a big garden. I have about the same size garden as you are planning. I break it with a 6 ft tractor mounted tiller. Maintenance is accomplished with an old 3 hp B&S powered front tine that I bought it new at TSC for a song, at least compared to alternatives. It sets out under a laundry tub, sort of maintenance by benign neglect, and starts right up when needed. The narrow width allows reasonable spacing of rows which I maintain wide enough to use a bucket seat for picking or crawling along for detailed weeding or planting. You can anticipate that your fence will create a situation where large tractor work is difficult or impossible to accomplish unless the fence can be easily dismounted. Consider a solar powered electric fence for an economical alternative and investigate other means for keeping deer at bay. BTW, venison is a tasty alternative to beef. I have considered raised beds, but the cost and labor of installation is a barrier. You might start small in one corner. I suspect that a fully implemented and managed raised bed garden would allow you to garden in a much smaller space. A small tiller would be all you would need. In small spaces, mulch will obviate the need for weeding.

 

[Western]

Don't know if this is in line with your ideas or future program (farmagedden) But if you are going to have a few fruit trees, I would start looking into that soon so you can and design your garden around them. We planted about 12 this year at the new garden site and had to design around them for the amount of sun they require each day. BTW, after allot of reading on the net and talking to our AG agent, we went with all Semi-dwarf stock.

Another idea as an "as-side". Consider a couple of bee hives. We are and it isn't to complicated. We had about 40 hives when I was a kid and after school we worked in my grandfathers shop, building hives that he sold. You would be surprised how much more efficient your garden and trees produce with your own supply of bees, Not to mention the honey with it's essential vitamins.

You can buy Bumble bees, they are much better at pollination than bees, but they need replaced each year.

 

[corl]

Deer fencing for a vegetable garden is an always popular discussion subject. If the fence is moved out on the ends of the garden then there is enough room for you to turn your tractor for tilling etc. Don't know where you live or your deer population but in SE Pa we have a large deer herd and fencing to protect corn and other veggies is important. For the last 3 years I have found an easy way to fence deer that is low cost and very effective, at least for me. For the little animals I use 2 strands of electric fence at 5 and 11 inches off the ground. The tractor can run over these without moving them or hurting them. For the deer I use 20 lb test monofiliment fishing line strung at 2.5 feet, 4 feet and maybe another strand at 5 feet. When first put up the deer may destroy it for the first week but when they know its there and then they leave it alone and don't get into the garden. Yes it is hard to believe but it works. The theory is that they don't see it and when they bump against it they look up to see how high they have to jump but don't get any idea so they leave. Initially they may get tangled up in it but that scares them and they leave it alone. My neighbor's horse got out and got tangled it it and that horse will never come back.

It makes it easy to do every other row planting, saves money on fencing and helps keep labor low in the garden. The mono is stretched like an electric fence and can be detached to let the tractor and lawn mower enter the garden area. You can just barely see the fencing in "About Us" on the website with every other row planting. Nunamaker Farms - Nunamaker Farms in West Grove, Pennsylvania - Home