Planning a garden

[crown]

I plan on starting a garden this spring, what attachments would I need roto-tiller spade plow etc. This will be a small garden just something to keep me busy some cucumbers, strawberries, corn, tomatoes, and snap beans. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Crown

 

[TerryinMD]

Crown,

From your profile, it looks like you may need a couple of different implements. I would recommend a middlebuster/subsoiler combo (potato plow) and a rototiller. The subsoiler will help you break up that nasty clay.
Now, if you want to get adventurous, you may want to get a moldboard plow also.

Middlebuster is good for creating furrows to plant potatoes, corn, leeks, etc. It can also be used to harvest the pototoes when they're ready. I've also used my middlbuster to trench when putting in the dogs hidden electronic fence and at a neighbors house when he installed underground cabling for this swimming pool.

No need to explain the rototiller. Now the moldboard. If you plan on having a larger garden and expect to plant green manure crops in the fall. A moldboard will help you turn the sod over to compost for a few weeks before rototilling.

Hope this helps.

Terry

 

[Thomas]

The type of ground you have ..rocks,clay etc..It maybe wise to hire someone to rough out your graden for the first time,than you could do the finishing touches w/a tiller.

 

[s1120]

<font color=red>The type of ground you have ..rocks,clay etc..It maybe wise to hire someone to rough out your graden for the first time,than you could do the finishing touches w/a tiller. </font color=red>

Ya, but then he would not have a need to buy new attachments./w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[Thomas]

ooohh..now I understand /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

 

[s1120]

crown,
I am planing the same thing at my land, but I am going to do it a little different. I am going to break up the ground with a plow.[ I have kind of a gravlely sandy loamey, cleayey soil, a little bit of everything] Then I am going to hit it with the tiller. After that I am going to fence it in, and load it up with leaves, grass clippings, compost stuff, etc, and let it stew for a year. [ The new house will be going up this spring, so I wont have time this summer for a garden anyways. just want to get it reddy] Then I will turn it all into the soil next year, and start planting.

 

[s1120]

<font color=red>ooohh..now I understand </font color=red>

You know, I would think by now you would have known that. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif/w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[Thomas]

Thats what my better half keeps telling me./w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[Bird]

Jeff, it can be done with nothing but the tiller, if that's all you have. That's the way I started mine when I had the B7100. It had been pasture and grass, so I just made multiple passes with the tiller, even during the winter every time I saw any grass growing, I'd run the tiller over it again. And I was also adding lots of wood chips and some cow manure and tilling that in. It worked, but of course it would have been even better to tear it up with a plow first. I think a moldboard or turning plow would be first choice, but a middle buster does just fine (and I needed the middle buster for digging up the potatoes anyway, so I've used it the last couple of years to plow deeper before tilling), and I don't have a good moldboard plow. Then I planted my rows 5' apart so I could drive the tractor and tiller between the rows to cultivate during the growing season (40" tiller) because I don't like using a hoe. You could produce a lot more by planting the rows closer together, but I produce more than we can use anyway. Now that I have the B2710, which is a little wider, I plant the rows 4' apart and use a 6 tine cultivator plow by straddling the rows until the plants get too tall.

Anyway, the tiller is the best implement for the garden (and lots of other little chores) and the plows are great if you have them.

 

[gws]

What you need will depend on your soil type and what you consider a small garden.
If the area for the garden currently has grass on it, Do youself a favor, DONT DONT till the ground.
It will just make your weed control more of a pain. What I ended up doing was renting a sod cutter an chopping the grass out of the picture. I use the grass to patch a few areas around the house. A FEL will also do the job, but depth control can be an issue if your not use to the FEL.
Now test the soil's PH. What does it look like? What does it need for whatever your growing.

Adjust as needed. You might want to toss some organic matter into the mix. maybe some straw.
Mix it up with a rototiller and let it sit till spring.

I had a spot in the yard that had not been used for anything but grass for 50 years, Was a pasture ages ago. It tilled up very nice with no rocks. I add add straw and llama manure to it each year and its been going strong.

 

[TerryinMD]

s1120,

It's not a bad idea to till up the area prior to putting down a bunch of leaves, grass clippings, etc. But, I would till all of that stuff in and let it set for a year. If you let it sit on top of the garden area, you'll get some dry stuff on top and possibly an oozing mess on the bottom. By tilling in all of the organics, all of the little ground dwelling critters will speed up the decomposing matter and you'll end up with some richer ground a little sooner. If you can do that early this summer, let it sit until early next fall and then plant a green manure crop to over winter. Then in spring, you turn the greeen manure under wait a couple of weeks and then till. This will get you started on some good planting soil.

Terry

 

[s1120]

Ya, I was thinking of that also. Guess it depends how much time I have.

 

[MarkV]

Terry,
<font color=blue> then plant a green manure crop </font color=blue>

OK, I have heard this several time and I don't know what a green manure crop is./w3tcompact/icons/blush.gif Can you explain for this city boy?

MarkV

 

[Anonymous Poster]

green manure is a term used for a crop that is planted to enrich the soil, it is tilled back into the soil and not harvested. typically it is a annual rye grass or buckwheat. you till it befor it goes to seed, and you get the benefits of added organic material in your soil. this is an old and well tested technique for long term improvement of your garden soil, and most people who practice this technique do it every winter and till the cover crop into the soil in the spring, the rye grasses also will add nitrogen to your soil.

you can also do as many have described till additional organic materieals (leaves, grass clippings, wood chips, vegetable scraps, NOT ANIMAL SCRAPS) into your garden and cover and leave this over the winter to decompose. this may be described as sheet composting if the material is left on the surface and then tilled into the soil in the spring before planting. if you choose to add chicken manure, be sure to add it in the fall, it has too much nitrogen and will burn your plants if added fresh in the spring.

one other way of preparing the soil is to spray the area with roundup, this will kill the grass, till and cover over the winter, and plant in the spring.


good luck, you will love your garden, i love mine,
alex