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.