Plow vs Sub Soiler vs Middle Buster for Clay Lawn

OkieG · Jul 8, 2004

Our garden is mostly clay, and gets pretty hard sometimes. I've tried boxblade scarifiers as a pre-tiller prep, but am much more pleased with the middlebuster. Having the hard ground deeply broken up before tilling seems to help.

HarleyRake is a type of the lawn prep device Bob Skurka is refering to. I've been looking into buying one. Their 5' 3PH model should work with the modest PTO hp of your tractor and mine.

There are many ways to skin a cat, but the advantage to the power box rake (HarleyRake) is that it seems to collect rocks well. As an alternative, a landscape rake, after middlebusting, will help remove rocks before tilling.

If it was just clay you were contending with, you could probably just till. But, with rocks, loosening and collecting them prior to tilling is a good idea.

OkieG

caddison · Jul 8, 2004

When I did the initial break up on my yard I used a 6 row ford cultivator. I was able to get the fine clay soil we have here in Missouri turned over and then went back with my tiller and tilled the heck out of it. It has taken some time (due to the lack of rain) to get the yard established but it now looks as good as any in the neighborhood. I also figured out that mowing the grass at 4" has helped a lot.