plowing up my garden

[schmism]

so im puting in a new garden this spring. (perhaps im late but with the other irons ive had in the fire, by my persective, im doing good )

i had picked up a 2 bottom plow some months ago and at that time decided to make a mess of the yard in an area that would become the garden. (it was a fuz wet at the time)

Well im a city boy, dont know chit about plows, and i know i dont have the right draw bar for it so needless to say it isnt set up right, but will turn dirt.

in my virgin sod yard, my TC will NOT pull a double 14".

after tweeking some stuff i figured out i could set things so that really only one plow makes contact and in my never-plowed ground that was the limit of the HST.

so now (as of last night) i have a 60x15' chuck of black dirt showing

the wife thinks there needs to be more, i think its going to be plenty for the first year!

so this is a 2 part thread.

1) feel free to bash the piss poor plowing job
2) i need advise on how to lay out the garden (rows size, spaceing etc )
3) what happens now. I have in my head to get a KK tiller, just dont know if ill get it before i need it for this season... .so now what?

 

[3RRL]

Cool picture schmism! I love that dirt look. Looks like fun to me.

 

[Diesel-ME]

carpe diem schmism .... it's a good time to break the news to the wife that you are going to need a larger tractor to pull that plow

~paul

(sorry - could not resist)

 

[Z-Michigan]

Looks cool. The plowing job looks just fine. Get the tiller if you want, but I don't think you really need one. I imagine you'll be seeding and harvesting by hand, and if that's the case all the tractor work is done and it's hand tools from here on. The tiller might be useful next year and thereafter to prep the plot each spring, but you can also just plow again. Seems like you got it to work.

 

[randy41]

looks like a good plowing job. i would disk it now.

 

[coveredbridge]

1) The plowing job looks fine to me.

2) How you lay out your garden depends somewhat on what you intend to plant. For example, corn should be planted in a large number of short rows as opposed to a small number of long rows, to enhance cross-pollination. As far as spacing, the seed packet usually provides recommended spacing of both seed in the furrow and row spacing.

3) I don't know that you would need a tiller, but a disc-harrow would sure be nice for chopping up that sod. Making a seed bed out of that by hand is going to take a lot of work with hoe and rake.

Good luck with your garden. I gave up on mine a few years ago. I couldn't keep the deer out, and they just destroyed everything! I often kid that I need to move into town so I can have a garden again.

 

[schmism]

well we got a whole bunch of seeds from a friend for a property warming....

standard afair, some corn, canatalope, beans, peas, 3 diffrent tomatos, onions, beets, radishes, sunflowers, birdhouse gords, 2 diffrent pumpkins, and i need to get some seed patatos.

i want to plant perpendicular to the plowing to make many short 15' rows.

I dont have a disk, or a drag harrow and i dont think i have any neighbors that have something small enough to put behind the CUT....

if i had been more dilligant back in march and plowed up the entire area and flipped the sod then, then id be in a lot better postion now.... but im slowly learning.....

do you guys create your rows by hand, or use a patato plow (KK middle buster version) to do it. ?

i feel as if my garden is right inbetween that size were you kinda do everything by hand, and having a LARGE garden that is sized for a CUT... (thus the reason 2 wheel gravely's were so popular back in the day)

 

[thunderworks]

Since this is free advice, take it for what it's costing . . .

I think you should either disc agressively, or get the tiller. You really need to get the sod broken up and composted as quickly as possible. Normally a garden in new, just turned, previously turfed ground does not do all that well. The decompostion process on the organic matter you just turned in requires some time. Reducing the material to the finest size as quickly as possible will speed up that decompostion process. The tiller will do a good job prepping the seed bed and require tons less backbreaking manual prep.

Regarding the question about row width, etc. . . your veggie choices will determine that. Most seeds have clear planting instructions on their packaging.

 

[Ford850]

I would get a disk. You can buy a medium duty disk for half the cost of a rototiller, and you already have the plow. Run over it a few times aggresively with the disk, then disk it slow and shallow to level things out and create a fine seedbed. Don't worry about being late, the warmer soil will allow your plants to grow fast and catch up. This first year will be more of a challenge so don't get discouraged. Next year will be easier, and if you keep your weeds under control this year, they will be easier to control next year too.

 

[coveredbridge]

Wow! Not sure how you're going to get all that in 900sf. You may want to try laying your garden out on a sheet of graph paper. I think it's a good way to organize your planting.

I've planted both with and across the plowed furrows. I found that it seemed easier to work the soil when I planted in the same direction as I plowed. You can still make short rows. There's no reason why you need to go end-to-end with the same kind of seed. Plant quarter rows of corn, beans, peas, and beets, for example.

I've dug rows by hand with a hoe, and also with a potato plow on the 3-pt. For your size garden, I would be tempted to just dig the rows by hand to minimize compaction of the soil that would occur by running the tractor over the seed bed.

I agree with the other posters that a disk would really be helpful in preparing a proper seed bed.