Raised bed Gardening

[charlz]

I am hesitant to drive on the freshly tilled soil and then hilling it up because of the lumps it would create in my clay soil. (I notice this where I drive a little on the tilled soil and the tiller digs it up again.) Has any body ever used one of these backing up? I do not know why it would not work.

If you do a bit of searching on here you will see where at least one member built a hipper onto the back of their tiller so they could 'one pass' till/bed. I think it would be way hard to steer going backwards, if you were just doing one bed it might work but trying to make multiple, parallel beds would be tough I think.

 

[MF1652]

Creamer, we used to do the same thing as you to make the raised beds after tilling. I didn't feel a bedder would be useful on a small garden. We ended up building a series of raised beds out of 2x10 lumber and till the beds with a small walk behind tiller. No more moving dirt around to make the hills and no more keeping the weeds out of the garden.

 

[grnspot110]

My raised bed garden is 24' square. I leave the walkways permanent, just work up the planting beds. I turn it by hand in the Fall, then use one of the 10" tillers through planting season. I mulch everything for very little weeding & better moisture retention. ~~ grnspot

 

[QRTRHRS]

That is about what my garden is. I have a 54" tiller for my tractor which makes quick work of the whole thing but still struggling with this part of it. I am assuming the Troy built tiller was a rear tine and that it was some sort of shovel behind it that rolled the dirt out?

Having had no time to garden the last several years, I sold my 70's era rear tine Troy Bilt years ago. The attachment looked like a single sod buster that hooked on behind the tines. You could use it alone or with two adjustable blades on the sides.

I looked on Troy Bilts web site but I don't see it so I could not post a photo.

 

[MuleMn]

I made a bedder using steel pipe about twenty years ago. Still using it. I made it to put plastic down on the beds. I quit using plastic and cut that off and replaced it with a cultipacker. I use an old grader blade to flatten the top of the bed. I also placed a tube inside of a tube (to adjust seed depth) to run in front of the cultipacker. I do this when planting watermelon or other seeds that plates are unavailable for planting. Will try and post some pics. It is not the neatest looking, but it works!

 

[Creamer]

Grnspt110 - Work it all by hand - that is what I am trying to get away from!

 

[bcp]

How about this?

From:
http://smith-wessonforum.com/lounge/191349-so-hows-gardening-going-growing-anyone-else.html

 

[MuleMn]

Here is my homemade bedder. The upright tube is for planting seeds that I have no plates for. It is marked on inches. The cultipacker folds down to cover seeds or just to firm bed. I let it all the way down to plant potatoes. The grader blade on rear hinges and can be removed.

 

[Creamer]

Mulemn - That is a heck of a contraption that looks like is does a great job!

bcp - that is a Troy-Built with a furrowing attachment which looks like it does a nice job creating the trenches.

Thanks for the ideas!