So the Mrs wants a big garden. What do I use?

[/pine]

Actually, she did about a 1/4 acre with a tiller attachment on a weedeater and hand tools before met.

Covering the tire tracks is part of my concern with a 3pt tiller. I really do not want to shell out the amount of cash needed for a 7 foot tiller. Oof. Maybe I should look into renting one for the initial ground breaking or hiring it out and then a walk behind from there out.

If you use a hiller/bedder (tool bar type) after tilling...you can add a couple of sweep cultivators that are set to trail the rear tire tracks...

 

[goeduck]

you will find there will be many grass and weed seeds that will continue to germinate after the initial tilling so plan on continuous tilling for a few yrs, which makes the investment of a 3 pt tiller worthwhile.

Agree. Around here anyway where we have a marine climate the weeds that come up after the initial preparation are more work than the initial prep. I use drip irrigation to not encourage any more weed growth between rows than is necessary and I do not use an herbicide on the areas that I grow food.

 

[sixdogs]

Actually, she did about a 1/4 acre with a tiller attachment on a weedeater and hand tools before met.

Covering the tire tracks is part of my concern with a 3pt tiller. I really do not want to shell out the amount of cash needed for a 7 foot tiller. Oof. Maybe I should look into renting one for the initial ground breaking or hiring it out and then a walk behind from there out.

Just offset a narrower tiller to cover one track. Then go the same direction repeatedly and no tracks will show. If you can't offset the tiller just pull the lift arms over a bit and offset it that way. No problem.

 

[prof fate]

This was the first year i used a rear tine tiller..been using a front time for 30 years.

WOW, what a difference. Spring was a borrowed reverse rotation and some of the garden was previous garden and some was sod - fast, easy beautifle garden soil, Did 1/4 acre in 45 minutes, 2 passes.

I picked up a craftsman dual rotation tiller - it can be reverse or forward rotation, rear tine. (used, $150). Did some area that I had disked with the tractor, turned in compost with th etiller and made it like powder, even though it was a tad wet yet. Plan to put garlic in this weekend...rained just about every day for 6 weeks now.

I was thinkig of a 3pt tiller..but the rear tine reverse rotation is WAY cheaper (even new) and so fast and easy I can't justify the cost of a 5 or 6' 3pt.

Manual says reverse rotation is best for untilled gound, fwd rotation for tilling tilled ground, cultivating, etc.

I have discussed this with the Mrs a bit and tiller has been agreed upon. Not too surprisingly to me, she would like a walk behind rather than a 3pt. She is more of a hands on type and would like to selectively pick her garden bed layout and does not want the whole area tilled.

Thanks for the advice fellas!

 

[aczlan]

I'd like to try potatoes, but I don't know how to get them out of the ground without a lot of bending over which my back doesn't like.

Grow them in 5 gallon buckets, just be sure to get potatoes that will grow more potatoes when you add dirt around the base of the plant
Then you plant them in 6" of dirt in the bottom of the bucket and add dirt every couple of weeks.

Aaron Z

 

[Stimw]

I bought a 4' tiller and use it with my 35 hp Branson. (no wheel marks, tiller set to right side)
Pics are tiller and first time I used it at my old property.
It tills so well that soil looks like sawdust! Walk behind didn't do half as good a job.
Other pics are my new property with 40' X 100' garden with critter fencing and chicken wire at bottom for bunnies.
This was pasture 3 years ago when I first tilled it and it gets better every year that I work it.

 

[bigdeano]

I gardened for a long time, then made the mistake of letting a guy dump a trailer load of horse manure in the garden, thought it would be good fertilizer. Horrible mistake. The horrible weeds totally ruined it. Be careful what you put in your garden.

 

[Diggin It]

I'm wondering if I should turn a section this fall, turn some leaves and some of the neighbor's goat manure in and let it stew for the Winter. I could spray any stray growth that starts. Maybe even till it again before Spring if weather permits.

 

[Diggin It]

Grow them in 5 gallon buckets, just be sure to get potatoes that will grow more potatoes when you add dirt around the base of the plant

Then you plant them in 6" of dirt in the bottom of the bucket and add dirt every couple of weeks.

Not sure I follow. I have put a few in the cut off bottom third of 55 gallon barrels. They've done OK. I don't get the bit about adding dirt though.

That only gets enough for personal use though. I'd like to find a way to get more so I could try to sell a few.

 

[oosik]

Some of the pictured gardens in this thread are large enough that the veggie output would feed Lt Colonel George A. Custer's 7th Cav over the entire winter. Lordy - some of you folks must surely be planning on having roadside veggie stands.