Do you use your tractor in a fenced in Garden?

   / Do you use your tractor in a fenced in Garden?
  • Thread Starter
#51  
poses concerns of being able to get back out.
Over the years I have often been surprised at the level of what appears to be problem-solving intelligence in animals and insects. It wouldn't shock me if they were able to think ahead a little bit too.
Bees can count and seem to have a grasp of the concept of zero.
 
   / Do you use your tractor in a fenced in Garden? #52  
As long as the deer can see what's on the other side of the
fence it will jump it. I have seen deer jump a 20 ft high
chain link fence with no problem.

You are not feeding the deer with the right stuff!
mix up a batch of very hot peppers, salt, vinegar
and spray your plants when the deer start to ear
your plants. It only takes one bite and they need
some water asap!

willy

Those deer must have gotten into the same stuff as the armadillo another poster was having problems with. IIrc he was having to shoot them with big game weapons.
 
   / Do you use your tractor in a fenced in Garden? #53  
I am planning on a fairly large garden. Because I live in a psychotic State the Deer are like zombie hoards and you can't do anything to deter them that might offend Bambi or the soccer moms so I gotta put in a fence.
Therein lies the Rub
I think I should fence in a rather large area My Tractor is a Kioti DK 47. my gardening implements are a Howard Rotovator and a Dearborn two bottom 14" plow and a Tuffline subsoiler. I don't have a disk I'm thinking the rotovator will do just fine. I plan on building a hiller for a tool bar I bought.

Back to the fence. I am struggling with the idea of a tractor in a fenced-in area. I'm thinking I need to leave a fair bit of mown grass around the actual garden. How do you address the need to be able to turn your rig around and use it in the fenced in garden?

With the correct tractor and implement you can work almost any area without the need for turning space - i.e. wasted space. My very first tractor was a"little grey Fergie". I first worked with it about 65 years ago, but did not buy it until the owner sold it to me in 1972. They do not make them like that anymore.

To quote from https://www.totallyagriculture.co.uk/tractor-history/ferguson-history "A typical demonstration was fencing off an area 27 feet by 20 feet (8.2 by 6 metres) and using a cultivator-equipped TE-20 to till the complete area........"

I presently have a near neighbour with an MF135 (my "add on" second tractor) and he works his little plot with no turning areas. See how small an area you can work with your present tractor, and take it fom there.
 
   / Do you use your tractor in a fenced in Garden? #54  
I have a ck3510. Our garden is 48x32 and I wish it was bigger. It is fenced in with gates at both ends. It is a pain but I keep the loader up high when turning around using a 3point 60” tiller. I wish I had put larger gates
 
   / Do you use your tractor in a fenced in Garden? #55  
I have a ck3510. Our garden is 48x32 and I wish it was bigger. It is fenced in with gates at both ends. It is a pain but I keep the loader up high when turning around using a 3point 60” tiller. I wish I had put larger gates
Why do you need to turn? Is your tractor not capable of backing up such a short distance and cultivating over your tracks?

Why do you have a FEL? It seems to be a compulsory attachment in USA. I have only ever had one on a tractor that was bought used and with the loader attached. I sold that in 1979 and until retiring 2 years ago (with 3 farms in 3 different countries in between, and up to over 3000 acres) never missed it. I consider an FEL an expensive toy unless it used several times a week.
 
   / Do you use your tractor in a fenced in Garden? #56  
Why do you need to turn? Is your tractor not capable of backing up such a short distance and cultivating over your tracks?

Why do you have a FEL? It seems to be a compulsory attachment in USA. I have only ever had one on a tractor that was bought used and with the loader attached. I sold that in 1979 and until retiring 2 years ago (with 3 farms in 3 different countries in between, and up to over 3000 acres) never missed it. I consider an FEL an expensive toy unless it used several times a week.
A lot of our TBNers in the US & Canada with compact/utility tractors are new to their land. They are still working to shape the land and build things like roads, barns, & fences.
Right now their "farm" may be a house, small barn, large garden, and a few animals - but with little or no tillable acreage.
A loader is essential for carrying everything used for building, and for clearing forest, underbrush, and snow.
rScotty
 
   / Do you use your tractor in a fenced in Garden? #57  
A lot of our TBNers in the US & Canada with compact/utility tractors are new to their land. They are still working to shape the land and build things like roads, barns, & fences.
Right now their "farm" may be a house, small barn, large garden, and a few animals - but with little or no tillable acreage.
A loader is essential for carrying everything used for building, and for clearing forest, underbrush, and snow.
rScotty
I have spent over 50 years of my adult life taking on neglected land, 5 farms in 4 different countries – England, Australia, Scotland and Portugal. It was all good experience. Four had a run-down house and buildings, one was bare land. I too had to build roads –my wife became quite adept at that job, more buildings, fences and clear large trees, scrub, rocks and stone, etc.

I did use contractors when it was more expedient to pay a professional for large scale works such as house building and underground drainage and irrigation systems rather than spend time and money doing the job myself, probably to a lower standard if I had done it, and involving the need to buy equipment that would not be used again. It is a good plan to always keep back some cash from a sale to be able to pay contractors when necessary on the new property. I brought land into production that had never even been grazed before. As I posted, I never needed an FEL. The one I had in the 1970s was only used once a year to remove the build up of FYM in a building over winter. I wondered why it is considered essential to have one in North America. People come to rely on things they have and do not consider other ways of doing a job.

At the same time I am a peasant. That is someone with little money that farms in order for himself and his dependents to survive and only buy depreciating assets if they are essential for that survival. Perhaps that is a different attitude of mind to those who can afford to go out and buy machinery and equipment. If I had had the money perhaps I might have bought more things too.

I also wonder what posters would make of the fact I have never found it necessary to buy a vice? A welder, drill, angle grinder/cutter were essential, as well as making my own cultivators, harrows, seed drill, etc., but bought sprayers because they are too complicated for me to make. Never needed a mouldboard plough after 1979 either.
 
   / Do you use your tractor in a fenced in Garden? #58  
I have spent over 50 years of my adult life taking on neglected land, 5 farms in 4 different countries – England, Australia, Scotland and Portugal. It was all good experience. Four had a run-down house and buildings, one was bare land. I too had to build roads –my wife became quite adept at that job, more buildings, fences and clear large trees, scrub, rocks and stone, etc.

I did use contractors when it was more expedient to pay a professional for large scale works such as house building and underground drainage and irrigation systems rather than spend time and money doing the job myself, probably to a lower standard if I had done it, and involving the need to buy equipment that would not be used again. It is a good plan to always keep back some cash from a sale to be able to pay contractors when necessary on the new property. I brought land into production that had never even been grazed before. As I posted, I never needed an FEL. The one I had in the 1970s was only used once a year to remove the build up of FYM in a building over winter. I wondered why it is considered essential to have one in North America. People come to rely on things they have and do not consider other ways of doing a job.

At the same time I am a peasant. That is someone with little money that farms in order for himself and his dependents to survive and only buy depreciating assets if they are essential for that survival. Perhaps that is a different attitude of mind to those who can afford to go out and buy machinery and equipment. If I had had the money perhaps I might have bought more things too.

I also wonder what posters would make of the fact I have never found it necessary to buy a vice? A welder, drill, angle grinder/cutter were essential, as well as making my own cultivators, harrows, seed drill, etc., but bought sprayers because they are too complicated for me to make. Never needed a mouldboard plough after 1979 either.
Everyone works at their own pace. I'll happily spend a week rebuilding an old machine to do a job in one day that could have been done by hand in two

No Vise? There is no excuse.... take a couple of pieces of wood, a strap hinge, and a big nut and bolt pair. A hour's work will make a nice peasant vise.
rScotty



rScotty
 
   / Do you use your tractor in a fenced in Garden? #59  
I posted I have never found it necessary to buy a vice. I did not say I have not improvised, because there are many times when it is essential to hold something steady. I am not trying to be smart, and I reckon you are a person who will improvise too. I am certain you can come up with other similar suggestions about how to overcome the lack of a tool when doing a job. I am also certain you cannot pass all your knowledge to those that need it most.

I accept your attitude that that is the way you would do it; and nobody can tell you that you are wrong, but I would take the opposite approach and always did what I could by hand rather than involve a machine or equipment. No religious view on that - I am an atheist. It is just that if I can do something with my own labour at no other cost than what accountants and economists call "opportunity cost" i.e. the possibility that something else could have been done in the time it took to do a job, I will do it by hand. I alway operated with the minimum of machinery. I am a McDonald not a McCanic.
 
   / Do you use your tractor in a fenced in Garden? #60  
McAntics like things that move and all manner mechanical things for their own sake - not because they save time or money. In fact, I agree with what you say - I'm still not at all sure that they really do save appreciable amounts of either one.
It's just fun to see how many different ways there are to solve the same problem.
rScotty
 
 
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