Large Garden Plot from Pasture: Take 2

   / Large Garden Plot from Pasture: Take 2 #21  
Also, I hear you on the herbicide free. I'm all for that. However, I would hit that land with a heavy dose of roundup right now, while still warm enough to work. Let it kill that for a couple weeks, Then rent or buy a 3pt. tiller and till that under this fall. Then in the spring, hit it with the tiller again and plant. Then manager weeds using a layer of leaf mulch or grass clippings.

Glyphosphate does not bind to the soil, it will kill the weeds to the root and will not affect your veggies unless you are spraying it on their leaves. I do not use it but I do when starting a new area to grow in. You will be fighting sod all year if you don't.

Do not till the leaves in in the spring. Just put them on top the ground as a weed barrier. You can till leaves in in the fall. Night crawlers and the elements will break them down over the fall/spring and you will have a nice organic soil.

Go get every bag of leaves you can find and till that in this fall. Do some reading up on what leaf mulch will do for your soil's moisture retention. It will change the way you think about leaves. Since she wants to go no till, you need to become a friend of leaf mulch.

Or you can do that black fabric that I've seen people put down and burn holes in it. That seems to work well. I'm probably going to try that some, maybe next year.
 
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   / Large Garden Plot from Pasture: Take 2 #22  
If you decide to do a first kill with Glyphosphate, let us know. We can advise on how to do it so you get a good kill. You can screw that up if you don't know what you are doing.
 
   / Large Garden Plot from Pasture: Take 2 #23  
IMO a tiller is a must for gardens, you are not going to break the ground properly with a disk... before the winter plow it, next year till it make rows and plant.
100% agree with this. A disc is meant to be used after a plow turns the soil. Using a disk alone on sod that hasn't been killed off, will have you never wanting to garden again. Even using it on sod that has been killed will take a lot of passes.
 
   / Large Garden Plot from Pasture: Take 2 #24  
100% agree with this. A disc is meant to be used after a plow turns the soil. Using a disk alone on sod that hasn't been killed off, will have you never wanting to garden again. Even using it on sod that has been killed will take a lot of passes.

I am sure it all depend on the soil I have seen videos of guys plowing and its almost ready to be a garden right after, but for me I used a disk after its been plowed for field seeding, but even then it's good for seeding but not for gardening the sod hold together and the disk break slices off but it will stay chunky. Guys around here that don't have a tiller and try to do a garden have to plow it multiple times, after the second summer they might be able to make a garden.
 
   / Large Garden Plot from Pasture: Take 2
  • Thread Starter
#25  
Gentlemen!! Some EXCELLENT advice in here. THANK YOU! 🙏 Give me a day to digest and I will address your questions and ask more. If it was my garden I would 100% use roundup to get a good start. I think a 1 or 2 bottom plow and disc would work. But she is willing to go the tiller route as well.
 
   / Large Garden Plot from Pasture: Take 2 #26  
Give us the specs for the Kubota.

The capability of an 1,700 subcompact, 2,000 pound compact and 2,700 pound compact tractor with 25-horsepower vary proportionately to tractor bare weight.


Is the tractor 2-WD or 4-WD?

For breaking 0.1147842 acre a one bottom plow is ample for a 25-horsepower tractor. A 1,700 pound tractor or a 2,000 pound tractor, both highly probable to have HST transmissions, will struggle or fail with a two (2) bottom turning plow.

Even a plow novice should be able to plow 1/10 acre with a 12" single bottom plow in one hour.

Using a PTO-powered Roto-tiller following a turning plow is not uncommon in tough soils. Tennessee soils can be ANYTHING.

After plowing 1/10 acre I think a Keulavator with 2 X 14" = 28" swathe cultivating spiders would even out plow furrows in three, possibly four passes requiring <45 minutes total for secondary cultivation. Then Keulavator can be adjusted to chop the weeds between adolescent corn, tomatoe, winter and summer squash and bean rows, its primary function.







 
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