Small Garden Recommendations

[crashz]

I need help with a little dilema. My family would like to put a small garden together (25 x 25 or maybe a little bigger) in an area that once had a garden about 10 years ago. Its lawn covered now so it needs to be tilled. I was hoping to rent a small tiller for my tractor, but the local dealer/rental outfit doesn't have one availble. I could easily do it with a walk behind, but they are scarce right now too.

Is there another implement that would work to turn over and break up the sod? Would a middle buster work for this?

Thanks in advance!
Leo

 

[RobJ]

I'd strip the sod off and wait for a walk behind. At 25x25 you could almost do it by hand in an hour or little more!! Good for the heart!!

 

[crashz]

Hmm... Thats a good idea, Rob. I've been under the impression that I should till the sod into the soil and break it up until its really fine. But without the sod, I could just break it up with a pitch fork.

 

[Charlesaf3]

good excuse to buy a rototiller 3pt! People say good things about the king kutter

 

[RobJ]

good excuse to buy a rototiller 3pt! People say good things about the king kutter

Not arguing with this...but it's a 300x300 garden!!! In inches!!

BTW talking about gardens...Monday we ate some corn I planted this year, cucumbers, potatos, bell pepper and a tomato.

 

[crashz]

Yeah - its way to small to justify purchasing a tiller. And I wouldn't have any other use for it. In fact its really too small to till with a tractor, but I will use any excuse I can to run mine.

If I can get a walk behind tiller, should I be tilling the sod under?

 

[Luremaker]

...BTW talking about gardens...Monday we ate some corn I planted this year, cucumbers, potatos, bell pepper and a tomato.

Your already eating what you've planted and here I am waiting for frost free nights so that I can acutally plant the seed I want to plant.

 

[Charlesaf3]

Hey, I'm about to use the tractor to till a 20x15 garden!

 

[RobJ]

If I can get a walk behind tiller, should I be tilling the sod under?

I wouldn't, more work for sure to strip the sod off. But if you take an inch or so under the sod you might also get rid of some dormant seeds lying there. Might help some anyway.

Good Luck,
Rob

 

[RobJ]

If I can get a walk behind tiller, should I be tilling the sod under?

I wouldn't, more work for sure to strip the sod off. But if you take an inch or so under the sod you might also get rid of some dormant seeds lying there. Might help some anyway. Looks like you have a FEL...easy work with that.

Good Luck,
Rob

 

[Harry c]

Mine is 25 x 50. I usually plow it with a turning plow and level/till with a cultivator. Last fall I mowed all the stalks, etc. with the mmm. This spring, I just used the cultivator and pushed a little dirt around with the loader.
Eating broccoli, cabbage, lettuce, spinach and a few new potatoes already. Tomatoes on the vines but not ripe yet. We plant pretty tight so any other cultivation has to be done by hand. Solution: Don't do any! I'll hit the invasive grass with RU soon and just watch stuff grow. Always does pretty well.

If you want to till in the sod, I suggest you spray with roundup first. That'll keep the grass from coming back up. Follow the instructions for how long to wait before you till and plant.

 

[wedge40]

If ya dont mind waiting a week or two, get a couple of large tarps Steak them over the area you want to till. After a week or two (depending on the weather) the grass and everything under the tarp will be dead. Much easier to till then. I'm guessing about $30 for the tarps and they can be used again. To me plastic tarps are like 2"x4"s.. You can never have enough of those lying around.

Good luck with the garden.

I can't believe people already have stuff coming up. I got up this morning and it was 40 degree's out. Had to run back in and get my sweatshirt.

Wedge

 

[ampsucker]

if the sod is bermuda, watch out! it will come back right away no matter what you do. if you do have a lot of bermuda, try killing it off this year and prepping the garden for next. one way to kill it if you don't want to use herbicide is to cover the entire area with black plastic after you break it up and let it cook all summer. another solution is to go with raised beds. there are a lot of good arguments for raised beds anyway, one of which is ease of weed control.

amp

 

[wushaw]

Yea the Bermuda will show up alright.

I have had Tomatoes , cucumbers, radishes, green peas and Jalapeno peppers so far myself.

My garden is only 30X30 and I could justify a 3pt tiller for that although I have used it for several other tilling jobs on the place that were much bigger than 30X30.

 

[rcrcomputing]

I'm eating cabbage. (Love it) and squash and lot's of onions.

Gopher from **** is eating well to. He's the Caddy Shack gopher. I can't seem to get this one..

 

[farmbroke]

Use Round Up on the area wait for it to burn down the sod, then use a braking plow to turn it under, then disc it to level it out. This has worked for us over the years on new plots.

 

[Charlesaf3]

I wouldn't use roundup near something I'm planning to eat. Sure they say it breaks down... but I'm not going to risk it.

I find tilling lawn with my rototiller puts it so fine I get almost no grass back. I've tilled a lot of lawn for flower beds the last 2 years.

I'm old school, I'd rather use the tractor than poison.

 

[Rara Avis]

I wouldn't use roundup near something I'm planning to eat. Sure they say it breaks down... but I'm not going to risk it.

I find tilling lawn with my rototiller puts it so fine I get almost no grass back. I've tilled a lot of lawn for flower beds the last 2 years.

I'm old school, I'd rather use the tractor than poison.

Glyphosate is soil inactive. Once it hits dirt, it has no effect, no carry-over, and is neutralized. It's only effect is on LIVING plants. It won't kill grass if it's dormant.

http://www.ag.ndsu.edu/weeds/w253/w2...htm#GLYPHOSATE

 

[Charlesaf3]

Sure Paul, that's what they say. My faith in that has been more than a little undermined by all the times they've gone "oops, wasn't so harmless after all".

Including a whole lot of herbicides and pesticides that were "perfectly safe" until they were found to cause cancer by the boatload.

I use a lot of toxic stuff when I have to. I try not to use it when I don't have to.