1/4 Acvre Garden Tool Help

[edknapp]

want to put in small 1/4 acre garden with no clue

of what i need to put turn up ground to plant HELP HERE GUYS!

My gouund gumbo with no so many roots or rocks

Any advise will be very appreciated!!

 

[RayP(MI)]

Rent a tiller from the local rental center. Buy a hoe from local hardware.

 

[old]

Till or plow and disk it up then apply a good layer of manure if you can get it and organic matter and maybe a bit of sand to make that gombo less gombo like so it will let water go. My garden was a lot of black clay when I started with ti but it now has a lot of manure and organic matter mixed in

 

[Gary from Muleshoe]

Build containers and save your back.

 

[casenut1]

My local hardware doesn't sell hoes.

 

[Ivan in Mich]

You may have to go downtown for one LOL

 

[GordoSD]

If you don't have a clue try golf or badminton.
If are willing to read and learn then start with a small garden like most of us did, about 40 feet by 100 feet. That will keep you plenty busy as you learn.

 

[edknapp]

Thanks for great info

Ed

 

[old]

Been doing a garden for 35 plus years now and my dad did one up till he could not do so any more. In clay and gumbo you need a lot of organic matter be it manure or compost to make it so the clay/gumbo does not hold to much water. I is best to start small and slowly work up bigger or you can end up with something you can not handle due to weeds and other such problems. I do an organic garden so I use no chemicals or store type fertilizers

 

[ldj]

You didn't put your location. If you are in cotton country go to a gin and get cotton burrs.

 

[big fred]

To one of them big box stores?

 

[Geo-TH,In]

If the sod is good I use sod cutter nd move sod to a place in yard that needs it. I don't till, use post hole digger instead. In fall I clean off Gardner with loader. Put trash in mulch pile to be used in flower beds. Cover garden with foot of leafs in fall. Dig holes in leads in spring. Leads prevent weed growth. Add AG lime before I cover with leads. Have two tillers but too much work to use.

 

[Moonlite37]

Why buy when you can borry,should be able to borry one for short time use

 

[dahlin]

If you have a master gardener program in your area that would be a good place to get advice for your area. As others have said start small and do a good job of weeding fertilizing and watching for insects. Also selecting the right plant varieties will help its not always the biggest for us its the earliest and most disease resistant. Good luck and don't expect to much your first year. Randy

 

[Dusty MI]

Being that you want to be small, you could use a pointed shovel and turn the sod/soil over one shovel at a time. Basicly that is what a plow does. Then use a hoe to level the soil.

 

[Geo-TH,In]

I use a PHD and HOE, BACK HOE

 

[RN]

Stop at library or browse the net- look for 'Howard Indore/Indian fast composting', 'French intensive Gardening', 'double dug garden beds'. Check out Rodale Press books- the publisher of Organic Gardening. A good sharp nosed shovel, t/grub hoe-axe/root hoe-axe/pioneer axe(lot of different names for heavy hoe/pick/axe), a lawn thatcher or strong toothed rake, and a hoe can get you started. Mustard greens, black seed Simpson or Oak Leaf lettuce, whatever tomato variety the neighbors within 10 mile say works for them and some bush beans like Blue Lake along with plain Kentucky Wonder pole beans along back fence. A good fence may be really important in areas where the deer and bunnies nibble. Bigger equipment? for 1/4 acre--a 100 foot by 100 foot square or thereabouts a Ford N with equipment is way more than needed- a Troybuilt rear tine tiller is adequate, sister has old 6hp Horse model and a couple hoes and rake- does about 3/4 acre, older brother has a old Sears something and does maybe 1/2 acre(?) with some hand tools besides. I used a 4hp Ariens for a 25 X 150 4 plot garden setup before moving to town. Farmall Cubs locally in Wisconsin used to do 2 to 5 acres of tobacco and 2 to 3 acres of gardens. Cub Cadet, Bolens, AC and Simplicity with one bottom 6-8" plows, simple 6 prongs S tines tool bars for cultivation, plowed ground crumbling are used with community garden patches- they do a couple acres in 20x20 to 50x50 plots for basic prep work. Check the Garden Tractor forum for some other threads. RN

 

[TomH in PA]

What RayP said, rent a big rear tine rototiller and consider plastic mulch the first year or you'll be overwhelmed by weeds. A 1/4 acre garden is pretty big, think about what you're going to do with all the produce when it's ready.

 

[JRSutton]

and the second third, fourth and fifth years!


Just for kicks - go to you tube and look up rain gutter garden.

I'm giving that approach some serious consideration for this spring.

 

[Determined]

What works well for us is an old International vibrashank field cultivator with decent shovels on it, we just use the center section and leave the side wings folded up for weight, it does about a 12 foot strip at a time, it does require a fair bit of horsepower depending on how deep you go.
Once established it takes longer to hook it up and put it away than it does to actually work the ground.
Lots of well rotted manure every couple of years keeps things growing good.
1/4 acre is going to be a lot of work; planting, weeding, harvesting etc.
To give you an idea of how much you can grow in that much space;
12 tomato plants spaced 4 foot apart on 4 foot rows will yield 10 5 gal pails right full, in an area of 16 x 20 feet.
A 1/4 acre is 34 times that size.

 

[El Toro]

My wife use Earth boxes. Hal