I live in southwestern Michigan and am new to gardening. I have inherited a tractor and want to use it to get a garden going in my back yard, approximately 50 ft x 70 ft. I don't have much experience using a tractor and implements, so I was hoping that you guys could help me out.
My soil conditions are such that I have 18" of clayish soil on top of 7' of sand and gravel, and then the water table. The surface gets clumpy when saturated and hard when dried. I plan to amend the garden area by mixing in some sand and composted materials consisting of roughly a 60:40 blend of browns to greens (yard leaves and kitchen scraps). I haven't checked yet, but I believe I have a relatively neutral pH in my soil, as tomatoes easily take off. I've had a few small wood fires in the garden area, and the tomato plants really loved those areas in particular.
With my 1948 8N tractor and a single bottom plow, I plan to plow in the late fall without raking so that the frost breaks up the exposed clumps. I might scatter some cover crop of oats or something and just see what grows. Then in the spring, I'll go over it 1-3 times with a spring tooth harrow to rake under any cover and for final preparation of the soil.
We will be planting lettuces, snap peas, green beans, tomatoes, bell peppers, cucumber, summer squash, and zucchini from seed by hoeing up the rows and setting the seed by hand.
As needed, I plan to use the spring tooth harrow to cultivate between the rows (I plan to get the spacing right) and then hoe the weeds in between the plants by hand.
In the late fall, after all crops have been harvested, compost and (possibly raw) horse manure may be added to the field and plowed under, again leaving the soil exposed so frost can do its thing.
This will be my yearly method, obviously I will be changing things as I go, but this is my starting point. I wanted to ask the community if anything in particular jumped out to you as a big time-waster, or if anyone had any other suggestions?
Thanks in advance!
My soil conditions are such that I have 18" of clayish soil on top of 7' of sand and gravel, and then the water table. The surface gets clumpy when saturated and hard when dried. I plan to amend the garden area by mixing in some sand and composted materials consisting of roughly a 60:40 blend of browns to greens (yard leaves and kitchen scraps). I haven't checked yet, but I believe I have a relatively neutral pH in my soil, as tomatoes easily take off. I've had a few small wood fires in the garden area, and the tomato plants really loved those areas in particular.
With my 1948 8N tractor and a single bottom plow, I plan to plow in the late fall without raking so that the frost breaks up the exposed clumps. I might scatter some cover crop of oats or something and just see what grows. Then in the spring, I'll go over it 1-3 times with a spring tooth harrow to rake under any cover and for final preparation of the soil.
We will be planting lettuces, snap peas, green beans, tomatoes, bell peppers, cucumber, summer squash, and zucchini from seed by hoeing up the rows and setting the seed by hand.
As needed, I plan to use the spring tooth harrow to cultivate between the rows (I plan to get the spacing right) and then hoe the weeds in between the plants by hand.
In the late fall, after all crops have been harvested, compost and (possibly raw) horse manure may be added to the field and plowed under, again leaving the soil exposed so frost can do its thing.
This will be my yearly method, obviously I will be changing things as I go, but this is my starting point. I wanted to ask the community if anything in particular jumped out to you as a big time-waster, or if anyone had any other suggestions?
Thanks in advance!