Leveling and laying off rows....

When you are working in loose soil, you'll find that the tractor is always slightly adrift almost like a boat in the water.

You'll be amazed at how little side slope is needed to make the tractor lead off to one side or the other. Also one wheel in softer soil than the other can produce interesting results.

For laying out rows I'll c-clamp a bar with a couple cultivator shares set at 36" or 42" to the back gate of the 5' rototiller... makes a nice line to plant in. I think you could rig up a drag bar behind a harrow the same way.

For a garden your size consider getting one of those earthway seeders.. all-aluminum jobs with various seed disks. Sets the seeds to depth, covers the furrow and has it's own guide marker.

It works fine for most seeds and saves hours and hours of labor. If you get one, don't fill the hopper more than about 2/3 full. Works better that way.

What vegetables/varieties are you planting ?
Might be interesting to compare notes.

I have 1,500 onions waiting to be put in tomorrow...if it doesn't rain tonight.

-- bbott

--->Paul

For planting straight rows in a garden, a string tied to stakes at the end works great. Are you planting by hand, making the furrow with a hoe?

Mark

For what it's worth, I use a middlebuster on my 8N to lay off rows. My garden is long and skinny like yours, about 50' x 250' so it may work for you, too.

After plowing and disking in the fall, in the spring the middlebuster digs a nice furrow about 10" wide with loose soil on either side of it. Then depending on what I'm planting, I either use a hand hoe to push the loose soil back in the furrow and plant seeds with a hand push-planter, or with plants or something like potato cuttings I put the plant in and push the soil in afterward.

Works pretty well and I space the rows a tractor-width apart, which gives me room to walk down the rows where the tires ran to tend, harvest, weed or whatever.

Tom