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Well we're up here in NE Iowa. We're 30 mi. from the NE corner. 20 mi. S of all those Norwegions up in Spring Grove Mn. and 20 mi. from the East coast, Where the Missippi is- with all the carp, and catfish, and rattlesnakes.
I think thats what keeps the liberals on the other side of the river!
We just do a couple little 1/2 acre gardens with mixed veggies and sweet corn and a lot of potatoes. Watered a lot the last two unusually dry summers but it paid off.
The plant and prep is fast and straightforward. I spend an hour mounting the 6ft. rototiller on the old Minneapolis Moline 60 hp tractor, then spend 20 min. double tilling the plots. Next I pull a single section of drag, or harrow, over it with the ATV to knock some of the fluff and air out of the soil. Then I unhook the drag and run the ATV back and forth,with each alternating wheel track in the other untill I have paralell tracks covering the garden for rows to plant in. Then I put the tractor away and if i'm lucky I get called out on a service job and when I get home the wife has most of it planted!
We planted potatoes here 4-9 last year but we just got 8\" snow yesteday,4-8, and the soil is only thawed down a foot with 5 more ft. to go so it may be a little later this year.
We had a good yield of everything last year, including weeds.
We just use an ugly old front tine tiller at first, and then a Mantis and hoe and scratcher, but we usually end up pulling weeds out of the potatoes at digging time just to find the hills. Jacobs