What type of tiller is best to use on clay dirt
hdeleon
17 years ago
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Heathen1
17 years agolast modified: 9 years agogenghis_bunny
17 years agolast modified: 9 years agoRelated Discussions
Whats the best retaining wall to use with a clay bank
Comments (1)Because I have experience with hilly clay soils with springs oozing through them and 'perched water tables" which generally accompany such formations I am trying to figure out a way to answer this question nicely. This is a situation where someone with local knowledge of the area geology and native plants should have seen this land while it was in its natural state. Were there trees, shrubs and certain types of native plants which indicate wet situations growing on the slope? Were some leaning which would indicate that the clay bank was slipping and moving. If this clay bank was fully vegetated whose idea was it to clean it off? Guess I have to take this question step by step. Pictures would help, please....See MoreBest grass for success in hard clay?
Comments (8)Wish you would have found this site before you moved into the house. The results you are getting would be expected for the treatment you are giving the lawn. TW, the previous poster, wrote a little pamphlet called The Bermuda Bible. Search the Internet for it and follow it. Assuming you have a high pH soil, here's what you're doing wrong. You are blaming your problems on cheap grass. Well, the grass may have been relatively inexpensive but the grass is not cheap. The bermuda seed you are planning to buy is cheap grass. The sod that was put down is an improved hybrid bermuda that does not produce seed heads. When you are taking proper care of it, it looks amazing. Cure for hard soil Buy the generic brand of baby shampoo at Wally's. Measure your lawn. The app rate is 3 ounces per 1,000 square feet. If your lawn is 4,000 square feet, you need 12 ounces of soap. Put that amount into your hose end sprayer and set the dial to 3 ounces per gallon. Spray that on your lawn until it is gone. Then irrigate the lawn. Apply a full inch of water. Since your soil is currently hard, I would expect the water to run off after about a minute. As soon as you see runoff, stop watering and wait for 15-30 minutes. Then continue watering until you see runoff again or until you get a full inch of water down. The irrigation will carry the soap down into the soil where it will soften your soil. Actually all the soap does is help maintain a more even moisture level deeper into the soil. Then next week water without the soap. The week after that, repeat the soap and water again. That should do it for your hard soil. Soil is supposed to be hard when dry and soft when moist. And it should absorb water like a sponge - meaning it should run off at first and then suck it up like a, well, sponge. Your builder didn't do anything to the soil before he planted grass. Cry me a river. He didn't do anything for the rest of the lawns in your neighborhood either and they're doing fine. You don't have to do anything to the soil before you plant sod. You're supposed to water (properly), mow (properly), and fertilizer (properly) after the sod is down. For bermuda you should water it no more frequently than once a month in the cool season and work your way up to every 7 days when the temps approach 100 degrees. If you are in soft sand with an arid breeze blowing off the mountains, then you can water every 5 days in the heat of summer. When you water go for a full inch every time. If you get an inch of rain then you don't need to water. If you get 1/3 inch of rain, then you need to add 2/3 of irrigation. Bermuda needs to be mowed at least every week and preferably 2x per week. Mow it at 1.5 inches or lower. If that setting scalps the lawn, then you have other issues which can be fixed. Bermuda needs to be fertilized with lots of nitrogen every month to look its best. Forget about weed n feed products. They don't do what you think they will do anyway - waste of money. Use a real man's fertilizer and a real man's weed killer. Don't fertilize in the spring until you mow real grass (not weeds) for the second time. Fertilizing before that time is a waste of money. Why? Because fertilizer works through the roots. If you don't have grass growing, the roots aren't taking up nutrients. Once you get grass growing, then hit it with high N fert every month until about Thanksgiving. NOTE TO OTHER READERS - THIS IS ONLY FOR BERMUDA. Hope this helps. Read the Bermuda Bible....See MoreWhat class of OGR is best for alkaline clay soil?
Comments (29)regardless of what the stats say on the soil maps, Strawbs, I can definately say my soil is alkaline - not as much as yours but rhodies and azaleas are a distant memory from my northern childhood - our black silty fen soil is top class for cabbages, celery and onions and sugar beet. Anyhow, unfortunately, I am not much of a guide to soil ph and roses since this is an issue which rarely comes up - at least not as much as mildew, rust or blackspot. The only dodgy roses (chlorotic, needing regular sequestrene) I grow have had too close a brush with rugosas - and one of my only Austins, Wild Edric is definately a pale and pasty specimen....although Compte de Champagne comes awfully close and I couldn't say what its parentage is. Annoying, as the rugosas are generally happy with well drained, sandy soil (I am on calcareous grassland. Of course, I do not have the extremes of temperature that you have so I have been able to adopt a blase attitude to ph as it is practically impossible to actually kill a rose here. Nonetheless, not dying is emphatically not the same as thriving - there are roses which are doing considerably better than others. I did expect china roses would be a bit feeble but have surprised me with their general willingness to grow and bloom - Sophie's Perpetual, Mutabilis and Sanguinea have been stars. Even more surprising, the infamous bourbons do well for me too. I would have to say that the majority of my roses are species or close hybrids although I have a weakness for Harkness floribundas. I am incredibly fortunate in that Beales and Trevor White (2 out of 3 old rose growers in the UK) along with Harkness and Legrice are based in East Anglia with similar soil and climate conditions as myself....and fervently believe that this conflation of conditions has a whopping bearing on the subsequent health of the rose once it is planted in my garden so I think you are right, Strawbs, in pondering specific nursery circumstances before considering buying from them....See MoreWhat tiller do you use?
Comments (32)I have a 7.5HP rear tine beast for the "heavy hauling" and until recently a 2HP, 2cycle Sears which died after 12 very reliable and fantastic years....:-( No parts available due to age and such. Probably replace with a Mantis as the other small units out there don't impress me at all. The big beast is used in the spring for initial preparation, tilling in compost which for me is composted horse manure. Occasionally during the year if there's a large plot to be worked up, I'll use it again. Small tiller is used to run between the rows (veggie) and spot till in the wife's flower beds. If I had to give up one, it would be the beast as it's only used once or twice a year and a smaller machine would do the same only take longer. I would suggest that after the initial sod and whatever else you're dealing with is taken care of, there's no need for a large machine in a home (veggie) garden. The qualifier of course is that you keep the garden clean and not be finished and let it go to weeds and such requiring major work next spring. Be well, Ev...See Morecalistoga_al ca 15 usda 9
17 years agolast modified: 9 years agoHeathen1
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