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Market Gardener

New garden prep and tilling

11 years ago

Hi guys and gals,

I am going to cultivate a 30 X 100 foot area next year for my family and two or three other families and am looking for some tips. I have gardened in raised-beds in my backyard for the last five years, but with the new area, I'll be using the row method. I thought you guys would be the best people to ask since most of you probably garden or farm with rows. What row width would you recommend and how high would your raise each row? What about spacing between rows? I have noticed some people recommend 30 inches for row width with a couple feet between rows. Do you vary the width of the rows depending on what crops will be planted? How many rows would you put in a 30 foot wide area? I am going to use T-tape for irrigation so I guess one run of T-tape for each row bed? Also what type of T-tape(flow rate) would you recommend.

I plan on lightly tilling the area when the soil is at the right moisture, but how deep should I til, 1 foot? After tilling and when making the rows I'll add lots of compost and aged horse manure to the beds along with pelleted organic fertilizer, green sand, lava sand and maybe some blood meal for additional nitrogen. Then I'll mulch in between the rows using grass clippings, leaves, hay, etc. I hope to just lightly tickle in compost or horse manure each season and pull the mulch from between the rows and add new mulch. I also plan on experimenting with cover crops and using row covers to extend seasons.

The gentleman that is letting me use his land said that he would plow up the area with his tractor, but I'm afraid a big tractor might dig too deeply into the soil ruining the tilth. Maybe a tiller might be best?. By the way, my soil is alkaline, black gumbo Texas clay. I have gardened in this type of soil for a few years, but mainly with raised beds filled with purchased soil mixtures. Our native soil is rich, but also thick and poor draining.

One more thing, this Fall I may grow in half of this area, which would mean preparing the soil soon and planting the other half with a frost-kill cover crop. If the cover crop was killed and incorporated in December would the area be ready for planting in late March?

Thanks in advance,

Pete

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Comments (2)

little_minnie
11 years ago
I don't know anything about that kind of soil, but my guess would be that it would be easier and better to let the farmer disc it all. Then make wide rows -I do just over 3 feet wide and 2 feet to just under 3 feet wide paths. Add the amendments (compost and manure) just to the wide rows aka beds and fork in for now being you have clay. Do a soil test before adding other fertilizers. Use 2 lines of T tape per bed. Heavily mulch.

Another thing you can do is Steve Solomon's plumped up bed method; I call this heaped beds. Instead of making a big rectangle just make 3-4 feet wide and very long heaped beds of added compost and manure. Leave the area between them as grass and mow it. This might work fine for your soil. I would put 3 tapes in a 4 foot wide bed.
tulsacityfarmer
11 years ago
I would get it plowed and disced this year and as soon as possiple. I would till it ,then get a soil test off to see what you will need to admend it with and till that in when yoiu first see weeds and till often when you see weeds now. Thios way you get a jump on the weeds before next year. All the weed seeds you can bring up and get to germinate now the less you will have next years since this is a new garden.
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Sambo, do you know what kind of grass you have in that area? If it is bermuda you need to mow, rake, till, rake, till, rake, till, rake...you need to remove every one of the little nodes that are about 1" (+-). Since you are in a warmer area where weed seeds will regenerate sooner...rake them out. My garden area is also about 30X50'. I much prefer that to having a lot of little boxes that have to be hand dug each time I want them tilled. You can cover w/black plastic, be sure it is the very heavy mil kind (like construction) or the weeds will just pop right up under it. It will also need to be held down with something. If you have newspapers/cardboard available that would be much better. Put the papers down in layers 8-12 thick & overlap (still need something to hold it down). Or you can do all the other (till/rake) and then put the papers between the rows after planting...NO weeds that way inbetween. No shiny/colored pages!
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The paths between my planting beds are grass and get mowed periodically, and are 4 feet wide so I can work on the 4 foot wide beds easily. The 4 foot wide planting beds now are mulched well each fall after the plants that grew there (annual beds, not necesarily the perennial beds) are cut down which are then covered by the mulch material. In the spring places to plant are made, for seeds by pulling the mulch back enough to expose enough to make a trench, and for starts enough to plant the start. As these plants grow the mulch is moved back when it can be. During the growing season the Soil Food Web digests the mulch material so that by the end of the growing season, often sooner, the mulch is in the soil not on it.
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The main problem down this way is more a grass problem than weeds. You just might want to do all of the above except the raking. If you aren't doing anything this winter, why not till, mulch and smoother? If you are going to plant this winter, try a very heavy mulch and just open a small area for each plant or seed and just watch for weeds. They should be easier to pull if they have to grow up through a lot of mulch or leaf and grass clippings. As long as the mulch isn't IN the ground there will be no nitrogen being removed from the soil.
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If you are experienced at container growing, why not do it one more summer, on top of a new 'lasagna' garden? Smother and cover with all the organic matter you can find this summer, with potted plants sitting on top. Next spring - voila! Lovely garden is ready, no hard labor necessary (except to find, spread OM.) The only tools I know for such chores are tillers, shovels, maybe a maddock if you can't do anything with a shovel. Sand + clay = concrete, no doubt it's hard to dig in! Organic matter added to the soil will make it darker, softer, more moderate to both high and low moisture levels. Mulch, leaves, lawn trimmings (as long as you've mowed before grass made seeds,) small clippings from other plants, compost, pine needles, anything you have available should help. The more diverse selection of materials you use, the more help it will be to the soil/plants. As they decompose, the microbes and other organisms in the soil will move the bits of material to the proper levels to be used by the plants.
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