Lou - Good post. I agree, the power rake is the way to go. I rented a power harley rake and I had really nice finish grade. A lot better than I could ever come close to getting with a tiller but not quite as good as tractor and box rake. It was definitely better I than expected for a walk behind machine. I can see though if you needed to amend your soil then I would think a power tiller would do a better job of mixing the amendments in. Or if you had really compacted soil, like for a new house that had construction equipment running all over it then a tiller would help loosen things up. I haven't used a standard power rake but the harley power rake would only "easily" go a couple inches, the standard power rake may go deeper for all I know. If I tilled I would go back with a power harley rake for the finish grade. The rental save me days or raking so definitely worth the cost. Just my 2 cents...

Hello every one. Newbie with his first post, I would like to respond to marshallz10 6 points by talking about my community. The first point about city ordinance is spot on. The citizens here have recently gotten a bylaw changed that kept home owners from having chickens on there property. Now we can have 5 chickens and apply for an exemption to have more. This in a town where more then half the land is still in the ALR (Agriculture land reserve) and run by small family farms. We have a few community gardens and demonstration gardens. But there is a development proposal on some farm land that soil is considered unusable for farming, for a mixed development of housing and small acreage farming controlled by and organic land trust as well as a community farming collage. The primary school in my area does a year round guarding program. It is the only one I know of and it just finished its first year. We have a yard wast pick up program where they take it away and make compost. Once a year you can go to the dump and pick up a truck load for free. And all year you can go a buy it there. For the price of $5 for 500 Kg (about 1000lbs I think) of compost. You just have to go and collect it. What we donÂt have is a good year round farmers market. We have a couple of summer markets but that is it. With our mild winters on the west coast I Know there are several farms that grow almost year round. Thanks Shawn

We have a 20' x 24' hoophouse (two layers of plastic) on decent clay soil. I am having some issues figuring out how to loosen the deeper layers of soil for planting, and how to do the final soil preparation for planting with a multi-row seeder. The first summer we did succession-plantings of buckwheat to loosen the soil and discourage the perennial weed grasses. Last summer the house grew tomatoes, herbs, peppers, chard, and brassicas. This year I would really like to implement mechanical seeding, but that requires extra care in soil preparation. I am mostly trying to follow Eliot Coleman's books on hoophouse growing--I also have the book "Teaming with Microbes" but am having some challenge figuring out how to marry up the concepts and applied them inside a structure where it never rains. Regarding loosening the deeper layers of soil, I tried using a broadfork, but cannot penetrate more than the top two inches of the soil due to mild compaction. A mattock breaks up the soil with some effort, or a Mantis tiller breaks it up well, but I'm not sure which approach is preferable. I also have not figured out how I want to water the whole hoophouse. I'd prefer not to spray water all over the wood structure, but would like to get good coverage. As a result, right now plants are spot-watered, which means that areas that are unplanted (and even areas near the plants) get very dry. So all the natural tillers (earthworms and microorganisms) have moved on. I'm thinking perhaps that maintaining a moister environment would help with the "tilling" of the deeper layers? For seedbed prep, Coleman stated that they loosen the deeper layers with a broadfork (isn't working for me), then "till" in amendments with a "Tilther," a tilling device that they had assembled using the motor of an electric drill that only tills the top 2" or so. Finished compost (presumably finely-screened) is applied over that, and the area is raked to a fine tilth, and then rolled prior to seeding. Sorry about this rambling message, but what would you suggest for: (1) loosening the deeper layers of the clayey soil to prepare for the planting? (tiller, spading, mattock, worms, green covers, or don't do it?) (2) watering system to encourage earthworms and organisms to colonize and keep the water where it needs to be? Also, is city water ok, or well water preferred?

mdev, Your $2000 budget is rather limiting, particularly for the amount of land you have. Still, there are both rear-tined tillers, mid-tined tillers, and front-tined tillers in that price range. You mentioned rocks. Are there a lot of rocks mixed in with your soil? High tine speeds and encounters with a rock can lead to bad things, like damage to your tiller and/or yourself. You might want to look at the used market, like eBay or Craig's List. I use a mid-tined Merry Tiller myself, and like it a lot, because of all the accessories that are available for it, its low, controllable tine speed, highly visible tilling zone, and its deep-digging ability. Countless times I have rescued a toad or tiny snake from in front of the tines that would have been converted to mincemeat by a rear-tined tiller. And its low tine speed merely "stirs" the soil, leaving the all-important crumb structure intact, without pureeing it like a rear tined tiller does. Most earthworms survive my tilling, while a rear-tined tiller cuts them into many pieces. I have the "top of the line" International model, with a 3-stage reduction transmission for very high tine torque, controllable low tine speed that doesn't need a dirt shield, and dual V-belts for high capacity clutch action. I have "rolled out" rocks bigger than footballs with it. It also tills 12 inches deep (or more, if you don't mind going slower), while most rear tined tillers are hard put to till 6 inches deep. If I had acres to work, I would want a riding tractor with a rototiller attachment, provided that the ground didn't roll enough to make it dangerous for the tractor to turn over. The advantage of a walk-behind is that you can operate on very sloping ground. Of course, some people would say that you shouldn't till ground that slopes a lot, to avoid erosion from rain. ZM (not associated with any product or vendor mentioned)