Two Silos Farm

Don’t remember if I shared about my garden yet or not. If I did, you can close your eyes while I show my pics again.

Did I mention I love my craftsman tiller? This works like a dream, and what I had so hoped my Troybilt would be like.

I got the big one that does both forward and counter rotating tines. With the counter, it really digs down and rips right through the sod and not a drag at all (I mean that literally after getting dragged off my feet by the TB more than once).

I did try it in forward rotation just to see what it would be like, and even with it set a bit deep, when it would start to dig in and take off, the back end would lift a bit (was not digging in) and the front end would tip down and bring the tines out of the ground and the machine wouldn’t take off on me.

I worked up the ground; with it set as low as it would go on the first pass, and I didn’t even bother mowing the grass down first. It is slow going, but boy did it do a job on breaking up the sod. But once it’s worked up, I found it was best to switch to forward rotation. When the ground is worked up, the counter rotating tines about cancel the forward rotating tires, and the machine just sits in one spot. I could either set the depth much shallower, or switch to forward rotation. Switching gears only involves moving a lever, so no big deal. It also has a neutral so you can push it around when it’s not running without a lot of hassle, unlike the TB that has cotter pins on the wheels that have to be moved to “freewheel” it. That neutral position alone is worth quite a bit more money in my book.

Here is the garden after breaking up the sod.

Then I had hubby scrap off the loose soil, and haul in several bucket loads of well rotted manure and some sand to lighten it up (that is when he broke his hydraulic hose).

Then I used the tiller to work the manure/sand into the ground. The sand/manure was maybe 2” thick, and the ground underneath was untilled. You can see how well the machine is churning it up with just one pass.

It’s got 17” tines, and you can see how low the machine is riding in the ground. After I got that worked in, I spread on two bales of peat moss and worked that in too.

Then because I was lazy, I waited for my hubby to have the chance to spread the loose dirt he had scrapped off back over the ground I had tilled up. I like to get it pretty deep, and one pass isn’t deep enough.

It’s all ready for me to go over it again, working the top dirt into the lower dirt. I have two more bales of peat moss to spread in, and then it will be ready for planting.

I’ll be putting a fence around it to keep the assorted domestic and wild critters out of it. Don’t know if it will work but we’ll see. Already had “rabbit” tracks in it. You know those really big rabbits with big ears and white tails that like to eat gardens? The same type that ate two of my pine trees last year. Son has been after the small pesty type, but we’ll have to wait till fall to get after those really big ones. I put the garden where it will be real easy to keep an eye on it, or we won’t be the ones eating all the produce.

Cathy