Good idea! If I could find some at a demolition site they'd probably give them away. Might have to pick through for intact ones.
I'm working on a patio at the moment, and the wife is talking about some attached flower beds. For those, I'll probably want something more decorative. I'd really like to talk her into using some of that space for an herb garden. We have this discussion all the time. If you can't eat it, I have trouble getting enthusiastic about planting it. I have some left-over brick to use for those small areas, but the cement block idea would be great for some larger beds.
>> I don't like the idea of the forms though, since I won't be able to till it with the tractor and 5' tiller.
An alternative is to do your raised beds by forming the raised beds in soil and planting grass walkways in between the beds. Depending upon the wheel spacing on your tractor, you may be able to run your tractor wheels on the grass alleys and just till the raised bed. You'll probably have to rig up a bed former to pull behind your tiller to keep the beds formed as you till. A bed former can be made with two disks or furrowers set to throw the soil towards the center of the bed.
With this type system you walk on the grass alleys, keeping your feet out of the mud and you also minimize the chances for any soil compaction in the growing zone.
I've set up my garden with 4'wide beds and 4' alleys in between which seems to work well. I can easily get my garden carts down the row for harvesting and can also do a lot of the cultivation without ever walking on the bed.
Mosey,I'm again going to say one of those things that people on this web page just seem to love.You are using a tractor and a five ft. tiller on a little garden space,10 yds. by 10 yds. ?You know that a walk behind type tiller will work better in the wet area[as far as getting into it anyways],than a heavy tractor I'm sure.I got an older troy built 8 h.p.,that I could go over a spot that big 3 times in,good and deep,in less than an hour,starting with sod.Your profile said you was called mosey because you took it slow,I don't know about that. RICHARD GAUTHIER
gauthier - I can do it in less than 10 minutes with the 5' tiller, and the tractor does all the work. My front tine tiller, which I got for $20 at a garage sale, bounces me all over the place! I bought the 5' King Kutter tiller because a 22" rear tine self powered one was just as much money. I bought the tiller mainly to break up sod and the hard clay around here in order to do landscaping. But, since I've got it, why would I not use it for the garden and spend an extra hour using the small tiller? As for the size of the garden, it's previously been twice that size, but I just don't have as much time for a garden this year so I'm cutting back. Someday, when I get some other projects done (landscaping, building a pole barn, adding on to the house, etc), I'd like to have a much bigger garden, then the 5' tiller will be even more handy. I seriously doubt a rear tine self powered tiller is going to break up the sod around here in this clay, even the heavy KK bounces around some.
As for being in a hurry, that doesn't mean I go out of my way to do things the slow way, I just don't like to hurry. [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]
One of the main advantages of deep dug raised beds is that, once they are made, you basically stay off of them from then on, avoiding compaction and encouraging worms, oxygen and more friable soil. You don't necessarily need to use forms, but rather can just mound up the beds with sloped sides. Two advantages to this method are increased depth of loose dirt so your vegies can develop better root systems and more intensive planting, which helps keep down weeds. The wider bed, low till approach is definately the way to go IMHO, especially if you are dealing with a poorly draining site.
One way to approach this is to deep till the entire area, then mark off where your beds and patchs will go, then add significant amounts of compost and/or supplements to your beds, then dig the top soil from where the paths will be and toss it on top of the (now composted) beds. Rake it smooth and you are ready to plant.
A great book which addresses this and related subjects, well worth the price of admission, is The Vegetable Gardeners Bible by Ed Smith, published by Storey Books.
One other thought for you...instead of planting grass between the beds, consider using low growing clover (White Dutch or New Zealand)...it will help choke out weeds whilst also adding valuable nitrogen to the soil.
Well,alright then,I mean if you already had it you might as well use it,but I just had to say that.For an example of the way,or need of some of the equipment some people use,take my new neighbor,from new york city and fl.,and now w.va.!Good guy,older,retired,e.t.c.,he bought a tiller for his yanmar,came with it actualy,he has a garden spot about the same as yours,or maybe even smaller,I have saw him this spring several times using his post hole auger to drill holes to plant peonnies[flowers] in,now he is older,but come on. That walk behind tiller I got would take care of that clay soil at your plce,just like it takes care of the clay soil here,I bet,but you are right I gave over 1,000 dollars for it 10 years ago,and you can,t buy a new one like it now,[troybult],the new ones arn,t much since troy bult went under. watermelons,cantlopes,love water,you should grow some big uns. RICHARD GAUTHIER
I don't know if this will do you any good, but have you considered planting some stuff right in the bag? You buy the #50 bags of topsoil, poke a few drainage holes in one side and lay the bag down. Slit the top face of the bag and plant your tomatoes. At the end of the year, slit the bag all the way down the side and dump the topsoil. Rake it level and repeat next year. After a few years, you have raised lots of veggies, and raised the level of your garden by importing all the topsoil.
Your troybuilt tiller must work a lot better than mine on sod. On a previously tilled garden plot It works great, but on new sod It will work you into the ground. I now have a 4 ft. tractor mounted tiller. Tilled my 80ft by 80ft garden in approx. 20 minutes, then we got rain, Hasn't dried out yet. I tilled some sod grond with it, worked great. I wont be trying to till sod with the troybuilt any time in the near future.
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