Clearing land for a garden and orchard

[BCrouse]

Ive recently started opening up land for a garden. I used a 5' bush hog. It did a pretty decent job with the 3-4' high weeds and saplings.

(Dog had to get into the pic. Thanks buddy)

My question is, should I take the landscaper rake to all that dried debris first, then plow or plow first then run the landscaper rake over it? (Yes I cleaned the dog poo up)


I just picked up a 14" (pretty sure its a 14, haven't measured it) single bottom plow that should do a pretty good job of turning the soil over. Still working on cleaning it up. Needs a bit of paint.

I haven't cleared any land for the orchard yet. Suggestions on land prep?

 

[Daren Todd]

Dog did one heck of a photo "bomb"

Using the plow on the ground and getting it smooth after may prove to be a challange. I'm curious to see how it works out for you

 

[Benhameen]

I would and have plowed the debris under without clearing first. Its just going to break down into the soil anyway, I would think.

Do you have a disk or tiller to break it up after you turn it over with the plow? I'm not sure a landscape rake will do the trick. Although, I've made due with what I had at the time plenty in the past.

Good luck.

 

[Flienlow]

Is that a Vizsla making a Rake Handle?

 

[sheepfarmer]

Since you mention saplings, I think I'd rake the debris into a pile first and burn it. Then plow or rototill. Little trees will take too long to break down and may wrap around the plow in an annoying way. It looks from the photo that the brush hag didn't turn everything intp wood chips.

 

[tempforce]

just plow it,
anytime something large shows up. have your safety observer toss it out of the garden plot. follow up in a day or two with your tiller. set at a medium depth. follow up in a couple weeks, till again to make sure any weeds sprouting get messed up. make your rows and plant your garden.
be sure to have your safety observer handy to toss any objects that make noise while tilling (rocks) or any chunks of wood...

 

[BCrouse]

Dog did one heck of a photo "bomb"

Using the plow on the ground and getting it smooth after may prove to be a challange. I'm curious to see how it works out for you

Quite the bomb.


Smoothing it out was what I was thinking id use the landscaper rake for. See how it goes.

 

[BCrouse]

I would and have plowed the debris under without clearing first. Its just going to break down into the soil anyway, I would think.



Do you have a disk or tiller to break it up after you turn it over with the plow? I'm not sure a landscape rake will do the trick. Although, I've made due with what I had at the time plenty in the past.



Good luck.

I dont have a disk or tiller. Just the bushhog, plow and rake.

 

[BCrouse]

Is that a Vizsla making a Rake Handle?

Indeed it is. Great dogs. He's 8, soon to be 9. Been a fantastic dog. Lots of work.

 

[BCrouse]

Since you mention saplings, I think I'd rake the debris into a pile first and burn it. Then plow or rototill. Little trees will take too long to break down and may wrap around the plow in an annoying way. It looks from the photo that the brush hag didn't turn everything intp wood chips.

Thought about that, but theres some poison ivy in it. No desire to burn that.

 

[Blondie70]

We always plowed it then disked it. Plowing is gonna make it really rough. I know nothing about rakes, etc....but the disk will do the job and it will have to be disked quite a few times after plowing.
I would leave all that stuff in there to plow under.

I use my disk only to plant my garden...get the ground nice and soft and run the disk thru it and use the groove on one side for the first row...fertilizer and stuff in it, cover and plant...move over for the next row for the width you want between rows.....real easy...I like the easy way. I grow lots of veggies here, melons, etc....and weed it with glyphosate. Works like a charm.
Good luck....Pete

 

[sheepfarmer]

Thought about that, but theres some poison ivy in it. No desire to burn that.

Ah yes. Good old poison ivy. I think I'd rethink all of that...maybe use landscape rake to pull all the loose stuff off into a pile, off to one side and then look for anything in your garden patch area that looks like poison ivy is sprouting back and spot spray those sprigs with something really strong.

 

[BCrouse]

So should I be looking for a disc harrow or rototiller now then?

 

[clay45]

I used a middlebuster first followed by landscpape rake to gather up all the roots the middlebuster exposed. The landscape rake made nice littl burn piles that I later accumulated into a single large pile dried well enough to burn independently and the rake to knock the tops of the rows down before rototilling. Later, in the interest of time a just rototilled a different area without using the middlebuster first.

Think I will use the middlebuster first when the end result matters. The rototiller is so effective it is tempting to skip the plow.

 

[Benhameen]

So should I be looking for a disc harrow or rototiller now then?

Probably so, plow and disk will work fine but a rototiller would be your best choice if you can afford one.
I've plowed, then tilled before and it's a little rough going at first but ends up really nice. Most of the time now I just till.

 

[scdeerslayer]

First thing I would do is subsoil. This would pull up any roots and rocks that my be in the way of other implements as well as starting to loosen the soil. If it's hard dirt then follow with a chisel plow then disk or tiller. The chisel plow will pull off the majority of the debris while loosening the soil for the disk, although it may require one pass to clear debris and another to loosen the soil. If it's soft dirt then you can pull the debris with the rake then disk or till. I wouldn't bother with the plow, it just seems to bring up more weed seed.

 

[BCrouse]

My list of "required implements" seems to grow by the day.


Keep the ideas coming.


No one has mentioned anything for the orchard. So far, I'm thinking a posthole digger / auger to make planting trees easier.

 

[D2Cat]

How big will the trees be when you plant them?

 

[BCrouse]

How big will the trees be when you plant them?

3-4' tall is what I am expecting.

 

[cerlawson]

No clean up of rust on plow needed. Just start plowing and the soil will do the job. When done, maybe coat it with grease for over the winter.