How to mix with out a tiller?

[armylifer]

You MUST be careful with 'chicken manure' ! IF still 'young' ,it's very high in Nitrogen so you need to know the 'strength' of it. I also get 'mushroom compost', great stuff...when used in the right amount....and you WILL get 'free' mushrooms too ! Any 'organics' added will benefit a garden. I also add a lot of new drywall bits( adds calcium), needed for great peppers and tomatoes.
A veggie garden needs a blend or balance of nutrients as well as 'tilthe' to be sucessful.

We use everything that you mentioned plus a few other "ingredients". Try crushed oyster shells if you can get them. We used to get some old fish food from a salmon hatchery but that is not available any more for some reason. The mushroom compost is really great too but getting too expensive around here.

 

[GreensvilleJay]

I get all my ingredients for free, just have to pick them up, Oyster shells rich in calcium,so drywall is my substitute. Be nice to get seaweed/kelp as LOTS of 'trace' elements in it....

 

[michigander]

If you can swing it a tiller is a nice attachment to own.

 

[GreensvilleJay]

You should consider it a 'lifetime' investment...ALL your neighbours will become your 'best friends' !!! I have a 3 year old 5' unit sure beats ANY walkbehind or 'garden tractor' sized tiller.
Nice thing about tillers, if you reasonably care for them, they will always fetch a good price when your done with them.

 

[armylifer]

I get all my ingredients for free, just have to pick them up, Oyster shells rich in calcium,so drywall is my substitute. Be nice to get seaweed/kelp as LOTS of 'trace' elements in it....

We used to go to Ocean Shores, WA and pick up seaweed to eat as well as for the garden. Now the state restricts us from gathering seaweed without a permit. Anything to get a buck.

 

[Ikc1990]

I have never used round up in my gardens. And I do weed it 1 time a year and that's all i need. But whatever i guess some people want to work a bit harder to feed there family. And no not always composed proper time. Round here we do what we gotta do to survive cuz ant nobody pampering my hard working ass.

 

[Ikc1990]

Sorry but for example one year we needed a big garden my mom and dad were both very sick in hospital. We didn't have enough manure for our garden well we didn't have a track we had an old rusted out blazer but she ran and drove. No trailer no tractor. But I had a old cub cadet lawn mower wagon. Called up guy down the road about 2 miles away. He said take all you want outa the pile near the barn I haven't got it moved from winter cleanings. (Fresh horses manure) I hooked the lawn mower wagon to blazer and went 2 miles down loaded by shovel and hauled home did it 30 times. Hand spread on gardens fired up the ole troybuilt horse tiller with worn tines and proceeded to till it al in that year we had one of our best crops. We feed our family of 5 for the whole summer and following winter and until the garden started producing again. We had 1 beef down we sent to butcher and I had raise meat chickens that year we ate good. We still do the chickens and.beef and gardens now I'm blessed with 2 tractors a pickup a dump trailer and a bigger barn and the tools needed to survive. I dont miss those days but learned alot from those days so I wouldn't trade them for anything.....

 

[nbryan]

I use the FEL for adding, mixing and aerating my compost piles that have mostly garden weeds and waste and chicken manure with straw and wood chips. I just hit it from all angles and lift and dump over and over until it looks uniformly mixed. Then I flatten the top of the pile leaving ridges around the edges so rain will stay put on the pile and soak into it rather than run off.
The piles are turned 3-4 times a season and are added to the garden soil generally after the 3rd summer of turning and composting. It looks, smells and feels like beautiful rich topsoil by then, and the garden grows like crazy!
Adding living compost yearly and not using power equipment at all in the garden, as it's all hand dug and well mulched, makes for the best soil conditions around. Helps with drought and flood proofing and we generally have few pest problems.

 

[bucktail]

I put my egg shells on the garden. It's just a small suburban garden that I mostly eat from in the summer so that's enough.