# Implements for Garden Tractor on Small Plot?



## Suburban Plowboy (Jul 17, 2017)

I'm getting a used John Deere 430 garden tractor. I'll be living on a property with fairly sandy soil (northern Florida). I am thinking it would be nice to have a small plot, maybe 40 by 40, for tomatoes and peppers.

Sadly, I know nothing about gardening.

What do you use to prepare and maintain a tomato patch? I'm definitely not doing it with a hoe.


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## HarveyW (Sep 15, 2014)

I plant tomatoes and peppers. I recommend that you start out with a small garden and see how it goes. Weeds and grass make it a lot of work. We all hate to pull/hoe weeds & grass....

You will need a tiller to till up the soil. And a means of making hills and furrows. I have heavy rain in the spring.....I have to build a drainage system for the furrows or the plants will drown.

You cannot plant tomatoes in the same spot every year, or the subsequent crops will not do as well.


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## Thomas (Nov 1, 2006)

Many ways to have good healthy garden.
Test the soil than go from there,good tractor tiller also walk behind,strong fence to keep critters out.

Keep us updated.


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## ar_confederate (Jul 20, 2015)

I have a small 48" tiller for my Kubota BX1800. Works really good. How do ya'll make furrows and hills after tilling. I used a hand hoe this year and it was some serious work.


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## Suburban Plowboy (Jul 17, 2017)

So if I start with grass, I can drag a tiller over it and then start planting seedlings?


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## Bushpig (Jul 17, 2017)

Suburban Plowboy said:


> So if I start with grass, I can drag a tiller over it and then start planting seedlings?


If your land is sandy, you may want to spend some time creating better soil. i.e. mulch, fertilizer, ash, etc..


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## HarveyW (Sep 15, 2014)

If you happen to have Bermuda or St. Augustine grass, it has a root system that must be destroyed before planting or it will overwhelm your garden. Tilling it just breaks the roots up and it will re-grow quickly. Before tilling, recommend spraying where your garden will be with glyphosate to kill the the grass & roots. After the grass is dead to the roots, then till your garden.

I have a Troy Bilt tiller that has a hiller/furrower attachment, that I use after the garden is tilled to make hills & furrows. Alternatively, you could use a middle buster with your tractor.


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## Hoodoo Valley (Nov 14, 2006)

Well, you have a great foundation in your garden tractor. Those 430s are tough!


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## oldmanfarmer (Mar 24, 2016)

HarveyW is right weeds and grass can be the death of a garden if not the farmer how has to pull them, ha, ha.

Glyphosate is the chemical in Roundup. I would mark out an area for your garden, one spot for each item you are going to grow and as Thomas suggested test the soil for each spot for each item you are going to grow. Here in Kentucky we have a co-op extension office that test the soil for free, so check with your county(test the soil before you use Glyphostate).

After all the grass and soil is killed, till up the area(you may need to call 811), remove all rocks and debris.

Mark off your areas with twine, add the proper additives for the soil and vegetable you are growing. 

Plant your seeds/seedlings.

I use card board and mulch/saw dust between my rows. This keeps the weeds down and is good for soil next year.

It seems like a lot of work but it relaxes me.

Or you can use the hand toss method, take a hand full of seeds and toss them out and see what comes up. No mess not a lot of prep or work. 

Not sure of the success either.

You might be able to find a small tow behind tiller and hiller for your Jd 430 if you decide to go a bit larger next year.

If you put up a fence to keep critters out, make sure you don't fence in a critter.


Hope this helps.

Have fun


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## Suburban Plowboy (Jul 17, 2017)

Thanks for all the help. How did people kill the grass before Roundup?


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## oldmanfarmer (Mar 24, 2016)

Vinegar, salt.


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## Diwali (Dec 26, 2015)

Lots of useful suggestions here but I would be a little wary of using any chemicals that include glyphosate. Early in 2017, over a million signed a petition in the EU to ask for glyphosate to be banned. It is harmful to all sorts of creatures - including bees. It may be carcinogenic too.


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## Suburban Plowboy (Jul 17, 2017)

It would be pretty funny if it turned out Roundup was killing bees. I am not a big fan of Monsanto. I know one thing: it's not imidacloprid. I've hosed bees down with imidacloprid, and they laugh at it.


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## aschwerin (Apr 28, 2017)

Do not salt your soil to kill the grass. Geez, they used a plow to flip it upside down. The success of your garden will not depend on what implements you have on your tractor. A 40' x 40' can easily be done by hand. From experience, I can highly recommend straw mulch if that is available in your area. It is the best weed control available, and also builds a healthy soil while retaining moisture. Black plastic beds also work well, but you don't have the addition to soil fertility.

Like the first guy said, get a soil test. Start small and grow from there if you are enjoying it.


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## raylab (Oct 30, 2004)

I would not spray any chemicals, they very well could have negative side effects you don't want! I would use a Tiller or Bottom Plow and Wheel Harrow and turn your soil over a few times to kill any resident grass or weeds. If your soil is real sandy, you will probably need to work in some organics like composted cow manure or 'chicken gickem' and leaves and cut grass or hay. You can wirk this stuff in while Tilling or Plowing and turning the soil.

If this is all real new to you, go to your local library or Google or U-Tube, or all 3 and research how to do small plot gardening. It can be extremely rewarding emotionally as well as in the produce that comes out of it.


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## cougsfan (Apr 20, 2013)

I would not worry any about using glyphosate if you use it according to directions (i.e. as long as you don't inject any directly into to your blood stream with a hypodermic). Other common herbicides such as 2-4d are in fact much more dangerous to humans. Even eating crops with residuals of glyphosate has been shown not to be particularly dangerous as glyphosate can't make it through a human digestive system. It is funny how people and groups (such as the EU) over-react to things such as glyphosate based on unrealistic testing circumstances and a hate of big companies (I am not a big fan of Montsano either).

I don't know how your Bermuda grass is, there are lots of sub varieties. But the stuff in my area it is REALLY hard to get rid of. Depending on what you are growing, it out competes most thing and sprouts from residual buried roots. I read in one post one time a guy said a nuclear bomb probably wouldn't be successful. I tend to agree with him. It took me three years of tilling and applying glyphosate to fully rid my ground of it. Tilling helps but you need to physically remove the bigger roots by hand or they might re-establish.

Applying mulch is always a good idea, regardless of your soil type, but even more so in clay or sand


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## raylab (Oct 30, 2004)

Not to start a Flame, but: I'm one of those hill-towners that grew up drinking from the same garden hose that we used to mix up garden and fruit-tree chemicals. Stood out in the weeds when the dusters flew over spraying mosquito repellents and herbicide and handled Dads bags of garden fertilizer and chemicals without rubber gloves. Now I'm in my early 60's with two types of cancer and an unidentified lung disease. Gee, I wonder how that happened? Not saying it was the exposures I gleefully enjoyed as a teen, but who knows. 

I agree that the chemicals being discussed here are SUPPOSED to be harmless when used properly but who knows what they will say 5 or 10 years down the road. I still keep my meats, produce and butter longer than I should and I do not wash my hands as frequently as the board of health says I should, but- I am much more mindfull of the chemicals and artificials I consume and expose myself to. I will NOT treat my garden crops or soil with these products any more. Just will not.

But I will use wasp sprays and detergents... 

Jm2c


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## cougsfan (Apr 20, 2013)

Raylab, I wouldn't want to start a flame either, nor would I deny chemicals can indeed be harmful to both humans and the environment. As with you, I probably would have done the same things you mention in your post as a young man back then, but sure wouldn't do them now. Progressive science has taught us not to do that sort of thing. Then again we often react or over-react based on gut feel and circumstantial evidence as opposed to science. If you don't trust the science, that is particularly understandable. As you alluded to, science is always debatable, ever changing and often contaminated by pseudo-science. But to just give up on the investigation of truth and to develop prejudices in thought based on a non-scientific basis is probably not the best route either.

Glyphosate is one of the tools that has helped increased agricultural productivity immensely. Without it, along with other agricultural advancements, a substantially larger percentage of the world population would likely starve. To group it in with and throw it under the bus based on problems associated with other chemicals is probably not in the best interest in mankind. Glyphosate's safety has been studied to death by all sorts of groups of people. The numerous independent university studies and government studies find glyphosate relatively harmless while the people out to ban all chemical use find glyphosate to be carcinogenic based on unrealistic exposure circumstances. People tend to choose which set of studies they want to support based on their all ready made-up mindset. To dismiss it's overall use based on other arguments, such as it integrated use in GMO modified crops (Montsano's goal) is also a totally a totally separate subject that doesn't always involve the safety of glyphosate itself. 

So if you choose to use detergents and wasp sprays but not glyphosate.... go for it. I certainly won't criticize you, one way or the other.


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## #1Scout (Aug 10, 2017)

I would never use chemicals in my 20 x45 vegetable organic garden .... I handpick bad bugs and hoe as often as I need ... watering every evening after the sundown ....


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## oldmanfarmer (Mar 24, 2016)

Suburban Plowboy said:


> I'm getting a used John Deere 430 garden tractor. I'll be living on a property with fairly sandy soil (northern Florida). I am thinking it would be nice to have a small plot, maybe 40 by 40, for tomatoes and peppers.
> 
> Sadly, I know nothing about gardening.
> 
> What do you use to prepare and maintain a tomato patch? I'm definitely not doing it with a hoe.



Wow
I bet you (Plowboy) didn't think your question about growing a plot of tomatoes would ruffle so many feathers the wrong way.

Of course there are natural ways to farm/garden with out chemicals, you just need to research it and trial and error to find what will work best for you.

Good luck.


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## Suburban Plowboy (Jul 17, 2017)

I researched "organic" and found out it only tells you two things about your food.

1. Twice as expensive.

2. Label contains the word "organic."


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## oldmanfarmer (Mar 24, 2016)

Some people are very touchy when it comes to organic\natural gardening, and have strong emotions. But I agree. But being serious there are natural ways of farming/gardening.

Like Companion planting. Did you know that indigenous people use to grow corn for the beans to climb on and squash to cover the ground there for less sun for grass and weeds. 

https://www.almanac.com/content/companion-planting-chart-plant-list-10-top-vegetables

or

Natural pesticides.

https://www.farmersalmanac.com › Home and Garden


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## tcreeley (Jan 2, 2012)

We have a terrible weed problem here in Maine, in our heavy clay soil. We used to till with a walk behind and a Mantis but we never could keep up with it. Now we lay down biodegradable plastic (Amazon, and Johnny Seeds) in rows after we have tilled. We plant directly in that - punching holes. If the plant will need to be watered, we put down drip hose under the plastic. 
The weeds grow like crazy between the rows and we either weed-wack them or run the mower over them or ignore them. The vegetables have no weed problems and grow well. 
My wife likes to pull the plastic up, but I have run the tiller over it.

I like furrows - but it was more work and without irrigation and covered with bio plastic- tended to run drier. Now everything is planted flat.

I use a rake to pull dirt onto the edge of the bio plastic to hold it down. 

I don't like roundup/glyphosate, kills bees and it is a toxin. The trouble is that the residue is found in the majority of the food in the grocery store. A little bit may be ok, but we are eating all of the time. It adds up. - I add 10/10/10 chemical fertilizer to the garden, but no pesticides or herbicides.


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## deerhide (Oct 20, 2016)

Lotsa mulch and use fish guts for fertilizer. You can fish all winter down there.


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