New Year, Here We Go Again

Basically, every year I redo my yard design, I tear something out, move beds or borders, make some stupid decisions, etc. This year, I've got sever projects planned. I plan on linking the forums I ask questions in, posting photos, and occasionally getting lost in my own thoughts.
Enjoy.

Everyone,
Feel free to throw in your suggestions, thoughts, "No S#!%."'s, and anything else you think I need to hear. Seriously, if you find it helpful, odds are that I haven't thought of it or didn't know something. Your ideas could save me a trip to the hospital or a night on the heating pad. I'm open to listen.
Thank you.

Here is a list of the forums I've posted in:
"Help me build a hedge wall"
"Raised Beds & Compost"
"Field Rotation"
"Walk behind tractor"

I like how you've jumped right in and look forward to more of your posts. You ask good questions and seem open to answers. Good luck in your endeavors.

Why, Thank you Stacy.
Oddly enough, I get seasonal depression, and gardening is what keeps me excited during the winter, so SPRING IS COMING! This means I'll be in a better mood, my wife will see me less, and I'll get it fill up my lanterns for planting at night ( 3 young children, sometimes night is the only time).

Here's some pictures!
This is how I'm going to try to start my seedlings this year. I make them, fill them, and then dry them out so they don't mold before I need them.

This is the area that I will once again try to grow corn. My success rate is bad, but this year, we are trying the multi color corn, so we will see.

So, this one is already (mostly) planted. I did (L-R) Beets, Yellow Onion, White Onion, Sweet Onion, Garlic, and a mix of what was left over, the last two are still empty, but I will probably put potatoes or beets in them.

This area is where I will plant most of my potatoes (not including the ones in my wife's garden). All that I've done to it was break the soil.

Here's a picture of my garden. Flags are start & stops of rows. pallets were down so we (my 3yo and I) could walk while unloading manure. (Her with her tiny shovel is adorable, except every other step result in a stuck boot. I love working with my kids and teaching them.)

This is my dirt sifting system. It is going through a sheet of the expanded metal for plaster I got from Lowes. You have to push the dirt around with a hoe, but it mostly falls through, and you can throw the sticks and rocks off.


I will see if I can find some old pictures. When I bought the property, it was covered in azalea bushes. My wife and I are both allergic, so it was a lot of chainsaw use and trying to clear them. 5 years, multiple estimates (the highest stopped counting at 300 bushes), and buying a tractor, they are all pushed back enough to use the yard. I spent countless hours fighting those things, and as a result found a natural contour to the land that I could use. I made cuts, leveled and am currently in the process of building walls out of railroad ties and telephone poles (cheap or free). I hope to grow a lot of flowers for my girls this year, but only time will tell if I am successful.

Hey, John

I mostly spend this time of year looking at all the seed catalogs and dreaming about what I want to plant.

I looking forward to watching your project for lots of pictures.

Pictures of your garden would be a great start.

Edit to say:

We cross-posted and my wish came true.  Thank you for the pictures!

Anne,
My wife takes my seed catalogs away... basically, my budget this year was $200 in seeds, according to my spreadsheet, I'm only $167.23 over. so... not that bad, right?

Edit to say:

I got you, Anne, don't worry. I'll try to post pictures every week, and keep you guys updated.

I did just get confirmation from a person I met up with yesterday, (she runs a non-profit to help teach urban gardening and help veterans. Veterans Employment Base Camp ), She has submitted an order for plants from me. 230 plants for $100. All I have to do is germinate them and get them strong enough to sell to people at their stand. I try to offset my poor spending habits by doing what I'm good at. My wife, though appriciates my efforts to not burn ALL our money, tolerates it.

Per our discussion, she is planning on submitting monthly orders, Which Is AMAZING!!!

I woke up at 0400 local time this morning so I took the dogs out to the shed *(I started typing this 3 hours ago)* and started working on a bed maker prototype to go behind my walk behind tiller. I will edit this to add pictures.
I used scrap wood and penny nails, and I plan on attaching it with bolts to the shield. 24" wide, 20° angle on the points, 10.5" wide output, 3.5" tall underneath.
Let me know your thoughts.

Well, I cannot figure it out on my phone. Any suggestions? I'm using Pinterest to get a url for the photos, but I'm having either: trouble with BB codes, or trouble with the URL I'm getting from Pinterest.

[ img ]https://www.pinterest.com/pin/848224911082201765#imgViewer[ /img ]

I did a test run with the bed maker. I'm not happy with it. It pulls to the sides, is difficult to turn, and almost needs more weight than my tiller can pull. I'll probably do something I can attach to the tractor. maybe a chain or even a wooden one that I fix straight to the cultivator. I only have 2 disks so I will have to do each row individually.


I was also able to pick up my trailer today and unload the manure. This means I had to finish the compost area first. here is a picture after I finished it and turned the manure. I built it so I could back straight up to it and just shovel it out the back without doing too much hurt to my back.


I would like to rework the design on the bed maker, as I feel like it would be very helpful with getting things laid out and give me an area to start putting the manure, as it is building up very quickly. The amount in the compost area is only 2 trailers worth. Each trailer is only about 4 days of poop. Its going to build up fast...


Edit:
What's with all the apples?

I tried the disks & chain, it works better than the tiller, but I think I'm going to drag my wife in for collaboration. I COULD put the prototype on the tractor, but I'm not sure how I'd attach it, let alone rig it so I could reverse without destroying it.
I understand that permies aren't big fans of tilling and disturbing the natural soil biochemistry and ecosystem, but I am. Mostly because the majority of my soil isn't soil, it's clay. I'd love to be able to have healthy soil and be able to keep worms in it, but as it stands now, I only end up with puddles. This is why I want to add the compost between the rows, so next year, when I mix it all up, it will be ready for the following year as (hopefully) healthy rich soil.
I know that very few of us stand 100% for the ideas that permiculture has, but we all strive for the goal. Unfortunately, you can only make due with what you have, and for me, I (feel like I) have to do some things that go against the ideas in order to transform what I have to become sustainable. I hope you understand.

Many people till the first year and then move to no-till. I can't till, my soil is way to rocky. My annual vegetable garden is all raised beds. My food forests and ornamental areas are covered with cardboard and then purchased compost, wood chips, any organic matter I can get.

The apples are kind of a super uptick, typically by old timers or staff. Anyone else please feel free to better explain or correct me.

I read the page. I meant why I went from like 3 to 9 over the topic. I was kind of confused as to why there was so much action on it.
I know that I won't be doing raised beds any time soon. I (personally) feel as though the soil, dirt/topsoil/whatever you plant in, should be fertile enough for any kind of plant (basically, if I die, the earth will return to the way it should be, healthy and growing on its own). I think tilling isn't the BEST option, but I do think that every now and then you should flip things around (flood plain kind of idea).
Sorry. I will try to not voice my personal opinion. I know it has its own section.
Any suggestions on an issue I've found myself in?
I'm waiting on 23/61 of the seed types I ordered. Distribution type issue. The order I got from the Veteran community garden thing calls for 5 of the missing varieties, to include 3 types of tomatoes, broccoli and a cucumber variety. I can post the actual names if need be. I'm reaching out to other suppliers in my area for the varieties, which I should have an answer on by tomorrow, even if I have to use last year's seeds.
Should I switch the suppling variety? Should I plant more of last year's seeds (if I can get some) to compensate for the possibility of lower germination rates?

I guess the obvious answer for the apples is that people like what you have to say. I live in a fairly harsh environment, while I could probably survive on what would grow here without additional inputs, it would be highly limited. I live in a geologic slide zone with hot, dry summers. I add inputs so I can have things that I'm accustomed to. I'm sure that I could build the soil naturally if I had a couple lifetimes but I don't. I guess we choose our battles, I bring in soil, you till. I have no judgment on either. It is what it is. I enjoy reading your progress.

I'd like to get the bed maker done so I can:

A) get my potato area ready for planting. I want to experiment with them this year, and I was thinking, since I have about 18 10' rows, plant 2 rows every week, and see how they do.

B) get my garden area row'd out so I can start filling with compost and allowing it to soak into the rest of the soil. I also think that by adding the rows, it will allow me to focus on using fill dirt to fill in the walkway and smoothing out the sides in preparation for planting the root crops, as well as helping with drainage to allow me to get some other work done without being shin deep in mud (my wife doesn't like when I come in THAT muddy).

C) allow me to prep the corn area so I can start mixing my compost with fill dirt to build up that area, and maybe mix in some fertilizer to help my odds this year.

I feel like I might wait too long to make it, and I still have 203 T-Posts to install in my garden (200 for support + 3 for sprinklers), as well as tying the support strings, and I have peas that need to go in March 1st, followed by pretty much everything else April 1st-15th.
Currently, driving the tractor across the garden is like watching Fast Furious Tokyo Drift, fun but pointless. And once I have my rows set, I won't be driving the tractor through the garden anyways.

I know I comment about my wife a lot. I love her and she loves me. She lets me do pretty much anything I want outside, and I let her do whatever she wants inside, she just makes me clean up after myself (I know. I know. It's not fair, but that is the tradeoff). I plant her garden and a bunch of flowers to make her happy, and she lets me play in mud. Overall, I'd say I'm pretty happy with that. Hell, she bought me a tractor because my '49 Farmall finally died, and my knees wouldn't take another year of gardening on my feet. So, I would say that everything I say/comment about her, to take it in jest.

Stacy Witscher wrote:I guess the obvious answer for the apples is that people like what you have to say. I live in a fairly harsh environment, while I could probably survive on what would grow here without additional inputs, it would be highly limited. I live in a geologic slide zone with hot, dry summers. I add inputs so I can have things that I'm accustomed to. I'm sure that I could build the soil naturally if I had a couple lifetimes but I don't. I guess we choose our battles, I bring in soil, you till. I have no judgment on either. It is what it is. I enjoy reading your progress.

I'm glad you enjoy it.
I don't judge on the raised beds. I just struggle with it physically. I knew a Marine from up in your area. Do you have the Badlands side of things, or the forests? I've only gone past the Mississippi once, and that was a week in Cali for a meeting. I guess twice if you count a layover in Alaska headed for Japan, but I don't. It was dark and we were locked in the airport (the only plane, middle of the night, we had to call to get a security guard to unlock the restrooms).
I understand that some landscapes don't support easy natural plant growth, but that is usually due to a scarcity in biological material. Couldn't you (within reason) remove a lot of the rocks from the topsoil and bulk the hell out of it with organic material to get it to produce? As long as you could keep the material there, you should be able to reuse it.

When we bought the property almost 3 years ago the raised bed garden was already here. I've moved things around and improved it but I suppose that was part of the reason to do it that way. We also have a huge ground squirrel problem and covering the entire ground under the raised bed garden with hardware cloth has proven the only adequate way to deal with it. We do have 13 cats as well, they help.

I am working on various ways to improve the soil in different areas. Other people have left us with a lot of soil to move onto areas, so partially we are working with what we have. I'm adding kinda hugels on contour to stop our top soil from running off the property, the entire property is sloped. One area I'm planting daikon radish to open up the soil to allow more water to penetrate the soil, in the future the chicken and other poultry will have access to this area to increase fertility and give them more forage. My idea is to try a bunch of different techniques and see which ones work best for my location. Some areas will get goats, we have a lot of shrubbery that they will eat. Other areas, pigs, we have thousands of oak trees.

Awe I see. I'm not a huge fan of chipmonks either. I wish we could have cows and goats, but chickens are the only ones we can get away with for now (city ordnance).

Ok. I got out on the tractor this morning. Today is day 6 without rain, so I wanted to see how wet the garden was.

I was able to make some rows, but mostly just to try to elevate some of the dirt so it could dry. Most of the height of the rows comes from my tires sinking into the mud, but at least I was able to elevate some of it.
I moved some manure that has been sitting for almost a week to the area I want to grow potatoes, mixed it in, and made rows. This area was mostly clay (like super red), and so I wanted to mix in some compost to it.
Side Note: When I was moving compost, one of the chickens was picking through it and my toddler saw and came running over and chased it away like an old lady. I wish I'd've gotten it on video.

I started the seeds for the order today. I still don't have several varieties, but at least I could start something. I put them in my "hot house" which is inside my greenhouse. I keep a heater in there, so it stays warm, and it maintains humidity a lot better than the greenhouse.

I misted them and they've sat for about an hour with an underwatering system. I'll mist them again after lunch.

These are the beets from last year's seed supply. I didn't know if they'd germinate, so I through a literal hand full in. I took them out one day when it rained, and the chickens got ahold of them and then we had a freezing for that night, so we will see if they come back a fully.

And here is my rooster. I call him Stanley in the mornings, but he really doesn't care. Also, he is the only chicken my toddler can't catch (I don't try).

So, I'm looking through the badges, and I wonder, (because the whole system and requirements for each one is kind of confusing to me), if I posted all the old photos I have, would a staff member be willing to check the boxes on the requirements for me, or at least direct me to where I need to post certain things that I complete.
Ex. The Hugelkultur thing...
I didn't know it had a name or was an actual thing. I just kept shoving debris and dirt into a wall along my property line. I currently have mint growing on it but want to add berry bushes to help build a hedge wall. Mine is close to 500' long, and when I first did it, it was about 15' wide by 8 or 9' tall (average). I still have active areas that I still add to when I need to. currently it is only 5' tall and I have had to push it back a little bit and square up the facing side, as well as building up the soil level on the property side of the berm to try to reduce/prevent flooding. I know I've got old pictures of it, but would that count as building one?
I've done everything in the sand level woodland badge except the froe stuff (I can't find one, and I've had 2 blacksmiths back out of making one). I built a bedframe for my wife and I out of pine logs we harvested several years ago.
Sand level Round Woodworking, same.
If one of the staff is not willing to check the boxes, approve me for completing it, could one of you please post the thread and I can go in and post the pictures?

John Bolling wrote:Anne,
My wife takes my seed catalogs away... basically, my budget this year was $200 in seeds, according to my spreadsheet, I'm only $167.23 over. so... not that bad, right?

Sounds like it might be good for you to start saving seeds for any easy-to-save annuals that you regularly grow....

Anne,
I do try to save some of my seeds, (part of the plan for the year is to improve my skills) but I just get excited and kind of impulse buy. I really enjoy gardening, but sometimes I get out of hand. 😋

Hey,
No update on my garden stuff today. My wife saw a post by the barn we go to and they were doing a kissing booth with one of the horses, so we decided to take the girls down and make a donation for the team and get some work done down there.  
Facebook Post
What started out with hanging a few signs and moving some wall mounted racks turned into a full field day followed by fixing fences, installing gates, moving food, etc. in preparation for the three mustangs that are coming tomorrow morning. My wife sent me home with the kids after about 6 hours, and she stayed to help unload the hay that was arriving today. She sent me this when they pulled in.

Kind of makes me feel bad for her.

I will try to post my spreadsheet for my garden, if it works, you'll get to see it. It is not the only doc for it, there are others to include maps, but you can get a general idea.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/17vMpebWFbkFM3AsOeSJ5_9vD_9Ph8Upz/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=102456565776753699747&rtpof=true&sd=true
Try it as a URL instead of a Google.

I also wasn't expecting so much on the Walk Behind Tractor Forum post I did last night. I didn't get any notifications from it, though I haven't been super available today. Thanks guys.

THEY PULLED THAT TRAILER WITH 2 WHEEL DRIVE!
yea, seriously.
They had to keep stopping because the truck was having trouble. WHY would you do that???
but 75 bales, and the horses will be here tomorrow. (According to my wife, she "doesn't mind" if we get one. 3 horses, none have been broke or even halter trained. I'm seriously debating... (look at my signature)) (My wife will be sore tomorrow from all the work today, but she enjoyed it, and that's what matters.)
I will post pictures of the horses when we get to see them (hopefully at drop off), and while the garden did make a noticeable change today (drier), I'm going to try to set 3' rows tomorrow afternoon, so I will include pictures of that.

Well, we went from colder and "not going to rain at all" to " cold and wet" overnight, so I got up and started working.

Rows are about 12" tall. I can always get in and pump standing water out. I'll probably try to fill the areas between rows with compost to build it up because I was hitting the clay underneath in some parts.

Mustangs arrived today. They were broke down on the side of the road for almost all day yesterday, and so we pushed it off till this morning so we wouldn't be working with them in the dark.
I (hopefully) will be bringing another load of manure home today (I have to clean out their neighbors paddock and that'll finish the load), and I can either get it composting or fill the rows and let it do it's magic in the garden. Not sure which is better.

Sorry for not posting yesterday,
I got a load of manure, and the compost storage area works great.

I was able to back straight up to (the uphill side) it and push/shovel it off the back of the trailer.
Today, we are getting a new roof. While I was out taking care of the horses, my wife called and told me one of the chickens was attached by 2 stray dogs. The roofers stopped the attack, and the chicken was still alive. I came home and inspected her, and determined that it was best to put her down (several puncture wounds and exposed bone). One of the roofers is going to take it home for dinner, so it won't go to waste.
I finally got an answer for my back pain (that started back in 2014). Herniated disk. So that is flaring up, so knees are killing me. So I'm going to try to take the day off and sink into my recliner.

Projected rain tomorrow... yay...
But I was able to tear the whole garden up and redo the rows. Now I just need to wait for the poop to pile up, and I'll fill the areas between the rows to try to level it out. I may even mix it up and redo it again, horse poop and all, prior to planting, just to add more organic matter to the soil the plants will be in.

(Clearly photography is not my calling.) (If you squint, it looks ok.)
Also, I ordered the plants for the berm today. I went through Hartmann's Plant Company
. I ended up talking to the owner, and he cut me a great deal for a military discount. I HIGHLY reccommend them for berry plants. Now we just wait and see how they arrive and if I can manage to keep them alive.
If you haven't been following my thread on the berm, Help me build a headge wall, it might make for an interesting read.

My wife has me building her raised beds right now, so between the kids and building them, I haven't been able to do much work on my garden. I will hopefully be able to post pictures of the starter trays, the raised beds, and anything else going on.
I did start soaking sweet potatoes today, don't know if any will take, but it's worth a try.

PICTURE TIME!!!
Raised bed for my wife. I still need to make three more. They are getting a 1x6 top plate to go on top so it's easier to sit on. 3'x5'x2', so small enough for the kids to help. Two will be getting sweet potato and two will be carrots.

The first flower of the season. A little bit early if you ask me, but who am I to tell a flower what to do.

The next two are reason #4 why you shouldn't make your husband take down Christmas lights. The excitement on my wife's face was palpable.


The remaining 3 are pertaining to a discussion about soil quality.
This is an example of my soil in my lower areas and garden.

In an attempt to reduce erosion, I took the box blade through and did rows of grass. All the other seed died but was able to survive in the trenches.

It rained 2 days ago, and I still have puddles. On the left you can see a color transition between the clay and the topsoil I added to help level the area. At the top, you can see the berm and how some grass has succeeded with the erosion from it. To the right is the compost area, so runoff is helping the grass at the top.

And here is a map of my garden areas.

(Red - Creek) (Yellow- My garden) (Green - My Wife's Garden) (Blue - Retaining wall I built to ease the slope of both the yard and garden) (Gray - Shed) (Purple - Other property lines & Other planting areas for corn, potatoes, onions, and garlic.)
I know it's not the best photo, but it's what google had to offer. It's also old as hell, considering that the black car was given back to my wife's ex-husband almost 3 years ago.

Here is another picture of the soil. This picture is from the compost area. You can see the clay under the manure, and the contrast from the deep brown of the compost and the clay.

The clay refuses to allow any water into it, and as a result, the bottom layers of my compost heap end up soaked in water. When it rains, I get a nice little stream of black water running out of the compost also.

John,

I think you mentioned to me about getting some wheat and clover to grow for soil fertility correct?  I think those are fantastic choices.  Another choice is crimson clover which is an annual so it will die back and it adds heaps of nitrogen and carbon/organic matter through the roots.  Those pictures where you “tilled” with box blade rippers looks like heavily disturbed soil desperate to get some roots in so good for you for planting in the little trenches.

One thing to consider is that anything green that grows should be left on top to rot in place.  You can move it a bit here and there to make room for planting, but old greenery laying on the surface makes for a wonderful mulch.  With luck, you will only have to till once or twice and the soil will start to heal and you can have some living root in the ground at all times.

I saw your pictures and have a better idea of what you are working with.  I can see tilling just to loosen and then get plants started to keep the soil from packing back in.  Somewhere in these forums is a list of root crops used to loosen soil.  Wheat, clover, crimson clover and buck wheat are all good for getting their roots into hard soil.  Tiller radishes (Japanese Radish) really sends down a deep taproot and then rots, thus adding more organic material to the soil.  The effects of tiller radish are cumulative with time.

This is all just one possibility.  I can see you have a lot of work ahead and really you need to do whatever is best.

Eric

Eric,
Yea, I was thinking a winter wheat and is there any other kind of clover other than crimson? NO!
I am trying a strip on each end of my garden where I am planting Turnips, Carrots, Beets, and Radishes, just to see how they will do.
Since I don't have a cover crop on it right now, I'll have to wait till the fall to put one in, but I was thinking about just dropping my production plants in between the rows and covering them with compost (an idea we had discussed earlier) to help break down any woody parts and build up the soil.
I did get in contact with a woman who does a lot of organic gardening in the inner city near us, and she agreed to let me get a handful of worms to use in exchange for a hand full of horse crap. so with any luck, I can have that area produce this year, and have it nice and healthy by next year.

Eric, on a side note, can you check out the forum on mushrooms, you may be able to answer some of those questions.

Can you "till in" radishes and other root crops? like reuse the whole thing? or will that just spread them?

You could till the tiller radishes, but better to leave them in the ground.  This way they will leave little channels of rotted material that will expedite and generally increase water absorption, reduce runoff and help make a healthy soil biome.  Probably some of the radish will poke out—maybe 12”!  Just let it and then push it over with your food or tractor bucket.

Just run 'em over you say? I like that idea.
It may be useful to add them into my cover crop mix. Clover, wheat, and radishes. I feel like y'all will suggest growing bamboo or black berries with it too. I'd never be able to reclaim the garden then.
I wouldn't mind adding them in to the cover crop mix, I think that it'd be a wonderful treat for the chickens who escape captivity, as well as the fact that I could pull a few for a late winter treat for the horses.

On a side note, I got ahold of the city today regarding "Green" debris. They are going to dump a load of small sticks and leaves on Thursday. (We are friends with one of the drivers (share a lot of baked goods and jams and anything we grow), and he is going to bring the truck (it is a legit garbage truck that they painted white) and dump it in my driveway) Hopefully that being mixed in the garden, under the manure, will help add some bulk to the soil and help it to be ready for peas to go in in March. I'd been trying to get a truck down here for the past few months, and the supervisor called me and came down and made sure the truck could do it.

I also got the tractor tiller today. The semi couldn't come down my street, so I had to drive the tractor the 1/4 mile down the street, along the sidewalk, and into a parking lot to grab a pallet with the tiller on it and drive back, all with my 3 year old. I haven't gotten to use it yet, because my day went chaotic as hell, but it is hooked up, oiled up, and ready to go for in the morning, which I will spend half the day at doctor appointments, but at some point I will get to use it.

Clover, wheat and radishes sound like a good cover mix.  I suspect that those plants will really change the look of your garden soil.  And by all means, let the chickens have at it!  They will dung and urinate it in the process.

I, too have used my tractor for unload implements from a truck.  Do you have forks?  Those are inexpensive and really help with those tasks.

Eric

Photo update:
Yesterday.

I put the tiller to use today to try and spread out the clay in the area I am doing corn,

as well as to try to mix some of the manure into the soil in my garden.

If you look at the photo, there is a path running horizontal, this will be put on both sides, 4' wide, and will be where I will put my root vegetibles to see how they do.
4' root
25' plants
4' path
25' plants
4' roots
We also have another flower coming up just to the left of the first.


And if I can get away with it, adding in wine caps to the paths between the rows so that they can spread and aid in the break down of the manure and yard debris. As of right now, the city will be delivering a load of leaves and sticks on Thursday, and I will till it into the soil prior to making the rows. I think this will be the best bet to get the garden to start composting on it's own, especially once I add the manure and mushrooms.

Eric,
No. I don't have forks. I have had a few times when it could be useful, but I haven't found a situation where I needed the forks when I couldn't use the bucket and some straps.
I will say, the tiller on the back was interesting and fun to use. It had a few issues with the clay, and you could see when you hit it because the PTO RPM would go from 530-540 to 450 or less in a heartbeat. But I tilled in front of the compost area (the area where I hit the hardest clay even when I wasn't intending to till that area) also to allow the liquid runoff to mix in and hopefully improve that soil. I'm going to let it everything sit for a day or two and then till it again to give it a nice dry final mix, and then make the rows. I hope that by tilling, and tilling deep, it will help disperse the clay in the areas of my garden that puddle with the due and allow me a nice clean setup that will drain the way it should without drowning anything that I try to grow there. I may have to till it again in an opposing direction to better spread it out. I want y'all to be aware that there is very little microbial life in this area, and things rarely break down as opposed to just sink in the mud (think bottom of a lake mud).

I was wondering how you moved the tiller.  Your solution was pretty good given your options.  I will say that a $150 pair of clamp on forks can do a lot of productive work.  I had been in the market for a grapple ($3k all in!) but really, $150 allows me to move more than a grapple ever would!

Anyhow, nice setup to move the tiller.

BTW, what brand is the tiller?

Eric