Vegetable Gardening

[FlyingScot]

Do any of you have a Mantis tiller? I'm thinking of getting one because I can't really hand-turn my Ohio clay due to my left-sided weakness. They have an electric one which intrigues me as I hate doing the gas oil mixture thing and I suck at pull-starting anything. I've rented tillers before but who wants to put a filthy, oily think inside their car...definitely not me.

[tulip]

Do any of you have a Mantis tiller? I'm thinking of getting one because I can't really hand-turn my Ohio clay due to my left-sided weakness. They have an electric one which intrigues me as I hate doing the gas oil mixture thing and I suck at pull-starting anything. I've rented tillers before but who wants to put a filthy, oily think inside their car...definitely not me.

Yes. It's great, but you cannot till with one finger like in the ads. It takes some doing, but it's much easier than the huge tillers. I find it very useful for planting perennial plants and shrubs. Digging the hole with the tiller is much easier and than with a shovel. I also plant my bulbs with an auger bit on my electric drill. I can plant about 100 bulbs in about 15 minutes that way.

But the best way that I've found is to build up, not down. Lay down newspaper--lots--and pile on soil and compost--lots. I add a few wheelbarrowsful of compost to each bed every season, and things grow wonderfully. I've found that adding a cup or two of dehydrated chicken manure really kickstarts the plants.

Kitsune, I love your vertical garden!! That would be a great way to do herbs near the kitchen.

I've taken some photos of my garden, but I'll have to download the photos and that ain't happening tonight.

[FlyingScot]

Thanks for the info Tulip. I think I'm going to go ahead and get one. As for the newspapers. I have stacks of them just waiting for the purpose you described. In fact, I used them this winter/spring to kill the grass where I'm planning to garden. Worked like a charm! Now I just have to dig the area out deep enough to add some good soil and compost.

[tulip]

If you build up, you don't have to dig down at all. My raised beds are 3'x6' that I made with some posts that the previous owner of my house had left in the yard. I just put down the paper and then filled up the box with compost and soil. No digging, no tilling.

The Mantis is still alot of work, but it's quieter and lighter than the gasoline tillers. Still alot of work, though, especially for large areas like gardens. Great for digging holes for shrubs, though.

[NbyNW]

I ate my one asparagus spear this morning with my breakfast. Tasty!

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

i ate my one asparagus spear this morning with my breakfast. Tasty!

=8-)

[skhill]

It looks like my lettuce has drowned in all the rain of the last few weeks (we had 13 inches in April, and 1.75 inches so far in May). But those mustard greens seem to be indestructible.

Homegrown asparagus, yum! I got some at the farmers market last Saturday, and it was wonderful. Someday I might just have to put in an asparagus patch...

[FlyingScot]

If you build up, you don't have to dig down at all. My raised beds are 3'x6' that I made with some posts that the previous owner of my house had left in the yard. I just put down the paper and then filled up the box with compost and soil. No digging, no tilling.

The Mantis is still alot of work, but it's quieter and lighter than the gasoline tillers. Still alot of work, though, especially for large areas like gardens. Great for digging holes for shrubs, though.

Good point. I hadn't thought of doing raised beds but I bet they'd be more successful than the poor plants struggling in clay. Plus my senior citizen father likes projects (lucky me). However, he tends to overbuild things so I'd probably end up with a self-watering, self-weeding monstrosity that actually picks and cooks the veggies automatically :-)

[spokewench]

Good point. I hadn't thought of doing raised beds but I bet they'd be more successful than the poor plants struggling in clay. Plus my senior citizen father likes projects (lucky me). However, he tends to overbuild things so I'd probably end up with a self-watering, self-weeding monstrosity that actually picks and cooks the veggies automatically :-)

Oooh, send your senior citizen father my way! My hubby will do projects, but he hates garden projects, so I have to do them all by myself! I'd love a father-built raised bed!