My first post title was “Pounding away,” but that sounded too brutal when it comes to garden soil. Still, that’s what we’re doing, what has to be done to stay on a reasonable planting schedule. Rototilling chops up the turned-under strips of sod into smaller, more easily digested pieces. The pic shows the result of one pass of the Kubota compact tractor with 48″ tiller. It’s still pretty rough, you can see clumps all over the place.
A quarter acre is getting this treatment, enough for the earliest direct-seeded crops. Hopefully, we’ll have the rest of the field disked well before it’s needed. Meanwhile, one or two more passes with the rototiller, hand raking, spreading a healthy amount of compost, and we should be ready to go. A rough and ready hay field-to-veggie garden conversion that should work out fine. As always, we shall see!
Lucky that you have a Kubota. I rototilled a new garden area last summer that I’m opening up this year. A LOT of tree roots. Spent half my time pulling and clipping them, and disentangling them from the tines of the hand-guided tiller. What a pain in the ass. But the ground is looking pretty good this spring. Lot of crops will be grown for the family this year.