Dreaming of Spring Gardening in the Middle of a Wisconsin winter part 2

[jvls1942]

do any of you have a large enough garden so that you can use a tractor and equipment ?
I have a small 35HP Oliver that I use to get the garden ready..
I have made several attachments that I would like to talk about and show pictures if anybody is interested..
.......jiminwaUSAu......

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

We used to back in the day. I now have raised boxes because of joint problems. We are going to plow up a strip of field this year to plant some sweet corn, pumpkins and a food plot for wildlife. We used to own a dairy farm.

We stopped tilling and plowing a few decades back because I was doing raised beds that I only added stuff to the top.

I definitely would be interested in seeing what you have made, and the use of them. I'm still a farmer at heart.

 

[jvls1942]

great,, I have some chores to do right now, but I will be back..
.......jiminwaUSAu......

ETA:
OK, I am back.
Somehow the picture card fell out of my camera outside last fall , so I don't have the pictures right now.
In a nutshell I will tell you what I did:
I bought a double row cultivator.
It has two tool bars , 2''x2'' steel angles.
I took all of the spring teeth off of it and loosened every nut and bolt and lubricated them and put them back on.. Those 3/4'' nuts are real buggars to get loose. fine threads, ya know ?
then I went to Fleet/Farm and bought all brand new bolts and lock nuts for mounting the spring tooth brackets to the angles. Now they are all the same size, like they should be.
for plowing, I space the teeth evenly on the two bars. that is what I use to "plow'' the gardens. the soil is very loose so the ''chisel plow'' works very well to get the garden ready for plowing.
then I go and take the teeth all off.
I have two 16'' discs . I mount them at 45 degrees to the angle bars and about 36'' apart. I use these discs to form raised hills for planting potatoes, corn and beans.
I also use the discs for hilling potatoes..
I haven't tried hilling the sweet corn yet..
If I do not hill the corn before planting it, I can put the teeth on and space them for double row cultivators.
I use pneumatic wrenches to speed up nut removal.. there are 3 bolts on each tooth bracket.
last year we didn't plant a garden because we both had bad hips.
My wife got hers fixed last November. My operation is due on May 7.. holding our breath that it doesn't get cancelled and rescheduled.
I will take some pictures if I can't find some in my files..
.......jiminwisc......

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

That sounds very inventive. We have a 2 bottom plow, and a decent disc my husband bought from the neighbors last year. We are looking for a cheap 2 row corn planter, and maybe a seeder. My husband always enjoyed the field work aspect of farming, so he still putzes around on our 40 acres.

I've had both knees and shoulders replaced. Hips are holding for now. My husband built me raised garden boxes that are hip high so no bending here required for my main vegetable garden.

I hope you hip replacement is a go in May. The only thing worse than going through a joint replacement is having to put one off.

 

[jvls1942]

I was supposed to have the first hip done in March, but I couldn't get my teeth work done soon enough..
We have a separate thread on byc called cheeseheads. all people from wisconsin are welcome. we do have a few from Illinois, too.
look us up in the
forum: Where am I, where are you
we talk about everything on there. very nice bunch of people.
you would fit right in..

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Thank you.

 

[ShrekDawg]

Just found this thread.

Figured I would pop in.

I’ve been meaning to start my seeds for weeks now but keep putting it off.

At this rate I won’t have vegetables till fall!

Might have to buy started plants again this year.

At least for some stuff.

Anyway, I DID finally manage to sort all my seeds today though for the first time.

I think I might possibly have a slight seed hoarding and/or addiction problem....

Sorted by year, left to right, 2016-2020. Yes I bought more this year

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

You have a lot of nice seeds there. I grow those beets I see you have.

You should have a nice garden this year.

 

[ShrekDawg]

You have a lot of nice seeds there. I grow those beets I see you have.

You should have a nice garden this year.

I didn’t realize how many good ones I had!! lots of repeats too though. Sooooo many tomatoes. I think there must be a tomato shortage that I didn’t know about or subconsciously knew about and bought up all the seeds?

I wanted to try them last year but chickened out!! Lol think I have another pack of just the red ones from the year before too that I never grew think I better woman up and try beets this year LOL

I think I will too but probably will definitely not have room for all of these

I could probably grow for years and never have to buy another seed

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

If you do grow the beets make sure to roast them in the oven or on the grill in foil pouches with a pat of butter or touch of olive oil. Salt and pepper, roast until soft. Boiling ruins beets in my opinion.