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Gary350
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Location: TN. 50 years of gardening experience.

Garden Tiller modifications

This is my 24" wide garden tiller modifications took about 45 minutes using scrap wood pieces. Its ugly but easy to build & it works. The problem I have had with all tillers soil gets thrown out both sides leaving a hill of soil both sides full length of the row. After plants have grown when I till between rows to remove grass and weeds soil covers and damages new plants. .

I drilled several 3/16" holes in the metal cover on both sides of tiller to attach 2x2 boards with screws. Then I attached scrap plywood pieces to the 2x2 boards. Plywood holds soil in so it does not get thrown out the sides. I like the 24" tiller best to till the whole garden in spring it is faster than my 20" wide tiller. My 20" tiller is best for weeding between rows since both tillers throw soil out the sides that covers up my plants even with 36" row spacing.

I am going to put wooden guards on the 20" tiller too. This will allow me to plant 30" row spacing instead of 36". With 30" row spacing I can plant 13 rows instead of 11 rows an weed with the 20" wide tiller. Weeding with the tiller is basically walking fast between each row till only 1" deep just enough to break the soil surface so it kills grass & weeds. Rows are 40 ft long it takes 30 seconds to weed between each row every 2 or 3 weeks until hot weather then it is too hot for weed seeds to germinate and grow.

Garden tiller is full of dead sweet potato vines that need to be removed.
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jal_ut
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Location: Northern Utah Zone 5

You are having too much fun!

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Gary350
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Joined: Mon Mar 23, 2009 1:59 pm
Location: TN. 50 years of gardening experience.

It is 78 degrees with very high wind gusts to 40 mph it feels like summer so I decided to build another soil guard on the small tiller. This should allow me to plant rows 30" apart instead of 36" apart this will give me 2 extra 40 ft rows in the garden. I painted all the wooden handle tools & wheel barrel with Linseed Oil. Old wood really soaks up linseed oil the wheel barrel handles took 3 coats and can use more. It took me more than an hour to remove, tangled vines, wire, rope, cloth, from the tillers. This property use to be a farmers field I got tiller into a bunch of wire this year it was a mess removing that from the tillers with all that other stuff tangles in there too. Tillers both have New 30 wt oil they are both ready to go when weather get right for planting about April 20. I still need to clean up the metal shovels nice and shiny.
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okie dodger
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Joined: Tue Nov 06, 2018 10:33 am
Location: East Central Oklahoma zone 7

There is nothing ugly about your modifications, Gary350. What a brilliant idea, and something I will definetly be doing with my tiller this year, with your permission, of course :-() .I garden in 8"-10" raised beds, 10'-20' long. What I run into when I tilled a bed was the tiller pushing soil over the edge. What I've been doing for several years is setting a 2"x8"x10' on the frame of the bed, having to move it as I till. Question. Does the plywood impede your tilling depth? I'm thinking it shouldn't in my sandy loam soil. By the way, lately I only use the tiller to till in cover crops. Again, brilliant! Is this a great forum or what?

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Gary350
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Posts: 7392
Joined: Mon Mar 23, 2009 1:59 pm
Location: TN. 50 years of gardening experience.

okie dodger wrote:There is nothing ugly about your modifications, Gary350. What a brilliant idea, and something I will definetly be doing with my tiller this year, with your permission, of course :-() .I garden in 8"-10" raised beds, 10'-20' long. What I run into when I tilled a bed was the tiller pushing soil over the edge. What I've been doing for several years is setting a 2"x8"x10' on the frame of the bed, having to move it as I till. Question. Does the plywood impede your tilling depth? I'm thinking it shouldn't in my sandy loam soil. By the way, lately I only use the tiller to till in cover crops. Again, brilliant! Is this a great forum or what?
After using the tiller for a while this is what I have learned. If I am tilling deep enough that the plywood is very close to the soil surface then no soil can get thrown out the sides. If I am tilling only 1" or 2" deep just deep enough to kill weeds an grass the plywood needs to be lowered so it is only 2" from the soil before I start tilling. Once I start tilling 2" deep plywood is very close to the soil and no soil can get throw out the sides. I am going to use my smaller 22" tiller as the cultivator to kill weeds an grass so I need to replace the plywood on it with longer pieces 2" from the soil. Second thought, I can splice a piece of plywood near the bottom of the plywood I already have with a few wood screws, easy fix.



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