Garden Tillers - Advice

Discussion in 'HortForum' started by Icecat, Mar 29, 2007.

  1. Icecat

    Icecat Member

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    My husband and I recently renovated our property and now I have a new and larger garden. Right now there's only a few inches of top soil, plus what was there before... The soil needs a bit more sand for drainage and there are small rocks throughout (I've done my best to clear as many as I can). I've cleared most of the larger rocks and now I'd like to level out the garden and till in order to sort out the flower beds, shrubs, etc. I'll need to till the yard in order to blend the 6-12 inches of top soil that the contractor dumped in the yard.

    Does anyone have any advice with respect to tillers? I suspect if I try to use a smaller tiller I'll burn out the motor or destroy the tines... Are there tillers out there that can tolerate the odd rock I may encounter?

    Many thanks!

    Icecat
    Ottawa, ON
     
  2. Ron B

    Ron B Paragon of Plants 10 Years

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    Rent a full-sized one. Do not buy a tiller to use for annual tilling as this grinds the soil into dust. Once the plot is started with a machine, use hand tools to maintain it. If you have a hot summer climate you can also use mulches such as straw to maintain the loose soil texture.

    Huge amounts of sand may be required to make a soil more coarse, unless it is already high in sand. A soil must be made up of more than half sand before the sand begins to change its texture. And if you don't get it right you can produce a sandy soil that is prone to leaching and droughtiness due to 'excessive drainage'.

    Purchased topsoil is used for berms, mounds or spreading over existing soil as a broad layer (as when installing a lawn). Tilling it into another soil is not what it is intended for, it has its own sand, silt and perhaps clay content which you would then be mixing with the same percentages of those components that are already there. Except for the organic component it is probably unlikely to 'improve' the existing soil and may even have the opposite effect in some instances - if it has a rather high percentage of silt and clay (as manufactured 'topsoil' in my area often seems to when tested by mixing it with water in a jar and letting it settle out into layers). Customarily you would till compost into an existing soil, rather than more soil.
     
  3. Icecat

    Icecat Member

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    Thanks Ron.

    The contractor put top soil on to dress it up. The area that is now our garden used to be part of our back yard and also where our garage was. So needless to say, there was quite a bit of debris leftover.

    My plan to lay sod on most of it, leaving outer portions and some parts in the middle for plants, shrubs, etc. Since drainage is an issue, I just want to get the top soil mixed in with the existing soil along with some sand to improve drainage...
     
  4. Ron B

    Ron B Paragon of Plants 10 Years

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    It won't improve drainage, unless you use enough sand to make the soil markedly more coarse (organic material will affect soil texture only until it decomposes and disappears). And that will just improve internal drainage of the tilled layer, if there is an impervious layer beneath that causes water to accumulate during wet conditions (your yard becomes a lake) you may need to install drainage lines to correct this.
     
  5. Icecat

    Icecat Member

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    Actually the problem is the top soil. There's anywhere from 6 inches to at least a foot to 1 1/2 feet of top soil. The areas where I have managed to mix the existing and top soil together seemed to have better drainage... However, it's a big yard so I don't want to do it all by hand...

    When we dug out the area for our driveway, part of the property was very sandy - my thoughts are to bring in this soil into the new yards and mix it in... I'm not looking for perfection, just enough improvement to make the situation better...

    Once I have the yard sorted out, I suspect that I won't need a large tiller so renting a large tiller is probably the best solution...
     
  6. Don Ho

    Don Ho Active Member

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    Renting a large tiller and adding good-quality compost are sound ideas. I would only add more soil if it closely matched the existing soil. Ron makes a good point about adding sand too. I am not opposed to tilling the newly placed topsoil into the existing soil as it will help with drainage and water percolation. Distinct soil layers have the potential of creating a perched water table, and tilling minimizes this potential. Also, soil microorganisms in good compost do a great job of keeping soil pores open as they forage for food.
     
  7. Durgan

    Durgan Contributor 10 Years

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    http://www.durgan.org/Blog/Durgan.html Here is my my practical two cents worth.

    This is my hands on experience with conditioning a yard. I started with poor drainage, and heavy wet clay. My first effort was peat moss and sand, and it was not worth the effort. eventually compost and fibre was the salvation. The heading Making a New Vegetable Garden Area indicates the general procedure.
    Durgan.
     

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