Pumpkin garden tilled.

It's ground engaging time. Seeds, manure, soil, and everything that goes with them. But that's not all. Cutting and hauling wood, chainsaws and the works!
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Harry United States of America
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Pumpkin garden tilled.

Post by Harry »

It took four times tilling to get the hard clay soil ready to plant. Now it's raining and still not planted, so I'll probably be doing again.
My Troybilt has been repowered with a Yin Xiang engine. It looks exactly like the Honda engines I have owned before. It is extremely powerful and it makes the two wheeled machine a beast. It added some weight to the tiller in the front, so it was out of balance. I added some steels bars underneath the tiller in the rear, to balance it. I can lift the handle bars and spin the machine around easily. Most of the time I run it just above idle and it just churns through the soil. It takes awhile to get the job done because it is so narrow, compared to the wide tillers on Case machines. In my opinion it does a much better job.

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Harry
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Yin Xiang engine
My beloved Troybilt
My beloved Troybilt
1973 444, 1974 644, 1976 446, 1977 646, 1986 226
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Eugen Canada
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Re: Pumpkin garden tilled.

Post by Eugen »

@Harry, your garden looks good! We got lots of rain here in the last couple of days, but it doesn't bother my gardening duties which are none at the moment. I like your Troybilt tiller, and very much would have liked one like you, but they are very expensive (for me) around here, when they come up for sale. I really would only use it for weeding between rows, when we'll plant things again. Now we have have just two short rows of garlic due to lack of time. I let the cover crop of Winter rye grow and it's doing great, it'll amend the soil as we got hard and heavy clay too. It's a very cheap way to amend the soil, which I would recommend to you as well.

I have an old Gilson tiller, broken in many ways. It used a B&S engine which had two shafts, one was used for the tiller tines, and the other was used for the wheels. The engine was seized badly and destroyed. I've had a hard time finding an engine with two horizontal shafts. Was thinking to just use an engine with one shaft for the tines, and that could just as well move the tiller as well. I might open a thread on it if/when I get to work on it. :cheers:
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Re: Pumpkin garden tilled.

Post by DavidBarkey »

Eugen wrote: Fri May 27, 2022 11:35 am @Harry, your garden looks good! We got lots of rain here in the last couple of days, but it doesn't bother my gardening duties which are none at the moment. I like your Troybilt tiller, and very much would have liked one like you, but they are very expensive (for me) around here, when they come up for sale. I really would only use it for weeding between rows, when we'll plant things again. Now we have have just two short rows of garlic due to lack of time. I let the cover crop of Winter rye grow and it's doing great, it'll amend the soil as we got hard and heavy clay too. It's a very cheap way to amend the soil, which I would recommend to you as well.

I have an old Gilson tiller, broken in many ways. It used a B&S engine which had two shafts, one was used for the tiller tines, and the other was used for the wheels. The engine was seized badly and destroyed. I've had a hard time finding an engine with two horizontal shafts. Was thinking to just use an engine with one shaft for the tines, and that could just as well move the tiller as well. I might open a thread on it if/when I get to work on it. :cheers:
Twin shaft horisantal engines were found a lot on snow blowers . Just have to change carb . I may have one . I will go out to the storage box and look . I will PM. you if I have one .
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Harry United States of America
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Re: Pumpkin garden tilled.

Post by Harry »

I also have a furrower that fits on behind the tines. When I planted my evergreen nursery, I furrowed out the area then racked out the dirt. Then furrowed the furrow to make it deeper, which was around 12" deep. Then I backfilled the furrowers with woodchips. I did this over a period of three years for a nursery of 300 seedlings and buried many dump truck loads of chips. The town where I live in and various trees cuttings services would dump them on my stone driveway for free. At one time I had four dump truck loads of chips on the driveway. My :wife: was very upset because I was working during the day and would move chips until dark, so it took over a week to move them all. Now they are all rotted and the soil is amazing. Back then a was a younger man and I used a hay fork to load up a garden trailer and pull the trailer with my lawn mower to the dump area. Now I work smarter and have a 646 loader and 644lbh.

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Harry
1973 444, 1974 644, 1976 446, 1977 646, 1986 226
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Re: Pumpkin garden tilled.

Post by DavidBarkey »

Mixed "litter" from tree cutting services is one of the things we have done to amend our very sandy soil to retain moisture and nutrients to the soil as it decomposes . And like Harry it was free , except the labour and gas .
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Re: Pumpkin garden tilled.

Post by Eugen »

I think it was last year that I got a dump truck load of wood chips from a local tree cutting company, it cost me $100. And I tried the chips in the garden, around the garlic and other plants, for weed control. Could not find free wood chips. The cover crop costs me about $20 for a large bag, plant it in October, and cut the rye grass about now, when I would plant tomatoes or whatever. Everyone finds the best solution that fits them.
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Re: Pumpkin garden tilled.

Post by Eugen »

DavidBarkey wrote: Fri May 27, 2022 11:40 am
Twin shaft horisantal engines were found a lot on snow blowers . Just have to change carb . I may have one . I will go out to the storage box and look . I will PM. you if I have one .
Thanks Dave, don't make an effort on this item as it's not urgent. It would be nice to get it running one day. :D
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Re: Pumpkin garden tilled.

Post by DavidBarkey »

Eugen wrote: Fri May 27, 2022 12:32 pm I think it was last year that I got a dump truck load of wood chips from a local tree cutting company, it cost me $100. And I tried the chips in the garden, around the garlic and other plants, for weed control. Could not find free wood chips. The cover crop costs me about $20 for a large bag, plant it in October, and cut the rye grass about now, when I would plant tomatoes or whatever. Everyone finds the best solution that fits them.
I found if you ask for the "litter" or "clean up" you will get that for free as know one wants it . It is the saw dust , some chips . leafs , and small twiggs left at the end , and there always locking for places near by to get rid of it .
I might try the rue grass this fall . I will have to pick your brains on it when you are over next.
Dave
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