Bill, I can't say that I enjoy working with a hoe but I certainly value a sharp one over a dull one.

A spading fork is my preferred cultivation tool. I used to do most everything, including "hoeing," with a shovel. That was when I was a much younger gardener. Now, I can loosen beds to the depth of 11 inches with the spading fork and never lift a pound of dirt. It beats the tiller in every way except speed over the ground. I think of the entire spading fork process as "cultivating peace."

Steve

I have been gardening for 57 years and the best book I have found is GARDEN WAY'S JOY OF GARDENING. Writen by Dick Raymond.

Garden Way Publications
Dept WM
Schoolhouse Rd
Pownal Vermont 05261
800 441 5700

I don't know the current price..

Thanks for the tip, Steve. I've been using something like a curved or claw-shaped fork (I don't know what it's called)and I've found I like it much better for preparing beds than with a shovel. I haven't tried a regular spading fork though. I'll have to give it a shot.

Do you use the spading fork to keep down weeds between plants/rows too? How? Or do you mean you use it when preparing a bed for planting?

Thanks for the book recommendation, PaulC. I'm going to check it out from the library. I'm also checking out one called "Down to Earth Vegetable Gardening know how" by Dick Raymond (I may not have the title quite right). Have you read that one? Any good?

Bill

I agree, Bill, those things you mentioned are critical. The level bed being the most important IME.

I also use a fork most of the time. If it's a heavy sod then I turn it over with a sharp shovel. I tend to let plants re-seed themselves so I rarely have orderly rows - consequently the hoe is usually not helpful. I do 90% percent of the weeding by hand. I quite enjoy it, it's very calm "brainless" work - an hour goes by without even noticing - and it's also much more thorough and better for the crops. I usually leave the weeds on the ground as mulch.

Some of the old fertility rituals to ensure a crops growth seem worth trying. Tom

Bill, I try to be in the garden at the right moment to use a 4-prong cultivator for weeding the permanent paths. The ground is packed hard and it takes just the right amount of soil moisture to do a good job with a cultivator or maybe I could say - do any job at all. The hoe is also useful at that time.

I use a long-handled spading fork primarily when preparing a bed for planting. The long-handled feature is very important for leverage. I've even replaced D-handles and thrown them away when I couldn't find forks with long-handles. Remember, I'm not lifting the soil. "Not doing it, wouldn't be prudent."

I have a suspicion that you are using a "potato fork" or a "muck rake" from your description of "something like a curved or claw-shaped fork." I've borrowed the neighbor's once or twice but it's a little too much for me - wimp that I am.

Steve

Steve,
I have a potato fork and use it some to slightly aerate deeply.

Aren't these 2 terms contradictory, Wayne?:
- slightly
- deeply

A potato fork should do a good job. And, it's not quite as heavy as some tools. Once thought the grubbing hoe would be a good cultivation tool - good goobly goop!! Still haven't got my money out of that thing and don't plan to.

Before the shovel became something of an acquaintance rather than a friend, I tried a trenching shovel - not to turn the soil, just slicing down and trying to loosen it. That didn't work! Within a couple of weeks, the soil was again compacted after rainstorms.

Steve

After digging-digging-digging, tilling-etc I'm going the no-till experiment, Though would use the fork to open if needed. I want the worms to till it. Lots of compost & mulch over that. I cut the plants off when done & leave the roots in soil to break down & run over the foliage with a mulching lawn mower. Worms like roots. I have been planting alfalfa around to loosen up the garden bed soil as this puts down very deep roots & adds nitrogen & you can cut it & use the cuttings for mulch or compost. I plant some of the paths & all the spare garden areas in cover crop, usually legumes & try to keep all the garden planted all the time as it is a very good indicator of any deficiency in isolated places. Happy Gardening!

My DH rescued an old 8HP tiller on it's way to the dumpster and revived it. Smoky, noisy thrashing beast that it is, it does till the soil quite well. We can till up grassy areas into rough garden areas in mere minutes. Our next big garden adventure will be to get compost from the mushroom farm and till that in.

There are several gardening tools which I've become quite fond of, one of them is a titanium rock climber's hand pickaxe (I'm sure rock climber's have a specific name for these things) which makes a great weeding tool and small digger. It was a dollar at a garage sale and I'm certain I really do not want to know how much someone paid for the thing to take climbing with them but it makes a great garden tool.

Another good garden tool we found at a yard sale is a five tine adjustable cultivator which was fifty cents although it did need to have a handle put on it. This hand cultivator gets used a lot after the garden has had the original tilling done with the machine. Small sections get cultivated before being reseeded after their crops have finished.

We have a reel push mower with a grass catcher so it is a good way to get mulch for the garden path. There is also the scythe for the taller grass which also makes nice mulch and compost.

We are also populating the yard with furniture. Benches scattered about, hammocks, lawn and lounge chairs. It is much nicer and now we can go hang out and be comfortable in the back yard.

dancing around the maypole in mid-May

or is that too old-fashioned?
:-p

We handpick potato beetle larvae in our backyard garden and drop them in our small water-lily pond - the goldfish LOVE them! One "newfangled" technique we have adopted is using bio-degradable black plastic to cover the soil. Keeps the weeding 'way down! Just cut a hole where you want to put a tomato or other plant. Of course, this does not work for areas that are being seeded.

I always have tilled, I believe it was out of necessity. The red clay in KY was not a good environment for anything other than Kutza vine ;( I will say, though, that if I had good soil to begin with, I would love to forgo the tilling. This year required a tractor to turn over my projected garden plot so I'm excited to see what happens here. I've never been one to be able to pick that many bugs off plants to make a difference; I do squash egg clusters that I see, though:) Lori

I learned a useful trick for killing squash bugs from a poster here at gardenweb. Spray the plant that is being attacked with plain water. Particularly the ground area around the plant. Have a can of soapy water ready when you do this. Within minutes the SB's will begin to congregate on the upper leaves in an effort to get away from the moisture. It makes them easy pickins.