There are two rules (okay, probably more, but only two that apply here!): You cannot allow grass and weeds to take over a garden; you should never work clay soil when it is damp.
I was faced with this situation today. Thanks to days and days of rain, usually coming just as the soil is starting to be dry enough to work, I had a few rows of tomatoes, potatoes and peppers that grass and weeds are threatening to overrun. And the ground, at least a major part of it, has a lot of clay. Plus, either tonight or tomorrow we are supposed to get dumped on with another heavy rain. We had over an inch very early yesterday. The top of the ground was dry but not anything down 3-4 inches.
Do I till the ground and kill thousands of grass and weeds or let it go? Dad and grandpa would have had my butt but I went with tilling it, based on experience. Many years ago, we had a field of tobacco, growing in a clay soil. Like this year, it was a very wet spring after transplanting and the tobacco was not growing at all. We had a Cub tractor, equipped with sidedressing implements. These were front plows that were only about an inch wide, max, but had long shafts. I lowered them to the max, to the point they would just stay in the frame. Then, I cultivated the tobacco, lowering the cultivators as deep as they would go - somewhere close to 11" deep.
The soil was not, thankfully, dry. Even so, Cubby had a hard time getting through the soil. As expected, chunks of dirt rather than friable soil came up.
But... all ended well. That 3/4 acre of ground produced fantastically. I never told dad I had had broke one of his cardinal rules.
Thankfully, I don't have to answer to him about my garden!
Mike
I was faced with this situation today. Thanks to days and days of rain, usually coming just as the soil is starting to be dry enough to work, I had a few rows of tomatoes, potatoes and peppers that grass and weeds are threatening to overrun. And the ground, at least a major part of it, has a lot of clay. Plus, either tonight or tomorrow we are supposed to get dumped on with another heavy rain. We had over an inch very early yesterday. The top of the ground was dry but not anything down 3-4 inches.
Do I till the ground and kill thousands of grass and weeds or let it go? Dad and grandpa would have had my butt but I went with tilling it, based on experience. Many years ago, we had a field of tobacco, growing in a clay soil. Like this year, it was a very wet spring after transplanting and the tobacco was not growing at all. We had a Cub tractor, equipped with sidedressing implements. These were front plows that were only about an inch wide, max, but had long shafts. I lowered them to the max, to the point they would just stay in the frame. Then, I cultivated the tobacco, lowering the cultivators as deep as they would go - somewhere close to 11" deep.
The soil was not, thankfully, dry. Even so, Cubby had a hard time getting through the soil. As expected, chunks of dirt rather than friable soil came up.
But... all ended well. That 3/4 acre of ground produced fantastically. I never told dad I had had broke one of his cardinal rules.
Thankfully, I don't have to answer to him about my garden!
Mike
