Gadening with Drafts

NB,

Mulch is a huge help with crops that get to large to cultivate. Once the tomatoes are too tall to drive over with a hiller or a cultivator, give them a good hoeing and then use straw, hay, pine needles or whatever you have available. Put a good layer on so that the weeds are not likely to grow through. The more weed free your mulch is (hay tends to have weed seeds) the less weeds you introduce to your garden. If you use combined straw avoid rye, it will sprout and produce a growth inhibitor that can have negative effects on your crop. Mulches are good for the garden because they conserve moisture and soil, plus they are good soil builders by adding organic matter.

If you get the Small Farmers Journal, the Nordell’s have written about mulches, or you can find some info on there work online, just Google Anne and Eric Nordell, Beech Grove Farm. Here is a lecture that they gave at a conference, it is audio only http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJ6GcsStfks

Here is a discussion and some good pictures http://www.backwoodshome.com/forum/vb/showthread.php?t=4179

@NB axemen 39525 wrote:

I know that in the past they did most of the garden work with the horses…
This summer I plowed a new plot for the garden 100’x50′ or so… and then disked it, hilled it and cultivated it most of the summer.
Problem was when the stuff started to grow, my wife didn’t really want me in the garden and hilling it again as she feared the horses would walk on the rows.

I know they used to do it and i’m wondering what exactly can you plant and keep hilling/cultivating with the horses that will make you only have to hand weed the 2″ where the plant stocks are?

I plan on doing a “test Garden” this summer and seeing how good I can keep it up with the horses compared ot the hand weeding.
I know they will probebly walk on “some” of the plants, but is there a better way or equipment you can use when the plants get too tall to fit under the hiller?

TO my understanding, they planted most things on hills, then they would pass the cultivator between the rows and then take that loose soil and re-hill the rows to make the dirt smother the weeds??

I plan to make a hiller on my cultivator once the plants get too tall like tomatoes, so I don’t have to drive over them, but between them?

What do you guys think?

As you said, “I know they used to do it” and still do. Here’s a pic of an older riding cultivator modified with Swedish S tines and a pair of hilling discs.