wh5208speed 602 #1 Posted October 3, 2014 The garden was pretty much done for the year, so with rain in the forecast I decided to till up the garden and prep it for winter. I have a real nice Troy-Built Tiller and I got one round on the outside of the garden and the belt went bad. So, my Dad brought over a heavy 1960's front-tine tiller. Wow, that beast made me really appreciate my Troy-Built. I ended up with two blisters cause is shook and bounced so much and it took about 4x longer that it normally does. Made two passes to get everything tilled under. Then applied a product called Micro-Essentials SZ (MESZ) by broadcast spreader and took one more pass on the tiller to get it under. I am going to pick up some cereal rye tomorrow to put down for a cover crop and to help increase organic matter when I till it back under in the spring. As you can see.....had to finish under the spot light Thad (Ohio) 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
wh5208speed 602 #2 Posted October 5, 2014 Seed the garden with cereal rye spread out a little straw....but I probably should have bought two bales as I just run out before finishing. Thad (Ohio) 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Racinbob 10,256 #3 Posted October 5, 2014 When I was gardening up north I would plant buckwheat in any area where the crops were done. If there was still enough time before frost it would rapidly grow to about 2' high and was dense. It looked like it would be a tangled mess in the tiller tines but it wasn't. The stalks are very tender and till in great providing a lot of goodies to the soil. In the spring before I planted I would broadcast buckwheat over the entire plot. It usually wouldn't have time to reach maturity before I tilled it in to plant the crops. 3 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
wh5208speed 602 #4 Posted October 23, 2014 The garden has 2.5 weeks since I seeded the rye down. It took 8 days for it to start growing and it is really taking off. I am only having a little trouble spot where my two golden retrievers decided to roll around and smashed the rye. It is pretty easy to spot in the photos as you can see a lot more straw in that area. It looks like it is starting to recover...but it was clearly set back. Looks like the next week is going to be very nice and mild (Indian Summer) so I think this rye will be in great shape heading into winter! Thad (Ohio) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
wh5208speed 602 #5 Posted April 4, 2015 Rye is coming along great. Here a couple of photos of the growth this spring. 1st photo was about the 1st week of March. 2nd photo was about the 4th week of March. As soon as it dries out enough it will be tilled under before planting. Thad (Ohio) 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Racinbob 10,256 #6 Posted April 15, 2015 These are some OLD scanned in pics. The bottom left picture is buckwheat being tilled in. As the different crops finished up in the fall I would plant those areas and then when the garden was done for the season I would till and plant the entire thing in buckwheat. It grew fast enough that I had a good thick batch to till in before frost hit. It worked great in both sandy and clay soils. The stems are hollow and soft and tangling in the tines wasn't a problem. I swore by the stuff. 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
