Bed Formation
Ok there are basically two ways to traditionally create a plantable bed
Physically through Tillage and Cultivation
Chemically
Tarps, hugelkultur, biologic farming, round-up, organic tillage, organic no-till (which is actually just tillage), conventional, conventional no-till (think Gabe Brown/Kiss the Ground). It is all very confusing and in certain parts of the United States it is really hard to find any information or implements on how to explore each option. So let’s summarize with a list:
Methods of Seed Bed Creation
Roundup/Herbicide followed my mechanical tillage
Conventional no-till- This often involves using herbicides which some proponents (like Gabe Brown and Elaine Ingham) state is less detrimental than tillage. This is not something I’m not as interested in exploring as the risk associated with conventional herbicides, especially glyphosate, is becoming more apparent.
Heavy mechanical tillage/rototilling- This was very popular when I first started gardening. The rototiller revolution!! It creates a very nice bed but the inversion of soil layers disrupts soil organic matter and life.
Double digging- Biointensive farming (like John Jeavons) calls for a labor intensive removal of the top 12” of topsoil, broadforking the next 12” and then replacing that topsoil layer. The effects of this on soil microbiology are very similar to mechanical tillage.
Organic Tillage- think dust bowl. Large scale organic grain production is very difficult without a lot of tillage.
Organic no-till (which is really just labor intensive light tillage/cultivation)-
Advocates often recommend an initial tillage in order to create raised beds using a rotary plow
flail mowing, mechanical crimping, broadforking, tarping (solarization and occultation), Back to Eden, deep mulch, newspaper/cardboard and compost/compostable plastic/plasticulture, etc
Raised beds with garden boxes, wood, rocks- filled with soil/compost
Basically, there are many ways to create beds and you need to figure out what is right for your situation.
1-TILL- HERE IS WHAT I DID Initially (FOR BETTER OR WORSE)
Soil Test. Mow the grass and amend the soil per the soil test
Initially tillage with a rotary plow
Many no-till farms perform an initially tillage (check out Daniel Mays No-Till Book). My logic here was that (a) I have a million hay bailing twine strings in this part of my pasture that I had to remove (b) my soil was rock hard (c) I get a lot of rain fall and wanted raised beds without having to rent a backhoe (d) I don’t feel that an initial tillage is any more detrimental for soil biology than prolonged sillage tarping (e) One last soil transgression is forgiven with persistent, regenerative management
Cut raised beds with BCS rotary plow: 30” Wide, 70’ Long, 18” Beds.
OK, this is harder than you think to get perfectly straight beds. The key, in my humble opinion is to perform the initial tillage perpendicular to the orientation of the beds. This gives you the greatest chance of avoiding a previous wheel track and getting off on your straight shot for cutting the beds
Covered with a black silage tarp to kill weeds (occultation). I did this for 2 weeks on my latest bed and 1 year on my first bed.
I’ve played around with the tarps and really don’t like to leave them on for 1 year in zone 7. It kills everything. No earthworms, no weeds, no life. + My wife hates the tarps.
I’ve transitioned to landscape fabric when needed. But I really try to keep the soil covered with living roots as much as possible and have been very pleased with the results.
Applied soil amendments and 2-4” of compost
Direct seeded or planted transplants
Hand weeded with hand weeding, Neversink tools and stirrup hoes. I try to limit soil disruption while still controlling weed pressures
Equipment
You can farm with a shovel and a hoe. Don’t let equipment be the barrier to entry. Seeds want to grow and you don’t need to spend thousands/hundreds of thousands to grow food. But…. if you want to you can!!! So I’m going to divide this equipment section of bed formation into incrementally more expensive sections:
Hand Tools
Shovel- I like a wooden, long handled with a point shovels and short T handled flat shovels.
Hoe- I like the stir-up hoes. My sons like the traditional pointed hoes
Broad fork- the Meadow Creature broad fork is really heavy. I also have the Johnnys and find myself using it more when I’m turning over a bed just because of the speed/weight.
Fiskars Twist Tiller- this thing is a beast. I’ve had mine for almost 20 years. I’ve used it every year to pull certain weeds and prepare small beds/boxes.
BCS
Really the question is to BCS or not to BCS. I personally like my BCS but it is definitely not for everyone. They are very physically demanding and hard to use. I’ve had 7 employees and everyone struggles with it. You have to be proficient at lifting weights, crossfit, Olympic lifts, and be athletic to properly manage the BCS. That being said it is a great work and really quite fun to use. The BCS is very time consuming to work large acreage and making perfectly straight beds is difficult if there is any plant debris (ie making straight beds from sod without tarping first is very difficult). I purchased everything from earthtools.
BCS Quick hitch
Berta Franco Single Rotary Plow
R2 Rinaldi Power Harrow
Berta Flail Mower
Ravenna Dump Cart- probably unnecessary
“Real” Tractors
this is actually where I have had the most difficulty finding reasonable small scale implements and recommendations. The tilmor tractor seems more like a cultivating tractor and I have a New Holland and a Kubota. The wheel spacing is different and standardization of beds is difficult.
Rotary Tiller- This is the bread and butter of the home tractor industry. Forward and reverse rotating tillers that help prepare the soil for seeding. Good luck finding anything else at your local tractor dealer
Tiller Bed Former- These are more common in Europe and I have yet to be able to break through Simon to purchase their Simon M 125. They apparently have a USA distributor - https://mat-harvesting.com/.
Real Tillage and Real Bed formers- OK so these are smaller scale and more mechanical
Chisel Plow
Bed Shaper
Toolbar cultivator with roller
Subsoiler
