Gardening with your Cub Cadet 101....using a plow

[dyt4000]

by Dale Merkle - Merk

The goal of this topic is to help someone who isn't that familar with having a vegetable garden or what tools you can use on your Cub(s) to make gardening easier. Gardening with your Cub Cadet will be split the following ways so as not too overload the beginner gardener.

Gardening with your Cub Cadet 101-Planning Your Garden
Gardening with your Cub Cadet 102-Soil Preparation
Gardening with your Cub Cadet 103-Planting Your Garden
Gardening with your Cub Cadet 104-Care of Your Plants
Gardening with your Cub Cadet 105-Harvest Time
Gardening with your Cub Cadet 106-Putting Your Garden to Bed

I look forward to see everyone's tips, tricks and to see your Cub(s) in action.

Planning Your Garden

To me this is one of the most important and most neglected areas of a garden. Don't expect a bumper crop of tomatoes if they are planted in a shady area. Tomatoes are a sun loving crop. Best thing you can do is find someone who is having good success planting a garden in your area. The local garden center, library, local county ag extension agent, seed catalogs and the internet are good sources for any gardener regardless of their experence level. This site looks like it has some good infomation on gardening: http://gardening.about.com/

We have a "Master Gardner " program through the local county extension that helps to train anyone who wants to improve their gardening skills.

I am in the middle of the planning stage for my garden this year. Some of the question(s)/choices I need to answer before planting are:

1. What do I want to grow?
2. How big of an area do I need?
3. How long is my growing season?
4. Where will I buy my seeds-plants?
5. Tomatoes are a good example - Do I start from seeds or buy transplants?
6. Where do I put my garden if it is a new garden?
7. Organic or chemical fertilizer?
8. Do I have the right equipment to do the job?
9. Is the equipment in good shape?

I buy all my seeds and plants locally. I don't start tomatoes....main reason is I don't have the time or place to do it. I have several garden centers, hardware store, and farm store that sells garden seeds, plants, chemicals and garden supplies. The local hardware store that sells garden seeds had 20% off any item that fit in their bag. Most of my seeds were purchased last weekend. I like to plant onion bulbs instead of plants. A local farm store has onion bulbs in bulk and I will buy around 400 bulbs. They go in the garage fridge until they are ready to be planted.

Now is the time to check over our Cub(s) and attachments. This is the time of the year I get everything ready for garden and yard duties. My local Cub Cadet dealer had a customer appreciation days last weekend. They had 10% off parts. I walked out with 4 hydro filters, 2 air filters, 2 fuel filters and a oil filter...spent around $65. I had a Brinly plow that needed a few parts. They were ordered Friday from Brinly and arrived Tuesday.