A plow saga, part 1

Since we've moved to the pasture, I've gotten a little case of gardening fever. The past few years, our garden has been more or less "out of sight, out of mind" to me. Since there's quite a big area we're going to be mowing as a yard, I figure it would be a good thing to use some of that room as a garden space.


That's the area where my new garden will be; this picture is taken from the front of the garage, next to our trailer house. (Get used to my calling it a trailer house; I know this offends some "manufactured-housing" owners, but it's mine and I'll call it whatever I please.)

There's lots of clover, alfalfa and mixed grass here; I want to have it turned under for green manure. It'll add lots of good nutrients and organic matter to my garden.

That's a borrowed tiller on the back of our Japanese-made John Deere. Cliff was going to use that to work up my garden spot.

"No, please," I begged. "I'd like to have it plowed first, deeply plowed."

Cliff explained to me that we only have trail plows; they work great in a large area, but for a small garden plot with a nearby fence and buildings, not so well.

Trail plow number one...

and trail plow number two.

"Darn it," I whined. "We have all these plows and tractors and can't even plow a garden? We need to buy a plow we can USE."

Now folks, when I say something like that, Cliff latches onto it like white on rice. It's the best excuse in the world to buy a farm implement, and in his book, there's no such thing as too many farm implements.

"I'll call around and see if I can find one," he said, acting resigned to his fate while secretly rejoicing.

"How much do you think a mounted plow will cost?" I asked.

"Oh, around $300."

He called a local trader who usually has most any kind of used equipment in his inventory; the guy said he might be able to get his hands on one, but it would be awhile.

(To be continued.)