The Garden tiller

This goes back to one of the best gardeners that I have ever known. Dr. Esser who was a botany professor at the University of Wisconsin. I know that he did not just talk the talk. Dr Esser was about six feet five inches tall. He won the county pumpkin growing contest two years in a row. The pumpkin was big enough to hide behind. He was all about soil preparation.

There was three components to soil preparation. 1. Composting; 2. Rotating crops 3. plowing and cultivation. Composting was any clippings and leaves went into his compost along with some form of protein (manure and blood meal). As the materiel rotted it sterilized the compost. Dr. Esser did not believe in using fertilizer when you had composted material. The next thing was to rotate the crops. He would divide his garden into four parts and each year he would plant legumes (nitrogen fixing plants) on a quarter of his garden. At the end of the season he would plow the plants under and leave over the winter. in the spring he would cultivate in compost and plant. plowing was important as he wanted all three layers of soil mixed. plowing goes to 12 to 18 inches deep. Tine tillers can only goto 6 inches.
during the growing season tilling/cultivation keeps weeds at a minimum and provides introduction of air into the soil.
The most important part of this is to really understand the features and capabilities of your tools. It is easier to comprehend when you look at the hand tools that you would use to prepare a garden.These tools allow me to maximize the output of the garden by having rows close together. The only reason to have rows further apart is if you have a large garden and mechanize the harvest. That would be to use a tractor. If your garden is less than an acre and you would not need a tractor so if you want to maximize your production and use mechanical means to cultivate pick a tiller that is less than24-36 wide. a 12 inch walk behind would work great.