The garden is growing rather slowly. Comparing my corn to the farmers near by, mine is growing at half the rate. Everything but the potatoe plants are small. I figured my soil would be worn out after 200 years of farming. So Monday I spread 50lbs of 10-10-10 fertilizer on the whole garden. I used my lawn spreader and walked between the rows pushing the spreader. It worked real well. Now I’m waiting for the next rain the release to fertilizer into the soil.
I also hilled the potatoes this week. I was hoping to accomplish this chore with the tractor and a potato plow, but I couldn’t get the plow setup quite right. I ended up using a hoe to pull loose soil around the plants. It took me about 2 hours of manual labor and a gallon of sweat.
Today I found an antique hand cultivator with a steel wheel and three chisel points in nice shape. I tried it out in a landscaped area near the house. The effort to loosen the soil and weeds is considerably less than using a hoe. I have a cultivator for the garden tractor, but the height clearance under the tractor is very limited. The hand cultivator can be used until the rows are grown to maturity.