Hand Tiller and/or Mixer

[Purple Strawberry]

Hey Guys,

I am new here but frequent www.backyardchickens.com A LOT. I am doing raised beds this year and will be filling it with bags of top soil with bags of compost and bags of peat moss. What is a good tool to mix this together so everythign is spread evenly? I perfer it to be manual and not gas ran.

Any suggestions?

 

[bid]

I would suggest a spading fork. It's an invaluable tool and is most certainly manual in nature. Combine that with a tooth rake and you should be planting happily very soon.

 

[patandchickens]

If this is just dry stuff outta bags you're mixing together in raised beds, just put it in alternately (i.e. one bag of this, then one bag of that, then one of the other thing, then one of the first again, etc) and if it still seems to need further mixing when you're done, stir it a little with anything handy -- shovel, bow rake, old hockey stick, whatever

To mix amendments in with firm soil e.g. the soil in the ground, you'd use a digging fork (e.t.a. - aka spading fork ). It looks sort of like a spade but with a flat-tined fork intead of the spade head. Get a GOOD one, especially for clayey soil. Garage sales and auctions are good sources IME.

It would also be a good idea to rough up the soil underneath your raised beds by roughly digging it over with a shovel, so that the plant roots can penetrate down into the 'real' earth.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[bid]

I have got to get myself some old hockey sticks lol. Somehow I suspect Pat has an ample supply of these lying around...well, actually in use out in the garden more likely. Probably make good critter whackers too. Dig a vole right out with one of those.