"Sheldon" wrote in message
ups.com...
"Eigenvector" wrote:
The soil my yard sits on it extremely rocky. It's very nice soil, all
glacial till and stream bed composition, but more rocks than I care to
count. Digging a hole is an exercise in futility as I will encounter
round
rocks about the size of a baseball or grapefruit more often than not.

I would like to take a rototiller to a patch of land but fear what will
happen with all those damn rocks. What kind of things should I look out
for
when rototilling really rocky soil? Do I need a special tiller, should I
simply not do it, would renting one be a bad idea (I'm thinking of damage
to
the unit), would a rototiller not do a good job?

Are there other options besides a tractor?

In a word, no. No tiller will remove rocks, and the size rocks you
describe will definitely impede tiller operation, probably cause it
and/or yourself damage. Tillers are not designed to work virgin land
anyway, even without rocks, needs busting up first with a plow, spade,
fork...

For a relatively small plot (500 sq ft or less) you can choose to bust
your butt spading and picking out rocks by hand but with larger plots
you really need a tractor (or a team of oxen) fitted with a plow to
bust up the sod and a box rake for picking out rocks. For ground you
plan to till each year (ie. crops) you really need to remove the
rocks, but for planting trees and woody shrubs you can get by with
just clearing a planting hole.

Without knowing how large an area you need cleared of rocks and what
you plan to plant (if anything, you don't say) then all anyone can
offer you is wild speculation.

There's one other option... a crew of illegal aliens with picks,
shovels, and rakes. LOL



Well damn damn damn. Lots a lots of backbreaking work it is then. Might as
well do it now while my body is still reasonably resilient. Actually it
sounds like a tractor is the best route to go. I have plenty of experience
working with the large ones, doing farm labor to put me through college, but
wasn't ready to crack out the 8 wheeled articulated to work a 20x30 plot of
land. I've never used the small homeowner ones though - John Deere 146 is
the smallest I've driven.

BTW: I know you all are wondering what the hell I'm asking this for. Its
not that I'm being deliberately vague just to **** you off, its just that I
wanted to have the basic question answered without wading through all the
alternative solutions that will inevitably come out.