You're very welcome.

The Manis-type tillers are ok for cultivating well-tilled ground ... if the
garden plots aren't already tilled I'd either get somebody to plow and
harrow it with a tractor, if that's possible, or else till it with a
rear-tine tiller. If you use a tiller, some people prefer slicing the sod
off first (and putting it in the compost heap), and some till it under. I'm
a till-it-under person myself if it's not especially weedy.

It will be a physically stimulating undertaking with a tiller to take a
quarter acre from pasture land to ready to work. But you have some time; in
my zone (6A) beans, corn, tomatoes and peppers go down later than
everything else, maybe June 1.

One more thought --- call your county extension agent. They'll be very
happy to provide all kinds of advice fine-tuned to your area. While you're
at it, ask for information on their Master Gardener program. Great classes
and you don't have to be a masterful gardener, at all, to start.

For anyone monitoring this thread who has a *smaller* garden, let me
recommend double digging. You can do about a 10x10 section every evening
until you're done. Basically you use a long handled round point shovel, dig
a trench one shovel depth deep, and lay the soil up on the ledge formed by
your digging. Then do it again.. This gets you down two shovel's distance.
Then take a step back and do it all over again. That will leave you with a
very good approximation of plowed ground. It works the soil deeper than a
tiller will. And it is terrific exercise, you won't need to go to the gym.


"DH" wrote in message
...
Great ideas. I am saving the link and information. The rotating idea is
one I thought about, but I wasn't sure how necessary it was. But I do
have
two areas, about 1/4 acre each, already fenced off as pasture, side by
side
so it would be easy to go back and forth there, leaving some parts (with
the
perennial beds) alone.

I was planning on having the whole thing backhoed up initially, but have
also been following the thread (can't recall if it was this newsgroup, but
I
think so) about the Mantis tiller vs. other tillers. My aunt just bought
a
Mantis, so maybe she'll let me take it for a test drive! :-)

Thanks for the well-thought out and constructive response, Tim!