[peapod]

To make a lovely tilth?

Im sick of hoeing,raking and spade-chopping mine (new paths so new soil going onto beds in lumps)

Anyone found a quick(ish) way?

[mumofstig]

Use a Mantis tiller................sorry other than that carry on as before

Sad but true :blink:

[Ice]

If you can find one you would be a gardening hero. 

I have rock hard clay and my new beds were painstakingly filled a bit at a time.  I filled a wheelbarrow with topsoil and broke every lump up by hand.  I added this to the bed with a layer of sharp sand and a layer of manure/compost.  I repeated this until it was as high as I needed.  I now have one very fine tilth that hopefully will last for years.  It took b****y ages but worth it.

Now go on, put yer back into it.

[peapod]

Shoot    I knew there wasnt a work free answer  Its more time really, Ive got to get these beds ready for my new seedlings asap!

[pedro]

if you have got it down fairly small, but not small enough to sow seeds in, take out a groove with the hoe and fill with G. P compost and sow into that. Theres some rain coming which will help to break it down.

[Bombers]

My beds at home are 4 years old now. I dug them out to 2 spades depth, and back filled with quality topsoil and compost. I've painstakingly added as much organic matter each year, as I can muster. (Manure/Home made compost/leaf mould etc.) I  dig it in every year, and give it a bit of a 'fluff' with the fork. At this time of year I rake it over ready for sowing. But I still end up with massive lumps of orange sticky clay that surfaces, after all this time!!

[wendywoo]

Ive got a horrible feeling that the carrot seeds Ive sown in my wholly inadequate lump filled raised beds ( not the finely sieved stuff that was recommended) arent going to amount to much (including the seeds that got stuck to my wet fingers....).

Well Peapod when you need a raised bed to practice on.....

[woodburner]

No dig beds (flat, lazy or raised - flavour of your choice ) make making nice tilth much easier. Not walking on the beds means soil doesn't get compacted into solid clods. Rain can compact it a bit but not nearly as much as walking does.

[peapod]

I try to avoid walking on my (I think lazy is the best description) prepared beds now woodburner, simply because it would a  pain to tilth it again, but my ultimate aim is no dig.  Im making a start with half a bed for snips this year. Its going to be mollycoddled, fine-tilthed and stone free within an inch of its life, and then not touched apart from winters manure laying. Thats going the be my test model and if it works? Ill be happy to put the extra work in for every other bed   

[cAnAry53]

Apart from a mantis tiller which dont come cheap what about the good old fashioned riddle which you could then force some of the lumps through.

[Faz]

One of my beds is on what is basically solid clay. I had loads of manure on over the winter and there are a tremndous amount of worms in there, but they have only really loosend up the top 6 inches or so. This year i have only dug to half a spade depth to avoid bringing the lumps of solid clay up. probably not ideal but at least there's a reasonable amount of fairly decent soil to work with. Next year will be more manure and dig it a bit deeper.

Last year I did as someone already recommended - made a row of compost/sand to sow my seeds into. This year I will be doing the same again where required, although where possible i will be raising seedlings in pots/modules and planting them out when they are a decent size.

[robbodaveuk]

Here's a tool for getting a good tilth and very little effort needed.

http://www.worldofwolf.co.uk/shop/?database=Multi-Change&action=view_product&productID=DAM&category=104

  Robbo.

[peapod]

That tool looks a monster Robbodave! Bit pricey for me right now,but I can keep it in mind for a pressie (another lotty pressie idea  )

Ive got a riddle canary, but now this rain is here I cant do a lot 

[Limey153]

I'm in a very similar position as I need to dig some beds for the first time and I have a clay soil. Last weekend a farmer friend of mine lent me his rotavator and it was an absolute God send!!! After going over with the rotavator I dug over the plot with a fork so as to lift up some of the deeper soil, then I went over a second time with the rotavator. Did a lovely job.

I have heard that some places will hire out rotavators so maybe thats something you could do.

[RichardA]

I have a selection of attachments for the wolf handles just keep tickling the soil with hoe or cultivator and grow crops that reward the hard work by improving the soil structure - potatoes certainly but leeks and celery also seem to improve the structure by root action
Enjoy what you do
R