[Gardners Cottage]

Hi all,

Started my new smallholding and I have about 2 acre of arable land inside my walled garden for a fruit and veg plot and approx 20 acres outside. Outside is a mix of pasture (poorly maintained)/ cider apple tree ground/rose garden and mix woodland.
The ground is sloped in some regions.

I am debating the idea of buying a small compact tractor, I cold only use outside the wall, and a walk behind tractor.
I could use this to areate the ground and I could attach a small trailer to collect wood for my rayburn.

The dilemma is, shall I go for a standard tiller, or a rotovator? After few initial thougths around few models, I have landed on the titan pro top of the range 1100B model. it is diesel powerful and a good compromised compared to other.
Can someone advice if it is a worth choice? Or if there are there other heavy duty alternatives?

Any advice welcome.
Happy to go for a small second hand model as a start.

Thanks all,

happy farming!

Gardeners Cottage

[Fleecewife]

Hi @Gardners Cottage
Is your place round the back of Newmains?  If so I may know your land 
We opted for various machinery to run our place:  we were given an old David Brown tractor which we use for haymaking as it is large enough to run large equipment; we bought a small Siromer tractor (flat pack which we built up ourselves - much cheaper than getting it built up by the dealer) and have gradually added more equipment over the years, including a 4' rotavator, plough, trailer, roller, rake and so on - all reasonably priced; we also have a tiny Mantis tiller for between veg rows, and a larger walk behind rotavator for use in the veg garden.


Going by our own experience of the way your needs change over the years, I would advise on getting equipment which is versatile, rather than something which does only one job


Your chosen rotavator looks a wonderful thing and a fair price.  I would be unable to use it as rotavating involves a lot of wrestling with the machine, but if you are a large and strong person then it would be ideal.  Are there attachments you can add to it, for example a plough, potato rower and lifter?

[Gardners Cottage]

Hi @Fleecewife ,

Yes that is me.. 

The inner field in the wall is full of nettle and their rizhomes are very well developed and difficult to eradicate.
Currently, there is myself a fork against the odds of a prickly world.

I am winning, but the win is only focused on the small area I am tackling and I suspect, once things start picking up I will have to go with more serious machinery.

Although a compact tractor or a mini tractor is in my target (potentially with a bucket as well) to work the outer area, I need something versatile to tackle the inner garden.
The initial idea was to find something used of mid size. Tiller or even better a rotovator (the wells, help a lot) and maybe scale up.
For the price I believe that tool combines a strong diesel engine with a combined rotovator and tiller mode. The machine comes with a standard tiller, back rotovator comes separate. also separate there is plough and I need to investigate also a trailer that may be a game changer in my land.

Thanks for the advices and let me know if you know anyone with things on sale.

Thanks,
A.

[Fleecewife]

What a lovely place to be.  I am so jealous of that beautiful walled garden, but it's a life's project on its own to tame and bring back to life.  Are you on your own there or do you have family to help?  Yes, you definitely need machinery, as much as you can afford, or you will wear yourself out using a fork!


I didn't mention the front loader and back box on the Siromer, but if you go that way, then it's best to get the hydraulics from the start - ours had to be retrofitted which involved a long day down near Blackpool to get one added. Both are invaluable.  We took over 20 years to get all the attachments we use for the Siromer, just finding what we needed as we went along, and as we could afford it.  For a trailer, we have one very small one which fits behind a grass cutter, and we also have a sheep trailer which can fit onto a tractor and a land Rover as well as the car, and is used for a whole lot more than sheep - logs, hedge trimmings, manure, hay bales at haymaking time,  fetching in feed and compost, sand, stobs for fencing, anything and everything we need which won't fit inside some other vehicle.  A trailer is essential    so get one that's big enough, or get two, one small for the walled garden and one larger for everything else (our small one cost very little)

[Gardners Cottage]

Hi
I Bought an used rototiller. It is a viking 585. Pretty tough machine! You are right @Fleecewife! Better start step by step and learn from the land.

I will identify slowly, the best tool to be used. Just now an upgrade from a fork is very welcome and made a huge difference. Later I will check what further I need.

Regarding the place, yes it is pretty amazing. You are welcome to visit once this virus is over.

Then you will teach me a bit about hibredian sheeps. Do you have any four horned yourself?

Antonio
 

 

[Fleecewife]

Ah good - you can get going properly now 


We would love to visit once the virus has gone or a vaccine is available, and we would love for you to visit here too.  We are in isolation for the long haul though, as we both have major health issues, so perhaps next year.


Yes, we have four horned Hebridean sheep, in fact we don't have any two horned specimens at all now.  We specialise in the Ancient Type of Hebridean, going back to when they had topknots (wooly heads), multihorns and greyer or browner fleece. The Modern Type has changed in response to showing, to the extent that the old type is dying out.   We are lambing at the moment, just 7 ewes.  Our website shows some of the Ancient Type Hebs, but it desperately needs to be updated to show what we are doing now. However, with so many people working from home, our pathetic rural broadband is overwhelmed, so we cannot update our website.  Still, you might get an idea from it.
Juliet

[cloddopper]

Can you not open up the walled garden and put in a pair of decent high gates that would allow you to take a mini tractor in ?