My First Garden Update

March 14, 2026

Well, I tried the last 2 years to grow veggies in a raised bed garden, but failed miserably. Most due to the fact that I didn't know what I was doing, and didn't care to put that much effort into it. This year, however, I have returned to the dirt. I am growing veggies as God intended, in real dirt, in the ground.

I got the bright idea over the winter to use my harrow to break up a spot behind my greenhouse to grow my garden. I ran that harrow through many time and fluffed up the dirt quite nicely.

As winter began to wind down, I ran the harrow through the garden again, mostly to turn under most of the leaves that had fallen since the first time I harrowed. I don't have a tiller, so I grabbed a garden rake and cleaned up about 3 rows, used a hoe to dig a furrow down the rows and planted 3 rows of Silver Queen corn. I had started some cabbage from seed in my greenhouse and they were doing well and ready to plant, so i grabbed my little garden shovel and went out to transplant the cabbages. That is when I discovered that the harrow doesn't dig nearly as deep as I thought. I had about 3" of fluffy dirt sitting directly on hard pan clay. I realized that not much would grow very well since the roots would struggle to penetrate the hard pan. I needed a subsoiler to breakup the hard pan. 2 days ago after work, I went to Agri-Supply in Valdosta to buy a subsoiler, but wound up buying a 14" Single Bottom Plow instead. It did a great job turning and breaking up the ground. I then harrowed again yesterday, and started planting this morning.