Anybody garden with horses or mules

[FarmboyBill]

If so, how big is your garden, and what equipment do you use. Ands do you use anything more modern besides?

TILLER owners, Please post about gardening with your tillers, in the post i put up asking for tiller owners to talk about their tillers.

[CIW]

Have you tried looking over on ruralheritage.com
I know that Will Beatie over there has a lorge plot he gardens with several Percherons.

[Shrek]

The first garden here I found an old push plow in the shed and as I pushed down on the back and shoved it through the mowed sod where we pegged out the garden, she pulled with gloves and my old lariat rope over her shoulder.

Could I count that as plowing with a mare mule? She was all smiles when we sold that thing to a friend of my mothers to use for a flower garden accent ornament for enough to buy a used 3 hp tiller that drove me nuttier patching it up until I bought a new one than the boiler on the African Queen did Bogie.

[jwal10]

I used to use horses growing up on the farm. After I left the farm on my own I had a small pair of work horses that I plowed, disked and harrowed with. I used them single in my gardens with a cultvator. The larger melon, corn and potato patches had long rows. I used horses to cultivate my silage corn, usually about 15 acres. I really enjoyed working with horses, nice and quiet....James

[Freeholder]

My dad and grandpa used horses in their potato fields in Alaska -- they cultivated about thirty acres of potatoes with the horses. Said that they did less damage to the plants than a tractor would have.

Kathleen

[houndlover]

Not horses, my garden isn't that big, but I have considered breaking my big pack Alpine wether to pull a plow! I have seen them before, maybe Hoeggers?

[FarmboyBill]

hmmmmmmmmmm Better get a pair.

I dont know whats the deal here. I ask a simple question. DOES ANYBODY GARDEN WITH HORSES.??????????????????????????????????????????? ?????????????????????? aND, THE ANSWER, APPAIRIANTLY IS no, AT LEAST ON THIS FORUM. but, eVERYBODY COMES IN HERE TELLING ME ABOUT gRANDPA aDOLPH, AND uNCLE mILT, AND THE NEIGHBOR DOWN THE ROAD, AND ALLA THE AMISH IN pENN, USE USED HORSES.

I dont mean to be rude, Butt, WHO CARES. I was trying to find out IF, Anybody in Homesteadingtoday, used horses or mules currently in their gardens, and IF so, what machinery did they use with them.

[YuccaFlatsRanch]

I garden with RAISED BEDS which obviates the need for any kind of equipment used to turn the soil. Read the following books to help you get going:

Lasagne Gardening
Square Foot Gardening
The Four Season Garden

When you are done you will have saved the $$$ spent for Horsepower and used some of it in Cinder blocks to border your beds.

My goal is to have six beds 4 feet wide by 25 feet long, and 2 existing beds that are 4 by 60 feet. That's a little over 1000 SF and I can raise all of my own veggies except for things like potatoes corn and melons which are space intensive, and in the case of sweet corn and potatoes - cheap to buy.

IF, your goal is to have a horse that can help you in the garden, then stop trying to justify the horse and just get yourself one. I would guess you could pay someone to raise your garden for you for less than the $$$ required to own a horse - they are not cheap.

[NewGround]

Originally Posted by FarmBoyBill

hmmmmmmmmmm Better get a pair.

I dont know whats the deal here. I ask a simple question. DOES ANYBODY GARDEN WITH HORSES.??????????????????????????????????????????? ?????????????????????? aND, THE ANSWER, APPAIRIANTLY IS no, AT LEAST ON THIS FORUM. but, eVERYBODY COMES IN HERE TELLING ME ABOUT gRANDPA aDOLPH, AND uNCLE mILT, AND THE NEIGHBOR DOWN THE ROAD, AND ALLA THE AMISH IN pENN, USE USED HORSES.

I dont mean to be rude, Butt, WHO CARES. I was trying to find out IF, Anybody in Homesteadingtoday, used horses or mules currently in their gardens, and IF so, what machinery did they use with them.

LOL FBB, not yet but meaning to. In the meantime let me tell you about my uncle Henry...

[Wolf mom]

what a grumpy guy you are today FBB.

Maybe if you had explaned WHY you wanted to know if people gardened with horses you'd have gotten the answers you want.

[DianeWV]

I heard that! LOL!!

We have a team of draft crosses (Belgian x Quarterhorses) that we have used the past 3 years to work our 1/2 acre home garden and a 2 acre field corn patch. We used a #10 Vulcan hillside plow, a 4 ft. horse-drawn disc, and a two section spring-tooth harrow. Also, have used a team of oxen for the same, using the same equipment.

We do have modern equipment on our farm as well. Primarily use that for planting and cultivation.

[springvalley]

Bill did ask if anybody used horses or mules to garden, purdy simple question. > Marc

[olivehill]

I do. I use:

- Hay. Lots of it.
- Horses. Usually 2-5 of them, but currently just one old gelding who does tricks for treats.
- A manure fork. I prefer the large size.
- A basic spade shovel.
- A pointed hoe.
- A sport-utility quad.
- A utility trailer in appropriate size to be pulled by the aforementioned quad.

My process is as follows:
1. Feed horses lots of hay. I like round bales. With a round bale feeder. It reduces labor inputs while increasing the horses' outputs.
2. Using the manure fork, pick up all horse outputs. Deposit them in the quad trailer. Depending on the number of horses utilized you may need to do this as much as twice a day or as little as once a week. Maybe even less.
3. Using the quad, pull the trailer to the garden.
4. If you were wise you got a trailer with an easy dump feature. Utilize it to dump the manure into the garden.
5. Spread it to your satisfaction using the spade shovel and/or hoe.
6. Grow fabulous veggies!

[countryboy84]

I use draft horses for all of my farm work. I have a team of Belgian mares. Last year the 1/2 garden was done with them but not somthing that I like doing with them so I went to rasied beds. I still use the team for corn and oat. I log with them and will be doing hay with them come next year. I use a Oscar 12 inch walking plow for turning ground. IHC 6ft single action disk harrow which I use befoe plowing and then to dress the field. A Cole one row planter for planting corn and it can be used for beans to. A Rasps for keeping weeds out of the balk of the rows I am not sure what brand mine is as it is older then dirt itself. I have plank built drag for smoothing that land out after tillage. Going to get a #7 or #9 Mcormick mower this year and a hay loader and rake to start working hay.
I know that you didn't ask about haying but I throw it in also. And I dont "garden" with them anymore but the tools for any row crop would be what you use in the garden.

[donewithcity]

FIL plowed his 1/4 acre garden and 1/4 acre potato patch this year behind Belle his mule. He is 81.

[lmrose]

My DH and I have been farming, gardening, mowing hay and doing woods work with a single horse and in the past a small team for over 30 years. Our first horse was half shetland pony and half quarter horse. At 800 lbs. He was small but mighty! Later we teamed him with a small mare and it made plowing easier for both. For the past 12 years we have used an 1500 lb. part Clydsdale to do farm and garden work.

Bill has a small hand tiller he uses occasionally in the garden. But mostly he uses hand tools like a dutch hoe and dung fork. He has an old fashioned hay mower for the horse, a homemade spiked drag to level the garden and hay forks for turning hay. He also uses hay and garden rakes. He prefers simple tools. He does use a lawn tractor to mow grass in the yard and has a cart to pull behind it to use like a tractor to haul manure and compost. For the horse he has a dump cart and logging cart both which he made himself. Bill also has a walk behind gas powered hay mower which he refurbised and uses some in tight places where the horse and mower can't go.

I will put pictures back up on my blog of the horse and Bill working sometime today. My blog is addeess is http://lindarose-afrugalabundantlife.blogspot.com

[olsonla]

I am not sure what type of Garden or how big you are imagining.... we do most farming with horses; plow, disc, mow, rake, seed, ect. as far as gardening, most of the Amish around here (WC WI) have very large market gardens ( 3-4 ac ones) to take thier goods to the local Produce Auction once a week.

[FarmboyBill]

Olsona What equipment do u use in the garden??

Countryboy, Whats A Rasps??

New Ground. What u said in your post, I said in my 30s, and 40s, had second thoughts in my 50s, Dont say it anymore lol Point is, Iffn yer ever gonna do it, dont put it off. Ide give alot to know the feelings that horse people have, that ive never known since HS

[ryanthomas]

Just started this year using my trusty old mule Amos to work the potato patch. I'm working on harness training my Percheron so I can do more next year.

[DianeWV]

I have enjoyed reading this thread. It's always nice to hear from others using draft power. We sure do enjoy working with our draft teams on the farm.