A Guide to the Small-Scale Bed Preparation Tools
For Small-Scale Commercial Growers & Avid Home Gardeners
A full set of bed prep tools that help small-scale growers and home gardeners work faster.
You won't need every tool covered here, but this is how each one helps when a particular problem comes up.
Note: These recommendations assume beds that are ready for hand preparation. If you face a heavy weed seed bank, plan some weed suppression first. Opaque silage tarps and flame weeding can both create a stale seedbed before planting. They're sometimes used after the first prep of new ground, and tarps can also reclaim fallow, grassy or weedy areas ahead of time.
1 • Loosening the Soil
A broadfork loosens and aerates soil efficiently and ergonomically without harming its structure, and better aeration nearly always helps crop soils.
Broadforks
These deep-loosening tools have European roots and were reworked by Eliot Coleman. They aerate deeply while keeping soil structure intact and bringing up few weed seeds.
They come in several sizes to fit your strength, comfort and the job, with traditional round tines or as Hardpan Broadforks, whose chisel tines are made for harder soils.
Step onto the crossbar and let your weight push the tines all the way in. Step off and pull the handles back about 45°, just enough to crack and lift the soil and let air in. Move back about one tine length (roughly 8–10") and repeat, working backward so you don't walk on loosened soil. How easily and rhythmically this goes depends on soil conditions. The broadfork will find and lift rocks, but dig them out with a shovel.
2 • Amending as Appropriate
Depending on your situation, it may also make sense to work in amendments and improve the soil's tilth, orcrumb" structure.
The Tilther XT
Designed by Eliot Coleman and used heavily on his Maine farm, the Tilther is a light tiller driven by a cordless drill. It creates fine tilth in the top inch or two of the bed, mixing in compost and fertilizer and chopping up fine residue left from the last crop. It has long been popular with growers. The Tilther XT is an updated version with improvements based on grower feedback and field use.
If you have one, run it once down each side of the bed to work up the top layer and mix in your amendments. Adding inputs with the Tilther at this point can be more efficient than spreading them during first tillage, since you put smaller amounts right where the crop grows instead of in the paths.
3 • Leveling, Smoothing & Firming the Bed
A smooth, level bed top helps seeding go well.
Bed Preparation Rake
Next, rake the bed top smooth to make an ideal seedbed for precision sowing. A Bed Prep Rake handles this job well and pairs nicely with precision seeders.
A favorite of Eliot Coleman, it's light enough that you can hold its full weight at full reach. Pulled, the teeth catch stones and debris; pushed, they level and smooth. The long handle lets you reach far out while the rake glides over the soil for a flat bed.
If you're transplanting, you may be able to skip this step or the Tilther step.
Firming the bed first is strongly recommended before sowing with precision seeders.
Seedbed Roller
A seedbed roller makes a smooth, firm surface for direct sowing or transplanting and works well with precision seeders and harvesting tools. This one is covered with heavy coated lobster trap wire. The 1" mesh is fine enough to break up small clods but open enough not to clog with soil and mud.
You can also roll after sowing to press seed into good contact with the soil for better germination. It can be pushed or pulled, and the handle shifts sideways so you can walk in the bed or in either path. A rack on top holds extra weight if needed.
Snap-in Dibbles for the Seedbed Roller
The interchangeable Snap-in Dibbles come in three sizes and snap in quickly, giving many spacing options with accurate spacing every time.
With the roller's 1" mesh and 36" circumference, setting up dibbles is simple. No tools needed: squeeze the ends and they snap in, gripping the coated wire from inside and out. Changing to a new layout is quick. Dibbles work as well through plastic mulch as in bare soil, sometimes better depending on soil moisture.
Some soils need extra weight for the dibbles to go in fully. If you add weight, the roller is easier to pull than push.
Row Markers for the Seedbed Roller
The 1" mesh also makes it easy to place row markers, so you can mark evenly spaced rows as you roll.
The markers are 5/16" polyethylene tubing with plastic quick-connects that fit around the roller to mark rows for a single-row seeder. (Some assembly needed.)
4 • For Succession Plantings
The same set of tools can turn beds around quickly for succession plantings.
Getting beds ready for midseason successions is basically a shorter version of the steps above.
You usually don't need to till, but a pass with a broadfork is nearly always worthwhile.
Raised beds may need reshaping if weather or traffic has settled them a lot.
Then follow the rest of the sequence: the Tilther XT to loosen and level the top and mix in amendments, a Bed Prep Rake to level and smooth, the seedbed roller to firm, Dibbles and Row Markers as needed, and so on.
5 • Laying Mulch
This hand-pulled tool makes laying plastic mulch quicker and easier.
Without a tractor-mounted mulch layer, laying plastic can take a lot of labor. This people-powered tool is an alternative.
Manual Mulch Layer
Lay mulch quickly by hand with this manual tool. It adjusts to many bed widths and mulch sizes and can really change how fast the job goes. It's easy to maneuver, so it's handy in greenhouses, high tunnels and tight field spaces.
A big plus is that it can lay one or more lines of drip tape at the same time, and optional drip tape collar stops help place them precisely. It takes mulch 36–60" wide, weighs about 97 pounds and needs some assembly.
It takes two people to lay mulch with it. Optional transport wheels make it easier to move.
