Hey marley man neighbor from GA,

Sure a gas tiller would be great if you can get it to the site and oprate it without being detected. Have never had that option. Have always had to rely on a good old fashioned shoval and lots of elbow grease. A full size shoval will be much easier on the back, but a fold-up or shortie will due. Any brand of dry type plant mix will work well. Most are about 40-60 % peat based. I say dry type cause its lighter. No need for any high priced designer type nutes or soil or amendments - not needed. Especially not needed are products made especially for growing weed. Just a way to sepearate you from your cash. Growing weed is like growing flowers or vegetables or shrubs or anything else. Standard and proven gardening practices work the best. The main key to sucess is proper choosing and preparation of the site, not what brand of stuff you use. Yes you are right that a shaded site in the middle of the woods won't work. It would be a complete and total waste of your time. The best areas are those where the woods was cleared or burned say 5-10 yrs ago and now their is re-growth of brush 3-6 feeet high with pines and other trees mixed in say about 8-15 tall. Try to pick a spot at least 30-40 feet from the nearest older taller trees. It might be an abandoned residential or comercial propery that is all overgrown and has no immidiate neighbors with a clear view. It could be a private or public patch of land that is not presently being used for anything. Sometimes it's a peice of land w/ a sign that says XXX acres for sale, but you can tell it's been sitting on the market for years. Drive around rural areas and keep your eyes open.

Finding spots is the very first and most important step. Its also a very a time consuming step because they dont just jump out at you everywhere you look. Preparing spots / creating planting beds is next. It is very time consuming and back breaking work to do it right. If not done right, the entire effort will be a total wast of time cause you wont get squat for results. Too many overlook this, and they just go on line and order a bunch of seeds. They think they can just go find spots and then break up the ground and put the plants in all in one day. It does not work that way. When ordering seeds, its best to just order a few more than what will fit in the beds that you have already found and already prepared. The other myth a see often is that your beds must be near a stream or pond or swamp or lake. This is IMHO a bad idea. These areas get lots of hikers, fishermen, hunters and nature lovers. They are often low lying areas with poor drainage and / or poor air circulation. Not to say that good sites near water don't exist. However, I prefer to prepare good beds that will not require regular irrigation. Very easily done in an area like GA or AL where we get above average rainfall. Oh yeah, one more thing - the very, very worst possible place to plant is in a public parkland, forest presearve, campground or similar. They get steady foot traffic from hikers, bikers, campers, hunters, bird watchers, fisherman and nature lovers of all types. Also they have Game Wardons, Park Rangers and the like. Finding illegally planted weed is a part of their written job description. Don't try it unless you want to get popped.

Good luck in GA

bob