Posted by Homer on May 22nd, 2007 — Posted in Gardening
If You love gardening Here Is A Great Book For You
By following some simple strategies, you can have a garden of 
almost mythical proportions. And it doesn’t have to take all your spare time, or cost a fortune — in fact, you’ll be surprised by how easy, inexpensive, and rewarding it really is.
If you long to have a beautiful garden, whether that means flowers or vegetables to you… if you want to see the astounded looks on the faces of your friends, and the sidelong envious glances of your neighbors.
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Even if you’ve tried and failed, you can have a thriving garden. |
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It doesn’t matter if you’ve never gardened before. |
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You don’t need to spend a fortune - you can start inexpensively. |
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Whether you have a tiny window-box or acres of opportunity… |
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And even if you don’t have a single gardening tool, it’s simple and inexpensive to get started. |
Read More Here
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Gardening,
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Posted by Homer on May 8th, 2007 — Posted in Garden Roto Tiller, Garden Tiller, Small Garden Tiller
Yard Machines 1 HP Cultivator 
The Yard Machines 2-Cycle 1 HP Cultivator is a handy solution for your tilling needs with its 8-inch heat-treated steel tines and plow-type handle that gives you added control. EZ-pull starting and a maintenance-free heavy-duty gearbox eliminate frustration, and you can adjust the width of the tines from 6 to 10-1/4 inches. This cultivator is backed by a 2-year limited warranty.
Price: $199.99
Customer Reviews
wow, tough little machine- A+
Hi- I’m not sure what issues the others have had with this machine, but it’s awesome. I’ve been using the one I bought new for about 3 years now at my home and honestly it’s been worked hard and a little abused… but it works as well as brand new. I use it to clear raw land by helping dig out roots, to help grade soil, to make new garden space, etc. My neighbor has seen the results & asked me where I got it. The only negative I can see is the lack of available attachments- I’d like to see an aerator, edger & dethatching attachment for it.
Yard Machines 121 Cultivator
I placed an order for 1 Yard Machines 121 Cultivator and received 2. I sent 1 back. I opened the shipping box and found it had no back wheels as shown in the advertisement, on the shipping box, and on the instructions inside. I called Amazon and explained the situation and they said they would send me another. Well, they did. Exactly the same. It had an 8″ roller instead of the two wheels as advertised. I returned that one too. Amazon did return my money. I AM VERY UNHAPPY WITH THIS TRANSACTION.
mini rotor tiller
I can’t review it yet because it is winter here and we haven’t been able to use it. I am sure we’ll love it. Friends own one and they convinced us we need to purchase one for ourselves.
Click here for current price and availability
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edger,
garden tiller,
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Posted by Homer on May 4th, 2007 — Posted in Cultivator Garden Tiller, Gardening
Before taking up the garden vegetables individually, I shall outline the general practice of cultivation, which applies to all.
The purposes of cultivation are three—to get rid of weeds, and to stimulate growth by (1) letting air into the soil and freeing unavailable plant food, and (2) by conserving moisture.
As to weeds, the gardener of any experience need not be told the importance of keeping his crops clean. He has learned from bitter and costly experience the price of letting them get anything resembling a start. He knows that one or two days’ growth, after they are well up, followed perhaps by a day or so of rain, may easily double or treble the work of cleaning a patch of onions or carrots, and that where weeds have attained any size they cannot be taken out of sowed crops without doing a great deal of injury. He also realizes, or should, that every day’s growth means just so much available plant food stolen from under the very roots of his legitimate crops.
Instead of letting the weeds get away with any plant food, he should be furnishing more, for clean and frequent cultivation will not only break the soil up mechanically, but let in air, moisture and heat—all essential in effecting those chemical changes necessary to convert non-available into available plant food. Long before the science in the case was discovered, the soil cultivators had learned by observation the necessity of keeping the soil nicely loosened about their growing crops. Even the lanky and untutored aborigine saw to it that his squaw not only put a bad fish under the hill of maize but plied her shell hoe over it. Plants need to breathe. Their roots need air. You might as well expect to find the rosy glow of happiness on the wan cheeks of a cotton-mill child slave as to expect to see the luxuriant dark green of healthy plant life in a suffocated garden.
Important as the question of air is, that of _water_ ranks beside it. You may not see at first what the matter of frequent cultivation has to do with water. But let us stop a moment and look into it. Take a strip of blotting paper, dip one end in water, and watch the moisture run up hill, soak up through the blotter. The scientists have labeled that “capillary attraction”—the water crawls up little invisible tubes formed by the texture of the blotter. Now take a similar piece, cut it across, hold the two cut edges firmly together, and try it again. The moisture refuses to cross the line: the connection has been severed.
In the same way the water stored in the soil after a rain begins at once to escape again into the atmosphere. That on the surface evaporates first, and that which has soaked in begins to soak in through the soil to the surface. It is leaving your garden, through the millions of soil tubes, just as surely as if you had a two-inch pipe and a gasoline engine, pumping it into the gutter night and day! Save your garden by stopping the waste. It is the easiest thing in the world to do—cut the pipe in two. And the knife to do it with is—
_dust_. By frequent cultivation of the surface soil—not more than one or two inches deep for most small vegetables—the soil tubes are kept broken, and a mulch of dust is maintained. Try to get over every part of your garden, especially where it is not shaded, once in every ten days or two weeks. Does that seem like too much work? You can push your wheel hoe through, and thus keep the dust mulch as a constant protection, as fast as you can walk. If you wait for the weeds, you will nearly have to crawl through, doing more or less harm by disturbing your growing plants, losing all the plant food (and they will take the cream) which they have consumed, and actually putting in more hours of infinitely more disagreeable work. “A stitch in time saves nine!” Have your thread and needle ready beforehand! If I knew how to give greater emphasis to this subject of thorough cultivation, I should be tempted to devote the rest of this chapter to it. If the beginner at gardening has not been convinced by the facts given, there is only one thing left to convince him—experience.
Having given so much space to the _reason_ for constant care in this matter, the question of methods naturally follows. I want to repeat here, my previous advice—by all means get a wheel hoe. The simplest sorts cost only a few dollars, and will not only save you an infinite amount of time and work, but do the work better, very much better than it can be done by hand. You _can_ grow good vegetables, especially if your garden is a very small one, without one of these labor-savers, but I can assure you that you will never regret the small investment necessary to procure it.
With a wheel hoe, the work of preserving the soil mulch becomes very simple. If one has not a wheel hoe, for small areas very rapid work can be done with the scuffle hoe.
The matter of keeping weeds cleaned out of the rows and between the plants in the rows is not so quickly accomplished. Where hand-work is necessary, let it be done at once. Here are a few practical suggestions that will reduce this work to a minimum, (1) Get at this work while the ground is soft; as soon as the soil begins to dry out after a rain is the best time. Under such conditions the weeds will pull out by the roots, without breaking off. (2) Immediately before weeding, go over the rows with a wheel hoe, cutting shallow, but just as close as possible, leaving a narrow, plainly visible strip which must be hand-weeded. The best tool for this purpose is the double wheel hoe with disc attachment, or hoes for large plants. (3) See to it that not only the weeds are pulled but that _every inch_ of soil surface is broken up. It is fully as important that the weeds just sprouting be destroyed, as that the larger ones be pulled up. One stroke of the weeder or the fingers will destroy a hundred weed seedlings in less time than one weed can be pulled out after it gets a good start. (4) Use one of the small hand-weeders until you become skilled with it. Not only may more work be done but the fingers will be saved unnecessary wear.
The skilful use of the wheel hoe can be acquired through practice only. The first thing to learn is that it is necessary to watch _the wheels only:_ the blades, disc or rakes will take care of themselves. Other suggestions will be found in the chapter on Implements.
The operation of “hilling” consists in drawing up the soil about the stems of growing plants, usually at the time of second or third hoeing. It used to be the practice to hill everything that could be hilled “up to the eyebrows,” but it has gradually been discarded for what is termed “level culture”; and the reader will readily see the reason, from what has been said about the escape of moisture from the surface of the soil; for of course the two upper sides of the hill, which may be represented by an equilateral triangle with one side horizontal, give more exposed surface than the level surface represented by the base. In wet soils or seasons hilling may be advisable, but very seldom otherwise. It has the additional disadvantage of making it difficult to maintain the soil mulch which is so desirable.
ROTATION OF CROPS
There is another thing to be considered in making each vegetable do its best, and that is crop rotation, or the following of any vegetable with a different sort at the next planting.
With some vegetables, such as cabbage, this is almost imperative, and practically all are helped by it. Even onions, which are popularly supposed to be the proving exception to the rule, are healthier, and do as well after some other crop, _provided_ the soil is as finely pulverized and rich as a previous crop of onions would leave it.
Here are the fundamental rules of crop rotation:
(1) Crops of the same vegetable, or vegetables of the same family (such as turnips and cabbage) should not follow each other.
(2) Vegetables that feed near the surface, like corn, should follow deep-rooting crops.
(3) Vines or leaf crops should follow root crops.
(4) Quick-growing crops should follow those occupying the land all season.
These are the principles which should determine the rotations to be followed in individual cases. The proper way to attend to this matter is when making the planting plan. You will then have time to do it properly, and will need to give it no further thought for a year.
With the above suggestions in mind, and _put to use_, it will not be difficult to give the crops mentioned in the following chapter those special attentions which are needed to make them do their very best.
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cultivation,
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Posted by Homer on May 1st, 2007 — Posted in Cultivator Garden Tiller, Garden Mini Tiller, Garden Roto Tiller, Garden Tiller, Garden Tractor Tiller, Mantis Garden Tiller, Rear Tine Garden Tiller, Small Garden Tiller, Uncategorized, Used Garden Tiller
Garden Tiller Maintenance
by Mike D Tucker
Well it is that time of year again and you are getting ready to plant your garden. As you dig your garden tiller out of the corner of the garage you notice it is full of cobwebs. Looks like you will have to perform some garden tiller maintenance.
So what sort of maintenance do you have to do before starting up your garden tiller for the first time? A lot has to do with the way you prepared your garden tiller for the winter storage. If you drained the fuel or added Sta-Bil to the gasoline you are in better shape than most people.
First it is always recommended that you follow the manufactures guidance. This procedure should be used as a general guideline.
The first thin I always do is give my garden tiller a good washing to get the dust off of it. Next for safety I pull the spark plug wire off. If you did not drain your fuel you will have to now. The best way is to remove the fuel line from the tank and let it drain outside away from anything electrical. Including your cell phone.
Some carburetors have a spring loaded drain on the bottom of the float bowl. If yours has one hold a rag underneath the drain and press in letting the gas drain into the rag. If you have an inline fuel filter it should also be checked or replaced at this time.
Next you will want to clean the air filter. Your garden tiller operates in dusty conditions so it is very important to keep your air filter clean. If you garden tiller has a 2 stage filter remove the both and tap the paper inner filter on the ground to shake out any dirt. Take the foam outer filter and wash it with soap and water. Let it dry thoroughly the re-oil it. Placing it in a plastic bag and adding a little light motor oil, work it into the foam and remove can do this.
Now we move on to the spark plug. Remove it and replace it with the same number that is on the old one. Make sure you check the spark plug gap and set it before re-installing. Most are pre-set from the manufacture but it never hurts to check. You should also place a small amount of ant seize compound on the threads of the spark plug before installing.
Make sure you do not have any gasoline or oil anywhere on your garden till that you may have spilled while working on it. If you do make sure it is completely cleaned off before attempting to start your motor. You can now re-connect you spark plug wire.
Add fresh fuel and check your oil level. Check for leaks. If everything looks good your garden tiller is ready to fire up. Start it and let it warm up. Shut it off and double check for leaks and oil level. If everything looks good your garden tiller is ready for use.
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