There comes a time, when the garden keeps growing and growing, and one person can no longer do the work without help. That help can be in the form of another human or tools. I do have a friend who loves to work in the garden and she comes over and helps me but she isn’t around much, and when she is, we do more talking that working.
My neighbor in Kentucky had a very old wheel hoe and they didn’t have a garden. I think it was something that had been left at their house and was there when they bought the place so they let me use it. I was tempted to bring it with me when we moved and had I asked, they would probably have said “take it” but I didn’t ask and I returned it to them.
The garden in Missouri was fairly small and I never even thought about needing one but here, as the garden grew, I found myself missing that wheel hoe. I had no idea how much they cost and when I looked at them a couple of years ago, I talked myself out of buying one.
Now that the garden has outgrown the one old gardener, it was time for a wheel cultivator. After reading reviews and evenings spent researching, Vince ordered the Hoss hoe/cultivator from Easy Digging.
Easydigging.com
He ordered the double wheel model, which seems a bit easier to drive, plus I like how it ca go over short stuff like young lettuce, onions, beets, etc. We got the Deluxe Plus model so it came with the 4 tine cultivator and the weeding sweeps. We added the 8″ oscillating hoe and the disc/harrow. I was real tempted to get the seeder but talked myself out of that since all my planting for this year has been done but I’m betting I add that to my collection before next spring’s planting season. There isn’t that much that I plant from seed but after planting 3 or 4 pounds of pea seeds, my back is killing me.
A new toy always makes the job more fun .. even if the job involves getting rid of weeds.
Linda Steller says
Wow. That looks really cool. I was out in the flower beds with my ‘winged weeder’ today. Actually just a hoe that looks like an arrow head that clips weeds pretty quickly. It’s a great little thing for clearing small areas quickly.
Karyl says
They make Small tillers sized to fit between most rows. Sears even had an add on to our string trimmer that works well.
JudyL says
Yes, we have one of those too but we wanted something that was manual – no gas or oil required. These little wheel cultivators work perfectly if the ground doesn’t get too hard.
Heidi says
I used a Precision seeder, but when it came to planting peas I made an area about a foot wide and however long I wanted and then broadcasted them in and covered them with the soil I had pulled aside to make the width of the row. They shade each other and weeds don’t come up in between and they support each other and you can pick for each side and they are all produce together and are done. Always seemed to increase the yield.
JudyL says
I don’t think that would work for as many as I plant because I have to be able walk between them at some point. They get all tangled up and if I cant see my feet, then I can’t see snakes about to bite me! 🙁
Dianne S. says
3 or 4 pounds of peas??? ????
jennifer says
we have one of those (the single wheel) for our large market garden. they work great! youi’ll love it! the sweeps will work especially well; just make sure to cultivate when the weeds are really, really small. can’t wait to see more pictures of your (weedless!) garden! 🙂