Least Favorite Tool: the !@#$% tiller

The rented BCS 722 Harvester

So the curse of the blog has struck again! Last Friday, as I prepared for a busy weekend of preparing the raised beds for spring/summer plantings (they have to be tilled before the soil dries brick-hard) the tiller broke down again. This time is wasn't the motor, but the bearings of the fly wheel which engages the tines. C & L Saws was closed most of the weekend, and I'm still not sure if the parts are replaceable on such a cheap machine. The same day, I also noticed potentially terminal cracking around the hitch on my rusted 30 year-old trailer. Hauling manure and mixing it into the soil was looking like a nearly impossible proposition. My checkbook came to the rescue. Saturday morning I went down to Big Mike's and made arrangement to rent their BCS tiller for the weekend ($106 to rent; $3000+ to buy). Picking it up by 1 p.m., I had that awesome machine all weekend!

5 yards of fluffy horse manure

That just left the problem of manure. I'd exhausted my collection of previously collected and home-grown manure and needed quite a bit to blend into the largely un-amended native soil of my large backyard gardens. Checkbook again to the rescue. Holiday Nursery has a nice stockpile of well composted (with some green nuggets) horse manure for $20/cubic yard. I bought 5 yards worth (a dump truck holds 7 yards), and the guys at the nursery promptly delivered it to the driveway. With the standard in-town delivery fee of $30 and tax, I paid $140 for a healthy load of crap.

The tilled field before shaping into raised beds

The counter-spinning rear tine tiller was amazingly efficient, working in about a 1/6 of the time of my regular rototiller, I was able to save most of my energy for the task of hauling 48 full wheelbarrow loads of manure to various parts of the garden. Even with my best upper-body fitness of year from dozens of miles of cross-country skiing this winter, I was exhausted and in bed shortly after dark on both days. In the end, I had prepared the soil for 9, 25'x4' raised beds and felt the substantial hit to the checkbook was well worth it.

'Wild' (last years) green shallots saved from the tillers path

Favorite Garden Tools

My 3 favorite tools at work

As the number and size of my garden beds expand, and the labor pool--me and two dogs-- remains the same, I've really come to appreciate several of my trusty garden tools. All acquired locally, I don't think I could do without my wheelbarrow, pitchfork, and rototiller. The wheelbarrow has self-explanatory utility, a common 6 cubic-foot Tru-temper, was bought from Holiday Nursery at 1214 E. Aztec Ave. Spending a couple extra bucks to buy from a local dealer paid dividends when they gave me the contractor tip of installing a thick sheet of plywood below the pan to give it extra strength and longevity when hauling rocks. Keep in mind you'll have to buy 4 longer bolts to reach through the 3/4" plywood.

Partly composted leaf mold and straw

The pitchfork is the newest addition to my stable of hand-tools. It's turned out to be indispensable for handling compost and manures in the clumpy stages before in decomposes into soil-like particles best handled with a shovel. I picked mine up last fall at Big Mike's Sales, Rentals, and Service at 606 E. Hwy 66 in Gallup. It was made in-house out of square angle iron and has 3 tempered tines. You have to add your own handle padding, but the best part is it only cost $8!!!

The tiller without the removable wheels

I have a love/hate relationship with the rototiller. It's invaluable when breaking up clumps of soil and mixing in soil amendments, or chopping up compost and manure. However, the noisy, polluting, and temperamental 5 horsepower engine has had me pulling my hair out on more than one morning. Luckily, Gallup has a great small engine repair place, C & L Saws at the corner of Maloney and 2nd street. A basic tune-up runs $30 and an overhaul $110. Unfortunately, the cheap Briggs and Straton motor on my machine needs the latter just about every year. If you don't own one, you can save yourself the headaches and just rent a great self-propelled 8.5 HP rear-tine BCS tiller from Big Mikes for $107/day. Pick it up late on a Saturday and you can keep it until Monday morning for a single days rental fee.