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[BigRedDog]

Here are a couple of pictures of the big red dog during the storm last week...

she's actually out in the garden 'checking things out' I guess...

[SidecarFlip]

BRD, you need to think about investing in a tiller that you don't leave footprints in your tilled soil with.....  Troybilt or a BCS or even a Cub Cadet rear tine.

I plant my rows so I can till in one and walk in the other.

I actually have 3 tillers if you want to borrow one, 2 rear tines and a front tine (for chewing up crop residue).  I also have an Ariens Rocket rear tine in the shed that needs a motor (that you can have if you want it.....

I'd have a BCS if I could afford one.  Lombardi diesel with PTO.  Best rear tine tiller made.  Most expensive too.

Getting the seed catalogs in the mail everyday now and thinking about spring and what I'll plant this year.  Green beans for sure.  Ambrosia sweet corn, brussels sprouts, sweet peppers, sweet potatoes, caluflower and my usual Katadhin and Pontiac potatoes (I save the little ones to replant every year).  I usually get 3-4 gunny sacks of spuds...and onions, red bulb and whites.

Might try some banana peppers this year and tomatoes.  I plant tomatoes every other year.

Can't grow cukes here.  The get the wilt no matter what I do.

Pretty soon now.

I've contemplated getting a hot house so I can grow vegies all year long.

We planted strawberries last year (they are leaf mulched right now).  Hopefully, we will have strawberries this year.

My garden started out small and grows every year it seems.  About 1/4 acre now and growing.....

[excelsior]

Can't grow cukes here.  The get the wilt no matter what I do.

You are likely battling downy mildew.  It took me some research to figure out what I was dealing with.

http://www.cals.ncsu.edu/plantpath/extension/fact_sheets/Cucurbits_-_Downy_Mildew.htm

Hopefully this cold snap will kill it, but you can fight it.

[BigRedDog]

BRD, you need to think about investing in a tiller that you don't leave footprints in your tilled soil with..... Troybilt or a BCS or even a Cub Cadet rear tine.

I plant my rows so I can till in one and walk in the other.

I actually have 3 tillers if you want to borrow one, 2 rear tines and a front tine (for chewing up crop residue).  I also have an Ariens Rocket rear tine in the shed that needs a motor (that you can have if you want it.....

I'd have a BCS if I could afford one.  Lombardi diesel with PTO.  Best rear tine tiller made.  Most expensive too.

Getting the seed catalogs in the mail everyday now and thinking about spring and what I'll plant this year.  Green beans for sure.  Ambrosia sweet corn, brussels sprouts, sweet peppers, sweet potatoes, caluflower and my usual Katadhin and Pontiac potatoes (I save the little ones to replant every year).  I usually get 3-4 gunny sacks of spuds...and onions, red bulb and whites.

Might try some banana peppers this year and tomatoes.  I plant tomatoes every other year.

Can't grow cukes here.  The get the wilt no matter what I do.

Pretty soon now.

I've contemplated getting a hot house so I can grow vegies all year long.

We planted strawberries last year (they are leaf mulched right now).  Hopefully, we will have strawberries this year.

My garden started out small and grows every year it seems.  About 1/4 acre now and growing.....

I have a TroyBilt HorseII.  The only time I worry about footprints is when we're actually getting the seedbed ready to plant.  Other than that I don't worry about the footprints.  The garden is a couple of hundred feet from the road so I don't think the neighbors are going by and critiquing my garden all that close.

I'd take you up on that Ariens but my barn is already packed with 'projects' like that. 

I'll ask my son if he's interested in it though.

[SidecarFlip]

I have a TroyBilt HorseII.  The only time I worry about footprints is when we're actually getting the seedbed ready to plant.  Other than that I don't worry about the footprints.  The garden is a couple of hundred feet from the road so I don't think the neighbors are going by and critiquing my garden all that close.

I'd take you up on that Ariens but my barn is already packed with 'projects' like that. 

I'll ask my son if he's interested in it though.

That works for me.  I need to get it out of the side shed attached to the big barn.  It needs an engine, thats it.  It's the RT model with the swing handlebars.  I inherited it, was going to put a new motor on it (it has the original engine on it but the governor is uckered).  I had an RT years ago and sold it.  Was a darn good tiller, well built.  In fact better built than a troy-bilt.  Should have kept it (my RT).  Oh well.  I have 3 now and I can only use one at a time anyway.

Troy Bilt's got cheapened up when MTD bought Garden Way.  I have a little one that I cultivate with.  Fits between the rows nicely.  Starrted life with a Tecumseh, now has a Predator after the Tecumseh started burning more oil than gasoline.....  Was good for the skeeters but that was about it.

My favorite is the MTD/Cub with the Honda and the counter rotating tines, a poor mans BCS.  You can break sod with it with one hand.  No Troy Bilt Horse can do that.  I know, I borrowed my neighbors prior to the MTD.  Big difference.

The only issue with the MT(Cub Cadet) is MTD don't put enough lubricant in the gearbox so they crap out after a few seasons, think thnats called 'planned obsolence'....  First thing I did when I got it was drill and tap a hole for a plug in the top of the gearcase and pump in a copious amount of synthetic high prerssure grease.  Gears love grease and the Honda will run forever.

No one sees the footprints in my garden either.  Not visible from the road.  I see 'em.  I have this thing for evenly tilled soil straight rows and everything neat and tidy.....

[SidecarFlip]

Don't forget, I have plenty of nice aged horse poop too.  (One reason the garden keeps growing, I keep needing more garden for more manure disposal).......

[BigRedDog]

Troy Bilt's got cheapened up when MTD bought Garden Way.  I have a little one that I cultivate with.  Fits between the rows nicely.  Starrted life with a Tecumseh, now has a Predator after the Tecumseh started burning more oil than gasoline.....  Was good for the skeeters but that was about it.

Mine is an early 80s....  82 if I recall right...  before MTD!!!  It has a Kohler cast iron engine and it doesn't use any oil from one fall to the next.  I change it before I put it in the barn for the winter.  When I picked it up (for a song) it wouldn't run.  We put a new coil in and points and condenser while we had it open and it will start on the 2nd pull most of the time.  I seldom have to run it above 1/2 to 3/4 throttle as it has power to spare for my soil.

I've used it for busting sod and you have to be patient at first.  Drop the depth bar one notch at a time until the sod is pretty well torn up and then you can drop it a few notches and you won't have it 'take off' across the ground...   been there, done that!!!

They also make a sod point you can add to the depth adjuster.  I may build one of those and see if it helps...  wouldn't take much at all to build.  It might not last as long as a factory one if they heat treat theirs but I would only put it on when I had to use it in sod so it should last as long as the tiller does.



Don't start digging out the shed just yet.  I'll talk to son and see what his schedule is.  He's been working extra trying to catch up after the 2 days off last week for the Ohio road closures. 

I'm wanting to try growing some giant pumpkins this year so maybe the horse manure would be a bonus for them.

[SidecarFlip]

Kohler's are the best of gasoline engines.  I have a K241 10 horse on my Lincoln welder and I love the sound when it idles.  Kohlers have a distinct sound, running and idling (off the compression release).  It's the balancer gears inside.

You have to watch this crap gas over the winter.  I use premium BP all the time now and marine Stabil in the winter.

The Cub rear time I have, I can 2 pass sod and it's done....(nice excuse to make the garden bigger...lol).

Let me know on the tiller and the poop and if you come out, I'll give you some of my seed potatoes.  I've been propagating them for about 6 years now.  Have literally boxes of them (seed potatoes) in the root cellar.

[BigRedDog]

Kohler's are the best of gasoline engines.  I have a K241 10 horse on my Lincoln welder and I love the sound when it idles.  Kohlers have a distinct sound, running and idling (off the compression release).  It's the balancer gears inside.

You have to watch this crap gas over the winter.  I use premium BP all the time now and marine Stabil in the winter.

The Cub rear time I have, I can 2 pass sod and it's done....(nice excuse to make the garden bigger...lol).

Let me know on the tiller and the poop and if you come out, I'll give you some of my seed potatoes.  I've been propagating them for about 6 years now.  Have literally boxes of them (seed potatoes) in the root cellar.

I've got a couple of 'real' Cub Cadets (by IH, not MTD) and they have Kohlers in them.  At this point it looks like they'll run forever

[SidecarFlip]

Some of the MTD stuff is worthwhile, some isn't.  MTD aka:  More Tools Desired has a bad rap because it's a box store brand.

I happen to own a Cub Cadet 60" Tank Zero Turn and it festooned with grease fittings, has a bullet proof Kawasaki engine and thet are the choice for quite a few professional landscapers, one reason I bought the CC rear tine tiller, besides the backward rotating times.  I hate 'chasing' a tiller like my Troybilt when it gets into hard packed ground.

MTD was always a second tier automotive supplier and got into the power equipment business later in it's corporate life.  They also own Shilo Industries in Mansfield.  Shilo is still a large second tier supplier for the automotive industry...

Initlal cost equates to overall quality in any power product.  MTD's products are no exception.

Just come get the Airens Tiller, I need to get it out of the shed.....

[SidecarFlip]

I can make one of those sod points in the shop for you in about a half hour plus I can case harden it too.

[BigRedDog]

I can make one of those sod points in the shop for you in about a half hour plus I can case harden it too.

Unless I decide to redo the front lawn one of these years I don't think I'll be breaking much more sod.  And right now that project isn't real high on my 'to do' list

[SidecarFlip]

Understandable.  When this melts, it will take 2 months to dry up enough to till anything with out making chocolate frosting with a tiller.......

[BigRedDog]

Our garden is on kind of a sand ridge so it will dry some faster than that...

but still going to be later than usual at this point it looks like

[Monroe Native]

I can't remember the last time I saw grass.....