I always seem to be behind getting the garden ready for planting in the spring, this year more than usual. Year by year my parent’s old work horse Honda tiller has gotten harder for me to keep running. Last fall, when I wanted to till the garden and lay down the large pieces of cardboard I had set aside to use for weed suppression, I could not get the tiller started at all. The last time we wrestled the tiller into the truck and took it in for repair, I was told it was getting too hard to find parts and that I should use it until won’t run anymore and then replace it. Therefore, taking it in for service again seemed like a waste of time and effort. And unlike my father, who, during his time on the farm became an expert at keeping old things running, I am totally ignorant when it comes to engines of any kind. (This is probably one of many reasons why a multigenerational farmer friend, who knows how to fix pretty much anything, affectionately calls me a ‘city farmer’.) This was not the first time I had failed to get the tiller started. In fact, 2 years ago, I thought it was finally dead, and we bought a new tiller. However after having used the Honda for a number of years, the new tiller felt like a flimsy piece of junk, and when it also turned out to be nearly impossible to shift the gears (both by me and the service guy from the place I bought it) I returned it. Shortly after that, I managed to get the old Honda running. I have always suspected the difference was trying on a warm day instead of a cold one, so I hoped that a warm day would overcome the problem again this year. No such luck. So when a box of live onion plants arrived from Pine Tree Garden, needing to get into the ground ASAP, I admitted defeat and invested the extra money to buy a new comparable Honda tiller. (Don’t worry, the old Honda is not going for scrap. It deserves a better chance than I can give it of living on, so I found it a real farmer, one of those multigenerational ones who can fix anything, who agreed to give it a home, and see if he can get it going again!)
Between the couple of days it took to get the tiller delivered, and a string of rainy days, those onion plants languished in my refrigerator for longer than I liked. When the rain finally stopped, I headed for the garden and got to work pulling the weeds that had flourished due to my lack of fall attention. Then, it was time to spread my lovely goat and chicken dropping compost and till it in. Last year I pushed the compost up the slope to the garden, wheelbarrow by wheelbarrow. Slow, heavy work! This year I was feeling pressed for time. I decided I could save some by scooping the compost up with the tractor bucket and dumping it beside the garden. Then a true stroke of genius! When we built the garden fence, we put in an opening wide enough to drive the tractor right in! That meant I could dump the compost IN the garden, exactly where I needed it. More saved time! Easy peasy! Well, not quite so easy. As it turned out, we actually haven’t used the tractor in the garden. Because of this, for years I have been opening only one half of the gate. To get the other side open, I had to cut and remove sod where the grass and ground had built up below and in front if it. Thirty minutes later, I had the whole gate open, and was ready to go. HUM…Already the plan was not seeming quite so great. I think I spent as much time getting the gate open as I would save by putting the compost directly into the garden with the tractor. But, I could still break even — except there was one more challenge.
In the years of NOT feeling any need to drive the tractor into the garden, I had planted an asparagus patch along that side of the garden. Either I would need to drive my tractor across a bed of emerging asparagus (not going to happen) or make a hard right turn to maneuver the tractor into the garden. I am getting pretty good with the tractor, so what the heck, I could do that! Well, did you know that when you consider that bucket on the front, tractors are longer than you think? I didn’t quite make the turn on the first try. No problem a little back and forth couldn’t fix! But, did you also know that when you are wearing ear protection and looking behind you as you back up, trying not to drive on your asparagus, you can’t hear the lovely crunching sound the bucket of the tractor makes when it catches a part of the gate and rips it apart? SOB! On the upside, once I took the mangled gate down, I was able to get the tractor into the garden to dump my compost. On the downside, a couple of hours after that, when I had finally patched the mangled gate back together enough to rehang it and secure the garden, I clearly had not saved any time. Sigh.
