Heavy Artillery In The Garden

Between the flu, a secondary infection, and rain, I've fallen behind in my quest to restore my vegetable garden after more than a dozen years. I have two double rows of peas, each about 33 feet long, planted and growing, but I was hoping to have more done by now. So I figured I needed to step up the effort.

Pulling out so many vines and small trees from the old garden has left me with quite a brush pile, and I still have more to go. So I started looking at buying a chipper. I was talking to my brother Bill about it and he reminded me that he had my Uncle Ben's chipper/shredder (SEE NOTE 1). So Big Dave and I went and picked it up Sunday morning in Dave's truck. It took a little work to get the 600-ish pound chipper in the truck, but we managed. In the rain, of course. We unloaded it at my house, and it's been raining every day since.

Sunday night, inspired by the presence of internal combustion, I decided to buy a rototiller. I had been looking at big tillers (as Diane says, I'm not good at doing things half way), but controlled myself and decided on a smaller, front-tine tiller. I ordered it from Sears.com, and got an e-mail Monday saying that it was ready for pickup. So when Diane got home from work Monday, we headed off to Sears, with the plan being to stop for dinner afterward. To make an already-too-long story not quite as long as it could be... they didn't have the tiller in stock and I ended up getting a bigger, rear-tine model anyway. Fate had delivered me back into my original plan.

So it rained until this afternoon. When I got home from work, I mowed the side lawn, then assembled the tiller, filled it with gas and oil, and gave it a pull. Varoom; first pull. It let it warm up for a bit, then went to work on the area of the garden that I had cleared of stumps. Man, was that a worthwhile purchase. I went over the area, about 250 square feet, in no time. I went over it all three times, going a little deeper each time (I didn't want to work the tiller too hard before it was broken in, so I didn't try to dig too deep too fast).

Now I can't wait to un-stump and de-vine the rest of the area so I can till away. There's a spot in the lawn where grass will not grow, no matter what I do. I think I'll till it, add topsoil, till it again and plant grass seed. I've been thinking of planting some flowers in front of the fence on the side yard. All I need to do is till up about 40 feet of grass to do it. What else can I till? A rototiller is like a super power tool. I may not be a stereotypical middle-aged white heterosexual male, but I do love a good power tool. I can't wait to try Uncle Ben's chipper. I am going to chip and shred the hell out of everything in sight.

I am aware of the fact that internal combustion yard machinery has a carbon footprint -- if I may use an overused phrase -- but the carbon I'll save with a 1000-plus square yard vegetable garden should help that a bit. Plus, I make sure that all of my power yard tools are four-cycle engines, not two-cycle engines, which means less noise and less pollution.

After I was done tilling, Big Dave called and asked if I wanted to go for a ride. I was tired, sweaty, and hungry, but figured I could get up the oomph. When I met up with Dave and we headed for the gas station, it started raining. So we gassed up and headed home. And it is supposed to rain for a few more days.

At least I had enough clear weather to get the feel for the new tiller. I'm hoping for some clear weather on Sunday so I can plant lettuce, spinach, carrots, radishes, broccoli, and cucumbers. Then I'll unstump and de-vine some more of the garden so I can get ready for green beans, cucumber, tomatoes, peppers, squash, cantaloupe, and watermelon. I also plan to get in some blueberry bushes and maybe some fruit trees this year. I am going to let Diane plant the sunflowers this year. I am hoping for the sort of sunflowers we had in 2007 (There are some photos in my MySpace "Flowers" album).

Anyone need some tilling or chipping and shredding? :-)

XXX

NOTE 1: Uncle Ben, my mother's brother, was known to many of his friends as "the tool man." Uncle Ben had worked at a tree company for years, then got a job with the Town of Islip, continuing in the same sort of work until he retired. After he retired, Uncle Ben, not one to sit around and do nothing, became a volunteer for the Greenbelt trails. There, he gained a reputation as a bit of a bad-ass. We met some of the trail volunteers hiking a couple of years ago and they told us about how Uncle Ben, then in his 70s, would climb trees with a chainsaw in one hand and lop off branches way up in the trees. He was a tough guy. Unfortunately,heart problems and cancer got the best of him and he and Aunt Jean both died about five years ago, within eight days of each other. They were so committed to each other, that that was probably the best thing that could have happened.