Portage River Farm

Over the holiday we drove down to southern Ohio and visited my parents. It was relaxing and nice to catch up with family and friends. I attended a class reunion, we watched the fireworks, ate lots of great food and played lots of badminton.

My parents' garden and landscaping are beautiful and far ahead of anything we have going on. During a conversation with my father about my ambitious gardening plans, he offered to let me borrow a gadget that they had in their shed for dealing with weeds.

We walked to the shed to have a look. That particular shed is a point of pride for me. A few years back my father and I made a project of designing and building it. Work obligations meant that I had to head back home before the project was done, leaving much of the completion work to him. Just the same, whenever I see that shed I feel proud of it and recall nice memories of us building it together.

Once we arrived in the shed, he showed me a Toro Garden Cultivator. It is kind of like a mini rototiller with a little two-cycle engine. After being assured that they were not going to need it for a while, I gratefully loaded it into the back of the van for the trip back home. I had seen these things advertised before and wondered if it would be worth the investment. Now I had a way to find out.

A few days later I was out at my shed and eager to give it a try. Unfortunately, I was unable to get the thing to start. Dad had mentioned that the priming system wasn't working but he managed to get it started anyway. Since my skills at getting small engines to do my bidding aren't as great as my father's, I decided to do what I could to eliminate its handicaps.

After a few hours on the Internet, I found all of parts that I needed. I impatiently awaited the UPS truck each day until my little pile of parts arrived. I replaced the priming bulb, the fuel lines, the spark plug, a bolt for the muffler and a clamp for the handle that had fallen off. Having all of that complete, I filled it with fuel and gave the cord a few yanks. To my delight, it roared to life and was ready to start tilling.

Dad had mentioned that it seems a little light for the job and right away I was in agreement. The tines were eager to dig into the soil but unless the soil was already soft, there isn't quite enough weight to let it really dig in. After a few trials, I found that it performs amazingly well if the soil is a little damp as it would be for a few days after a rain.

I have been happily using the cultivator and my garden has never looked better. It makes quick work of the weeds and is small enough to get up close and between plants. It also does a better job of keeping the weeds away than a hoe because it gets the plant out all of the way to the roots. On the down side I would have to say that it is noisy enough that I wear earplugs and it leaves me stinking of exhaust. Just the same, one of these is definitely on my wish list for gadgets to buy next year.

The second handy device that we recently procured is a power washer. Despite my native cheapness, I decided to forgo the usual hunt on Craig's list and Ebay and actually purchased a new one from Lowes. I felt that the pump on a power washer was vulnerable enough to abuse and expensive enough to repair that I really didn't want to buy somebody else's worn out junk.


After lingering a long while in the store comparing the features and prices of the units, I finally settled on a gas-powered Troy-bilt model. I decided that the gas-powered one was better because I could imagine applications all over the farm, such as the barn and chicken coop, where a need for electricity could be cumbersome.

We put it to work as soon as we got home and had it assembled. As you may have seen from some of the pictures on our website, the cracks in the driveway are rife with weeds. This unit has enough power to blast the plants out of there, roots and all. Next we'll have to do something about filling those cracks so the weeds won't come back.

Last weekend saw Janet working away at the weeds in the driveway while I cultivated them out of the garden. The farm has become a bit noisier with these additions, but also is really starting to shape up.

(The mention of the brand names in this blog article is not intended as an endorsement of any particular product or company.  I have had no contact with either company.)