Dig your 2014 garden without a rototiller!

So you've made your best garden plant seed picks and actually placed your order on time this year.
You will need to contact the rental shop to get on their list of rotor-tiller renters and hope that the weather cooperates and that there are no problems with their tillers that will necessitate a repair on your tilling day.

Of all the things you will need to do to get ready for a successful gardening season, preparing the soil for planting is an unavoidable must do task.

If you are like most people, using a rotor-tiller is as pleasurable as hiking on a superhighway.

An alternative to the noise, smell and mechanical stress of rotor-tilling is using a broad fork.
- Otherwise known as a broadfork (written as one word) a U-bar or a grelinette. 
Not all broad forks are created equal and each has their own place in the world of gardening tools.

One broadfork you will want to check out when learning about broad fork gardening is the WayCoolTools broad fork. It is surprisingly light despite being made entirely of tempered aircraft quality alloy steel, yet strong enough to remove large stones and penetrate heavy, compacted soil. It has the added benefit of enabling you to more finely cultivate your garden soil for planting by chopping and tilthing the soil.

To use a broad fork rock the two handles back and forth while applying pressure with one or both feet on the cross bar above the digging blades.
As you penetrate the soil, pull back on the handles to loosen the soil.
If needed you can use the broad fork with an up and down chopping motion to break up larger clods of soil.

The amount of time to produce finished planting beds is around a minute per foot in heavily compacted soil. With that in mind you could dig a 30 foot long planting bed in about a half hour.
If you were to work an hour a day with our 5 tine broad fork, in the course of a work week you will have made ready over 200 square feet of gardening space.

Did you know that you can actually dig deeper than a rototiller with a broadfork without creating the hard pan that rotor-tillers cause?

For more information on these broad forks see www.waycooltools.com

Planning a garden? Get Cindy Conner's new book!

We were at the Virginia Biological Farming Conference again in Richmond, Virginia a few weeks back. It is a two day event where farmers and aspiring farmers from all over convene for food /local organic, fellowship / friends new and old get to spend time catching up and learning from one another, and a cornucopia of speakers sharing their experience and insights on organic farming practices.

Cindy Conner and her husband Walt

One of the many friends we got to see this year while exhibiting our garden tools and flame weeding equipment there is
Cindy Conner.
Cindy's new book, Grow a sustainable diet - planning and growing to feed ourselves and the earth (ISBN# 9780865717565)
published by new society  is a comprehensive gardening manual for anyone interested in learning sustainable methods of food production for their family that Cindy has practiced for years.
After spending time with in the garden with Cindy Conner you will come away blessed with a new way of looking at gardening that is sure to inspire. Reading this book will give you some of the insights and methods Cindy has learned through many seasons in the garden. Well worth the read for new and old gardeners alike. - one of Mother Earth New's "books for wise living recommendations"

Best prices on flame weeders

Spring is coming, and so are the weeds.
Get the best prices on Red Dragon flame weeding torches.
Free shipping on back pack torch kits and more.
Order now to get ahead of spring weeds..or melt some ice.