Second thing I did after getting the inside of the house organized after the move, was building a split-level fence up the driveway and over the one neighbor’s property line. First thing was building a chicken coop, which I’ll write about in another entry . For the split-level fence I bought treated 4x4’s as posts and two 2x4’s bars from post to post. On top of each post I put a solar light. Several neighbors have commented how nice the fence looks. The reasons for building the fence, was part containment of dog and two toddlers, plus eventually a bit of privacy as I thought about a hedge grown close to the fence. I eventually decided on an edible hedge, an orchard consisting of dwarf fruit trees at every post, except at two end posts, two corner posts, and one post at an existing small tree. In between the dwarf fruit trees I envisioned various berry bushes, three different varieties of seedless grape, one in between a post I could trellis on the bars plus two boysenberry between the two remaining posts up the driveway. From the driveway and street corner down close to the neighbors property line, I bought 5 dewberry, 3 raspberry, 2 blackberry and 4 blueberry bushes, for two bushes in between each two posts. Even with a manual post digger it took me about an hour to dig and put down each post, as it was all hard clay and rocks, some of them huge!
When the trees and bushes arrived, yes I ordered it via the Internet, I began digging the holes for them and quickly realized that this would take me a few months, as I only have about two hours to work in, after my day job is over, plus the weekends but only if the weather is cooperating. So after taking forever to put down a few grapes and cherry dwarf trees, I bought a Troy-Bilt 6.5 amp electric tiller/cultivator, and that sure is my new best garden power tool! Now I chose electric because I do not appreciate the noise, fumes and potential start problems of a gas powered tool. Actually I prefer manual tools over electric, as this gives me some needed exercise. Anyways I was worried, or rather was expecting the tines on the tiller would broke within an hour or two due to the hardness of the clay dirt, and the size of some of the rocks. But this amazing machine is truly a workhorse and I have yet to even press the overload reset button after about a total of 10-12 hours of use. All those hours by the way, have not only been for putting down more of my dwarf fruit trees and berry bushes, but mainly to level and till my pathetic looking lawn.
Every day after work I try to put in a few hours and every time it spits up a large rock or shreds a hidden branch it amazes me the tines it holding up to that use (abuse). Note that this Troy-Bilt tiller does not till or cultivate very deep, about 6-8 inches, so for the tree and bush planting holes I have to till, remove dirt and repeat once or twice. But once I have the hole or actually trench, I put down heavily with leaves, course sand, peat moss, wood shavings plus some of the original clay dirt, and run through the hole or trench with the Troy-Bilt electric tiller to mulch the leaves, and mix the components thoroughly together. For my pathetic looking existing lawn, or rather lawn area I found that sticking a spade as deep as I could at an angle in the ground and lifting slightly every 8-10” to loosen the brick hard clay in some areas, and then run it over with the Troy-Bilt tiller helps tremendously, especially in time, as without using the spade in these area and just the Troy-Bilt tiller alone would take me a long time as it could only shave off/till a tiny bit of clay dirt at a time.
Any negatives about this electric Troy-Bilt tiller/cultivator? Not really but sometimes the long electric cords I carry around in the yard, can be a bit of a drag or a slight annoyance, but I just have to work a smaller area at a time to keep the extra cord short and out of my way and sometimes it helps routing the cord over one shoulder. Anyways it certainly does not discourage the use of this wonderful machine, and I have recommended (praised) this electric version Troy-Bilt tiller to two coworkers plus one neighbor how are strongly considering buying it.
You can get the Troy-Bilt electric tiller/cultivator for a very resonable price including free shipping on Amazon
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