A 3.5 acre field, if that is a garden, is a BIG garden. I assume you are planning to sell some of what you grow. I don't know if you are just starting out doing this or not, but it sounds like it. Before I invested a lot of money in equipment, especially so if you are new to this, I would go either the rental route, or I would hire a local farmer to till it up. There are a lot of guys who own tractors who don't have much real tractor work to do with them ( I have 3 right around me) who might be glad to get the work. You could find out hourly rental rates for the equipment and pay the farmer at least that much, plus and hourly rate for the operator. I say all that because the garden tractor you have was just not made for the work you want it to do. Yes, it will do it, but you could do it with a good walk behind tiller also, and it wouldn't take a lot longer (you will need one of those anyway). You would be at it all day. A farmer with a big tractor and tiller could be done in an hour or two. If I did it one year, and I thought, yes, this is just what I want to do, then I would start looking for a good used farm tractor, because that is what you will need.

Hmmm - interesting feedback... Im thinking it would be a slick little toy, it just looked so vintage with that rounded metal work and darkened gold paint... It just whispered to me ... "buy my"... with that little mower deck it sure would be handy in the small areas where my 46" scotts cant get... Its really sad that we cant buy something like this new - and yes It would be nice if it were American made... With a small 7-10 hp motor... And offer them in cool colors like Hemi-Orange, black, robin-egg blue, and maybe something like a custom shop request like a flame job, racing stripes, etc type thing... But more seriously - and I think this question will be better answered by the older members out there... I am curious to know : At the point in time where these units were being sold new, figure around 1960's-70's (regardless of brand), was there a distinction between a junky lawn tractor and a ground engaging GT? I recognize that there were models which maybe were bigger - or had more HP... (but I perceive - the smaller one was not a bad machine - just a smaller machine). And I realize there were more whimpy models out there - but I think the difference was obvious to someone who had half a brain... As opposed to my dingle berry neighbors buying a JD from HomoDeblow and thinking they got a JOHN DEERE... This is not to say that a Box Store model is a POS... But lets not be calling a daisy a rose. Was this type of trickery going on back then ? Thx Dave.

It is a lot of schools Spring Break it seems~~~so it was a bit crowded. The price for the Delux annual pass is way out of wack! I would buy mysel just the SoCal one, but she does not want me not to be able to come everytime they do, so she got me the same as hers. I am bad I am thinking I could buy some KEWL shoes with that much $$$

It must be from wayyyyy back...I've been here since I think 98 and I don't remember ever reading that... I'm glad you kept it. If you've had it that long...that must mean you've taken good care of your computer and never had a crash....LOL I've lost it all a couple of times. patti