craftylady2006, it's not the wheel that is rusty. I have a rusty plow shear and disc that we found while digging in the yard. They are all totally rust! :) My MIL just got an old cultivator at a flea market around here last Saturday. She paid $20 for it, which is cheap here. But while the rest of you stick them outside, she's putting hers in the family room in the basement :) A lot of the things I see you guys stick outside, we put inside. MIL and I LOVE primitive antiques! We hate to stick this stuff outside and have it fall apart!

Hello... I am long overdue to start creating a garden workspace and organizing all my garden junk. I thought I would resurrect this old post and see if anyone had any more to add to it. I could start a new thread if that is a better idea? So....I have too much junk scattered all over the place..the basement, the garage, seeds in my bedroom...lol. I am sure you get the picture and perhaps there is someone else out there who has the same problem. I just don't know where to start, it is a little overwhelming. What gives me the most trouble? Large containers 22" and where to put them for the winter. Large bags of potting soil or soil amendments....storing and having easy access to them. POTS! Having tools handy when out in the garden without making 10 trips to the garage for something I forgot, yet not dragging everything around with me. Leftover materials from past projects...a pile of broken pavers, a small pile each of stonedust and pea gravel. The COMPOST BINS! I need to get them out of sight. We have a small yard. I was hoping to create an area where I had everything garden related so it is not in a number of different places. My problem is the only area available is on the side of my garage but the main entrance to the backyard from the front is there and you would have to pass through my 'workarea' to get to it. I really love a pretty organized, neat area anyway....I am just not coming up with creative ideas for what I have to work with to make it that way. If someone has had similar issues that they have resolved successfully, I would love to hear about how you did it. Thank you! :-) pm2 I would love to see photos of how you have handled any aspect of this project in your garden if you have any.

George, Ever since you discovered Lee Valley Tools, I've been thinking that if it is a publicly traded company, I should buy stock in it because you're giving them such good PR (and they deserve it). There are so few companies left that make and sell truly high-quality tools made to last a lifetime, but they are at the head of that group as far as I am concerned. I see splitting some years with Black Cherry and Sungold, but not other years. I have noticed that it is more the inconsistency in the moisture that causes splitting....like if we are swinging wildly from very dry to very wet and back again. But if we're having consistently moist weather like we did most of last summer, they don't split as much. Jay, I think it has to be more complex than just moisture alone because we do see such widely varying results....from no splitting in some places to lots of splitting in others. Perhaps it is the combination of soil and moisture? Docjoc, Oh, just wait till we start 'reviewing' our favorite producers and best-tasting varieties near the end of the season and comparing them to one another, and making our tomato 'grow lists' for next year. I think last year we didn't start talking about "next year" until August. We like to discuss it while the performance of the different varieties is fresh in our minds. Tomato addiction is a very serious disease and it is contagious. Carol, My plants looked gorgeous three days ago and now I see a disease outbreak...I think I already see Early Blight and Septoria Leaf Spot. I probably will pull the plants most affected and put in beans or purplehull peas in their spot and then try to nurse the remaining plants back to health. It only takes 15 minutes of moisture on the foliage at certain temps for diseases to start developing, so the disease outbreaks are practically guaranteed. I've made a couple of batches of Annie's Salsa (oooh, need to write a brief thread about fixing the vinegar problem) this week and will make 2 or 3 or 4 more today. Trying to pick and use everything that's ripe before they split. Also busy making strawberry syrup and blueberry syrup and the LAST batch of plums as well as starting a big batch of Habanero Gold today to finish tomorrow. When it is rainy and I can't be outside, I go into the kitchen and can stuff. It is raining here today so I'll likely can stuff until I run out of jars....and I have quite a few jars on hand. Once I am through canning, maybe I'll go online and look for seeds on sale or something. Paula, If there is a better tomato than Black Cherry, I haven't found it. They always produce well and always taste great. What more do you need? The funny thing is that I wouldn't even try them the first year or two they were out. There was a big 'fad' of "new" black varieties being introduced everywhere and a lot of them weren't any better than (or as good as) the black ones I'd already grown, so I figured the 'new' black cherry was in that group. After seeing rave reviews from people whose opinions I respected, though, I had to try them, and I've grown them every year since then. I think they were the last new introduction from Vince Sapp before his death. Dawn

I'm not a small built farmer, but I still put a motor on anything I can and once you start going with power, you quickly learn, more power is better. Believe it Not, I'm going to recommend you at least look into the BCS line of walk behind tractors...we call them rollers. There's enough attachments to put on them...if you want, you can make hay bales. Not to mention every other aspect of landscape soil work and farm prep. There's small tractors of various makes, from JD and Kubota to Iseki, Yanmar and others. If you live in a farm area, I'd discover what dealerships are around you...if nothing else, you'll learn what kind of parts availability exist. I'd take the time to consider what you're going to do. If you're looking at turning extra land into vegetables, that would lead you down a different road than fencing it and raising some kind of livestock. You live in maple country?