The Ninja blade fits and works perfectly on the JS-20. Whoever told you there are differences other than tags and plastic on the JS-20 and the Easy Line is wrong, those mowers are identical, engine included.

My thanks to zoulas and sargeant for their thoughtful responses. I decided not to buy the John Deere 320, but instead bought a 1995 Simplicity Sunstar 18 hp with 48" deck and plow for $1,600. Allegedly, this tractor has only 75 hours on it. The story is that the original owner had it for a couple of years, using it only for mowing, and then died. It sat for a number of years before being acquired by the guy I bought it from, who has a small engine repair business. He went through it, cleaned the carbs, etc., and then used it to plow his driveway. He had a Honda tractor he prefered for mowing. Now he has a snowblower for the Honda, and the Sunstar was just taking up space. He advertised it for awhile at $2,800 but got no responses, so he accepted $1,600 from me. Maybe I got took--we'll see. It looks new enough to have only 75 hours.

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.

5 years ago, I bought a new JD L110 with a 17.5 hp Kohler engine and a 42" mulching deck for about $1750 from a JD Dealer to cut my 1.5 acre up hill bumpy lawn with a septic field up top. I got it because Consumer Reports had said that it was the best all-around for the dollar. It worked great with a beautiful cut until the septic field and a contractors fertilizing made the grass so tough, the engine bogged down as if it was gonna stall, especially over the septic field, and really bad if I missed a week due to rain. By the way I threw away the $200 double bag grass catcher because I got tired of getting off the tractor and dumping them every 7.5 minutes. I went to a Kubota dealer to find out what a real tractor was and how I couldnÂt afford one, but some farmer had traded in his JD G110 w/ a 25 hp Kohler engine and a 54" mowing deck I bought it used, with no warranty for $2000, and at first was happier the way it had no problems with the thickness of the lawn. It also carried my over 300 lb. body uphill and cut much faster in that it turned my 1 hour and fifteen minute weekly task into about 50 minutes. The blue smoke the used G110 was blowing when I test drove it was to mean later that I had to put about 3 to 4 hundred dollars into it for repair, and apparently, I was lucky, because it could have been much worse! It seemed the farmer, believe it or not, didn't change the oil much. But the main problem was that with the 54" deck it had did not cut the grass as nice as the smaller 42" deck with the rounded mulching platform. It made "Wind Rows" that did not seem to go away even after going back over it again, because my grass grew so fast or something. A salesman told me I may have to cut it twice a week (NO WAY). So, bottom line, it was taking longer to get the grass cut with a 54" deck than with the earlier 42" deck; almost twice as long and it STILL didnÂt look as nice as before! I added a mulching kit to it, installed by the dealer, even after their warning that I may get clumping. I did get clumping, and my wife never lets me hear the end of itÂ..The tension spring on the belt/pulley system broke 2 weeks ago and I went to the dealerÂs parts dept. and bought another one for $6 because their Spring back-log for repairs was over 2 weeks wait. I spent about 3 hours getting it on the deck. This new spring worked for two mowings and broke. Now, with rain, I have monster grass and no way to mow it. My wife almost bought a $2000 Cub Cadet at a box store out of desperation yesterday just to get the grass cut. So now, 5 years into this monster lawn, and two JDÂs later, we are looking at our 3rd one, an X300 or X304, to solve my weekly woes on this lumpy lawn. Oh yeah, by the way, when it was graded, the man did not do a very smooth job and my back and I wish my tractor had shock absorbers, but we can not afford the Kubota, or a real John Deere. I will probably trade in the G110 for a X304 next weekend, and peeve that I am trading down from a 25 hp Kohler w/ 54" deck to a 22 hp Kohler w/ a 48" deck, albeit in the new "stronger" X Series, but my wife wonÂt mind, because there will be no more "Wind Rows" and clumping (HOPEFULLY!). She doesnÂt have to do itÂ.she naps on the couch while I mow! I guess sheÂll nap a little longer, because I will be out there a little longer now. I hope the clumping and rows go away then, and I really hope to have less annoying repairs. I imagine, though, that they all use the same spring. Wish me luck if you have no good advice I can use.