Besides getting our seeds lined up and my garden notebook worked on, we’re also figuring out how to make our five acres of gardens easier to work as we’re not getting any younger. (My replacement knees aren’t so wonderful … yet.) I found a couple of helpers online. One is the Duc plow. I’m not an easy sell for garden stuff, especially what I find on Facebook, as there are just so many scams there. But, after researching the Duc plow, I went ahead and ordered one. This is a hand-drawn small, very sharp plow which can make furrows and also hill crops such as corn and beans, reducing the small weed population between the plants, much like hilling potatoes does. I did notice it worked easier when used in previously tilled soil.


So, when I saw a new-to-me cultivator, I also ordered two. These are very sharp teeth on a bar that are worked just below the soil. I asked Will if he would build a bar to hold them, which I could fasten behind the riding mower. He said it would be easy. I ordered two at $32 each. I think I’ll get two so I can draw it down a row in one pass to loosen the soil and kill weeds. Now I see Temu has it for a little over $11. Sorry, but I don’t have a name brand for it.

I’ve got to move some of my Angel Trumpets I’m overwintering in the living room windows as in a week I’ll be starting my peppers. Boy will spring seem close then! Personally, I can’t wait! — Jackie
I admire your concern for others, Jackie, and other homesteaders who will be planting extra but I can’t join that list. Thanks to learning from Jackie, my shelves are full, similar to many of you who have been planning ahead for years. We have learned from mistakes, continued to improve, stock up, feel secure, and some of us are getting more arthritic each year, so keeping and maintaining what I have is now my goal. If I wear myself out, past the limit of my ability, I become the burden, not the provider. So this old workhorse will just plod along as before, and yep, Selena, I sure will keep planting those Taters!
If the SHTF, perhaps those who do NOT plan ahead will be on the ‘Will Work For Food Plan’, and I’d certainly have work for them.
Good evening, Jackie,
Late reading your post and getting here.
Been getting ice, wind and more cold so haven’t got out yet to mail
my seed order and frustrating but it will happen.
It’s supposed to stay cold and have snow on Saturday.
Never can tell how much we’ll really get but hopeful for moisture
sake but would like to get out and get to town some.
The Duc Plow looks like will be very helpful and especially if
Will can weld it so can use the riding mower. Will make things a lot easier.
I can’t wait to get more seeds and get more started.
Definitely ready for Spring and more work outside.
Me too Cindy!! The Duc plow will be used “on foot”, where the toothed weeder will be (hopefully) used with my riding mower. We’ve been getting kind of nasty weather lately. Lots of wind and cold snow. Brr. Lucky to have lots of firewood!!
Hello Miss Jackie,
So very sorry to hear about the knees. I hope the problems ease up with warmer weather.
Here in Maine we have not received the snow fall we normally get. Lots of people on wells will have trouble this summer if we don’t get more. Like many others, I am also expanding the garden “just in case”. I had a friend over yesterday and she asked about your canning book. I let her leaf through my copy and she liked it and will order her own. I never can without using your book. I remember what told us at the seminar. You said that even as long as you’ve been canning you still always look at the instructions so that is what I do as well. What awesome memories we all have from those seminars! I’m still so glad I came. Pyro
I’m really glad you came too Pyro!! It’s true. Every time I go to can something, I open my book. It’s so easy to forget a few minutes’ processing time, even when you’ve been doing a certain food for weeks. One mistake can lead to unsealed jars and wasted food! Being a cheap person, I HATE waste!!
Even if I grew the food, I still put hours into it, so I want it to last. I hope we’re not in drought this summer too. We are having way less snow that we should. Yeah, it’s nice not to have to fight it. But we’ll pay in the summer. Let’s pray!! Snow, snow, snow.
Pyro, I echo your comments about re-reading canning instructions and the awesome memories I also had at seminars. I think I was there a year or more after you (and your fires, ha!) Here in mid-Iowa, we dry too.
To Jackie’s faithful commentors, Let’s also keep faithful to each other as commentors. We have our little community and I, for one, can learn a lot from you. In our dire times, we need each other!
Yes, we do. And we need to stick together in this so badly. Family is important, even blog family. I love all of you!
Something else to think about. We are not getting moisture this winter and are starting to see cracks developing in the ground. This happened two years ago and we lost a noticeable number of our trees. We are going to have one whopper of an electrical bill but are starting to pour the water to the tree lines now and just hope this dry spell does not carry over into summer.
Boy, that’s true! Fortunately, we have enough snow on the ground to protect it from dryness yet. I sure hope spring brings spring rain for all of us who need it.
The hand plow will only work in tender soil; like they said, in already plowed ground. So Will has to use a tractor to plow anyway? I’ve amended my rows so many years that the soil is very tender. I do not have to cultivate. Just push the seed into the soil. And I water with irrigation that only waters in the rows. Outside the rows, where we walk, it is hard as a rock.
We till in rotted manure each spring with the tractor mounted tillers. So, yes, the soil will be tilled first before we plant. In three of our gardens, the soil has been amended for years and is soft and nice. The other gardens, not so. They are newer and one is white clay. It tends to be hard without tilling to fluff it up. But it’s way better than it was five years ago!! Manure does wonders.
Best reason to grow vegetables…. So many recalls of those in grocery stores. This year I am buying at local farms, roadside stands and such. Factory farms are using shortcuts that are making us sick.
Them and a bunch of other companies exposing us to various chemicals, even toxic dyes on children’s toys!! No wonder we have so many serious illnesses today.
I love our homegrown food so much!
Anything to make gardening easier is a plus. Here I start onions the second week of February and peppers the third week. I have Bok Choi in my hydroponics. It is gray and cold here with no snow. I believe I’ll be tapping Maples in 3 weeks. I’ve been reconstructing a Troy Built Horse tiller and find it takes longer than I thought it would. Last yr the Troy Buit quit on me and I did my 23 x 90 gardens with my Mantis tiller. That was too much work. Think Spring. I’m glad your doing well and my one replaced knee slows me down.
Wow, doing 23′ x 90′ gardens with a Mantis IS a lot of work. I hope you get the TroyBilt back in working order. We have two of them, a Horse and a Pony, both invaluable to us.
I’m hoping both of our replaced knee joints get to feeling much better, come warm weather.
We have a while before we start plants, -20 a couple nights this week, warmed up to -15 last night! At least the days are getting longer! I don’t know why but neither me or my wife could stand the smell of angel trumpets in the green house, I don’t know how you can stand it in the house. Maybe we are allergic.
Wow, nobody here has a problem with them. I love their nighttime fragrance. Maybe it’s the variety???
Our temperatures have been all over the place, from -21 to highs in the low 30’s F. We are getting some snow. Thank God. We were thinking another drought was happening. We’re still over 2′ below NORMAL snowfall for the year.
Dear Jackie,
We have had a weird winter so far in middle southern Tennessee. Last week, we had minus temps, blasting winter cold, snow, ice, etc. This week is rain and 65 -70 degrees. I guess we have to have hardy plants to withstand all the swings in degrees. As for your knees, my shoulder replacement is more accurate than the National Weather Channel. However, the barometer pressure affects it more than the bitter cold. I am so ready for buttercups. Come on spring!
Amen, Jan!! We’ve had crazy weather but nothing severe. I’m so ready to start planting!! I keep sending out seeds, thinking of all those green plants going to happen for folks. That’s cool!
Like usual, I am way behind. I should have started my peppers and tomatoes last month. We are seeing cold weather crops (which can overwinter here) in the stores already as of about the 1st of this month. Average last frost date…… March 15. This past Monday we saw 87 degrees. This coming Sunday, our high should be in the 50’s. Yup, a TX roller coaster! LOL
At the price that is being asked for plants at the various stores ($6 for solo plants or $6 for a pack), I really do need to get busy and plant my seeds.
Holy cow! $6 for a pack of plants. I guess it’s just not eggs that have taken a big upward spike. Yep, get them planted!!
Looks like a great tool. Only problem I can see if my husband or I fall down while walking backwards, we can not get back up.
Our garden is small so these might not work for us. Maybe good in small flower beds, so I do not have to bend over pulling weeds.
Please do not order anything from Temu Chinese knock off, why so cheap. Post office is not taking any packages from Temu and another knock off Chinese mail. Announced on news this morning.
I know folks that are thrilled with Temu. I see some of their ads and am tempted to look, but never have. I have heard other reports much like yours……. cheap. Yup, Post office is refusing a lot of shipments from China!
I’m not thrilled with Temu. I’ve heard all the bad reports. I don’t buy from them, but I did make this one exception. Perhaps I’ll be sorry.
I’m with you, if I fall down, I’m done unless I’m near a fence so I can pull myself up. Fortunately, Will is much less un-limber. The toothed weeder he’s going to build will let me weed on the riding lawnmower. When you have 5 acres to weed, you need every help you can get.
Wow, peppers starting soon! Seems to be winter still. But I m sure yours will do great in the hoop house s and be beautiful! I put in my herbs and violas last week , in the greenhouse:) Sorry your knees are not recovering well. The new tools look like a great idea . Take care
I wanted to get larger pepper plants to set out and smaller tomatoes. So, I’m starting the peppers earlier and tomatoes later. We’re fortunate in having the greenhouse to keep them happy and growing with less work from me. I’ll start them in the house. When I transplant, they’ll be going into the heated greenhouse to finish up. I was amazed at the Lilac Bell peppers I grew last summer. They have such thick walls, are huge and very tasty too. I am going to plant lots of them!!
Spring will be here sooner than we think. No snow has lasted long here but better half makes use to remove invasive trees/shrubs and “bank” wood for next season.
You have *a lot* more garden area to weed than we do. And yes, easier to weed previously tilled soil.
While I have discretionary dollars, I went economy for native grasses and wildflowers on the acreage we’re restoring. Always have the option to put in more wildflowers for pollinators – heck, just removing the invasive plants on our homestead lot will help – it already has numerous woodland native flowers and plants.
And yes, we’re not getting any younger either. I signed up for stewardship this year on the acreage we’re restoring. I’ll keep an eye out and if I think another year is needed, I’ll budget the money. It is great when wanted seeds remain viable for years but not when unwanted seeds do.
All I can say is if you have the acreage, you can plant. Might be some work getting the areas ready but is can be done. I for one say one can never have enough taters.
Weirdest winter yet of my lifetime in this area – likely more ice/sleet/freezing rain than snow tomorrow. But moisture is moisture.
Yep, we’ve been having real weird weather, with not much snowfall. We only have about a foot on the ground, which is two feet under normal winter at this time.
I know we’re planting extra in all our gardens. Just because we have the room and who know who might need the food??? We’re always working on our pastures and woodland, seeding clovers and other plants for the pollinators and woodland creatures.
Any dead trees get cut down for firewood. We’ll never run out!!
Week from this Saturday they are calling for 8-10 inches of snow, winds gusting to 30 mph. Better than the rain/freezing rain we got last night. Walking on grassy areas was okay but bare soil/cement/decks/asphalt was not. Black ice is so dangerous.
We’ll still be below average but given climate change, I can see us catching up Feb/Mar/Apr – April is such a wildcard, we’ve had blizzards and heavy dumps in the past.
And now 9-12 inches. Plus 3-4 inches earlier in the week. We’ll see.