In this day of cheaper imported products it sometimes
becomes difficult to find good old fashion American made garden tools.
If you’re a weekend hobby gardener or a serious homesteader
who depends on the garden for food the tools that you choose can make a world
of difference in the work that it takes to have a successful harvest.
As we all age and have more time to spend in the garden the
tools that we use also need to become more easier for us to handle.
A tool might look sturdy enough when you purchase it in the
store but the facts become very apparent soon after you’re in the garden
putting it to work.
When we look for great garden tools we go directly to the
people who build and use the tools to sustain large families just as they were
doing in the early 1900s.
We’re talking about the Amish communities who depend on
garden tools to get the job done year after year.
The Amish depend on large garden harvest to sustain their families
throughout the year.
The Amish use sturdy well made tools and if they can’t find
them they begin to build or find someone who will build reproductions just like
they remember from generations past.
Although a trip to Amish country is fun, for those who are
not able to make the trip seeking these alternative garden tools you can find
them at the back to basic store Cottage Craft Works http://www.cottagecraftworks.com
You will find a large selection of old fashion push hand
cultivators and garden tools that you won’t find at your local hardware store.
The Classic Garden EZ-Till Cultivator is a favorite of many
Amish women who like a small maneuverable garden cultivator to push. It uses a 16” ball bearing rubber wheel and
has the traditional hardwood handles that can be adjusted to heights. It has standard 19” wide cultivator tines
and optional furrowing shovel and cultivator blades.
The Weed & Till Rotary Garden Cultivator is equipped with
the traditional cultivator tines, but
instead of having a front wheel the cultivator has a rolling metal drum made
with sharp blades that helps to chops weeds forward of the tines. The handle is made of 1” square tubing with a
hardwood handle like the old reel mowers.
This cultivator also has an optional furrowing shovel.
The Flip and Go Wheeled Garden Cultivator works well for
those who don’t want to waste time taking attachments on and off. This unique cultivator has the traditional
garden tines as you would expect to see on a garden cultivator, but on top it
has also has a garden plow attached that can be engaged by simply flipping the
handles over. The cultivator also has T
screws to easily adjust the handle height between different users.
Wheel Hoe Cultivators are probably one the most durable user
friendly garden cultivators on the market today. They also provide the most options in attachments
of any cultivator ever built.
These are actual reproductions of the famous Planet Junior Cultivators
that dominated the market when almost every home in America depended on a
backyard garden to supply their annual food source such as the Amish still do
today.
The basic models begin with the Standard Single Wheel
Hoe. It uses a single wheel like most
push cultivators. The wheel is much
smaller, thus it easier to maneuver around in the garden than the
traditional.
The attachments range from
the traditional tines, plows, with the additions of various widths of slicing
blades, sweeps, harrow disk and even a garden seed planter.
The plows can be purchased in a right and left hand set that
allow you to hill up planting rows or open up the row to plant potatoes.
The Double Wheel Hoe model uses all the same attachments. It allows you to straddle the rows of new plantings to cultivate both sides at the
same time.
