My new favorite thing

Okay -- this Mantis tiller is my new favorite thing. I used it today and tilled up 8 existing garden beds and made a new one from scratch all in about 3 hours -- and I can still move and function. It took me a while to get the hang of starting it -- I'm not used to starting gas engines -- and it was a bit hard to control its speed -- theres a pull trigger on the handle that you have to press to go - the harder you press the faster it goes -- and you have to pull the machine backward to till so you kind of have to go full tilt. It did pretty well on the new ground - I had partially killed off the weeds and long grass and raked up the dead stuff first. It did get bound up with weeds several times - but it was nothing to pop off the blades clean them out and start the thing up again. I'm now thinking that I will dig up all my established and weed choked perennials, till and replant. That's Maggie the mole hunter in the photo - hoping I'll turn one up. In the second photo - of course the one bed I didn't till (peas are already growing) is in the foreground.

I also tried to move a small dogwood tree from the front to the back yard - it wasn't going anywhere. Since I had already dug a huge hole in the back I went and got a $10 Eastern Redbud tree (twig might be the better descriptive) from Wal-mart to fill the hole. It joins some $3.99 hollies from Home Depot. Part of a landscaping plan for around the back of the house that will mostly consist of plants donated by neighbors getting rid of hostas and daylilies, excess irises I divided last fall and found in my compost pile going strong, stone from the creek bed and mucho mulch.

It feels good to do all this work and actually see results -- but I will be in the poor house for sure if I don't get back to my eBay work.