"Made It Myself" Garden Implement

Made It Myself Garden Implement CULTIVATORS Retired after a career in the seed potato industry Doug Edwards still plants potatoes for his family Although he plants his seed potatoes by hand he needed a hiller and cultivator “My first thought was to use disks to hill the beds for potatoes ” he says “Then I decided to add cultivator shovels to either side to get the weeds ” The main frame was a steel bar to which he mounted a set of handles from a rototiller At either end he mounted U-shaped brackets for 2 child-sized bike tires The brackets were made from 1 by 1/4-in steel strap Rods attached loosely to the ends of the bar extend forward to attach to the lawn tractor Edwards welded a 6-in wide steel bar perpendicular to the main frame and extending to the rear It serves as a mount for the toolbar “I used 2 lengths of angle iron to make the toolbar leaving a space in between to mount tools ” says Edwards Hilling disks are mounted to channel iron arms The arms bolt through a steel plate that rides underneath the toolbar and through a short length of channel iron that fits above the slot of the toolbar This lets him adjust the disks to the right or left or change their angle Cultivator shovels bolt to the far sides of the toolbar When Edwards needed to fertilize the potatoes he mounted an old funnel to the center of the toolbar with a flat tab in the neck of the funnel “It took a bit of time to calibrate it but now I can adjust the flow of fertilizer ” says Edwards To spread the fertilizer in the center of the bed Edwards mounted a vertical arm of steel tubing to the toolbar and behind the funnel He bolted a rectangular steel plate to a small piece of steel tubing that rides inside the arm and is held in place by a set screw Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Douglas Edwards R R 2 287065 Spruce Grove Rd Englehart Ontario Canada P0J 1H0 ph 705 544 2906; dougnorm@ntl sympatico ca

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