New rototiller = frugal?

[mattj]

After counting all the costs for meds and physical therapy we've decided to get a small rototiller to help offset some of the brute force required for our garden and this should save us quite a bit!

[Mrs. Hermit]

Quality of life figures into the frugal equation, too. If the rototiller lets you continue to enjoy a beloved hobby, go for it. When my hands went bad, I invested in a rotary cutter system so that I could continue to enjoy sewing without the need to use scissors to cut the fabric. It is a solution that years later is still working well for me.

[CathyA]

We love our tiller and its helped so much. I think it was a great investment for you. I'm loosing more and more function in my body but still want to be able to enjoy things, so I think its a really good choice to buy those things that allow you to do that. I also have started getting more into vertical gardening, which helps alot too. Have fun with your new tiller!

[iris lily]

For most of my 25 years of gardening I've turned over ground with a shovel. I find it meditative, and besides, I grow perennials and those tilling thingamagigs don't go deep enoght anyway. I'm proud to say that with my first serious perennial flower garden I "double dug" it according to the advice of all of the English gardening books I was reading. It was good for me. But that was lovely loamy Iowa soil.

Then we moved to St. Louis which has, in good spots, a lot of clay and in bad spots all clay. So I dug those beds by hand (except fo the giant rock walled raised bed where we trucked in river bottom soil) and that went ok.

Then last year DH got a wild hair and bought a sizeable tiller and he's been using it for his own garden a for me for making new beds. I'm still not real impressed with the depth that the tiller produces, but it's good enough for iris (of which I grow a lot) and for the lily beds it at least gets the beds started. I still have to turn over soil for lily beds with a shovel as well as add tons of organic matter.

But for vegetable beds where you grow annuals, I suppose it's a good thing. DH likes his tiller for that purpose.

[Gina]

"New rototiller = frugal?"

Does it really matter? If it helps you physically, and/or simply brings pleasure to your life, if you can afford it, buy it and love it. :)

Being frugal is like eating - the goal is to eat healthy and in moderatiion most of the time, but occasionally savoring a nice piece of gooey cake without guilt makes life worth living.

Enjoy. http://www.simplelivingforum.net/attachment.php?attachmentid=158&d=1294388504

[Crystal]

I'm soooo envious. Enjoy. :)

[Mrs-M]

"New rototiller = frugal"? I say absolutely!