I blew about $200 on one of the high dollar U-bar broadforks from Lehman’s. Justification? Well, I ain’t turnin’ the whole garden with a shovel – that’s a young man’s occupation. And the nice mongo Troy Built tiller I got for a song years ago needs some major carb work and rear seals. That’s an easy 200 dollar bill. Not to mention a gallon of gas, oil change, spark plug etc. From here on out Mr. U-bar only asks to sorta stay out of the rain to protect his tough powder coat finish…
So after the three little pigs get done munching all the growth and rooting up the ground in their 16 x 16 foot pen I go in with the U-bar. Takes about twenty minutes to break up a 4×16 bed working first sideways and then longways. Kinda chop up some clods with a rake and it’s ready to plant. Not hard at all, just nice steady work. Don’t even breath hard, and yeah, I smoke…
I’m not doing that weird double digging deep bed crap – waaaay to much work for me. But Mr. U-bar gets as deep as the tiller ever did and doesn’t chop up roots, just lifts them up nicely so I can pull ’em out. I won’t be propagating that pesky vetch anymore. That tiller made a nightmare a month later. Beet roots and soil critters will break it all up over a few year’s time.
One things for sure – I’m in no big hurry. It’s nice to hear songbirds while working the soil rather than wrestling with a noisy fumey rototiller.
comrade simba 
May 2, 2007 at 1:02 am |
Looks nice. Unfortunately for me it says “not recommended for breaking up new soil.” That is exactly what I need. I don’t want to use a tiller, but I also don’t want to hospitalize myself using a pick and shovel. I’ve got a lot of rocks. I say show me pictures or it ain’t true. 😉
May 2, 2007 at 2:55 am |
Hmmmm…
Well I’m not getting the full 14 inch stab into the ground – lots of rocks here, too. The tool is designed for loosening deep beds, but that doesn’t mean it can’t do anything else. The first poke goes in about 4 inches, and I get a few more on the perpendicular poke. The pigs have loosened up the surface beforehand. I guess I’ll go out to the lawn and stab around to see what new ground does. I will post here in the comments tomorrow.
Maybe busting new ground with a tiller is the way to go. U bar from then on.
Nice to hear from you BTW…
May 2, 2007 at 3:09 pm |
So I go out to a spot in the yard on the path towards the garden. Set ubar on ground, pushed with foot. Sunk in 2 inches. Moved ubar back three inches and pushed with foot. Etc. etc. for 4 1/2 feet. Turned ubar and worked the same ground perpendicularly, getting about three inches depth per push.
Went over the same patch the same way only this time picking up ubar and dropping it into the soil. Got down 8 or 9 inches. Turned ubar perpendicularly, dropped into soil and it sunk to 10 inches and in some places a foot. Where there was a big rock I bent down and pulled it out.
Five to ten minutes work. Six square feet of worked earth. Ubar weighs 22 pounds but picking it up and dropping it into the dirt is easier than a pick. Soil nice and loose, grass tufts can be pulled out easily, and the soil structure is mostly intact. I think I’ll go out and poke some soybeans into the area just as it is.
U-bar vs. pick vs. tiller. I think I’d use a pick and slam it in every six inches to break hard ground on a new garden bed, followed by U-bar. both directions. Hell with the tiller – takes a heck of a lot of hard tilling to get down below 8 inches. With pick and/or U-bar a bed can be worked up one twenty inch section at a time. U-bar a while, plant a while…
end report
May 2, 2007 at 10:12 pm |
Excellent. I’ll look into it. I’ve still got some things in the basement that need planting, but it has been chilly up here. But we’ve decided that this weekend is it.
Thanks for the report. I really enjoy Lehman’s things. I’m glad to hear that this particular object is worth buying.