“Best Buy” Garden Tools

“Best Buy” Garden Tools FARM HOME Miscellaneous “Last spring I helped set out plants at a friend’s place and used a garden and bulb planter called the Hound Dog that I bought at Home Depot www homedepot com ” says Warren Farley Jackson Ohio “This stand-up tool easily cuts holes and then expels the soil right where you want it It comes with a T-grip handle and a trigger that’s used to open digging spades at the bottom to release the soil The design guarantees consistent depth when doing a lot of transplanting “It’s a good product when used properly A lot of reviews on it are negative but I don’t think those people are using the tool properly They’re pushing down on the handle which eventually will cause it to break instead of stepping down on the pegs at the bottom like you’re supposed to I’ve used my Hound Dog to punch thousands of holes without breaking anything ” The Hound Dog sells for $31 90 plus S&H Farley applies lime and calcium nitrate to each hole before setting a plant It’s a painstaking process since he usually sets out 400 to 500 plants a day So he searched for a device that would release a pre-measured amount of product and found the Instant Joy dispenser for powdered coffee and creamer www instantjoydispenser com; ph 760 754-8838 It comes in wall-mount and stand-alone versions For both models you place your cup under the dispenser then rotate a dial to automatically release a half teaspoonful of powdered ingredient into your cup Farley adapted the dispenser for applying fertilizer “I screwed two wall-mount dispensers onto a piece of plywood added some 1 1/2-in dia pvc pipe and came up with a new tool for garden work ” says Farley “It has speeded up the process by letting me put both amendments in the ground at one time The pipe is held in place by two blocks of wood screwed onto the plywood A Y coupling between the blocks is fastened to another short length of pipe that leads to one of the dispensers The dispensers aren’t fastened to the pipes which lets me see the product fall into the pipes and also makes it easy to remove the dispensers for refilling ” A 1-in pvc handle is mounted on back of the plywood Farley also screwed a bell-shaped 2 to 4-in pvc adapter to the bottom of the pipe and mounted a smaller 1 1/2 to 2-in adapter inside it The smaller adapter had to be reamed out to fit over the 1 1/2-in pipe and slid about 6 in up from the bottom “I hold onto the handle with one hand and rotate the dispensers’ dials with my other hand The design lets me set the pipe over the hole and dispense fertilizer without the pipe contacting the bottom of the hole and possibly plugging with soil ” says Farley The Instant Joy dispenser sells for $26 95 plus S&H Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Warren Farley 280 State St Jackson Ohio 45640 wrfarley@roadrunner com

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