Two good garden tools to help combat rising food costs

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Glenn Perrett photos

Troy-Bilt Super Bronco CRT Rear Tine Tiller

www.troybilt.ca

While there is lots of complaining about rising food costs – and deservedly so – there are ways to fight back including growing some of your own food. Even if you live in an apartment you may be able to grow some vegetables in containers on a balcony. If you have a yard, even a small yard, you can likely designate some space for a garden. This can be a bonus if you reduce lawn that has to be cut regularly in exchange for a garden that produces healthy fruits and vegetables.

If you have a decent-sized garden that you maintain, it can be beneficial to get a tiller. My wife Lynn and I grow lots of vegetables in several organic gardens. For a couple of years we were in between tillers and we found the manual work of overturning the soil exhausting. The last couple of years we have borrowed a neighbour's tiller, but this spring we got a Super Bronco CRT Rear Tine Tiller by Troy-Bilt and it is making quick work preparing our gardens for planting. The powerful 208cc OHV Troy-Bilt engine along with the 10-inch tines and 16-inch tilling width also allows us to efficiently increase the size of the gardens. Having a quality tiller not only allows us to enlarge established gardens but to create more gardens providing us with more space to grow vegetables and fruit and reducing our food bills in the process.

Other features of this tiller that I appreciate include its counter-rotating tines which can effectively break up even hard-packed soils up to approximately 6-inches deep. A depth regulator lever lets you till the soil to varying depths and you can adjust the handlebar height. The machine also has a power reverse allowing you to go around obstacles and its 13-inch tires provide good traction and stability.

Victory gardens were grown during World War I and World War II to produce food for civilians and to assist with the war effort. With rapidly escalating food prices, being less dependent on large food companies for your food supply is important and tillers like the Troy-Bilt Super Bronco CRT Rear Tine Tiller can help.

Craftsman V20 Max Cordless Multi-Use Garden Tool Kit

www.craftsman.ca (item CMCA320)

If you plant numerous flowers or vegetables, fruits and herbs in your garden each year you will be interested in this tool from Craftsman. The Craftsman V20 Max Cordless Multi-Use Garden Tool Kit (item CMCA320) with Bulb Auger quickly drills holes in the soil for your plants. Not only does this cordless, battery-powered auger drill holes faster than you can dig them, but it has options for whether you are left-handed or right-handed as the auxiliary handle can be positioned on the left or right side. The tool also has a third gripping surface.

The drill isn't too heavy and is comfortable to use allowing you to drill numerous holes in your gardens and flower beds in a relatively short period of time. According to Craftsman this tool allows you to create "up to 165 holes per charge". This garden "drill" will considerably ease our workload when we plant the dozens of tomato and pepper plants that currently occupy our kitchen table.

This is another good gardening tool that can help you become more self-sufficient with your food needs and less reliant on big grocery companies. The items included in the kit are: (i) CMCA320 Multi-Use Garden Tool (ii) V20 Lithium Ion Battery (iii) V20 Lithium Ion Charger (iv) Auger Bit (v) Snap Pin.

Make sure that you read and follow all warnings and safety advice contained in the manuals for the tiller and garden tool kit.

If someone had asked me 17 years go what kind of zookeeper I wanted to be, I would have said a big cat keeper. Fast forward to present day having cared for nine rhinos (soon to be 10!), two different species, attended four Rhino Keeper Workshops and two trips to Africa later, and I most certainly identify as a rhino fanatic.