A Gardener’s Dream Machines

It was the fall of 1991. I had recently moved to Katonah, New York, to take a job as the horticulturist and property manager for a 50-acre estate complete with a stable full of horses, a pasture with a half-dozen Scottish longhorn cattle, a field with a handful of goats and a half-dozen sheep. But the gems of this job were the formal gardens, the Lord and Burnham greenhouses and two 30-foot-long cold frames that any gardener would die for. There was also an unlimited budget and a consulting garden designer who became a friend and mentor.This was an opportunity to learn, experiment and develop some of the most magnificent gardens on the East Coast. And since the money spigot was wide open I decided to buy a chipper-shredder that I’d seen advertised in just about every gardening magazine of the time. It was the Mighty Mac 12PT made just a few hundred miles away in Pennsylvania. If ever there was a gardener’s dream machine, this was it. It shredded leaves, chipped branches up to a few inches in diameter, and it was my first foray into composting. I fed the 12PT some collected branches from the end of summer pruning, the organic debris from cleaning the garden beds, and the fallen leaves from maples and other deciduous trees. It was a perfect match of carbon and nitrogen, and the 12PT turned it all into a homogeneous blend of organic goodness that cooked all winter. By mid-spring I was just astonished at the pile of humus or garden gold I was left to use as a soil amendment, mulch or addition for planting holes.

Well, the job only lasted four years and the property was sold. I’ve always missed that 12PT, and several years ago I bought a Troy Bilt (CS 4325) chipper-shredder for use at home. It was difficult to use, difficult to maintain and about the most poorly designed piece of garden equipment on the market. After one season it stayed in the barn for four years until I gave it to the woman who helps me in my garden. She was tickled to have it. She’s never had a 12PT, though.

I’d been threatening for several years to buy a 12PT again. They’re not cheap, but I still thought of them as the gold standard for a small property (1 to 5 acres) chipper-shredder. In August I bit the bullet and not only bought myself a new one but got it with an electric start. I love it just as much as the one I had more than 25 years ago, and the design and versatility simply can’t be beat in this type of machine. It (and I) get a workout every weekend now that the leaves are falling and the gardens are being cleaned of debris. If you’re in the market for a chipper-shredder and if you’ve got the means (as in a couple of grand) this is the gold standard. It’s heavy (more than 265 pounds) and large, but you can attach one of three screens for the output side that enables you to control the size of the chips or shredding. It’s loud, strong, but a love of a machine. Wish they’d put different wheels on it, but I still love it. You can get the details with this link: goo.gl/Za7a11.

Which brings me to the mechanical side of getting the garden and garden tools ready for the fall and winter months. If you have any kind of gasoline-powered equipment that you use on the landscape or in the garden, you need to pay some attention to it before its last use of the season. Don’t, and it will have a nasty way of reminding you of your inattention come next spring when you try to start it up. If it runs on gasoline alone (4-cycle) you should either fill the gas tank after its last use and add a fuel stabilizer or drain the tank and then run the engine until it stops because it’s bone dry. Ah, so which method is best? I think that adding stabilizer to a full tank of gas is the safest route.

If you add stabilizer (such as StaBil) in the right amount, either into your gas can or directly into the tank, you protect both the fuel and the engine. But it’s not enough to just add the stabilizer. You also need to run the engine for several minutes so the stabilized gas passes through the entire fuel system. This ensures that the stabilizer is present in all the fuel in the engine, and you won’t end up with a lacquering of the fuel system during months of no use that can doom it. Also, by filling the tank you limit the air space where moisture can develop and enter into the fuel system and foul it or freeze.

I like this method over simply running the engine dry and draining the tank, because there’s no assurance that moisture won’t develop in the tank. It’s also a good step to change the engine oil now instead of in the spring so the new oil can coat the internal engine parts before the winter shutdown. This way, come spring, the very least you’ll have to do is throw in a new spark plug, pull the cord or press the starter, and you should get a quick startup.

Also clean the mowing deck, both above and below, and if you’ve got the time put on a new set of blades and have the old ones sharpened so they can be your spares for next summer. All of your other engines and machines should get the same pre-winter care. Also, if you’ve got a battery-powered trimmer or mower or blower, don’t leave its batteries where they’ll freeze during the winter. They can be kept in the basement or heated garage, but not in the toolshed. Read the instructions that came with them so you know what their charge and discharge regimen should be during the winter months.

In any other year I’d be telling you to get your hoses, sprinklers and irrigation systems ready for winter, but it’s been so awfully dry that I think we can hold off for at least another month. I’m still needing to water the lawn and any new plantings of shrubs, trees or perennials, as the soil is very dry and last week’s warm days just made things worse.

If you have any kind of a sprayer it’s time to clean it up and put it away until next year. This goes for hose-attached sprayers, compression sprayers (pump) and gas sprayers. Remove the nozzle and clean it out. Rinse the tank twice with clear water, remove any dirt or dust from the fill port. Pressurize it and run the clean water through to make sure no dust or dirt is left in the line or nozzle. Take it apart again, let it air-dry thoroughly, reassemble, then store it in the basement or a closet, but not where it will freeze. If there are any rubber rings or gaskets, spray them with silicone to keep the rubber supple.

Don’t leave gasoline in the can over winter since it will go stale. But if you must, treat it with a fuel stabilizer and that will keep it usable until next spring. Then go back outside and keep growing.