After missing all of last season in my big garden (3,500 square feet) because both of my Troy-Bilt rototillers were broke down, things returned to normal this summer.

I asked a friend of ours from church if he knew anyone who could work on my tillers for a reasonable price.

I had them at another place last fall, but he couldn’t get either one to run properly.

New guy said he would be glad to look at both to see if he could fix them. He brought his trailer to our house, loaded up both tillers and drove away.

He called a few days later and said he had my 7 HP pull start tiller fixed. It had a problem with the condenser and it wouldn’t fire properly.

My 8 HP tiller wasn’t getting gas. He figured the carburetor was dirty, but when he checked it, the other guy had put a new one on it. It would start easily (key start) but wouldn’t keep running. My guy checked on the price of a new carburetor. $250. He then checked on a friend of his who did small engine repair. New carburetor, $20. He put it on my tiller and it works great.

He returned both of my tillers, and I still had a problem.

No rain.

The ground was hard and full of weeds, so I waited.

Finally we got some rain.

On Father’s Day, I decided it was time.

I fired up the key start and began tilling the weeds.

I finished about half of the garden and was getting ready to lower the depth one notch on the tiller. Around the corner of our house came Jason and Ladonna, friends of ours who had kinda adopted us as parents.

Jason took over the tiller and covered the first half of the garden at two lower depths.

As he was tilling, Jon and Tina rounded the corner.

They had also unofficially adopted us, and Jon took over the tilling job and did half of the remaining ground.

Tina even took several turns on the tiller as we all watched.

It’s great having young help when you get to be my age.

Both couples left their families on Father’s Day and came to help us.

The next day, I measured the rows and placed flags at each end of the 35 foot rows.

I leave a wide enough space to allow my tiller to turn weeds under between the plants when they start growing. I mark the rows between flags and Susie and I begin dropping seeds in the ground. Five rows of Provider bush beans. Three rows of mammoth sunflowers. Three rows of ornamental corn. Three rows of striped sunflowers. Then I stepped back and prayed for rain.

I left enough empty space to plant five more rows of beans in a couple weeks.

The last section of the garden I spread gourds from last fall which have dried out. I run the tiller over these when finishing the garden. This breaks the gourds and spreads the seeds all over. When the rains come, the gourd seeds will sprout all over this section.

It’s early July now and most of the garden is looking good. The bean rows are doing great, the mammoth sunflowers are up but had an average germination rate. The ornamental corn grew so thick, I may have to thin them out. The striped sunflowers are doing pitiful. I can just barely see where the row is.

Some of the gourd seeds are sprouting. They are heavy in a couple spots, and when then get a little larger, I will dig up some and spread them around in various spots. The corn, corn stalks and gourds will be used this fall for front porch decorations. The sunflower seeds will feed the birds this winter.

I have some tomatoes, zucchini, peppers and melons in the raised garden and in a couple areas in front of the house.

At over three quarters of a century old, I think that’s enough garden for this year.

Rich Creason is an award-winning outdoors and travel writer whose work has appeared in local, regional, national and international publications for 40 years. Born in Anderson, he is a graduate of Markleville High School. He lives in South Madison County with his wife, Susie. He may be contacted at [email protected].