What's your wishlist if you had $100, few 100, $1000, $10000

[applestar]

Heh, I guess I'm bored. It's hot and I feel lazy and I don't feel like watching TV or reading a book....

So, do you have a gardening tool or equipment that you've been wanting to get? Of course you do.
There are always things out there that it seems like if you only had THAT it would make gardening easier or you could grow better/more... Right?

What if you had a $100?
...a few hundred bucks?
...a $1000?
...$10,000?

I think right now, top of my wishlist is an electric chipper/shredder -- that would be a few hundred bucks.
Pretty high up there on "oh I wish I had..." is a double polycarbonate hobby greenhouse -- doesn't have to be huge -- with automated vent and heat, bug screens, solar lighting and rain gutters/barrels, but I would settle for an inexpensive hoop house or pop-up under $1000 and try to make it work.

[DoubleDogFarm]

Is your topic only relating to gardening?

Eric

[applestar]

Someone else can start an all inclusive (except gardening ) thread in the Hoo Ha.

...but I would accept stretches of imagination as long as you can provide a convincing connection to gardening.

[applestar]

Oh yeah, I'm sure I need one of those hand crank arge hopper tomato strainers that separate out the seeds and skin. $100.

[digitS']

I need to replace the tines on my little Honda tiller. I believe Honda still makes the engine for Mantis but it is about the same size as those more-popular tillers.

Dang things cost me $60 several years ago and I guess they are about $75 now. With shipping &/or tax, that would take the better part of $100.

A polycarbonate greenhouse may well cost you all of that $10,000, Applestar. I bought one years ago, clearance/discontinued model, for $3,500. It wasn't double-walled nor did it come with anything automatic. With an "owner-built" sunshed, I'm fine without a polycarbonate one. In fact, when I did some expansion of my protective growing this year, I just built a little shed with an attached hoophouse. With some used material for the shed, the whole thing cost well under $1,000.

Let's see . . . right now . . . I'd guess I'd like to pay someone to do garden work for me with $1,000 . Nine days in a row above 90°f here!

With $10k , I'd like to have an outdoor room. I mean, a roofed and floored space with comfortable furniture! Something like one of these! 31 Outdoor Room Design Ideas (link) Some of 'em, might not cost any more than that!

Steve

[!potatoes!]

$10,000 would be a downpayment on a farm/nursery, which would be a godsend, considering how many trees/shrubs/perennials I have in pots. we're saving for it, bu it would be easier to just have the money. renting has both its ups and downs for sure.

at this point, anything less, earmarked for gardening activities, just goes in the fund. tempting as it would be to buy more trees to pot up.

[pinksand]

Oooo, my husband and I were just discussing some items on our wish list the other day! Sometimes it's fun to dream

I'd love a large potting shed... one with windows and window box planters! Our 1 car garage is teeny and between my garden supplies and our mountain biking tools, bikes, work stand, etc. there isn't any room for a car Plus, my husband isn't very organized so with my own shed I'd be able to keep everything tidy and accessible. I'd also get my husband a better mower because it takes him about 2 hours to mow every week and he loathes it! We also need a chain saw so we don't have to keep borrowing our parents'.

Oh and I'd love to pay someone to completely tear out my neighbors yard and landscape it so that I'm not constantly having to battle their tangle of poison ivy, poke weeds, vinca, wild strawberry vine, Virginia creeper, English ivy, Algerian ivy, wild grape vine, and some nightmare of a plant with thorns. Getting that mess under control would save me a great deal of headache and feeling of hopelessness as everything creeps into my garden! Plus, they're really nice people and I wouldn't mind helping them out if I had the excess cash

[tomf]

Pinksand weeds have a way of not staying in one yard, poison ivy, yuck!
If I was flush with garden cash,oh wow!
I want ether a pine straw rake that goes on the 3 point hitch of the tractor. or one of those lawn vacuum units that tow behind a riding mower.
I would love a backhoe for the tractor.
A bigger greenhouse would be nice.
With a bulldozer I could cut my own roads where I want them, and knock out some stumps, and level areas.
Landscaping materials would be on the list, more stones, mulch, art work, old farm equipment.
Two 14 yard trucks of compost for the garden.
I want to build some kind of hut or gazebo thing down on the property where the view is nice.
More out buildings, one to store the tractor and it's attachments, riding mowers, and push mowers.
A water feature would be way cool.
The problem is like everyone my want list and the money I am able to spend on it do not match. I do plan of some of them, I will have to pass on the bulldozer for now or ever, thankfully I do have neighbors with them. At one time I could not imagine the need of a Bulldozer for yard work. LOL

[tomf]

How about some one to come in and help with the work?

[tomf]

Applestar I got a 14 hp chipper from a tool rental place that was closing down for $350. I do not use it much as I loaned it to a friend, and he still has it. I asked him about it not long ago. I mostly just use the 5' Bush Hog on the tractor, large piles of brush are gone in no time with it; you would not want to use a Brus Hog in the city as it tosses sticks. The chipper is nice for making mulch, but is a bit slow and a lot of work. If you do not have much to do the electric is nice as it is small and you do not have to tune it up. Just check out how well they work, if it is to small it may not get the job done.

[tomf]

Applestar I did get the chipper when I lived in Portland on a 3/4 acre lot that had some big trees on it. It was way more than I need then, I moved and the volume off things to grind have gone way so it does not get the same amount of use. I used to use the grindings as mulch. Not having the chipper is what happens when you let someone borrow your tools, my small list of people I will lend stuff to just got smaller.

I have a bunch more things I could add to the list, sir, but I may already be approaching greedy.

[applestar]

Tomf, that sounds about right. We have 3/8 acre and the chipper has always been -- do I REALLY need one? Though it feels like I do need one when all the corn stalks are drying or when extra pruning was needed for one tree or another, or more than one. Township requires "brush" to be cut into 24" long pieces and bundled and tied, then a call put in for them to be picked up -- what seems to me a lot of wasteful work for no benefit. But more so, I feel like its such a waste to be BUYING mulch when I have a pile of wood.

I REALLY don't like this idea of throwing away/having hauled away things and then turning around and BUYING what is essentially the same thing.

For now, I stack the branches and corn stalks into compost pile surrounds or bury them in the garden beds as pseudo hugelkultur, trim longer straighter branches into tomato stakes and bean trellis supports, etc. When they are broken down, then get "dry rotted" enough to crumble into the compost or garden bed by stepping on them or hitting them with a shovel. When they get screened out, they get used as mulch. ...FINALLY making their way back into the soil.

[Green Mantis]

I'd love a small greenhouse to grow tomatoes. Hubby would like a chipper, a good rototiller.

I also would like to hire someone to help me get the garden in shape. Really could use that.

[imafan26]

I'd get more land to expand the garden. I have a small suburban house lot.
I'd like to get a chipper and a trailer to hitch to my car so that I can haul all of this waste away to the recycling center and get some bulk materials for the garden. I don't have the space or material to compost so I would like to be able to buy bulk compost.
A potting shed with attached greenhouse would be great too
Bright lights for the garden at night so I can stay out and get more work done in the cooler part of the day. Lights would also keep the rose beetles away too. I have short days 11-14 hours average.
Outdoor sink and prep area to wash and clean produce from the garden

[tomf]

How about an out door kitchen?
Want one of them?

[imafan26]

Oh yeah! an outdoor kitchen with a forno oven and a gazebo to have breakfast or entertaining alfresco. I would also need the citronella torches and candles surrounding it to keep the mosquitoes at bay.

A water feature,preferably one that can grow a few edibles like watercress and taro or even lotus.

While one is dreaming. how about a roomba that mows grass!

[LA47]

I had to really stop and think on this. We already have most of the things mentioned for the yard as far as tools and equipment, greenhouse and sheds. My wish would be a small covered back porch and a larger covered patio separate from the house and someone else to do the dirt work, leveling, layering needed to put in in brick flooring for them. THAT'S really what is stopping us from starting them. Well, the cost of the bricks too. Most of the things that have been mentioned we've found at yard sales, or craigs list, including 2 of the seed strainers mentioned. I paid $3.50 for one and $5.00 for the other. Couldn't pass those by.

[imafan26]

If I gotta get practical, I really just need to clean up my garden. I could use a crew for the day to tear out weeds, and reorganize my work area. I have pots and trays stacked and falling over and a couple of places in the yard and half the garage are filled with gardening and other stuff. I need to purge but the hoarder in me can't let a lot of this go.

I really could use a chain saw or an electric pruner but I am afraid of the chain saw and the hand pruner works fine for me most of the time. A sharp blade would help. I have a tiller/cultivator, but I rarely use it as I have to maintain it after every 20 hours and my garden is so small that I can do it with a shovel, it just takes longer. I do worm composting and they are pretty low maintenance already. For what I do I have most of the supplies that I need. I also have an electric weed whacker for the grass. It does the job and is a lot less maintenance than a gas weed whacker, but I wish they come up with a better design than the spools.

What I need to do is really learn how to sharpen my tools. I have a sharpening stone and a file but, I really don't have the technique right to get the proper angle on the blade. I could use a bench vise and a grindstone.

Other than that, I already have a patio table and chairs and a great place to relax and have an occasional outdoor pancake breakfast and just enjoy.

[tomf]

You can put plastic links on your weed eater, I have not used them but they look like for what you need they would work. You do need a sharp blade, so that may be your best thing to get. Chain saws are dangerous, I have almost been cut by one. You need to know how to handle one, I do a lot of chain saw work and I am always cautious. I own 7 or 8 of them from pole saws to a 25" bar, some times I wish I had a 32" bar, I often have to cut a log from both sides with the 25" bar. For the amount I need it I can't see spending that much.
last fall I got a rake, de-thatcher that tows behind a riding mower, but it is not nearly enough to do what I want , and makes a poor rake. I as trying to cheap out but thais is what happens every time I cheap out. The two solutions are a vacuum nit that tows behind a riding mower, or a pine straw rake. I am looking at getting a pine straw rake, they hook on to the back of a 3pt hitch on a tractor. I am shopping for one now.

[imafan26]

I don't know if I can put plastic links on my weed eater. There are optional heads for weed eaters but they are only adapted to gas weed eaters. Unfortunately, mine is electric and the head design is different and smaller. I had a couple of gas weed eaters before. They are more powerful, but they were heavy to carry even with the strap, and needed more maintenance. I don't use the weed eater every week so the gas would spoil without stabilizers and if I ran it dry to avoid having stale gas in the tank, it was hard to prime again and I would just wear me out having to keep pulling the string to restart it. The real downside with the electric weed eater is that I can't use it where there is no electricity. I looked into the cordless weed eaters but they were heavy, you need more than one battery pack if you have to go more than 30 minutes and the power was pretty weak and those darn spools!

[Juliuskitty]

Since I am a tomato and other edibles person, I would start with 10 bales of PromixBX, get 15 more earthboxes, 3 gallons of Texas Tomato Food concentrate.
Then I would change focus and purchase 3 other types of mango trees, and a Lychee. Then I would buy alot if rosebushes on nematode resistant rootstock, and hire help to set up the earthboxes, plant the trees and rosebushes.
Maybe after that I would enroll in a course to learn Spanish, I know, not garden related,
Finally, I would enroll in cooking school so I could earn creative ways to prepare my harvest.

[applestar]

I love reading everone's replies Mundane everyday usefulness to "let's dream BIG!"

[tomf]

I did get the rake I wanted, nothing like raking the lawn from the seat of a traactor, LOL.

[Northernfox]

100 $ some new pruners and seeds
1,000$ an LED light system and a grow tent for winter growing
10,000$ a Geodesic dome for 12 month growing in Zone 3A

I don't have a ton of space but this is the general thought.

[tomf]

Traactor? This is what happens when one taps with fingers on an iPad!

[Northernfox]

Lol

[tomf]

10k a backhoe. 30k a used dozer.
When you have a lot of land it is not what will you get, but when, it takes a lot of equipment to keep up property, the more you have the more gear you need. Think about this before moving to large acreage. More than I had planed for, but I love tools.

[DoubleDogFarm]

I don't know. I love tools also, but they just create work. No tools, no work. Just sit back and enjoy nature.

Eric

[tomf]

Work is ust a fact of life for some of us, one has to be a bit of a machanic as well.

[DoubleDogFarm]

Work is ust a fact of life for some of us, one has to be a bit of a machanic as well.

You are preaching to the choir Tom. I'm working on a customers DR Powerwagon this morning. Now where is my hammer Do you own a Powerwagon?

Eric

[digitS']

If you can't fix it with that hammer, Eric -

use a bigger hammer.

Steve