The Earthway "Precision" Garden Seeder
I honestly don't know why the baling twine is on the seeder, but it's on pretty much everything around here, there's even some in my pocket right now for reasons unknown...
One day, over a decade ago my husband came home from the local feed and farm store with large smile on his face and a precisely shaped chunk of aluminum under his arm.
"I got something for ya!" he chirped with man-procuring-gadgetry glee.
"Oh boy," I replied with contrived optimism as I wondered just how much that multi-pronged piece of aluminum had relieved from our checking account.
"It's a seeder for the garden, it has different plates for different seeds and everything!" he gushed as he showed off the new toy.
The Earthway Precision Garden Seeder has been around for quite some time, and I have to admit that I have found it useful on occasion. This nifty little garden utensil not only digs your seed furrow to whatever depth that you select, it also plants the seeds, and a chain on the back of the unit covers the furrow in your wake. There is also this little aluminum arm that can mark out your next row as you plant one. Pretty nifty indeed.
There are a couple caveats however. Your ground must be prepped just so for the seeder to work correctly. By "just so" I mean smooth like the surface of a pond in the eye of a hurricane. Absolute post face shave smooth. If there is a rock or dirt clump of any size your seeder will get hung on it like a pair of tighty whiteys on a clothesline. As you come to an abrupt and unwelcome stop you will also plant a large cluster of whatever seed that you are trying to disperse, as you will reverse and ram that clump or rock into submission out of irritation. Trust me this will occur.
Another issue is the seed plates. Six seed plates (Sweet Corn, Radish-Leeks-Spinach, Carrots,-Lettuce,-Turnips, Beans-Small Peas, Jumbo Peas, Beets-Okra-Swiss Chard.) come with the seeder, and they are awesome! When I say awesome, I mean the seed companies of the world would totally adore it if you used them in every garden planting instance. Unless you love to thin your plants, and I mean, who wouldn't love to thin several hundred row feet of corn, then I humbly offer up a bit of a trick that has helped my seeder become more preciosion-ish over the years: masking or painter's tape. I tape every other hole on the seed plates, and I have found that it really has helped regarding the over-seeding problem.
Don't get me wrong, I utilize the seeder every year in the garden. Sometimes I just use it to furrow and mark rows. Other times I use it as the manufacture intended, it just depends on what my approach is at the moment. I absolutely adore the seeder when it comes to seeding bush beans and beets!
You can totally see where I ran into a rock or dirt clump as I laid down these rows of beets. Curse words are guaranteed!
I am pretty sure that my husband paid around $100 for the seeding apparatus all those years ago, and I see that one be purchased for 114.99 on Amazon. If you are a market gardener or have a large garden and don't want to spend the funds on a three point mounted tractor seeder or seed drill then this is a good option. It is a durable piece of equipment that sees use year after year, takes abuse without looking like it, and looks kinda cool hanging out in the garden when you forget to put it away.
And as always, all of the images in this post were taken on the author's very garden soil dirty iPhone.