Vegetable Planter

Another invaluable tool for the small farmer is the vegetable planter. Any gardener can tell you a full days work on your hands and knees, with all the bending over, can be terribly hard on your body. Now imagine planting ten acres or more. That is where this tool comes in. With it two or three people (one to drive the tractor and one or two to plant) can plant acres of vegetable plugs without much effort. The basic parts are this: a water tank on top, metal framing to hold the trays of vegetable plugs, a seat for the planters, and a specialized wheel. The wheel - seen here in green - rolls over the top of the raised bed. It has spokes which penetrate the ground thereby creating a small hole and delivering a small amount of water. It is into this hole that the planter places the vegetable plug. It is all a very fluid motion. In short this is the tool that allows two or three people to run a small vegetable farm. Without it, a farmer would need to hire a small army of human labor.