Row Maker
The handy and effective tool that Travis will be using to create the garden rows is the Row Maker. This tool will allow you to make multiple planting furrows in the garden by simply dragging it along the soil. It contains a nice 54-inch hardwood handle that attaches to the frame with U-bolts that are provided. The powder-coated steel frame is three-foot-long with six holes for arranging the spades in a number of row spacing combinations. Along the frame, the spades can easily be adjusted by loosening and removing a small wing nut. The row maker comes with four spades, but we have additional spades if you would like to add more.
Making the Best Garden Rows
On this week's episode, Travis is demonstrating how to create the easiest garden rows for planting in the garden. Travis is going to use the row maker to plant some beets along the edge of the garden. The area he plans to plant beets in is around five foot wide and usually used for intensive planting. For planting beets, he is going to use the row maker with 4 spades equally spaced a foot apart. Before planting, he prepares the area using the Single Wheel Hoe and the cultivator teeth attachment to break up the soil before running the row maker along the soil. Next, Travis takes the row maker and simply walks backwards dragging it along the soil to make four evenly-spaced planting furrows. You can either direct seed or transplant in the furrows, but Travis likes to transplant beets because it is easier to thin in the trays versus doing it in the ground later when they start emerging. Also, the beets tend to grow out a little better when germinating in the seed starting trays because they tend to be in a controlled greenhouse area and don't experience severe pest and disease pressures. Travis is planting the Touchstone Gold variety which makes an orange-goldish beet that contains excellent flavor profiles and consistently round when spaced properly in the garden. He is also planting the Merlin variety which is a red beet that has a high sugar content that makes it sweeter than any other beet variety. When planting the beet transplants, he places them about four to six inches apart along the furrow to ensure there is plenty of spacing in the garden. Overall, the best garden rows are made using the row maker because it is the simplest tool to quickly and effectively make straight rows in the vegetable garden.
