Singing the praises of John

Deere, that is. When Dan told me that we needed a tractor when we moved to Arizona and live on our "ranch", I admit I was sceptical. Just another "boy toy" I figured, but I did not argue. Thought it might help with cleaning up after the horses. And my, was I ever wrong! We hardly ever use it in daily horse chores, but I could not have landscaped without it.


Our little tractor is a material mover par excellence. It has moved over 100 buckets of horse manure and several dump trucks worth of sand and gravel.

Now that I am done planting the majority of the yard (the area immediately surrounding the house), it is time to spread gravel mulch. Not only does gravel make the landscape look nice, it also retains moisture and gives a foothold to little seeds that otherwise would be easy food for a desert critter. There are a number of perennial volunteers such as chocolate flower (smells like chocolate, really) and verbena that have happily sprung up all over the yard.


Here is JD at what I call "the landscape yard": the area adjacent to the horses' playpen where we store sand, pea gravel and gravel for the walkways. I could not imagine having to move quantities like these with a shovel and a wheelbarrow.