Edging the Beds: A Review and Giveaway!

Many of you know that I'm part of the Troy-Bilt Saturday 6 Team, now in its second year. As a part of that team, I get to test and review some Troy-Bilt garden equipment of my choice. Even before I became of part of this team, I was a fan of Troy-Bilt and did some testing and reviewing of products that they provided for me free of charge, in exchange for any suggestions I might have as an actual consumer of their products.

A few years ago, some other garden bloggers and I tested a string trimmer and our experiences and comments led to a redesign of the product in an effort to improve it. Now that is how a testing and review program should work. Everyone wins: Troy-Bilt, me, and the consumer.

TB554 Triple Blade Gas Lawn Edger

One of the products I received this year was the TB554 Triple Blade Gas Lawn Edger. I chose this edger because of its beveling capabilities. I've always admired the sharp knife-edged borders I've seen when touring other gardens and wanted that for my own garden beds. I believe the beveling helps keep the grass from moving in on the garden quite so quickly, because I can cut the roots back a bit, under the grass edge, rather than just making a straight perpendicular cut.

My first concern with this edger is one that I always have with products that have a pull-start. Will I have enough strength to pull it quickly enough to get it started? With some products, I simply do not, and I need my husband to do it for me. With the edger, I could do it myself. Yay!

Push the button three times to prime the engine before pull-starting.

I set the blade at the sharpest angle (three available) it would allow and at the deepest level (six available). I started it up and away I went.

As with any type of equipment like this, running it at full speed made it easier to cut through the turf. Earlier in the summer, when we had no rain and the ground was so hard (we've got heavy clay soil here), it wasn't quite so easy to do the edging. Not impossible, but with just a little rain to soften things up a bit, it was so much easier, so I waited to do the edging until after we'd gotten some rain.

I found that the best way to get a nice edge on a bed that badly needed it was to run the edger twice. Set the bevel, run it along the line where you want your edge, then run it again along the existing edge. This created a loosened wedge of grass and dirt that I then simply pulled away and discarded, leaving me with that nice edge I wanted.

Adjustable curb wheel

Another feature that this edger has is the adjustable curb wheel, making it easier to edge along a curb. We don't have curbs, so we didn't adjust this wheel, but it's easy enough to do. In fact, my husband and I both found everything about the edger pretty easy to do and we got the look we wanted with it.

Would we recommend the TB554 Edger? Absolutely, with no hesitation. You can read more details about the edger here.

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Now, the best part for you! Troy-Bilt is providing an edger just like the one they sent to me, to one of my readers! All you have to do is:

1. Leave a comment here, telling me if you do anything special to edge your garden beds.

AND

2. Fill out the Rafflecopter form with your contact information.

The giveaway will end on Wednesday, September 19th, at midnight EDT.  HEY! That's my birthday! How cool is that? Troy-Bilt gives YOU an edger for MY birthday! They're awesome that way. Now go enter...

a Rafflecopter giveaway

*The products that I've tested for Troy-Bilt® have been provided to me free of charge. The Saturday 6 partnership that I have with Troy-Bilt® includes monetary compensation. Any opinions expressed by me regarding Troy-Bilt® products or events are my own.

The 2012 Saturday6 Team

Last year, I worked with the good people at Troy-Bilt, testing their products (and giving them away on this blog!) and trying to help others become gardeners. That's really what I hope to accomplish here - to inspire others to get out and grow things!

Once again, I'm part of the Troy-Bilt Saturday6 Team, along with these bloggers:

• Douglas E. Welch, A Gardener’s Notebook
• Mark Clement, My Fix-It-Up Life 
• Gina Thomas, My Skinny Garden 
• Jennah Watters, Jennah’s Garden 
• Cindy “Meems” Glover, Hoe and Shovel

The Saturday6 Team + 1, looking lovely in our hairnets at Chef's Garden last year

I've been working with Troy-Bilt since about a year after I began blogging in 2007, and one of the things I love about this company and their relationship with bloggers is that they truly want honest opinions about the products that they provide for review. It's one way for them to make their products even better.

And they do pay attention. The Lithium Ion String Trimmer that many of us tested and reviewed a few years ago got a remake because of the opinions of bloggers who felt that it was ergonomically awkward to use.

Me, testing a reel mower at the MTD (Troy-Bilt) facility in Cleveland last year

This year, like last, we'll be testing a few products in our own yards and gardens and sharing our thoughts on gardening topics via their monthly newsletter The Dirt. You can join their Lawn and Garden Club for free here, and you'll receive the informative newsletter in your inbox every month.

Last year, I was able to give away two great Troy-Bilt products, a chipper/shredder and a snow thrower! This year I'll be giving something away too, although I'm not yet sure what it will be. There will be more reviews, including those of an electric-start tiller and an edger.

As part of the Saturday6 Team, I am compensated by Troy-Bilt, but as always, with anything I write about on this blog, you'll get my own honest opinion, even if it's not particularly favorable. I depend on the opinions of my fellow gardeners when I'm considering purchasing a garden item, so it's important to me that you know what I really think, too.

Here's to another great year in the garden!

Got Snow? Win a Snow Thrower!

We've had some snow here at Our Little Acre already this season, even though winter doesn't technically arrive until Wednesday morning. It hasn't been anything that we needed to shovel by any means, but it's only a matter of time before we get a snowfall that requires a method of removal.

9 December 2011

The easiest way for us to take care of snowdrifts in the driveway and walkways is to use our Troy-Bilt Storm 3090 XP Snow Thrower we received from Troy-Bilt last winter for testing and review. You can read our review here, complete with video.

January 2011

If you have a winter snow issue, you just might want to enter this giveaway, because the nice people at Troy-Bilt are allowing me to give away a snow thrower again this year!! And the one they're providing for the giveaway is the very one we tested and have, the Troy-Bilt Storm 3090 XP. It really is a great snow thrower.

By leaving a comment on this blog post and entering your information in the Rafflecopter form, that gives you two entries into the giveaway. Just tell me what you would suggest as a Christmas gift for a 97-year-old woman in assisted living. (Hey, I'm desperate!)

The Troy-Bilt ® Saturday Six

You may have noticed the Saturday 6 logo in the right sidebar in recent weeks. If you click on it, it will take you to a page that introduces you to the Troy-Bilt® Saturday 6 Team, of which I'm a member. This summer, I'll be doing various activities for Troy-Bilt®, as will the other five members.

Here, I'm testing a reel mower at the Troy-Bilt facility.

I'm honored to be a part of this team, as I've worked with Troy-Bilt® every year since 2007 by testing and reviewing garden equipment, as well as writing articles for their newsletter, The Dirt. Troy-Bilt® is one of those companies that's a pleasure to work with, since they stress that they want honest reviews, good or bad. This is a way to help them to improve their products.

In fact, when several garden bloggers tested a Lithium Ion String Trimmer a couple of years ago and posted our reviews online, we all complained that it was awkward to use and generally uncomfortable. The trimmer worked well, it was just not well-designed from an ergonomic standpoint. Troy-Bilt® took this feedback seriously and went back to the drawing board.

I recently spent two days in Cleveland with the other five Saturday 6 team members (courtesy of Troy-Bilt®), touring their facilities, trying out their garden equipment, and visiting The Chef's Garden and The Culinary Vegetable Institute in Huron, Ohio. One of the products I tried was the new and improved Lithium Ion String Trimmer. What a difference our garden bloggers' evaluations made! It's much better!

These are just a few of the garden tool products The Saturday 6 tried out
recently at the Troy-Bilt® facility in Cleveland.

We'll each be writing for The Dirt (read my article on shade plants in the current issue here), making a couple of how-to videos, testing and reviewing garden equipment in our own gardens (and giving one away to one lucky reader!), and co-hosting a Saturday gardening event with a Troy-Bilt® company rep at a local Lowe's store.

Tomorrow, I'll be at the Findlay (OH) Lowe's store on Bright Road from 10:00 a.m. until 1:00 p.m., helping area gardeners with any questions they may have about plants and their own gardens. Scott Jennings will be there too, doing a show and tell of Troy-Bilt® gardening equipment.  I'll do  my best to answer any questions that those who stop by the demo tent might have.

The weather sounds like it will be beautiful, so if you're in the area, stop in and say hi!


WHAT:  Troy-Bilt® Meet and Greet Event
WHEN:  Saturday, May 21, 2011
WHERE:  Findlay Lowe's, 1077 Bright Road, Findlay, OH
TIME:  10:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.

*I received compensation from Troy-Bilt® for my trip to Cleveland, and the products that I've tested for Troy-Bilt® have been provided to me free of charge. The Saturday 6 partnership that I have with Troy-Bilt® includes monetary compensation. Any opinions expressed by me regarding Troy-Bilt® products or events are my own.