We have a rolling dibbler at the farm - two hands to pull it on either side of the row. But it really only marks the hole placement and for half of the holes, so the whole thing is done again by hand to the right depth afterwards. But of course, it's only around 200-250 ft of row for a mixed vegetable CSA... I'm not fast (at anything it seems) but my back hardly bothers me for that.
Hand planting scaled waaay up
yes indeed, rum sounds like a good idea/
Every year I forget how much work it is to prep the garlic beds.
I am so relieved by the time it comes to stick cloves in a hole.
The tiller didn't do a great job at the farm this year (ultra weedy pumpkin patch) so there was a lot of fork, shovel and rake to get it ready.
In my own garden, the soil is poor and the beds are not deep so a lot of additions and amendment required. No wheelbarrow so still lugging around the infamous horse manure in buckets and digging it in with the fork etc... . Only half done after two days, it's enough to make you wish for larger scales and machines of any kind.
One thing I've noticed is that, at my age, I get out of shape in no time flat.
Six weeks without any field work, everything aches the day after.
Henry, how many days does it take to plant the garlic at your farm?