Pull Behind Lawn Sprayer

Fileds of dreams keeps gardener, coach peppy

THE GARDEN: An organic vegetable garden tucked behind a fence in the side yard of a Westwego home

THE GARDENER: Coach Ben Abadie, a New Orleans baseball standout at Tulane in the late 1940s and early 1950s who went on to work for the university's athletic department for more than three decades and still coaches the "Field of Dreams" baseball team.

THE BIG IDEA: "I only eat organic vegetables so now I grow my own," Abadie said

STARTING POINT:

"Monk Simon told me when I was starting at Tulane that I would have to take nutrition classes and I thought 'Oh, no.' I figured there would be lots of future doctors and nurses in the classes and that I would never keep up," Ben Abadie said. "Let me tell you, I realized how bad I was eating at home and on campus and I changed my diet. I attribute my longevity to those nutrition classes and they're why I only eat organic food."

Abadie's commitment to a healthy diet, rooted in those early days at Tulane, translates today into the organic vegetable garden he has maintained for 25 years at his Westwego home. Hidden behind a green fence with a lattice gate ("to keep the dogs out"), his vegetable beds encircle a rectangular area of lawn, now covered in landscape cloth to eliminate the summertime requirement of mowing twice a week. Abadie's may not be a picture perfect garden filled with colorful plants and flowers spilling out of their beds, but it reflects perfectly the no-nonsense, get-it-done personality of its master.

GETTING DOWN AND DIRTY

Abadie - now almost 90 years old - didn't begin growing his own organic vegetables until he moved from Lake Vista to Westwego in 1985.

"A neighbor - a man with a PhD in gardening - taught me the ropes and I learned the hard way," he said. "The yard was nothing but grass and we had to dig out foot-deep beds all around and then get the soil ready. Now I have a compost pit and I put everything in it - grass clippings, potato peels, rotten tomatoes. Everyone in the neighborhood saves things for it and brings them over. I water it once a week and turn it, and then I use the compost for the beds."

An indispensable tool for mixing in the compost and keeping the soil loose is the hand-tiller that Abadie uses. It is a long-handled metal tool with tines on the end that Abadie pushes down in the soil and twists, then moves to the next spot and repeats the motion.

"My doctor doesn't like it too much, but I have to do it," he said.

qilisprayer » Get set for summer with our Garden Sprayer range

Get set for summer with our Garden Sprayer range

As summer continues and the weather begins to get hotter, gardeners thoughts turn towards buying a garden sprayerto nourish their lawns.

Luckily, people can get their hands on a variety of these items from Mow DIRECT, with backpack, hand pump, wheeled garden sprayers, tow behind chemical sprayers and pressure sprayers all available from a variety of manufacturers.

Some may find that the Solo 461 hand-held high pressure garden spray erinstrument of choice for them.

This expert unit only costs £35 and is a five-litre model.

Those after a garden sprayer with a larger capacity can try the  which can hold 7.5 litres of liquid.

Alternatively, large gardens will be suited to the which features large diameter wheels so that it can be easily manoeuvred.

Gardeners using this machine won’t have the hassle of attaching it to a mains power outlet as it is operated by a 12v rechargeable battery.

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