When my parents came over recently to help my pregnant self mulch and clean up the garden for the winter, we broke out the Troy-Bilt TB144 edger/cultivator for a test run. Below is a video of my 60+ year old dad (who just happened to have a bum knee that weekend) easily using the edger all the way around my main garden area. I would have had a parent video ME using it, but I was not allowed to do much manual labor because of my “delicate condition.” 
I asked him what he thought of it after using it and here were his main reactions:
- It started up very easily (though we were given an electric start to try out, the standard pull-string start has been so easy that we haven’t bothered to use that yet)
- It idled very nicely. When he needed to stop for a minute for something, it stopped immediately after letting up on the gas and didn’t cut off accidentally.
- It took us a sec to figure out whether to pull it backwards (like you use a cultivator) or push it. Since this is a cultivator/edger, you pull it.
- Though it took him a bit to realize it, he liked that the wheel lines up with the edger tine, so if you just look at the wheel you can tell where you’re edging (since the blade is covered up and you can’t see it).
- Switching between the cultivator and edger was pretty darn easy and no tools were required.
My husband also did use it as a tiller after Irene when he needed to rough up the area where we lost a tree to fill it back in with dirt and grass seed. He was also impressed by the easy start and found the small size easy to maneuver (and store!), but plenty powerful for small/medium jobs (we usually borrow a larger tiller from one of our sets of parents for these kinds of jobs).
I really like that this is a dual-purpose item. Though the edging you get isn’t the same v-shape as what you can get by digging with a shovel, this is obviously waaaay easier and can be done several times a year without it being a big issue. We have mostly crabgrass and bermuda grass in our front yard, so I’m hoping that edging a few times a year combined with spraying some grass killer along the front of the garden will help keep weeds from creeping in as bad as they did this year (with no mulch and a pregnant lady with no motivation to weed). The fact that it’s also more than enough of a tiller/cultivator for us in every situation I can think of makes it even more awesome. We’ll use it to mix up the soil in the raised beds in the spring and I think that as long as the ground isn’t totally hard, it’d be perfectly fine for starting a new garden in the yard.
And now for the CONTEST!!
Troy-Bilt is allowing me to give away one TB144 Cultivator/Edger! To enter, please leave a comment below telling me why you want to win it. I’ll pick one winner on Wednesday, 11/23/2011[Black Friday contest extension!!] SATURDAY 11/26/2011. You must leave a valid email address (since that’s how I’ll contact you if you win!) and be a US resident in order to win. I’d also greatly appreciate you “liking” jennahsgarden on Facebook and sharing the contest with your gardening friends there, but it’s not required to enter. Contest void where prohibited.
Disclaimer: I have been compensated by Troy-Bilt to be a part of the Saturday6 program and provided with various Troy-Bilt items to test, free of charge. All opinions here expressed are my own. I would never participate in anything for a brand I don’t believe in and would never review something disingenuously, as I rely on honest reviews myself.
You are so lucky to have your parents helping you. What love! ;o)
I am! Don’t know what I’d do without em
It was a fun day! Glad we could help. Good luck to all how enter to win the culivator item! It worked great.
I would LOVE this thing!
I am so tired of HAND edging all of my gardens. 
Mitch and I HAND edged the entire driveway the night before we had our driveway sealed too because it was so bad. I was sore for days. 
Hi! Been reading your blog for a while. I even looked into the home veggie delivery program you spoke of but the shipping prices to florida did not work for us. But on to the cultivator/edger! Living in Florida, we have to maintain the lawn ALL YEAR and it gets time consuming so many people (including my hubby) use chemicals (yuck) to edge with. I know I could get him to stop using the chemicals if we had a cool new item to use instead! I’ve also been itching to plant some thornless blackberry vines but am not looking forward to turning over the soil by hand.
So I want to start an herb garden in the spring and I feel like this tiller would be beneficial.
Oh.. and your yard is amazing and I am jealous.
I would LOVE to have this for our yard. We have been at our current house for almost 6 years and there is still so much work to do. The edger would help tremendously with my flower bed and rose garden that the weeds/crab grass loves to creep into.
Already a fan on facebook!
I would love to have one of these to edge by yard. That way the grass would stop growing in my flower beds.
Robbie
Edging is one of the hardest part of lawn care for me. This machine would definitely make working in the yard a lot easier. Thanks for the opportunity to win.
I live next door to my elderly in laws so we not only take care of our yard, but their yard as well. This would help keep things up so well. The edger would be so nice!
I could really use this to start my garden next year.
I would love to win the TB144 Cultivator/Edger! We have to keep up our yard and my parents yard and our edger is a dinosaur…it has duct tape holding it together. We could really use a new one and a Troy-Bilt would be fantastic! Hope we win. Thanks.
Long time listener, first time caller. As a budding (oh that was awful) gardener, I know the cultivator/edger would really help me out with maintaining edges around the sidewalk, as well as helping to expand the garden. I currently do not own an edger and things are getting pretty unruly, so I’ll need one soon. And the cultivator part will be excellent as I plan to convert areas where my grass just refuses to grow (due to too much sun) to a larger, extremely sun-friendly garden. Plus, it’s Troy-Bilt and they’re the best! Thanks!!!
We just moved to a new home and I am looking forward to starting new flower beds next spring. Not to mention, the existing landscaping needs some help. This would be an awesome win for me!!!
This would make it so much easier for my husband to maintain our lawn; thats why I want to win it!
madamerkf at aol dot com
David always gets stuck doing the really hard manual labor in the garden including turning the soil in the beds. I’d really love to win this for him, and I might even try using it.
ewalsh40(at)gmail(dot)com
I’ve been planning to remove my lawn and this sure would make the task a lot easier!
So happy to have stumbled on your site. Actually, I read about it because our troy-bilt lawnmower had problems so I decided to do-it-myself and order some tune-up parts on the website and saw a link to your blog. We just bought a 5 acre farm house in rural West Virginia, and being city folks, have learned that there is a lot we need to learn!! There is some serious edging that needs to be done around the old house, so I’m hopeful that in winning I’d start getting some calluses on my hands and get busy on making things prettier at the farm house. Thanks, and I’ll definitely “like” you on Facebook!
St. Augustine grass has taken over flower beds and driveway, so an edger is much needed. Also would like to start a small garden for my 7-year old daughter in the spring so the tiller function would be nice. Thanks.
I really could use a Troy-Bilt TB144 edger/cultivator. I currently edge my driveway with a shovel each fall before winter to ease in snow removal. The video of the TB144 looks like it would make it a lot easier. I also would use it to cultivate between the rows of my garden in the summer. What a great year around tool. I hope I win.
My wife and I moved into a ranch-style home that had been vacant for some years. Both inside and outside have begged for re-hab. I would love the Troy-Bilt TB144 edger/cultivator to help restore the large garden areas and to level the quite uneven front lawn.
I could make good use of the Troy-Bilt edger/tiller. I have a large lawn and garden to edge and till. I am also the gardener at my Daughter’s house. She has a lot to edge which I am currently doing with a hand edger. Thanks for making this great tool available to somebody.
I would love to win that new tiller would be great I could finally stop the torture routine of using the one I have that is circa 1950
After reading the post above, I’m sold! I absolutely must have one to do the edging around the yard and start a garden out back…then, I’ll use it to write the family name in our grass…and then, edge around the neighborhood park…and then…
I have a Mantis tiller which is about 10 years old which has served me well up to now. Because of having arthritis in my hands I have a hard time to pull the cord to start it. One with an electric start would be great for me to garden many more years. Anxious to check out your facebook page.
Thought I did this in the beginning
I would love this because my gardens are becoming a nuisance to edge by hand. This would make life so much easier.
Hand edging is too hard, electric edgers are too cumbursom and blades wear out too fast. The TB144 Cultivator/Edgerwould be a welcome surprise gift for me and my neighbors. Troy-Built provides outstanding quality in all they make but in addition to saving time and having a neat yard and driveway, I can help my neighbors too with their cultivating and edgeing. Who can predict, but when the neighbors see my new cultivator – edger (TB144 Cultivator/Edger) Troy-Built will sell even more!
I’d love to win this so that I can work my 1/2 acre into a wonderful garden paradise! Think of all the edges I could tend!
The troy built looks like it will be a very handy to help keep our garden looking nice.
This 60+ year old grandpa would LOVE to win one! (But if I do win, DON’T tell my kids!) JK – I promise to let them BORROW it!
I just like to win stuff. That looks like a fantastic prize. Thanks Troy-Built for sponsoring this.