string taught and nicely above the bed to be both
accurate and convenient when working in the bed. (It is
always a time waster and hassle to frequently go to the
end of the bed to tighten the string.)
The tool height is equal to your bed width; the other
leg of the device is the path width. Notches on the
longest leg (bed width) provide a ready measure for
plant spacings. This coupled with a piece of readily
handy plant stem or tree twig can be measured against it
and used as a quick planting stick. The bed maker is
made of^3 ⁄ 8 -inch concrete reinforcement rod. The
reinforcement rod has some tensile strength which
stiAens the steel. This tool requires some welding but
lends itself to a great shop project for high school
students. As an alternative, to avoid the need to weld, a
less durable bed marker can be made out of pvc pipe
and 3tted with metal ground pin inserts (glued, auto
body 3ller, or caulked) into the ground end of the pvc
pipe.
ENDNOTES
1 Case Study B9: Design of a simple agricultural implement-
France/Canada: A Handbook of Appropriate Technology, The
Canadian Hunger Foundations, Ottawa, Canada and the Brace
Research Institute, Quebec, Canada, co-publishers, April 1976.
Maurice Franz, “Digging Without Pains and Aches,” Organic
Gardening and Farming, April 1976, pp. 76–77.