Fertilize Your Lawn From Your Wheelchair - instructions for attaching a lawn fertilizer to a wheel chair - Brief Article

Accent on Living, Summer, 2001

If you are a gardener or you want your lawn to look its best, this spreader might be just the ticket. Steve Kirk, a.k.a. "Tightwad Quad" gives you instructions and costs for makinq one.

Tips

In the tradition of the "Tightwad Quad" here is a ten dollar fertilizer spreader for the power wheelchair community. However, an able body can grab the rope and pull it just as easily. This works no matter the terrain or speed. It lays down an almost perfect spread pattern and does not clog, unless you drag it through wet grass (which usually ruins the fertilizer anyway). I've used Scott's Bonus "S" and two different brands of Dursban, the insect killer, and all have spread without any problems.

There is only one moving part and it is nearly impossible to wear out. The only bad thing is that it requires a bit of time from an able bodied handyman to make and assemble. The process is explained below and the parts list is on the next page.

The lawn fertilizer spreader for wheelchairs is made of 3" plastic PVC pipe, 30" long. The 3/8" rod going through the middle acting as the axle is 36" long. To hold the axle we used 3/8" Allen set screw collars.

The ends are plastic 3" caps" (not PVC) in which we drilled a 1" hole for putting the fertilizer in the pipe.

To drill the 1/8" holes in the length of the 3" PVC pipe we used a template made out of 1' screen stock 1/2" shorter than the distance between the two end caps. The reason was so we could switch ends and stagger the holes by 1/2" every time we started a new row of holes. We drilled the stock with holes 1" apart on the stock and then rotated it around the pipe at 1" intervals.

We used "s" hooks around the ends of the axle to hook a 12' piece of rope. We tied it in a point to let the pipe follow the chair.

Parts List
One 3" 30" PVC Pipe 0      $1.75
Two 3" end caps @ $.89      1.78
One 3' 3/8" rod             1.83
Two 1/8" Allen set screw    2.18
collars @ $1.09
Two 3/8" "S" hooks @ $.16    .32
One 1" chrome cap plug       .66
12' clothes line rope       1.20
Total                      $9.72