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Welcome! As "Annie in Austin" I blog about gardening in Austin, TX with occasional looks back at our former gardens in Illinois. My husband Philo & I also make videos - some use garden images as background for my original songs, some capture Austin events & sometimes we share videos of birds in our garden. Come talk about gardens, movies, music, genealogy and Austin at the Transplantable Rose and listen to my original songs on YouTube. For an overview read Three Gardens, Twenty Years. Unless noted, these words and photos are my copyrighted work.

Thursday, January 8, 2009

Ro-Ho Gardener Ad from 1932

RoHo Gardener Ad, AnnieinaustinWhen I ran across this ad in a magazine from April 1932, and two garden bloggers immediately came to mind. Both Carol of May Dreams Gardens in Indiana and Entangled in Virginia own vintage Ro-Ho Gardeners and have talked about them on their blogs. The ad should enlarge if clicked.

6 comments:

Carol Michel said...

What a fun ad! It gives me a better idea of how it should be held to push it through the dirt...

Carol, May Dreams Gardens

Entangled said...

And now we have some idea when these things were made. It looks like it was meant to be reversible - tines up for shallow cultivation and down for deeper plowing? I wonder if there are any still around with their "leaf guards" intact?

Thanks for posting this, Annie! What magazine was this in?

Annie in Austin said...

The hemline may be higher than on the dress worn by your mowing icon, Carol, but this gardener is still working in a skirt.

I found the ad in an April 1932 Better Homes and Gardens magazine, Entangled. It's rather fragile so it's not taken out often - on this viewing the ad was no longer just an ad...it had special connections!

Annie

Jan said...

Hi Annie,
This is fascinating. I don't own or use anything like this, but I remember growing up with one...my dad always used it (and I did too, as a child). My mother would probably get a kick out of seeing this so many years later. (Dad died in 2005). Jan

Jan said...

I know the one we had wasn't vintage...it had to have been made well after the original. In the '50's or so, would that be considered 'vintage'?

Entangled said...

Annie, extra special thanks are in order then - so thanks again for posting!