(to be x-posted to ![[profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
over_forty)
My church is having a service auction (renamed Talent and Treasure Auction this year) to raise funds. I don't have a time-share in Florida to offer, or gourmet cheesecake baking skills, or the kinds of other things people traditionally offer. But as the incoming president of the board of trustees, I darn well better offer something! But, I don't want to volunteer to write a fundraising letter for a local nonprofit, because I think that could turn into a nightmare.
At the board meeting the other night, the person organizing this auction mentioned how someone had agreed to show up at the winning bidder's house with a basket of flower bulbs and plant them. That's when I came up with my idea.
I have a Mantis tiller which I got a year ago. I've only used it a few times, but it is awesome! I got my raised beds rototilled in a fraction of the time it took me to break up/turn over the soil by hand, and it did it better and deeper, too.
I also have a lot of composted horse manure.
So I said I would rototill someone's garden, and bring composted horse manure to add to the soil. The timing works out, since the auction will happen just before it is considered safe to set out annuals here in New England.
I, however, need to set some time frames around this, though, and also come up with a minimum bid.
1) If anyone has any experience with rototillers or with a Mantis, in particular, and you think you have an "average" size garden (whatever that might be), how long would it take you?
2) If you don't have a rototiller, what would having someone come in and do this be worth to you?
I don't want to spend hours at somebody's vast estate and earn the church only $5. (Believe it or not, someone bid $5 on my offer to write and create a business brochure a few years ago -- the people running the auction forgot to note the minimum bid. Fortunately, someone else bid $10, perhaps thinking to spare me this toil, and then never collected on it! :) )
over_forty) My church is having a service auction (renamed Talent and Treasure Auction this year) to raise funds. I don't have a time-share in Florida to offer, or gourmet cheesecake baking skills, or the kinds of other things people traditionally offer. But as the incoming president of the board of trustees, I darn well better offer something! But, I don't want to volunteer to write a fundraising letter for a local nonprofit, because I think that could turn into a nightmare.
At the board meeting the other night, the person organizing this auction mentioned how someone had agreed to show up at the winning bidder's house with a basket of flower bulbs and plant them. That's when I came up with my idea.
I have a Mantis tiller which I got a year ago. I've only used it a few times, but it is awesome! I got my raised beds rototilled in a fraction of the time it took me to break up/turn over the soil by hand, and it did it better and deeper, too.
I also have a lot of composted horse manure.
So I said I would rototill someone's garden, and bring composted horse manure to add to the soil. The timing works out, since the auction will happen just before it is considered safe to set out annuals here in New England.
I, however, need to set some time frames around this, though, and also come up with a minimum bid.
1) If anyone has any experience with rototillers or with a Mantis, in particular, and you think you have an "average" size garden (whatever that might be), how long would it take you?
2) If you don't have a rototiller, what would having someone come in and do this be worth to you?
I don't want to spend hours at somebody's vast estate and earn the church only $5. (Believe it or not, someone bid $5 on my offer to write and create a business brochure a few years ago -- the people running the auction forgot to note the minimum bid. Fortunately, someone else bid $10, perhaps thinking to spare me this toil, and then never collected on it! :) )
