For years, I begged, borrowed and was tempted to steal a rototiller when the time came to put in my annual food garden each spring. So I've had the opportunity to try a lot of them.

The lightweight brands just skittered across the top of the clay. Another with cheap steel had whole tines fold in half or break off the turning shaft altogether. I finally got to try a pricey rear-tine model that was far easier to use than those bucking, jumping front-tine monsters. I ripped the whole transmission out of that one.

Through all of this I lusted after a $2,000 Troy-Bilt that was advertised in my gardening magazines. But that was too much for our budget, and still is.

Then I spotted a battered old tiller at an estate sale. It was a front-tine brute, encrusted with dried mud and rust, the paint so chipped that labels had worn off. Though I had no idea what model or horsepower it was, that didn't matter. The one thing that made me buy it was the brand: Ariens.

The Ariens family ran a foundry in Wisconsin until the Depression put it out of business in the early 1930s. The family started again in the garage by inventing the first walk-behind tiller.

In those days, the main crops were tilled with the farm tractor. The small tiller revolutionized farmers' ability to grow crops in smaller spaces because of its tight turning radius. It transformed the family food garden, and the company flourished with World War II "victory gardens."

Naturally, farmers were skeptical of all new machines, so the Ariens brothers used their steel-making skill to forge this product to last.

Միկրո-հողային գութան կենցաղային բազմաֆունկցիոնալ փոքր փոսային գութան գյուղատնտեսական գութան քայլող պտտվող հողագործ

The Ariens tiller cost me $125 at the sale. My husband took the tiller home, cleaned it up and rehabilitated it with parts from a local engine shop. Using a $10 rebuild kit, air filter, starter fluid and Gunk engine protector, he got the carburetor rebuilt and filled the tank with gas.

That Ariens fired right up, and I used it to till my garden singlehandedly for years.

This tiller with its powerful engine and thick tines turned on a heavy shaft the size of a car axel. I could completely till my enormous country garden in one day. That Ariens, ugly as it was, became my most cherished possession.

Then we moved away for a while, and the Ariens sat for a decade, protected from the sun and rain by a sheet of plastic. This year we're back in the country, and after installation of a $20 carburetor rebuild kit and a new gas line, it fired right back up again.

Few small engines today can lay claim to that kind of longevity. And even fewer can be so easily repaired because parts for Ariens machines are still available.

This company changed its focus to lawn-care equipment and snow blowers. Though it still sells good front- and rear-tine tillers, they no longer resemble mine.

Fortunately for small-budget gardeners with a mechanical knack, there are old Arienses around. It doesn't take much skill to get one running again if the engine itself is still holding compression.