753 Helps Garden Grow

Anthony Camacho

A multi-purpose Bobcat® 753 skidsteer loader is helping to restore new life to the waterfront of Camden, N.J., where abandoned factories and warehouses once stood. In the process, it’s making work easier and faster for the staff of the Camden Children’s Garden.

Designed to stimulate creative and imaginative play for children and the young-at-heart, this 41⁄2-acre site features a collection of smaller gardens and other attractions. In the gardens children can act out fairy tales and romp among dinosaurs. There is a carousel of various animal characters, a butterfly house and G-scale trains running through miniature landscapes.

The Garden, which opened in 1999, is still being developed. At one time most of the work of building and maintaining the gardens and related-structures was done by hand. Anthony Camacho (right), a Camden Children’s Garden supervisor, rented a 753 to excavate a building foundation and construct a play area. He quickly discovered the many benefits of a Bobcat skid-steer loader.

“We knew we just had to get one of our own,” he says. Last year the Garden purchased a 753, along with several attachments (auger with 24- and 30-in. bits, a bucket with bolt-on teeth, pallet forks, snow blade and trencher), from South Jersey Bobcat. A little more than 10-ft.-long and 41⁄2-ft.-wide and with a 1,300-lb. rated operating capacity, the 753 has proven ideal for working in the Garden’s tight quarters.

“The 753 is perfect for us,” Camacho says. “It’s small, maneuverable and heavy-duty. The loader does all the heavy physical work and allows us to do more jobs faster and with fewer people.” Work includes drilling holes for concrete footings and planting trees, digging through compacted soil, building ponds and waterfalls and handling mulch, plant materials and snow.

“For us the 753 is a great gardening tool,” says Comacho. “It does the bulk of the work, helping to save our time and our backs.”