When the Ditch Witch® organization introduced the SK500 mini skid steer in 2002, Ditch Witch of Montana's Padriac Moriarty predicted a limited market of homeowners and big box stores. Still, he took the versatile unit and a few attachments to customer Chris Wagner, owner of Wagner Nursery and Landscape, for a trial run. When he returned a week later to pick up the equipment, he found a devoted fan unwilling to part with the SK500.

Wagner Nursery and Landscape is a full-service nursery and garden center located in Whitehall, Montana. The 20-year-old company specializes in water features, rock and plant landscaping. They are known throughout Montana and the Mountain West for its expertise in creating beautiful outdoor living spaces.

Each spring, Wagner offers landscaping demonstrations for his customers. With the SK500, he was able to include do-it-yourself rock placement and waterfall landscaping. Wagner began to see business pick up dramatically as his customers learned how easily they could create their own water features using the tough, versatile SK500 with bucket, auger, and pallet fork attachments. Waterfalls and ornamentals, even designs with large rocks, became a real possibility, and Wagner’s customers were hooked.

“It’s so safe, and you can operate it so easily,” Wagner says of the SK500. “Anyone can. It’s very precise in its movements, so we use it all the time in our nurseries.”

The original Ditch Witch mini skid steer, the SK500 is a track-mounted, walk-along unit powered by a 24-horsepower Honda engine. Featuring dual hydraulic gear pumps and a 500-lb lifting capacity (rated at 35 percent of tip capacity), the SK500 is designed with more than enough power to perform light- to medium-duty construction work. The SK500 is engineered to help even a novice operator work proficiently in a short amount of time. Only four levers are needed to run all functions, and each control is color-coded for quick, intuitive operation.

Wagner says his employees enjoy the maneuverability of the SK500, the horsepower that replaces the need for back power, and the responsiveness and ease-of-use the SK500 brings to tight-space projects. Wagner also owns a Ditch Witch 410sx vibratory plow that his crew uses to install sprinkler pipe, create bores under sidewalks and trench the hard, compacted ground common to this area of Montana.

But the future of Wagner Nursery and Landscape, a future that promises an increase in cost-conscious do-it-yourselfers, seems to lie in the capable steel “hands” of the SK500. Wagner recently expanded his business with the purchase of an additional SK500 and plans to add another specifically for rental—he says his customers can actually rent the SK500 for half the cost of hiring him to do the work.

Thanks to its ability to run more than 70 quick-change attachments, the SK500 can accomplish nearly any light- to medium-duty construction project that Wagner’s customers have in mind. Trenchers, vibratory plows, backhoes, earth saws, jackhammers, and even snow blowers are just a handful of the attachments that increase the versatility of this machine.

“My only problem now,” says Wagner, “is what attachment to add next. My customers are excited about the possibilities the SK500 has opened up, and we’ll be here to keep them inspired.”