In the fall things get colder and that's when the fun starts, at least when it comes to gardening. Getting behind the wheel of a tractor and leveling a driveway, renovating a lawn or hauling firewood is simply satisfying.

You can use any basic lawnmower for small jobs like pulling the splitter, but hard work requires meaty equipment. In the outdoor power industry, these machines are known as garden tractors. Heavier, stronger (and yes, more expensive) than their lawn tractor cousins, these products are built for abuse. And we are happy to reveal this. To test garden tractors, we put together five machines and four common attachments and operated them on a farm in northern New York.

Tractors ranged from the cheapest we could find (technically a high quality lawn tractor) to the most expensive ones. Our aim was not to test these tractors head-to-head, but to find out how many machines you need for different jobs.

The more properties you keep, the bigger and harder the tractor you need. However, we've learned that even if you have a small property and it's all grass, it's better to buy a bigger machine for the strength and durability it provides. In this regard, a garden tractor is miles ahead of a lawn tractor. “It can easily handle several acres of lawn,” says Greg Weekes, marketing manager for John Deere riding turf equipment.