Tilling with a Mantis, Honda, Sears or any other mini-tiller is about the
second worst thing you can do as a gardener. The soil is actually pulverized
into the finest particles of the soil possible.
This will inhibit any and all possibilities of existing life forms of
earthworms and night crawlers to exist in the soil. Additionally, the soil
will compact to concrete conditions after the first rain!
"Frogleg" wrote in message
...
On 3 May 2004 17:06:12 -0700, (Mike) wrote:

I've recently come into possession of a Honda Harmony FG100
mini-tiller. It's perfect for my 20 x 25 vegetable garden, and I've
tilled the whole thing up very nicely. It makes a beautiful tilth.

My question is this: When I see other people's gardens, they have
these wonderful rows with the vegetables on sort of long raised
mounds, and depressed paths between the rows. How the heck do they
get that? Do you have to rake after tilling? Or is there some
technique that I'm not aware of? When I till, the dirt just goes
everywhere.

You gotta fritz around with your dirt. Rake some up into mouds or
rows; just walking around will compress the dirt into 'paths'. A
tiller, as you've discovered, just tills. You have to supply the
finishing work.