On Jan 21, 2:46*pm, David in Normandy wrote:
judith.lea says...

Last year I was enquiring about a cultivator for our garden which was
heavy clay. *Now we have a garden that is sandy in places and nice
friable earth in other places. *(It's in the Auvergne). *If you have
soil like this, and you were buying a cultivator, which one would you
consider best for that type of soil. *This is for the vegetable garden
only which is approx 100 metres sq. *Many thanks.

Judith

I bought a Briggs and Stratton S55R6 rotovator from Point
Verte for 499 euros. It has done a LOT of work since I
bought it two years ago and has been very reliable. It does
tend to snap the bolts on the rotor quite often - probably
because the ground is very rough with hidden big boulders
in places. However replacing the bolts is only a 5 minute
job so I consider them to be expendable. The engine always
starts first time and the machine is a pleasure to use.

I also bought one of those little electric rotorvators to
weed between the rows for around 100 euros, but this was a
waste of money as the rotors easily jam on small rocks or
lumps of clay. Also the ground has to be very dry and it is
a pain dragging the mains cable around while working.

One thing to beware of - only rotorvate when the soil is
reasonably dry or the rotors just get clogged with mud and
it is a pain cleaning them.
--
David in Normandy

David, thank you for this, I am going to print it out for Edward.
Also thanks for the tips, very helpful. Is there any small
rotarvator, that will not clog up and can be used between rows?

Judith