Judith in France wrote:
We have the tiller/'cultivator, a big one and it is great, but now we
want a small one for in between the rows; neither of us want to hoe,
back problems; any suggestions please?

Judith

I had exactly the same thought a couple of years ago and bought on of
those little electric tillers. They look a little like an upright green
vacuum cleaner but with some small tiller blades on the business end. It
cost around 100 Euros and turned out to be complete rubbish. It worked
for a little while provided the ground was soft. However, every time it
hit a little rock (one inch size) it jammed. Same if it hit a little
clod of baked hard soil of similar size.

The machine had barely three or four hours use in total and was just
outside its one year warranty when it failed completely. The blades
stopped going around. I dismantled it and was shocked to see how very
badly it was designed. It didn't have any sort of internal clutch
mechanism, which in plain English meant that every time it jammed on a
little rock or bit of earth then the cogs (which were made of nylon)
simply grated over one another. Over a short period of time the obvious
thing happened - the teeth got stripped from the cogs! What a ridiculous
design.

So I suggest avoiding one of those things like the plague! They look
nice but are totally impractical.

--
David in Normandy.
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