We are thinking of buying a tiller for our neglected garden, both for
current "garden beds" and to make new ones by cultivating the soil
(now a collection of beatuful weeds on a very uneven ground), then
just keep tilling until the weeds are decreasing in density. Finally
mix in soil improvements etc. and then use shallow and/or narrow
tilling to help keep weeds down.

Last time I did it with spadework - lots of it, and the garden beds
masses of weeds shows I made a good job of preparing the soil. Now I
am older and lazier (and my back hurts more).

My brother (in Sweden) sells the Mantis tiller and he tells me that a
Mantis is what I should have. However, these are rather expensive
outside USA, including in Australia.

Therefore I would like some advice on
1) would a tiller be of great / some/ little help?
2) is a 4stroke engine to be preferred above a 2stroke one?
3) is a Mantis worth the extra money?
4) or, what tiller / type of tiller should I buy?

I believe the Honda ones are good too.
You could ask for a demo?



wrote:
We are thinking of buying a tiller for our neglected garden, both for
current "garden beds" and to make new ones by cultivating the soil
(now a collection of beautiful weeds on a very uneven ground), then
just keep tilling until the weeds are decreasing in density. Finally
mix in soil improvements etc. and then use shallow and/or narrow
tilling to help keep weeds down.

Last time I did it with spadework - lots of it, and the garden beds
masses of weeds shows I made a good job of preparing the soil. Now I
am older and lazier (and my back hurts more).

My brother (in Sweden) sells the Mantis tiller and he tells me that a
Mantis is what I should have. However, these are rather expensive
outside USA, including in Australia.

Therefore I would like some advice on
1) would a tiller be of great / some/ little help?
2) is a 4stroke engine to be preferred above a 2stroke one?
3) is a Mantis worth the extra money?
4) or, what tiller / type of tiller should I buy?

wrote in message
news
We are thinking of buying a tiller for our neglected garden, both for
current "garden beds" and to make new ones by cultivating the soil
(now a collection of beatuful weeds on a very uneven ground), then
just keep tilling until the weeds are decreasing in density. Finally
mix in soil improvements etc. and then use shallow and/or narrow
tilling to help keep weeds down.

Last time I did it with spadework - lots of it, and the garden beds
masses of weeds shows I made a good job of preparing the soil. Now I
am older and lazier (and my back hurts more).

My brother (in Sweden) sells the Mantis tiller and he tells me that a
Mantis is what I should have. However, these are rather expensive
outside USA, including in Australia.

Therefore I would like some advice on
1) would a tiller be of great / some/ little help?

depends how big your yard is - unless you have a very very big yard, buying
one would be pointless - one just doesn't use them that often as repeated
tilling will bugger your soil structure entirely. once plants are in (which
is the point of it ;-) you can't use a rotary hoe anyway.

2) is a 4stroke engine to be preferred above a 2stroke one?

dunno :-)

3) is a Mantis worth the extra money?

in general, if something is better & costs more, buy it in preference to
crap that breaks. however, you also want to balance the quality you need,
the country of origin, etc etc.

4) or, what tiller / type of tiller should I buy?

again, unless your yard is huge, just don't. they are extraordinarily
expensive, you don't want to over-till, and (the clincher, imo) kennards,
bunnings (boo hiss), various private persons, & so forth hire them out. :-)

we have an enormous yard (because we live in the country) & use the rotary
hoe exceedingly rarely. any sections that get hoed only get done once, then
they get planted up &/or left to recover (covered) from tilling.

we didn't buy ours, it was a present. i very much doubt we would buy one if
left to our own devices - i can't imagine it would be worth the cost. it's a
great thing to have for when you want it, but on balance, hiring one from
time to time (or just not using one at all) would have been equally fine.
kylie

g'day,

most small tillers are little more than toys and only usefull where
the soil is already tilled they don't do a very good job if at all of
tilling virgin ground. the 7 or 8 hp hoinda model does a good job but
it is also expensive.

so why not consider raised bed gardening no tilling ever, come see how
we do ours on our site.



On Fri, 05 Oct 2007 16:57:48 +1000, wrote:

snipped
With peace and brightest of blessings,

len & bev

--
"Be Content With What You Have And
May You Find Serenity and Tranquillity In
A World That You May Not Understand."

http://www.lensgarden.com.au/