Have any ladies tried a Mantis tiller?
My allotment friend is thinking of getting one.
Our soil is clay, stony stuff, at present very sticky, bakes hard in
summer, hard to dig at the best of times.
Would a Mantis be any good?
They do offer money back after 100 days which sounds good.
Any thoughts please?

Pam in Bristol

"Pam Moore" wrote in message
...
Have any ladies tried a Mantis tiller?
My allotment friend is thinking of getting one.
Our soil is clay, stony stuff, at present very sticky, bakes hard in
summer, hard to dig at the best of times.
Would a Mantis be any good?
They do offer money back after 100 days which sounds good.
Any thoughts please?

Pam in Bristol

Pam.,

Maybe best if you search www.google.com and also its groups using
'mantis tiller' as your search words. There is lots of information on
the subject in there. Far too much for me to convey to you. It may be
too light for what you have in mind, but I wish you luck.

Regards,
Emrys Davies.

"Pam Moore" wrote in message
...
Have any ladies tried a Mantis tiller?
My allotment friend is thinking of getting one.
Our soil is clay, stony stuff, at present very sticky, bakes hard in
summer, hard to dig at the best of times.
Would a Mantis be any good?
They do offer money back after 100 days which sounds good.
Any thoughts please?

Pam in Bristol

yes, too light for that sort of work.....sounds like you need mid range B&S
motor model.

also why will they not give the money back before the 100 days??

dj

On Thu, 1 Feb 2007 00:12:37 -0000, "Emrys Davies"
wrote:

Maybe best if you search www.google.com and also its groups using
'mantis tiller' as your search words. There is lots of information on
the subject in there. Far too much for me to convey to you. It may be
too light for what you have in mind, but I wish you luck.

Thanks Emrys
I have already read a lot of the advertising material on Google, and
my friend has spoken on the phone to the company.
What I was hoping for was some personal experience.
YOu say it may be too light. I was wondering if it would be too
difficult for 2 pensioner ladies to control.

Pam in Bristol

"Pam Moore" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 1 Feb 2007 00:12:37 -0000, "Emrys Davies"
wrote:

Maybe best if you search www.google.com and also its groups using
'mantis tiller' as your search words. There is lots of information
on
the subject in there. Far too much for me to convey to you. It may
be
too light for what you have in mind, but I wish you luck.

Thanks Emrys
I have already read a lot of the advertising material on Google, and
my friend has spoken on the phone to the company.
What I was hoping for was some personal experience.
YOu say it may be too light. I was wondering if it would be too
difficult for 2 pensioner ladies to control.

Pam in Bristol

Pam.,

When I say it may be too light I mean that it is probably not robust
enough to till the type of soil which you have described. I sense from
what you said that you will need something more robost as in your garden
the Mantis Tiller may jump around a lot as is comes into contact with
the untilled soil. I think that you could probably handle it but the
main question is whether or not it would be effective in your land.

If you were talking about a well tilled allotment/garden I would say go
ahead, but I have fairly strong doubts as to the suitability of this
tiller in your particular soil conditions.

You may get some useful information on the subject from your local
Gardening Association. This one, Horfield and District Allotments
Association Ltd. @ would, I am sure, advise you as
to the suitability of this tiller in your particular case.

Regards,
Emrys Davies.

"Pam Moore" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 1 Feb 2007 00:12:37 -0000, "Emrys Davies"
wrote:

Maybe best if you search www.google.com and also its groups using
'mantis tiller' as your search words. There is lots of information
on
the subject in there. Far too much for me to convey to you. It may
be
too light for what you have in mind, but I wish you luck.

Thanks Emrys
I have already read a lot of the advertising material on Google, and
my friend has spoken on the phone to the company.
What I was hoping for was some personal experience.
YOu say it may be too light. I was wondering if it would be too
difficult for 2 pensioner ladies to control.

Pam in Bristol

Pam.,

When I say it may be too light I mean that it is probably not robust
enough to till the type of soil which you have described. I sense from
what you said that you will need something more robost as in your garden
the Mantis Tiller may jump around a lot as is comes into contact with
the untilled soil. I think that you could probably handle it but the
main question is whether or not it would be effective in your land.

If you were talking about a well tilled allotment/garden I would say go
ahead, but I have fairly strong doubts as to the suitability of this
tiller in your particular soil conditions.

You may get some useful information on the subject from your local
Gardening Association. This one, Horfield and District Allotments
Association Ltd. @ would, I am sure, advise you as
to the suitability of this tiller in your particular case. You may, of
course, finish up renting an allotment!!!

Regards,
Emrys Davies.

On Thu, 1 Feb 2007 15:26:25 -0000, "Emrys Davies"
wrote:

"Pam Moore" wrote in message
.. .
On Thu, 1 Feb 2007 00:12:37 -0000, "Emrys Davies"
wrote:

Maybe best if you search www.google.com and also its groups using
'mantis tiller' as your search words. There is lots of information
on
the subject in there. Far too much for me to convey to you. It may
be
too light for what you have in mind, but I wish you luck.

Thanks Emrys
I have already read a lot of the advertising material on Google, and
my friend has spoken on the phone to the company.
What I was hoping for was some personal experience.
YOu say it may be too light. I was wondering if it would be too
difficult for 2 pensioner ladies to control.

Pam in Bristol

Pam.,

When I say it may be too light I mean that it is probably not robust
enough to till the type of soil which you have described. I sense from
what you said that you will need something more robost as in your garden
the Mantis Tiller may jump around a lot as is comes into contact with
the untilled soil. I think that you could probably handle it but the
main question is whether or not it would be effective in your land.

If you were talking about a well tilled allotment/garden I would say go
ahead, but I have fairly strong doubts as to the suitability of this
tiller in your particular soil conditions.

You may get some useful information on the subject from your local
Gardening Association. This one, Horfield and District Allotments
Association Ltd. @ would, I am sure, advise you as
to the suitability of this tiller in your particular case. You may, of
course, finish up renting an allotment!!!

Regards,
Emrys Davies.

Thanks for that helpful advice Emrys. I think you are probably right.
Nobody on our allotments has a Mantis. We were hoping to persuade the
association to buy a cultivator, but we were out-voted!
When you say Horfield, do you mean Horfield Bristol?
If so we are on quite similar soil!


Pam in Bristol

On 2/2/07 15:19, in article , "Pam
Moore" wrote:

snip

Thanks for that helpful advice Emrys. I think you are probably right.
Nobody on our allotments has a Mantis. We were hoping to persuade the
association to buy a cultivator, but we were out-voted!
When you say Horfield, do you mean Horfield Bristol?
If so we are on quite similar soil!

Pam, this is absolutely not my field (pun intended!) but can you hire a
couple or three different types from a local hire shop? That way, you could
try out which suits you best.

--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
http://www.discoverdartmoor.co.uk/
(remove weeds from address)

"Pam Moore"
YOu say it may be too light. I was wondering if it would be too
difficult for 2 pensioner ladies to control.

I hired a lightweight tiller last year from HSS Hire
http://www.hss.com/c/1014440/Garden_Clearance.html for my heavy clay
allotment. It did a pretty good job and was reasonably easy to control (I'm
female age 50 and incredibly unfit!). It was fairly inexpensive at about
£25 for the weekend. HSS also have heavyweight cultivators and power
diggers. I figured if I needed to rent once or twice per year it's still
cheaper than buying one at £300-£400.

"Pam Moore" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 1 Feb 2007 15:26:25 -0000, "Emrys Davies"
wrote:

"Pam Moore" wrote in message
.. .
On Thu, 1 Feb 2007 00:12:37 -0000, "Emrys Davies"
wrote:

Maybe best if you search www.google.com and also its groups using
'mantis tiller' as your search words. There is lots of
information
on
the subject in there. Far too much for me to convey to you. It
may
be
too light for what you have in mind, but I wish you luck.

Thanks Emrys
I have already read a lot of the advertising material on Google,
and
my friend has spoken on the phone to the company.
What I was hoping for was some personal experience.
YOu say it may be too light. I was wondering if it would be too
difficult for 2 pensioner ladies to control.

Pam in Bristol

Pam.,

When I say it may be too light I mean that it is probably not robust
enough to till the type of soil which you have described. I sense
from
what you said that you will need something more robost as in your
garden
the Mantis Tiller may jump around a lot as is comes into contact with
the untilled soil. I think that you could probably handle it but the
main question is whether or not it would be effective in your land.

If you were talking about a well tilled allotment/garden I would say
go
ahead, but I have fairly strong doubts as to the suitability of this
tiller in your particular soil conditions.

You may get some useful information on the subject from your local
Gardening Association. This one, Horfield and District Allotments
Association Ltd. @ would, I am sure, advise you
as
to the suitability of this tiller in your particular case. You may,
of
course, finish up renting an allotment!!!

Regards,
Emrys Davies.

Thanks for that helpful advice Emrys. I think you are probably right.
Nobody on our allotments has a Mantis. We were hoping to persuade the
association to buy a cultivator, but we were out-voted!
When you say Horfield, do you mean Horfield Bristol?
If so we are on quite similar soil!


Pam in Bristol

Yes Pam. it is Horfield in Bristol.

Regards,
Emrys Davies.