Hello, I am new to gardening so I was hoping you all could offer some advice. I am thinking of starting a small garden in my backyard. I have been looking at some small garden tillers to help break up and loosen the soil. I wanted to see if you have any suggestions of some small garden tillers to look for.
Not from me, for sure, ours is as old as me...almost. we just replaced the tines and couldn't afford to even look a a new one. If you are just starting and are doing a small area can I suggest trying the no till method or square foot lasagne method. The initial work is more than tilling, but the end result is the nicest friable soil for gardening and no need for a tiller.
Usually a garden supply spot, or an equipment rental store will have tillers that you can rent for a day. Much more economical than buying, and really, a tiller is only needed once or at most twice a year. We have a Poulan, which is a real work-horse, but we have three vegetable gardens and also use it to break up sections of the pasture for seeding with native grasses. We are quite happy with our Poulan.
Our gardening club has a tiller made by "Mantis" for those who turn their soil. I have seen it in action and it worked well.
Had a Mantis HATED it!! Mixing gas and oil! YUK! Finikie to keep running! Had to have it repaired every year!! I gave it a toss and bought me little Honda!! Had it fixed one time in 15 years!! Starts every time and mixing!! Love this little tiller!!
This site may have more information than you want, but it does have reviews of different brands and styles of tillers: http://gardentillerguide.net/ I am holding to my opinion that you don't need to buy one, just rent or borrow (know any gardeners?).
