Anyone used a Honda tiller ?

[tim]

Doesn't steer very straight though, does it??

[kitty]

hahaha!
that your plot tim?
veeery nice too!

[tim]

Yes - a bit of it! My back!

May I. without being too succinct, warn against being over-excited by the appearance of a tiller once-over. Looks great, doesn't it? But check. That's about 2" deep. If you do that year on year, you'll be in trouble.

[kitty]

okey dokey!excitement quelled!
you're being succinct again!

why is that?-the tillering year after year being a bad thing?

is it because it needs a deep digging evry once in a while?
please explain to us novice tiller girls!(i'm including you here roy!!!

[Merlins Mum]

and me

[tim]

I have to say that I have not actually proved this by having noticeably poor results, but all the guide lines suggest that any tiller will 'pan' the soil, especially with clay, creating a barrier to drainage &, I imagine, root development.

As said, a bit of digging here & there is very desirable. I'm open to flak on this, but it seems a reasonable thought?

[kitty]

As said, a bit of digging here & there is very desirable. I'm open to flak on this, but it seems a reasonable thought?

tim,you'll always be made very welcome at Kitty Acres to practise your digging!

[Derek]

Tim

Pardon my ignorance and I am sure that I am well off the wall with this remark but here goes anyway.
When I am doing seminars I always say 'there is no such thing as a daft question, twenty other folk are dying to ask and daren't'...my daft question is......

I have a Mantis Tiller and it certainly goes down more than two inches...a lot more. I accept what you are saying about the possiblity of 'panning' BUT...

Surely the principles of 'no dig' gardening come into play here and Mr Worm plus his family helps us out?

Be gentle with me 

Derek

[Roy Bham UK]

Tim do you mean 2 inches deep after treading down the fluffed soil? My Honda appears to dig down to the shield (9"diam.) but haven't measured depth after treading down will check

[tim]

Gentle? After 3 1/2 hours gardening already, I couldn't be much else!!

No dig? Good stuff - but the subsoil hasn't been hammered down into a 'slide' by frantic blades.

Depth? What I showed was a once over, to demonstrate that what looks like deep tilth is actually 2" of soil fluffed up like an angry tom.

Yes - it'll go deeper but not, in my experience, in one easy run? In fact, this machine, as I've said before, seems to want to bury itself. Making it quite difficult to urge along.

As for the piddling transport wheels - if you have a barrow, & if you have anything but a flat access, I find that the barrow is far easier!! Had it fall on its side several times.

Learning curve? Oh, & if it falls over after running for some time, & won't re-start, wait 15 min.