How can I find my old pictures?

[Bramble]

I wonder if anyone has one of these, or has used one and if so, what you think of them?

I have thick clay soil which desperately needs improvement, but I struggle to get a fork or a spade in far enough even to plant a bulb, let alone anything bigger - I was wondering if a "gadget" like this might make a difference?

Thoughts from the Omlet Oracle, as always, much appreciated, please? Thanks!!!

[WitchHazel]

If you havevery heavy clay then it might be worth using one.

 

If you look at HSS (the hire shop) and google "tiller" and "rotovator" separately, you get some interesting information. The tiller (that is on the hire website) might not be up to the job anyway )reading the description), so you might need a rotovator.

 

I've seen on some garden websites that electric machines are more awkward to manage than petrol ones, because trying to steer the machine is hard enough without having the cable getting it off balance.

 

If you hire one for a da ,you'd be able to see how it works and get a better idea of what type of machine you really need and see whether it's worth buying one. Of course, you'd also get a lot of the work done anyway

 

I know it's quite expensive to do so, but it might be worth hiring one or other for a day, to try it. I know it's not cheap, but it may be a better investment than buying a cheapish machine and finding it isn't up to the job. You may find you don't need one on an ongoing basis, or you're only going to use it once or twice a year anyway.

 

Hope that helps

[Patricia W]

We went through this last year when we were ( still are!) remodelling the garden. We have very heavy clay in places so debated about hiring or buying a rotavator. In the end, we hired as we didn't think we'd use one on other than an irregular basis. So for about £50 for a weekend, we hired a heavy duty rotavator which worked well. To buy the equivalent model would have cost several hundred pounds. So unless you are going to use one frequently, I'd recommend hiring. I think we used HSS.

[Bramble]

Thanks guys, I think you are right about hiring - I reckon I'd need something fairly hefty to do the initial work and then maybe a smaller one might do longer term (or I mightn't need it again), I'm just fed up of having stuff you could make dinner plates out of instead of "soil". I will pootle off to look at the HSS site now ... Thank you !!!!!

[Patricia W]

We also added in a load of sharp sand, some top soil and composted aubiose/chicken poo ( of course!). The soil is enormously fertile now. One of our tomato plants has turned into a triffid and produced around 8kg of fruit! With more coming.

[Egluntyne]

I have a mantis tiller. It is very useful. We have very heavy clay soil too.

[sjp]

I've got a Mantis but I find hands digging easier on my back . I brought it as I thought it would be better for my back as I've got 3 stiff vertebrae in my lower back

[chickencam]

I would hire a heavy machine, the light weight ones just bounce around on heavy soil which is hard work and very jarring. We bought an old Howard 350 on ebay about 10 years ago to make the allotment manageable with limited time and without it we wouldn't have been able to manage. It has improved our very sandy soil by chopping up all of the surface vegetation which has then rotted down as extra organic matter.

[Bramble]

Thanks guys - I knew you'd know!!!!

I'm away next week, but it's full on operation garden when I get back (hopefully) will keep you all posted ...

Thanks everyone!