More With A Garden Cultivator

* To make gardening easier & save time,
* For larger gardens & turning in the weeds,
* When gardening is simply getting too much for you.

Some gardeners find that power driven garden cultivators are an essential to keep their garden or allotment going. You may find this if you have a large plot or you simply don't have the time to turn it over. Indeed, powered tillers are fast becoming a fashion. Organic gardeners - note the cautions I outline below.

Senior gardeners who no longer feel able to dig a plot over turn to mechanised garden cultivators such as the rotavator. And these can turn even rough weedy ground into finely tilled soil ready for planting. They can do it with such ease that you'll finish your job satisfied and wondering what to do next.

Available for U.K. gardens in right panel >> right.  

Advantages to the Mantis system are given below.

Better to be growing something than do nothing at all I say. However... you should be aware of the organic gardening issues and precautions to take when using a mechanised garden cultivator:- see below.

Tillers are shown on demonstration videos churning up the soil as if it were a cake mix. The blur of action photography is partly responsible. But for the organic gardener especially, this action should be minimised.

When the soil is tilled:

• Nutrients are released,
• Organic matter breaks down,
• Weed seeds germinate,
• Soil organisms such as worms and fungi are dessimated,
• A hard pan or plow pan may form below the tilled layer...

A Hard Pan will:-

• reduce the depth of soil available to plant roots,
• increase intensity of droughts,
• prevent free drainage.

Rock tiller from side to side as you go - then your earth will be less prone to panning.

So although garden cultivators are well-used in some situations:- large areas, opening up new compacted ground, turning over rough tough weeds etc... their use is best kept to a minimum. For example, I would never use a cultivator on a small sized raised bed.

Sometimes however, when you are faced with a big job, a Tiller can be like a 'life-line' to enable gardening. See how a Mantis Tiller powers Interchangeable gardening tools.

The No-Dig Way

• Cover the soil with organic matter in the fall:- leaves, weed tops, or manure...
• Worms get busy forming a layer of crumbly worm casts,
• Don't walk on growing beds, access your plants from paths,
• Only light cultivation is needed for sowing and planting.
  Get first-rate manual tools on this link.

What You Like About Tillers

For many gardeners the no-dig way is too rough and ready. And tillers are fast workers. They provide the uniform and even finish that many gardeners find attractive. Tillers make the earth look neat and well kept which is quite important for allotment holders.

For garden enthusiasts Tillers are particularly useful when the soil is already hard and compacted.

• hard ground left after building work
• when turning lawns or paths into vegetable or flower beds,

Perhaps you have a small field out back. The size of your plot will determine whether rotavating is to be a once only job or a regular chore.

What I Like About The Mantis Tiller

The Manits Tiller attracts my attention, not because it's the most popular, although it is, but because of its organic like capability. This garden cultivator enables you to use interchangeable tools on one power pack.

Although some experts (professional gardeners) claim these variants aren't as good as their single purpose equivalents I'm overwhelmingly attracted by this versatility and compactness. And it saves money.

Add to that: light weight, portable, and an effective cultivator - and you have a garden cultivator for small gardens and allotment gardens alike. One that's worthy of a place in the garden shed. For larger areas a wider more powerful version of the Mantis Tiller is available.

More Than A Garden Cultivator

MANTIS® TILLER temporarily unavailable here.

Find more pages of information on gardening tools at the-organic-gardener.com links below:-

• There's information here on your selected garden power tool for lawns, hedges, organic waste and earth with tips on using them effectively.
• Find more information gardening hand tools for organic gardeners and how to make them work for you click here

More About Weeds At The Garden Gate

• Find more pages of information on: lawn weeds,   -   annual weeds,   -   reclaiming an overgrown site,   -   flame weeders,   -   how garden weeds thrive,   -   intelligent weed control,   -   natural weed prevention,   -     -   control weeds with sheet mulch,   -   compare herbicides with organic weed killers,   -   perennial weed control,   -  
  The Organic Gardener's Tool Shed, & the best in small handy weeding tools,



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