Most people, when you ask them why they don’t garden; or if they do garden if you ask what they hate about it will tell you weeding. I am no different. I hate weeding, that is one of the reasons i con my kids into helping me do it. Well, my plan backfired on me. My oldest child, my son, is now working a ‘real job’ and is graduating this spring. So, I was faced with a thirty percent reduction in my work-force.
I happened to see a commercial on TV for a Mantis Tiller. Now, with a background in media, I am naturally skeptical of ads; especially for over-hyped tv products. But, I was desperate for some other option other than chemicals or spending 1-2 hours a day out in my veg garden weeding. I finally gave in, if nothing else, to help me keep the morning glories at bay until my veg crops can get big enough to out-compete them.
This is not an endorsement of their product. I do not sell them, Monty’s does not sell them nor are we suggesting you should buy one. However, since I did purchase one and since this blog is all about gardening, I thought I would share my experience.
I purchased the model that came pre-assembled. All I had to do was pull it out of the box tighten the handles, fill it with a fuel/oil mix and go. My garden is too small for this size tiller but I believe it will still come in handy for weeding/cultivating. I have not planted my garden yet because it is still a bit cold and way too wet so I decided to experiment with the new tiller in these flower beds. On this day I would be using it for two purposes 1) to renovate two flower beds 2) to edge my yard with the optional edger attachment.
The two flower beds were suffering from years of relative neglect and from encroaching Bermuda grass. I love Bermuda grass. It is hardy, it chokes out other weeds and looks good once it is warm enough to green up. However, it has one problem. It grows from rhizomes and refuses to stay where you want it. It will invade everywhere and can be a real nuisance in flower beds.
You can see for yourself the job the tiller did on the front flower bed…total time, about 10 minutes. The bed is a mixture of compost I have laid on top since last summer and native, moderately heavy clay soil.
After using the Mantis in this limited setting, these are my thoughts.
Starting – I have a gas weed trimmer and this is easier to crank than it. Though, I recommend the quick-start option. If you let the tiller set and cool for even five minutes, you will have to re-prime it and use the choke to get it started again. Otherwise it starts quickly.
Ease of use – Very easy, and very light. It has a black handle by the engine and I was easily able to carry it where ever I needed it, one handed. (there is another grip if you want to use both hands. The speed controls are located on the right handgrip and easy to operate with your thumb and index finger. The thumb-controlled safety switch guarentees that you will no accidentally engage the tines.
Effectiveness – Very effective. It chewed through everything: Small roots, Bermuda grass rhizomes, thatch and compacted soil. The trick is to keep it moving in a back and forth motion. If you want to go deep, it will easily go down to about 7-10 inches. The only drawback is that it does tend to pile up dirt behind it so you need to keep it moving. This little tiller made the job of getting rid of the Bermuda grass and working my compost into the clay soil a snap. I am looking forward to seeing what it does on morning glories in the veg garden this summer.
If you do have Bermuda grass, the rhizomes do tend to get wrapped around the tine axle. I had to clean mine off by disassembling the tines between flower beds. However, that said, the cleaning process only required removing two cotter pins and took all of about 3 minutes.
As an edger – Okay, so maybe it was too much to hope for. Once you start asking any product to do something other than that which it was originally designed, you run into some problems. First, the optional edger attachment is easy to put on (see removing tines in the paragraph above). It did cut through the soil and grass fairly easily and did establish a decent, if not perfect, edge. In fact, it probably put a more consistent edge on my lawn than my weed trimmer does. The biggest problems were in design. It does not have a guide or a guard so it is hard to keep it next to the driveway/sidewalk without occasionally hitting the pavement. I can see where this could lead to chipping and scarring the edge of the concrete, given time, and for some (me) that is unacceptable. So If I were to give it a grade as an edger, I would say B-.
All in all, it is light, and it is effective. It is a purchase that I am glad I made. Though I would not count on it for heavy tilling or tilling extremely large areas (My garden plot is 150′ x 75). I think it might be able to do it, but at only 9 inches wide, it would take forever.
Botanical Interests
