Texas Gardening: Need advice on tillers, which ones are good for clay soil..., 1 by Lenka_

Lenka_ wrote:
Thanks podster! Very useful tips. I have been gardening for a while but have never turned to tillers! Where have I been all this time? And I've been complaining of how much work it takes to prep a flowerbed - take the sod out and amend clay soil by hand...It would take me a few days or entire weekend, depending on size of the flowerbed. A lady from work who lives in Westminster TX and has 11 acres of land suggested why don't I just get a tiller when we started talk gardening and I can work up some muscles as well so I will combine two activities at a time...

sitabrothers, thanks for a tip - someone at work suggested that place as well. I am about 40 min away from Grapevine but will check the store website and if there is one closer to me - I'll stop by there. And if I can't find what I need - I can take a drive to Grapevine store. I am used to driving for 30 min somewhere :).

renatelynn, I am actually thinking of getting a front tine tiller if I won't find affordable rear tine. And I saw Mantis ad in a magazine. It seems like a very fragile machine comparing to other tillers I saw at Lowes and HomeDepot. What's the catch there? They advertise it as if it's also paying your bills for you and etc.... LOL. But I am thinking $299 seems acceptable, but if I have to buy all the different attachments to get what I need done, then it can climb up to 400 if not more - which is the price of ok front tine tiller or a [very] cheap rear tine. What kind of work were you doing with Mantis? Did it work on clay soil? What about the size of flowerbeds - can it handle larger spaces, not an acre at a time of course, but just a large or average size bed?

And I saw some electric tillers too but for some reason I hesitate to drag a cord all the way through my garden and it feels it won't be as powerful, even though it's probably more environment-friendly... It's just a tiller it seems...but such a headache.
This is what happens to people who have too many choices ...:)