Oh, I have to cook a roast for a benefit Saturday. Will be using some of the garden produce for that. Many Saturdays, I am helping a friend rebuild an 80 YO farmhouse.
Yes, with our lack of winter, it's time to start the lawn process again, so edging, mowing, turning the compost, and stomping fire-ants are part of the weekend duties.
The electric is not a Mantis, it's a Ryobi. I actually broke two shovel handles when initially digging the garden, and broke a tooth on one of the forks.
HELP-new garden to install, flat lasagna style
It is great to cultivate with the Mantis - just reverse the tines.
If you buy one, be sure to get the kickstand. I got the wheel and edging cutter as a bonus with mine.
I'll have to check out the Ryboi. Troy does reverse also. I have the row making and trenchers that go with it..got them a bonus the last time we got new tines. This our 2nd Troy and all the parts are interchangeable which is nice.
Mantis is great for cultivating and light tilling, but I'm glad I rented a larger tiller when I first broke the ground for my garden.
That's the second mention of that. I'll make sure DH rents a huge one!
HUGE probably isn't needed, just bigger-than-Mantis.
I always understood that you could plant in a lasagna style bed right away if you needed too. You just opened your space in the lasagna and put some dirt in to hold the seed or plant, topped it off with a mulch of some type (like maybe straw) and went from there.... It would be a lot easier to be able to plant right away and not remove the grass, just let it decay under large amounts of newspaper and the rest of the lasagna layers.
I kind of lasagna garden. I cleared out one hosta bed that needed more dirt and made it a big compost/lasagna bed for most of the past two years. Basically dumped all the weeds I pulled from all the other beds, and grass clippings, old hay, etc. This year I'll probably replant it...
Check your local paper, a lot of Troy owners do side jobs for reasonable rates. You will get nice smooth beds. Even with hardpan, they should be able to get it loosened up at least 6-8" to start. Just takes some time and patience, tilling very shallowly at first and then going deeper as the soils starts to loosen up. Doing side jobs is how we paid ourselves back for the first Troy. And Hubby already has several small jobs lined up for the new one. He does love to play with the tiller, LOL. We've been getting a lot of much needed rain and the ground is too wet to work just yet. Which reminds me I need to call the guy that is fixing the old one up and find out what's up. LOL
You can do that with a lasanga bed, but there's grass and then there's the grass from he---! St Augustine and Bermuda fit in that group. Since the area she's in is getting close to plant, she may want to opt for the quicker method. And add the lasanga beds to other areas.
We've done removal on both Augustine and Bermuda. Bermuda doesn't "remove" lol. Augustine haven't had to much issues with.
Good idea on the hiring someone who has a Troy to come in!
You guys got me wanting to buy a tiller now!
I figured out that if I bought even the smallest Troy, I'd only be using it twice a year.
Now that the initial groundbreaking is done, the Mantis is quite capable of what I need to do, and a lot of cultivating that the Troy would be too big for, besides.
That why I was thinking of getting a small one! I have a small garden. Though I will do a little research and plead with the DW.
Troy makes smaller models, but Mantis are good tillers also. It just depends on what you want to do with the tiller. Do some research and decide what would be best for your needs. And I got no problem integrating no till methods as well, depending on what I'm wanting to do.
I broke 15 YO sod (Augustine/Bermuda) with the Mantis. Went down 8", once the risoms were cut (and cleared from the tines). Spent more time cleaning the Mantis than it did tearing the grass up.
Tir, I agree Bermuda is the bigger pest - something signals that grass to grow 3' overnight to get into the freshly tilled garden. St. Augustine takes its time.
I use a few old cedar fence boards laid flat to border and slow down the grass and weeds, but have to remove and till the edges several time a year to keep the perimeter clear.
Bubba,
Why did you reverse the tines?
Dean_W,
Only time to do that is when cultivating, not tilling. It digs shallower with the tines reversed - only about 4 inches, so that is enough to take care of weeds, but not hit the roots of the plants you want to keep.
The Mantis has an attachment to the tines that [supposedly] helps keep stuff from winding around them.
http://www.amazon.com/Mantis-Tiller-Weed-Reducers-1722-00-02/dp/B000FIV29A/ref=pd_bxgy_hi_text_b
Also a "tiller tine detangler" for when this doesn't work.
I'm ordering both.
That's great! Took a day for me to awaken to the fact that it is easier to remove the tines to clear them of the tangles - now I don't give it a second thought.
But that is a nice combination that would make the job easier and quicker.
One more thing - those tines are sharp - so wear gloves.