by Bill Whitney

Created on: August 12, 2007   Last Updated: August 31, 2010

Garden tillers come in all sizes, powers, and configurations, They come battery powered, electric powered, gasoline powered and in the bigger ones even Diesel powered. They come in a front tine configuration and a rear tine configuration. In all but the very small tillers I much prefer the rear tine tiller. They are much easier to handle and in general I think they do a much better job. Some of the tillers are belt drive and some are gear drive with an actual transmission. Some of them have forward only and some have reverse also. Being able to reverse the tine rotation is very helpful if you ever get in a bunch of vines or get something tangles in the tines. The tillers come in all sizes and tilling depths. They start at about 4 inches wide and the biggest rear mounted tractor tiller I have seen is 72 inches.

How do you decide what you need. It mainly depends on two or three things. First, how big is your garden area, secondly, how hard do you want to work and thirdly in these economic times, what can you afford.

If you have a small area in the corner of your back yard and the yard is small you probably need no more than an electric tiller or a small gasoline powered tiller like the Mantis. The Mantis is small but does a very good job and is easy for even a petite little old lady to handle. The Mantis runs around $300 to $350 for the tiller and then there are some attachments that can be added if desired. If you have a bigger area, you will probably want a rear tine tiller and they are available from about 3 horsepower up to the biggest I have seen is 12 horsepower. Depending on the soil and whether it has ever been broken up before may be a defining factors in what you want. Get one big enough to do the job efficiently but don't over buy.

When I started my big garden in Gillette Wyoming I bought a 5 horsepower Troy-Bilt Pony. I was trying to breakup virgin sod and broke up a yard plus a 150 X 2500 garden area. I found out right quick that the Pony would get it done eventually, but it would take a lot of time and hard work. I went to town and rented a 22 horsepower John Deere Utility tractor with a 60 inch tiller on it. I broke up the entire area plus a little extra in about three hours and tilled it 12 inches deep. Once I got it broke up, my Pony did a wonderful job and we raised enough vegetables every year to fill two big freezers and keep our friends and neighbors supplied with fresh vegetables too. I had 40 acres and raised some calves every year for

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