I think we all start off with great ambition on every new project. Or at least I do. And then sometimes reality comes along and bites me in the ass. So it was with the great dirt moving project of 2008. When we first started the garden project I was taking my Organic Gardening class through Seattle Tilth and reading all kinds of gardening books.
All of them focus on the “evils” of using a roto tiller or tractor and why you should do it all by hand. But here’s what I’ve figured out - most of them are talking to gardener’s with fairly small or tiny plots. Most of them are not talking to someone that’s got more than 1700 square feet of fresh garden that needs to be tilled and amended and tilled again before you can even start to think about planting.
After a lot of hours of working on turning in the compost and breaking up the last of the half-decomposed sod by hand. And even having my mom help me put in 2 rows while they were visiting, I cried uncle. I decided that if my grandfather, who firmly believed in things like compost and mulch and lots of healthy sun and water could use a roto tiller, than so could I.
Of course I decided that very late on a Saturday and the local rental place was already closed. Sunday Mike and I searched for somewhere to rent one, but the closest place to rent a tiller was the Home Depot in Mt. Vernon. That’s a 50 mile round trip that I would have to make twice. And most likely I would have had to pay for two days of rental at $90 a day since it was already noon and they close their rental counter at 4:00 on Sundays.
What was a girl to do? Why grit her teeth and buy a house warming present of course. Right?!? Actually we worked the numbers and realized that if I rented a tiller for 2 days now and again for 2 days in the fall and then 2 days next year, I would basically have paid for my own tiller. Mike can be quite the enabler when he wants to be.
And I have to say that it was well worth it. We bought the smallest rear tine Troy-Bilt tiller that they make so that I’m able to man-handle it myself. And while roto tilling is itself exhausting, using it for 7 hours last weekend meant that I was able to do most of my spring planting over the past weekend.
So, if you’re a die hard gardener, feel free to throw tomatoes at me. But me, I’m really glad I admitted defeat and got on with my garden. And so are my poor wrists that were starting to get carpal tunnel from moving all that dirt.
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Congrats on your new purchase!! My dad used to use a rotary hoe (some machine, different name…) and he knew what he was on about when it came to gardening. I really enjoy following your gardening adventures, keep up the good hard work! You are an inspiration
I’m with you on that one! I also bought a small one (actually much smaller that yours, and electric) and It made live so much easy on my 600 square meter vegetable garden.
Hi Laura: I got one the moment the ground thawed when we first moved in. There’s no way I could’ve done otherwise with our clay soil. My tiller is a big one and yes it’s hard work but goodness I couldn’t have gardened a thing without it. It’s used for bed-building only just to bust up the clay. I then make raised beds and add a ton of other goodies.
As a point of contrast, two years ago I tried to do a lasagna bed (cardboard, dirt, compost, shredded paper, etc.) and…I am still waiting for it to be usable. Two years!!!
As someone who now wakes up in the morning with a claw of a right hand, I can totally understand your new purchase. Our garden isn’t big enough to justify it (and it’s finally all worked), but any bigger and it would be a necessity.
EL — I’m so interested in hearing about your lasagna bed! I was going to do that, but ended up digging instead. This morning when my hands hurt so badly, I was wondering if I’d made the wrong decision.
I have rototiller envy. We use a broadfork, but it is a LOT of work in our heavy soil. Now that we’ve fenced in the garden and are using a modified square-foot system, there’s less need for one, but if the trend continues, and the garden continues to grow, I may be asking for tiller recommendations. Have fun!
OK, I’m curious… what are the “evils”? (Aside from a little bit of petroleum, or the notion of buying a big ‘thing’ that too energy to make, I’m stumped.) Does tilling do something bad to the soil? To the critters in it?
I have to think that a tool that allows you to grow most of your own food has got to be a net-positive, environmentally.
Okay, I feel so much better now!
Anita - the “evils” are that using a tiller, either a small one like mine or behind a plow, creates a layer of hard pan down around 6 - 8″ deep, or however deep your blades go. This layer can create drainage issues and/or prevent plant root systems from going deep enough to take advantage of ground water and other nutrients.
That, combined with the fact that it uses gasoline and and it’s a big honkin’ piece of metal… Oh and apparently Seattle Tilth believes that if you don’t work really hard to put your garden in, then it doesn’t count as organic gardening…
But I have to say that I’m with you on it all being a karmic balance. I’d never have gotten the garden in until June if I’d tried to finish it all by hand. And seeing that my grandfather’s roto tiller must be 30 years old and is still being used by my uncle, I’m sure ours will get enough use to justify the resources it took to produce.
I’m with you on the tiller love! I created one new bed by hand this year - it took me a week and I was so sore. This past weekend I was able to clear the grass from two new beds, and with the tiller get them tilled and amended. I did end up going through with a fork afterwards and loosening them as deep as the fork would go, so I have probably 12″ of loose soil. So much easier and faster than by hand!
Machinery shortcuts are what got my earliest plants in the ground on time this year, too: a kind neighbour used his bulldozer to move our 25 yards of soil into the raised beds for us. The saved week of labour gave us a big head-start on planting.
I’m a die hard gardener and I would never be able to accomplish our gardening without my tiller! GOOD FOR YOU - I say anything that gets you in the garden and keeps you there, is a worthwhile tool.
Also, don’t worry about the plow pan, deep rooting cover crops can help break it up, even our weeny summer nantes carrots are able to break through and grow very well.
[...] my nice to have but could live without list are my rototiller (nice for larger spaces like mine), grow lights for seed starting, cold frame (let’s me get [...]