[Casey76]

I'm not mechanically minded, so need something very easy to use, and the area of the veggie patch is approximately 100m² but it is divided by some sunken beams, that I'm not in any hurry to dig up just yet, so the widest one area is is approximately 3m, so wound need - I assume - something fairly narrow... oh and light, cos I'm a weakling female

This is what I'm trying to say...



The area in the foreground is approximately 5m wide.

So, any recommendations, and dos and don't, pros and cons would be greatly appreciated

I'll be spending the next few weekends digging the far corner over by hand to pick out the enormous nettle roots, and waiting for everything else to die

[Kleftiwallah]

I'm in the NO ROTO camp.   If you imagine the rotovator blades wizzing round, they describe a circle and the bottom of the circle will form a straight line as the rotovator moves through the ground.

This line will be polished by the blades and form a slick surface away from human eyes under the frothed up top section.   The roots of plants will find it difficult to work theur way through this "Hard pan" and will restrict their search for food and moisture.

I would suggest you double dig initially and dig in as much 'muck' as you can find.   In future years you can resort to the rotovator but get the initial ground work done first.

Cheers,     Tony.

[Gwiz]

Panning all depends on what type of soil structure you have. If you are on a clay soil, frequent rotovating can cause panning, but on a loamy/ sandy soil there isn't any real problem.
As for rotovators, in the reasonably priced range, I'd always recommend the Alko's over anything old from ebay. Have a look at the MH 350/4. I recon it's just what you need, lightweight, reasonable price, narrow and cheap and easy to fix if it all goes 'orribly wrong.

[Fen]

Weakling females should never dig up nettle roots!. Aquire some glyphosphate, (Round Up), batter the nettles a bit and spray them every fortnight until they die. Worry about a rotovator when all the nettles have gone.

[digger1]

Have a look at the Mantis Tiller the blades are set at a slight angle so no panning

[Casey76]

Oh, I have no problems with the digging Fen, but a lot of my garden is heavy clay, so even with a fork I struggle to get a fine enough tilth to plany anything smaller than fairly robust tomatoes, courgettes etc.

The majority of the nettle roots are limited to one or two areas, as I completely dug out the top two areas on the photo three years ago, and it was well mulched with  wood chip.

Having said that I'm now tackling the trees along the borders, so I'm going to have to wait for the rotovating until I get the tree debris cleared away.

For the remaining nettles I have some triclopyr, though I do probably have some glyphosate buried at the back of the cupboard somewhere

Are Mantis Tillers recommended... it is the one I keep coming back to

[digger1]

This is the web site for mantis   www.mantis.uk.com

[mikeimp]

I have a Mantis ,bought it 4 months ago .Must admit it is very easy to use does a get job light weight and with the handles folding becomes easy to store.I bought it originally to weed between the rows of Veg but it does dig quite well .Not quite like the heavy 6.5 HP machines and it will never replace a spade but it is worth its weight in gold.

[Headgardener22]

I've had a Mantis Tiller for about 10 years (the blades are beginning to need replacing its been used so much).

I have quite heavy clay on the allotment and my experience is that the Mantis only really works well if the soil has already been dug over, certainly not when its very wet or when its dried out. If the clay has dried in lumps then the Mantis won't break it up.

I try not to dig too much and use the Mantis to work compost into the top few inches rather than digging deep into the soil.