[daveinmanc]

started on another section of my other halfs garden with her today  . . .  the flymo dm fitted with a new plug last week, i did wonder if the straight away start was going to be repeated and i wasn't let down, best two pound odd i've spent in ages for that spark plug! some of the pics are a litytle fuzzy but thats cos they're off my phone and i'm just getting used to taking pics on it  . . .

looked like this when we started  . . . .




thats my mand there hard at work raking all the cuttings away after we'd chopped all the thistles and nettles down a few weeks back  . . . . and she'll kill me for posting these pics of her lol




then i got the flymo started up and did a small section  . . .








we had a crowd of onlookers for quite some time  . . . . . .




 
 
 
but after a bit of graft it ended up looking like this  . . . . . .















dead chuffed with the result, that little machine's worth it's weight in gold !  

can't believe how little petrol it goes through for such a lot of work, it's bomb proof and i don't know if £150 is a lot to pay for one as we did but i really don't care cos you'd never get through that ground in the day like we did with a shovel and fork and still be awake now to tell the tale lol . . . . . .  we've decided to name her Gertie the ground muncher as we've got that attached to her now lol     :shock:

[mushroom]

I've got one of those, as well as a 'merry tiller'. I have the wheels for it but not the extra tines - I beleive it can take 4.

Yeah, the're hardworking little machines. I bought mine for 20 quid, but it's a lot tattier than yours. Some pictures:

photo #1
photo #2
photo #3

When I got it, the machine took a lot of effort to start, but then again it had been in storage for nearly a decade. Running clean petrol through it then running it for about an hour over the plot solved that problem. Now it starts first pull from warm, 2nd pull from cold (with the choke out). It literally sips petrol - a full tank is used in about 3 hrs tilling, and that was making it work through heavily-weeded soil.

I can't really complain about the missing tines for the price I paid for it. For larger areas and deeper tilling, I use the merry tiller.

Your soil looks nice by the way - there seems to be hardly any debris in it. Mine was full of glass!!!

[daveinmanc]

believe me mushroom, it didn't look look that when we'd just started  :shock:

think there'd been a big pile of coal dumped there a long time ago, along with general building rubble. lots of chunks of coal, bits of brick, full bricks and tiles, just kept picking them out and slinging them as we went along. . . . .

that flymo's got all 4 tines on it and they seem in pretty good nick', i've been dead surprised how it seems to just throw up big chunks of stone and even the bricks as its going along without even batting an eyelid ! thought i might have sheered one off by now or bent one. . . . .  hope i don't i bet theyre like rocking house manure to get hold of  :o

the soil was mainly piled up towards where the line of border stones are so we raked it level so there was a nice  even spread of soil there, and it is good soil too, might just take wednesday off to finish it off cos the more we do there more i want to see the end result  

[si-mate]

Was that with 2 or 4 tines?

What depth did you rotovate down to?

[daveinmanc]

its got 4 tines on it, i haven't come across a reason the take them off yet and only had it a couple of weeks at the most so to be honest i dont actually know  why you would take them off  

as for the cutting depth, i've left the wheels on while i've been doing it, i know you're meant to take them off or at least you CAN, but as this is only turning over a very neglected garden and its going to be grassed over, and not planted with veg, i haven't felt the need to go any deeper.

i know from using one my dad had years ago that if you tilt it on the side as you're using it, and you go over the patch a couple of times to break it up - you're getting down about 5 to 8 inch's from the surface anyway, which is more than enough for what we're wanting to do for now.

when we get around to doing a veggie patch in the field i'm gonna go over it to break it up with the wheels on, then take the wheels off and give it a much deeper turning over, think this should do the job quite nicely and it'll get rid of any stones i come across first before i do the deep run.

cheers

dave

[shaun]

great job there dave you take the outer tines of so you can go between the rows of veg,

[daveinmanc]

cheers shaun    it was pretty hard work just doin that patch lol, just glad it wasn't all ' manual '  lol

to be honest  . . . i aint even looked yet HOW they come off  . . .  doesn't it leave a length of shaft sticking out that they're attached to?

erm . . . and pardon my ignorance, but when would you till between the rows of veg WHILE they're growing and why?
 :?

[mushroom]

the tines are held in with a bolt - the bolt has a clip attatched to the top, it clips round the rotor.

[muntjac]

cheers shaun    it was pretty hard work just doin that patch lol, just glad it wasn't all ' manual '  lol

to be honest  . . . i aint even looked yet HOW they come off  . . .  doesn't it leave a length of shaft sticking out that they're attached to?

erm . . . and pardon my ignorance, but when would you till between the rows of veg WHILE they're growing and why?
 :?

 you do it to keep the soil clear of weeds. and with spuds it makes it easier to mound them up if te soil is loose

[daveinmanc]

then thats exactly what i'll be doing when we get round to sectioning off a bit of the field for planting, that'll be some time off i think . . . . . . but then again its gettin addictive churnin' away with the roti lol  

any good tips for preparing a section for planting for next year? bit too late for much now  . . . or is it  . . . .  the field looks like this but i aint going for the lot lol, just a nice manageable section of it for now  . . .  

[muntjac]

id go for the lump from the gate  to the camera .,n tween the two trees .leave a path around the outside so any twitch or bad weds can be just mowed down  wide path from te gate to the top n ur sorted  

[daveinmanc]

do you mean from the gate back behind the camera? thats where i was thinkin of doing it cos it leaves the rest of the field square then and the land runs down towards the river so plenty of water . . . . .  looks like this . . .




its got light all day long too and is manageable enough width wise to do a path as you said

[muntjac]

" WERKS FOR ME "