digging through severl years of neglected earth (and finding out it is dead
soil, to boot) is more than i really had in mind.

buying a roto-tiller is not an option
  
renting/sharing a roto-tiller *is* an option!
  
don't need an industrial grade, 3,000,000 acre type, just a small/medium sized
rototiller for about 1/2 acre.
  
does anyone happen to have one of these nifty-keen thingies?
  
i am certainly willing to 'rent' it.
  
if it's broken, i could even fix it for you - for part's costs.
  
an answer here is fine, email is faster/better .. adn paging me at 668-1982 is
best.

17 responses total.

We borrowed one from our neighbor.  It runs for half an hour before it
dies and then we have to wait another half hour before it would start again.
During the half hour wait we dug by hand and discovered that digging by hand
was just as easy as wrestling with the roto-tiller.  I can fix the engine
too.

Sorry, all our new veggie and flower beds were hand dug two years
ago by me and by Keen.  No rototiller.  My master gardener friends
tell me that rototilling messes up the soil's structure.  You might
consider a new method I'm planning to use for a couple of new beds:
It's called lasagne gardening, because you build the beds in layers
of organic matter, such as leaves, compost, peat moss, grass 
cllippings, etc.  I can find the name of the author of the book I'm
reading about it, if you like.

yeh........... welll.............. 'messing up the soil structure' is
a phrase that leaves me quite.......... ummmmmmmmm, welll confused
(diplomacy is the art of choosing among thoughts).
  
so ....... klaus, is your neighbor willing/able to 'rent' the 
wayward machine?

both of us could fix the engine, btw. <g>.

No.  They don't want to rent it out.  However, I'm sure you can do so
from A-1 rental or most other rental places.

I can dig the family rototiller out of Dad's shed for this... although you
might need to put in fresh gas, etc., it should work fine.  maybe you can help
fix the mysterious problem in the chipper engine in return?  

chipper engine? ... engine that *drives* a chipper?
  
i think we can work this out. fresh gasoline is not a problme.
  
how huge is this here rototiller, btw? (or small ...whatever)
  

Can I get in on this rototiller action?
I have a portion of the yard that needs a fresh earthing. :)

(I put an electronic ignition upgrade on my neighbors rototiller and
it now runs fine.  None the less, me and a regular garden spade beat
it about six to one.  However, the person manhandeling the tiller suffered
the most fatigue in accomplishing 1/6 the work.)

Running a tiller takes some muscle, but I haven't found it to be anywhere near
as difficult and inefficient as Klaus claims.  For an established bed (no
boulders or huge roots) a tiller can be a Very Fine thing.  

Tod, send me email.

I think it has a lot more to do with the design of the tiller and the soil
you are trying to till.  The spot my wife wanted to till was hight in clay
content and the tiller did not have enough mass to sink it's teeth into the
soil.  After two minutes of scratching at the surface I grabbed my spade
and had about 9 square feet turned over in about the same period of time.

Ah.  My tiller digs in pretty good.  But with clay you want to water it so
that it is soft enough.  Dry clay is not easy for anything to dig into...

(The tiller I have [technically it belongs to the family, but I'm the only
one left in the Midwest] has a nice 3 HP gas engine, which gives it enough
weight to dig in and enough mass to not be overly jumpy)

There was some clay in the soil but, like I said, it was pretty easy to
turn by hand.  I suspect there is something out of wack with the tines.
They were sharp but the angle could be off.  Power and weight don't seem
to be a problem.  (It has a 5 horse engine and it's made by / for Wards.)

    A RotoTiller, like a snow thrower, is something that
could make my life a lot easier for a limited portion of the
year. I can't afford either of these contraptions though, so
I clear snow with a shovel and will have to double-dig the
garden with a spade.  I don't have any manure to dig in, but
old leaves and perhaps even some almost-compost. I'll ask at
the village office too, perhaps I can get something else to
dig in.

Digging is good for your health.  Learn to enjoy it.  Ask your neighbors with
lawns to save the cuttings for your compost pile.  

Snow blowers and roto tillers are very noisy and stinky and I wish none of
my neighbors had them.  They also pollute and contribute to global warming.

    Digging and shovelling snow are both good exercise and I   
seem to have done better with the snow this year than last.
Perhaps that's just because there have been some good gaps
between blizzards.

    There's a patch of ground in the back yard where I would    
like to make a small vegetable plot. Mrs. ball wants it else 
-where, but that will have to wait until we can afford to  
have the connifers removed.  I'm leaning towards carrots, 
peas, maize and perhaps even runner beans, potatos and
tomatos.  Trouble is, I've no idea what varieties to buy or
when to plant the seeds.

I can mail you peas, runner beans, and tomato seeds to start indoor in March.
Peas go in as soon as the ground dries out, runner beans around mid May here,
tomato plants after the last frost around end of may.  The library and
internet have lots of information on home gardens.  Carrots need deep fertile
or at least sandy soil.  Mustard greens thrive anywhere and I have seeds.
I have green dent corn if you want to decorate with corn, and red popcorn.
My biggest mistake was to plant too closely and not thin, and not weed enough.
Radishes are quick and easy, ideal for beginners.

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