Hi,
I can sympathize with you DaveZippi; I'm 71 and our gardens are very steep indeed; our rear garden had grass which was mostly moss and I wanted to do something about it. Just before winter set in I dug over by hand it being extremely hard graft with lots of stones and roots turning the grass/moss under. For Christmas Bron generously bought me a brand new Hyundai rotavator (tiller). Given that I have a constant black cloud I fondly call Blackie usually joining me in the garden the first time I tried using the rotavator it proved absolutely useless forcing me to quit.
A few weeks later the grass sods had dried a bit and again it was tremendously hard work as the rotavator bounced around scattering the sods and with lots of stones and roots still in the ground I wondered what I was doing? That was the hard part and subsequent rotavating became much easier having now removed most of the stones and chopped the roots out; after going over for the fifth time the soil was now wonderful and as I walked on it I sank in. I had removed the grass; shrubs and a very long hedge cutting everything well back.
A couple of months ago I planted two rows of primrose and these are now showing promise some in flower; two days ago I raked over again and sowed meadow flower seeds so I'm now hoping these will give lots of colour and attract the insects and bees. I was sick of the grass only leaving grass pathways which I'm now raking; spiking and reseeding.
The Hyundai kept jamming on the stones and roots; there's a clutch on it to prevent damage so after one of the tines kept being dislodged I welded all the tines in place; no more tine problems.
As I say I'm 71 and our garden is very steep whilst giving me grief with so many stones and roots but I managed just by determination; I think any rotavator is going to stress someones back just by the nature of how it works; a lightweight rotavator will be easier to handle but quite useless if the ground is at all hard; my Hyundai is about right for my use but dragging it up the mountain gives me a good workout before even trying to use it.
The top of the garden levels out a bit but middle of the garden was rotavated by rotavating uphill then letting it freewheel down for the next pass; it worked surprisingly well and had the garden been level rotavating would have required far less effort.
Kind regards, Colin.
The top of the garden seeded two days ago.
Rotavating nightmare; wet grass sods; stones and roots; who needs a gym. Forget a bad back just have an heart attack instead?
Still heavy going but getting better.
Turned over grass sods to the left.
Very heavy going with the rotavator bouncing all over the place; will the garden win or will I win?
This looked hopeless it being the first pass churning the grass sods and fouling on stones and roots.
One of the tines kept being displaced rotating on its securing rivet; welding afforded a solution. A clutch is fitted so slips if the tines bog down.
What a wonderful rotavator; like me it suffered a lot of abuse from the garden but never misses a beat.
