Using a Rotavator

[Harry Bloomfield]

I've never used one before, but I'm being loaned one tomorrow, to do a small patch at the back - any tips please?

The 'patch' is some up to now - near derelict land at the very back of the garden, where some 40 years ago, I dumped much of the good soil, spoil and lots of debris from when I laid my garage base. Likely lots of bricks and concrete mixed in with it, in places.

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

I bought a cheapy electric one a few months back, with a view to doing some veg patches and eventually the 'lawn', not sure there's much to know, let the rotavator do the work, go up and down and then change direction by 90deg and repeat, gradually getting as deep as you want to go and clear anything that starts clogging up the blades.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

My real concern was the hard debris which is mixed in with the soil.

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

Just gotta go easy I guess, I suppose if it's some petrol goliath it will take it in it's stride rather than some cheapy electric! I'm not sure I'd want to be going through earth with bricks etc with someone else's inadequate machine! I hand dug one of our veggy patches last year so I knew a cheapy one would be OK here, screw ever hand digging up a veggy patch again though!

 

[hllns]

They can chop up weed roots a treat so you may wish you hadn't if the area is quite weedy

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

@hllns Is that why the weeds have gone bananas in our veggy patch this year then?

 

[Burnerman]

Are you sure it’s a rotorvator and not a tiller, Harry?
Just go slow, yank any rocks out that may cause damage, although a bigger machine should deal with them.
I don’t own one, but have sorted many, and some people like to leave the inner blades off for some reason.
Good luck with it!
John

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

Avril has decided to make use of the land (whilst sieving and diverting the good soil, for her flowers), so she's been tackling it so far with a spade. It's a triangle of land, bounded by trees along one side, railway fence on the other, about 40 x 40 x 15 feet wide, at the highest point of the garden and the area generally, made even higher by all the soil I piled up there years ago.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

Are you sure it’s a rotorvator and not a tiller, Harry?

I've not seen it yet, but I was told it's a Rotavator.

 

[lostinthelight]

Needs different technique depending on whether it has wheels in front of the rotors which moves it along or rotors at the front which drags you along.

 

[Nige F]

Rotors @ front can be a bit of a beast, but are the most common type.

 

[Mottie]

@hllns Is that why the weeds have gone bananas in our veggy patch this year then?

When I borrowed one to go over my allotment plot, the allotment manager told me to hand dig first to get all the bindweed roots out. He said if I chopped one of the roots up into a dozen pieces, I’d have a dozen new plants to worry about.

 

[pcaouolte]

If the rotors are at the front it will buck upwards when it hits a rock but it wont damage the machine. If you let it stand still it will keep digging into the ground rather than moving forwards. You need a firm grip on the handles, lift them to make it go forwards, pull them back to make it dig in. Sometimes the handles need a bit of a side to side wiggle to get it to move forward if it has dug in deeply.

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

When I borrowed one to go over my allotment plot, the allotment manager told me to hand dig first to get all the bindweed roots out. He said if I chopped one of the roots up into a dozen pieces, I’d have a dozen new plants to worry about.

Bugger!

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

Rotors @ front can be a bit of a beast, but are the most common type.

Thanks All, it was done a few days ago. It was an electric one, no wheels, just two pairs of rotors. Quite awkward to use, it really needed both hands on the bars, but to start it, you needed to press a button on the right with your left hand, whilst squeezing the trigger with your right hand - then it would take off at high speed. It was a matter of me running it until it hit a brick/stone or root, then have Avril dug it problem object out. In the process of which we found several long buried objects, including a few coins, a rusted metal equipment case, plastic toys, and a long-lost pair of pliers.