Garden rotivator

[clid61]

@clid61 I’m going to be patronising here...

Have you used one before?

Don’t fight with the machine. Push down on the handles to get it to dig in.

If the ground is hard and compact, irrigation for a couple of days beforehand may help you.

No I haven't , thanks for the advice I need as much as I can get !

 

[PaulSB]

Any recommendations please , bought a house that has been empty for a couple of years garden needs ploughing , happy to buy off ebay

Without seeing the garden, knowing it's size or what is currently growing there I find it hard to imagine why one would want to take a rotavator to it.

Yes, you will break the ground up quickly but it's likely you will create other problems for the longer term. Many perennial weeds will propagate from cut roots which you will create in abundance. If you have fences, hedges it might be difficult to get in close enough. Depending on your soil type and given your lack of experience it's possible you will "pan" the soil. This is when the blades break up the surface but at whatever depth they go down to have the effect of smoothing the soil and blocking natural drainage - clay soils are particularly prone to this.

I would hire a strimmer, clear everything, let it dry, rake the foliage away and then decide on a course of action.

 

[annedonnelly]

When I was about two we moved into a house on a brand new estate. There was no fence between us and next door - just an area of garden. When the next door neighbour left the rotivator running I went over and started trying to drive it round the garden.

Cue much panic from the adults!

I still can't understand why they wouldn't let me have a go.

 

[Beebo]

A basic observation but make sure you down have any buried cables or other services close to the surface.

 

[Electric_Andy]

My dad helped me landscape my garden which is 8x7m. He is dead against rotovators as mentinoed upthread they cut up the weeds into tiny pieces. We used a shovel and did it by hand, took a couple of hours. If you are set on using a rotovator though, yes hire one. The electric ones for £60 odd aren't much good. They tend to skip over most of it and you really have to drag it backwards to get any significant churning done. And they tend to catch stones and jam up becasue they are small have have little clearance.

We took the worst of the weeds/roots out by hand. Then let it sit for a few weeks to let any weeds sprout. We then sprayed all the growing weeds with roundup, let them die off, and then dug them in. I think we waited a few more weeks before levelling and sewing new grass seed. Result is I've got a nice lawn virtually free of weeds (for now).

I'd also advise hiring a roller for when you're done. I didn't roll mine and although it's generally flat, there are a few high and low spots and I wish I had rolled it properly before I started.

 

[clid61]

Its a big un and on a slope needs levelling ish