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020 3026 8712

Opening times
  • Call Weekdays 9am - 7pm (Closed Between 1pm & 2pm)
  • Saturday Phone Lines 10am - 4pm
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Time to get tilling: here are ten top machines to turn the soil

With milder weather forecast for the next few weeks for most of us, as my mate Drew hinted at yesterday, now is an excellent time to turn over the soil on the vegetable gardens and allotments.

Winter frosts, and there are sure to be a few of them before winter is out, can then do their work killing off ground living bugs and breaking up heavier soils.

Garden tillers really come into their own at this time of the year doing much of the hard work for you.

Yes, digging with a garden fork is a wonderful form of exercise but it can also lead to a very painful back and a good tiller could save you from walking along doing impressions of a question mark.

So here are ten top tillers from smaller ones for small garden vegetable plots and shrubberies to larger machines for professional use on smallholdings and larger plots.

The first is the WOLF-Garten C30E Electric Tiller/Cultivator,  a machine with a 30cm working width and a 1400W electric motor powering four self-sharpening metal tines.

It is powerful enough to tackle most compacted garden soils leaving a smooth tilth and as it weighs just 13kg is light enough to be carried around and into the boot of the car – it has an integrated carrying handle and transport wheels.

This is a very comfortable machine to use and costs £199, £20 off the recommended price.

We deliver it for FREE the next working day and it has a three year warranty.

Next comes the Greenworks G40TL GMAX 40v Cordless Tiller, but please note the price quoted is for the tool only, battery and charger need to be bought separately, but they will fit other products in the range, increasing the value of your purchase.

For its power it relies on the latest battery technology, but it does provide a light and easy alternative to petrol power and it is quieter.

It will run for up to 30 minutes on a single charge and has an adjustable working width of 21cm to 26cm, handy for weeding between the rows.

It weighs 20kg and has two wheels to move it around the garden and handlebars which fold down.

A two-stage safety switch means it can’t be started by accident.

It costs just £169.99, but remember this is for the tool only. Delivery is the next working day and there is a two-year warranty.

The Earthquake MT440 4-Cycle Mini Tiller is a great value machine for as well as being a tiller it has a lawn-edging accessory and crop protection discs.

And to help move it around there is a transport wheel.

Driving it is a 40cc Viper engine, 4-stroke to keep emissions down and easily started with a handlebar-mounted starter cord.

It has a tilling width if 25cm, making it suitable for use the flower beds as well as the veg plot.

And remember there is a FREE set of crop protection discs so you can keep the weeds down in the growing season without damaging growing plants.

It is priced at £319 and is delivered FREE within two to three working days and has a five-year warranty.

Here’s one from a favourite brand with British gardeners, the Mountfield Manor Compact 36 Cultivator.

This has a 100cc Mountfield engine to power four 24.5cc rotors. It is belt driven so that if you hit a solid object the belt will snap and it will not damage the crankshaft – which would be expensive to replace.

The working width is 36cm and it has depth skids which can be adjusted depending on how deep you want to turn the soil.

There is also a transport wheel to make it easier to move around.

It costs £279, £20 off the recommended price and has a two-year warranty. We deliver it FREE the next working day.

Another tried-and-trusted machine is the German engineered Einhell BG-MT 3360-LD Petrol Tiller/Cultivator and it’s currently on special offer.

This is the lowest priced tiller in its class and is great value for money with a 163cc engine driving six cultivator blades.

These blades are 26cm in diameter and 60cm across and there is a free set of crop protection discs when it comes to cleaning out the weeds between the rows.

 

A front transport wheel makes it easy to move the machine around the garden – this tilts up when the tiller is being used.

An adjustable brake skid lets you set the depth and the handles can be adjusted to suit the height of the user.

Throttle controls are on the handlebars and it also has a deadman’s handle which stops the engine when released and stops the tiller trundling off if you lose control.

It costs £299.95, an amazing £200 saving on the recommended price, has a two-year warranty and free next working day delivery.

Now a tiller which has proved very popular and is from a leading European manufacturer.

The Oleo-Mac MH175RK Front-Tine Tiller with Reverse Drive is exclusive to MowDirect and has a183cc Emak engine to drive the steel tines with transmission via a belt.

This tiller benefits from having a reverse gear, very handy if you should get ‘dug in’ or at the end of rows and it has an 80cm working width which can be reduced to 60cm for when the time comes to till between the rows.

It also has handlebars which can be adjusted both for height and laterally so you can avoid treading on the soil just tilled.

It costs £399, saving you a huge £200 on the recommended price, has a five year warranty and is delivered FREE the next working day.

Now one for larger vegetable plots and allotments,

Exclusive to us, the MD Loncin Petrol Cultivator with Reverse Drive has an 85cm working width and a 196cc engine with a 3.6-litre fuel tank to keep you working longer.

It also has a reverse gear to help you out of tight spots and lets you back out when the machine gets ‘dug in’.

It comes with crop protection discs and a front transport wheel and has chain-driven transmission to let it tackle heavy clay soils.

It is £70 off the recommended price at £529, has a one-year warranty and FREE next working day delivery.

Now the first compact rear tine tiller to come on the market.

The Earthquake 6015B Compact Rear-Tine Cultivator is powered by a 205cc Briggs & Stratton engine and has a set of contra-rotating tines with roller bearings.

These tines allow the machine to work more deeply and to tackle heavier and ground which has not been worked for some time.

It has large diameter deep-tread tyres and the company’s ‘Isovibe’ drag stake which keeps vibrations down while maintaining the working depth.

Delivered FREE the next working day with a two-year warranty, it costs £749.

And finally a couple of machines aimed at the owners of smallholdings or those who want a machine made for intensive use.

The MTD T450 Rear-Tine Tiller is rugged and yet comfortable to use with a 46cm working width capable of tackling really compacted ground.

It is powered by a 205cc Briggs & Stratton engine and has chain drive to the tines with the transmission housed in a sealed casing.

The wheels can be engaged individually and it has a reverse gear to make ti extra manoeuvrable in tight situations.

There is a counterweight at the front to make it easier to use and give better balance and a height adjustable handlebar.

It costs £1299 compared with the recommended price of £1439 saving you £140, and is delivered FREE within three to five working days. There is a one-year warranty.

Finally one from a manufacturer whose equipment is often the choice of those working in horticulture.

The Bertolini 403 Two-Wheel Rotary Cultivator has a Honda 163cc engine designed for maximum power and delivering a long working life and has two forward and two reverse gears with transmission housed in an oil bath.

It has a three pre-set working depths and three working widths to give it maximum flexibility.

There is also a large range of accessories which fits this machine making it a year-round workhorse.

The recommended price is £2399, but we are selling it for just £1999, saving you £400 with FREE delivery within two to three working days and a three-year warranty.

We understand that this is traditionally the time for sitting by a roaring fire with a seed catalogue ad dreaming of warmer days but work done now digging the garden will pay dividends when the soil starts to warm and the days lengthen.

See these pages for a wide range of tiller and cultivators.

And remember you can give us a ring on 020 3026 8712 if you would like our help on these items or anything else on our site.

After all, we are the country’s leading garden machinery site on the web.

 

 

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