The Tool That Killed My Rototiller

I no longer till my garden.  There are two reasons why...first and foremost, because of the style of gardening that I use, there really is no
need to till.  Second, I have a tool that gets the job done nearly as fast, and it runs on muscle power, not gasoline.

I dug the garden with a loaner rototiller in 2010.  That tiller was unavailable to me the next year. Expecting to be tilling each year for the rest of my life and with Mrs. Rabbit's approval, in 2011 I bought a shiny red rototiller, detailed here on this very blog.  I tilled again in 2012, but I changed my gardening style that year from row crops to the quasi-raised bed style that I use today.  I call it seedbed gardening, and it does not require tilling.  Last year I did not till at all.  My soil was already light and loose.  Rake in a little compost, and I'm ready to go.

If I do need to bust up a patch of soil, maybe because it's full of weeds or the seedbed has become poorly shaped, I use this bad boy on it.  I picked it up for $3 at a thrift store, and it's the best money I've ever spent on the garden.

Here's a quick video of this tool in action...

It makes short work of weeds, and mixes soil nicely.  No churning blades, so the earthworms are startled, but generally left in one piece.

Now, this is not to say that my rototiller now has a "For Sale" sign on it.  My opinion is that gas-powered tillers are really useful when starting a garden from nothing.  However, it has made me look at my tiller and think about other ways to recoup my investment.  Perhaps a weekend part-time rototiller for hire gig.  Slogans:

"Call the Tiller King.  He'll put a crown on your garden."
"We till 'til you're happy."
"Roto-man.  I till, you garden."