What is the size of your garden? Width and length????

What is your proposed budget at this point?

How far is your garden from the place that you intend to store the tiller?

Essentially, tillers can be divided into four camps.

Rear tine - This are the real workhorses. They have inflated tractor style tires, multiple forward speeds, reverse gear and the rotating tiller section is located at the rear. This is what I use. Experience has taught me that this is the best design.

Mid-tine - Honda makes a mid-tine tiller that is a rental yard favorite. The engine sits slightly forward of the rotating tiller section. If I couldn't afford the rear-tine, then this would be my second choice. I have used this tiller and prefer it to the front tine. But after owning and operating a rear-tine.......the mid-tine would make me crave the rear-tine.

Front-tine - These are the lowest cost tillers. Many people, myself included do not like this design. The engine sits directly over the rotating tiller section. I find that they bounce around too much and you need to put a lot of effort into controlling them when breaking ground.

Mini-tillers - These are small, light units that don't dig very deep. Excellent for weed control and their size allows you to get into tight areas after everything has been planted and is now growing. Honda and Mantis both make excellent units.

I strongly advise against using your tiller in rocky, root infested ground. It's not only hard on the tiller but when the tines hit immovable objects, Newton's law comes into play. The tiller is thrust into the air and the handles can slam into your body if you are leaning over the tiller. You use the term boulders and to me, that means rocks larger than eight inches in size.

If you have rocks that large, then you should use a mini-excavator to dig this area initially so that all the large stuff can be cleaned out. The mini-ex will easily rip through roots that are three inches in diameter and remove boulders up to two feet in size. You can hire someone with a mini-ex to do this work. Once all the large junk is removed, you can add soil amendments such as peat moss, sand, loam and compost in successive layers and rototill each layer in prior to adding another layer.

Once your soil has been properly built, your tiller will have an easy job of churning through it each spring and fall.

Troy-built, Merrytiller, Ariens, Honda, BCS, Gravely are all good quality tillers. I suggest that you try going to the rental places and see what they offer. Rental stores choose easy to use, long-lasting equipment that they can sell easily when they are done with it. If you can figure out the tiller type that best works for you, then you can often find a really good used unit for very low cost.

Use ebay or your local classifieds or Kijiji or Craigslist. Good tillers last a long time because they only see a few hours of use each year. Condition and brand are what's important. A well-cared for 15 year old Troy-built tiller or Merrytiller often turn out to be excellent buys.

Might i suggest having somebody with a large tractor come in and plow up the place where you want to put a garden. Have them also go over it with something to remove the large boulders, rocks, stumps, etc.!
If you try to do all that with a standard garden tiller, you'll do major damage to the machine. Breaking virgin soil is very tough if you don't have it done before hand, with machinery made for the purpose!
Then, after the initial break-up, and some serious rock and root removal, you can use a tiller for regular soil tilling!
I'd look for an older Troy-bilt Horse model, 6-8 h.p., not the new ones, made by MTD! They can be found if you look! I've had several, and still have one in storage, to be restored.
The front-tine tiller/ cultivators are hard to use, as they jump around more than a rear-tine type. And they tire ya out sooner, too!

I echo Castoff's thoughts entirely. I have one of each except the mini tiller. A rear-tine Troybilt Horse, a mid-tine Honda, and a front-tine Parmi. All will work previously broken soil but the big Horse makes the job real easy. Each year I break a little more ground and add to the size of my garden. REJ2.

Usually when you dig up a new ground for the first time, it is harder work. Each year after it tills up easier but the first time will be the hardest. I own several different rototillers. A 9hp craftsman rear tine counter rotating tiller, a small troybilt 2 cycle tiller as examples. I myself prefer a rear tine counter rotating rototiller. While the wheels are going forward the rear tines are rotating clockwise or the oposite way. This set up keeps your tiller from trying to pull you forward. The other rear tine tiller the tines rotate counter clockwise. If you hit a root or large rock the tiller will pull you forward. I have found counter rotating rear tine tillers easier to handle. I use my smaller 2 cycle tiller to dig up weeds after the garden is growing. dave

I tried a Snapper rear tine with the reverse rotation and the darn thing kept getting stuck, I had to keep working it forward.The BCS was a dream until I hit a root, it almost launched me over the fence LOL. I don't like the front tine any more than the rest of you but they work the best in confined areas, the big boys need more room to turn.

I don't know if the current Merry Tillers measure up but the older ones were absolutely bullet proof. The original company probably suffered because the dang things never wore out and seldom needed parts or replacement.

MM, is that a retaining wall built out of ~18" lengths of tree trunk? Needed some level land after clearing and it was easier to do that than move them? Alot of work to do on your land :).

masimum,

"...is that a retaining wall built out of ~18" lengths of tree trunk?"

Yes, it is. It's actually a terraced strawberry bed in three "stair step" levels. My main garden (the one that is being leveled in the picture) is also a large terrace, retained by a different style of tree trunk retaining wall, that currently ranges from 3 feet to 5 feet high.

This property is very sloping and wooded, and I have found that the "tree blocks" are a convenient available "free" material for landscaping construction. I use lengths ranging from 8 inches to 20 inches, depending on the height of the needed terraces. I also make stepping stones from 4-inch to 6-inch slices of tree trunk. The tree blocks are versatile. I have a good chainsaw, and I get a lot of use out of it. You're right. There is a lot of work to be done on this property.

MM

If you're looking at a bigger garden definitely go with a rear-tine, preferably an Ariens or Toro. The new Troy-Bilt's are made by MTD and are junk, older Troy-Bilt tillers are built like tanks and last forever, that is if you can find someone willing to part with one. Real men use front-tine tillers, they'll make a new man out of you. I've found that mini-tillers are useless for actual tilling and are really just "cultivators" Theres a tiller attachment for some weedwackers which is useless, it digs very poorly because it is so lightweight and is very tiring to use. A tiller needs to be heavy to engage the ground well. Also, don't buy anything with a vertical shaft engine, it will die an early death.

Blacknumber1, how common is a Toro reartine tiller, I've never seen one around here in Kansas? Seen a brochure for Toro front tine tillers once but it was pretty old, 1965 or something. Do they still make them? REJ2.

MM,

Your soil looks in good shape and nice to work in as your tiller is in nicely. Looks like you get good crops even with your shorter season.

rej2, Toro has not made a tiller for many years. There are not many manufacturers left, people seem to be too busy working two jobs to pay the babysitter and the mortgage instead of spending time gardening. Also, a quality tiller is too expensive for the amount of use it gets, cheaper to rent.

I was very excited to try my mantis when I bought it --5 yrs ago but I never used it again after the 1st experience because I did not think about the trees and bushes surrounding my gardens and the problem I ran into was the roots! I thought I would hurt the trees and bushes if I hacked up the root systems so my mantis has sat there until now. I guess I will take it in to a small engine repair place to get it started if I ever use it again. Does anyone else have the root problem? How do you cultivate without cutting through them?

MG,

If you are trying to grow a garden, the tree roots are going to sap the soil and starve whatever you are trying to grow. In the past my approach to roots has been to cut them out.

The trees and shrubs have other roots that they can use and expand upon, so hopefully they can adapt to your tilling. I would fire up that tiller and tell those trees and shrubs to send their roots elsewhere.

MM

I have a 22 year old Troy-Bilt Horse rototiller. When the crankshaft on the 6 HP engine that came with it broke I replaced it with an 8 HP Tecumseh. If you have to rototill on hills I would go with the 8 HP over the 6 HP which tended to bog down going uphill. One trouble with the Troy-Bilt is that the rubber belt shrinks and gets tighter when it gets hot, making it hard to shift into neutral. Because of this I have had my rototiller get away from me and smash into fences and even knocked down a cement block wall onetime. Also, if you have the rototiller set to till deep and then hit an area that you haven't tilled yet especially with hard clay soil or hit a root or rock the rototiller will take off on you and run away with you trying to hang on. I have also hit a root and have the handles kick up and hit me in the chin.