I have the electric Mantis, had it for a couple of years. So far it has done everything I wanted it to, had the gas one but gave it to DS2, less fiddling about with the electric version and easy for me to use on my own.

Annette

Thanks Annette , do you suppose one would work with my dying grass ? I'm considering buying one tomorrow . I just want to get started ! Lol

Lily I've never done sod with it but I just put it through a workout chewing up some roots for easier digging. I have a lot of small beds and find this the most useful tool I've ever had, sure takes the grunt work out of it.

Annette

I borrowed my in-law's Mantis one year to help with a new bed. I'd planted winter rye that was fairly tall by that time. I took a shovel and loosened the soil and flipped the clods, let it sit a week, and then used the tiller to break things up so that I could plant. The tiller struggled a bit, but worked fairly well to even things out so that I could plant. My soil in this area is good loam, not sandy or clay-y, and at that time fairly poor in organic matter.

i have no experience with such.. but breaking soil.. would never be an electric thing for me ..

i once had an electric chainsaw for a few weeks ... burned that sucker right out ...

i am a little confused here ... you arent seriously planting roses in fall are you ...??? .. that is so counter intuitive to my MI ....

the grass is dead.. completely.. yes???

at planting time .... dig out a clump of dead grass .... dig hole for rose... throw clump of dead grass in bottom of hole ... plant roses ... repeat until done ..

and then cover the whole mess with mulch ...

in fact.. get the mulch on it right now .. make the dead grass disappear .. lol.. problem solved ... and hopefully.. deter the fall sprouting weeds ...

i see no reason.. to need to till the whole bed ... i think you need to think outside this tilling box ... if there are any trees around.. all tilling will do .... is sever tree roots.. and cause an infestation of new feeder tree roots... and that will end up being a nightmare ... [any large tree within 50 feet]

tilling is more of a veg garden thing ... not necessary for a long term planting .. IMHO ...

just dont do it ....

ken

there are at least 3 rose forums ... i wonder what they would answer in regard to the till ... no till ... issue ...

if you do a post over there.. link us ...

ken

Hi ken ! I was hoping you would chime in . I actually did a bed like that before , where I planted roses in holes and card board around the rest then mulch . I think it worked pretty good and I may end up doing that again .
Here in tn you can plant roses in the fall , they will be fine . Our winters are very tame , ground never freezes . We did have a few zero degrees days last winter but I think I'll be fine . We closed on the house in June and summer has been way too hot and busy to plant . So that's why I seem so late !
I really wanted to till so I could add manure from the neighbors cows and just enjoy smooth planting !! The soil looks fantastic from what I have seen . Not rocky or heavy clay , a nice loose brown soil. The grass roots are like heavy canvas to cut thru with my shovel .
I think I will do what I did before with holes and cardboard and by spring I should be ready to go again . I can spend my landscaper money on more roses !
I hate to complain because I am only 30 .. But on my feet all day . I used to have stamina to dig sod like crazy back in pa , and move my full wheel barrel a zillion times , but this year I just want someone to do it for me ! :)

I guess it's not for everyone, all I can say it works for me, I had one bed with a lot of couch grass, I dug the plants, tilled it a couple of times a week for a month, picking out pieces brought to the surface, no more couch grass, then replanted. The bed I'm working on now didn't have tree roots in it just hard to dig. Till then go over with a fork is working in this one.

I have a Mantis gas tiller which I haven't used for quite awhile. I created two large beds for which it was essential - chewing up live healthy turf and working in amendments.

So it is effective going through sod - you just have to be persistent.

Tilling is so much more work than smothering, and wrecks the soil layers/drainage.

Here is a link that might be useful: Brief tutorial about 'dirt'

Hi, lilyfinch, I'm on my third year owning a Mantis electric tiller, and it works really well, although I agree that you may not need to till your dead sod. I used it to till in the previous year's cover crop before sowing lupine seeds with an Earthway seeder. I really needed to get a smooth surface without roots that could trip up the seeder. We used it to till fairly deeply one time to start a vegetable garden. We used it to aerate the lawn one time (should do it again). We've used it to edge between the beds and lawn, and between sidewalks and lawn. We've used it to dig holes for planting trees. It's been pretty reliable, powerful, and easy to use. But you might be able to do without it for your current project.