Lidl garden cultivator?

misskool

we have one of them bought a few years ago but the photo shows that the handles have shortened. If it is that short, bending down while doing the work might not be so great.

We have clay soil (local area made bricks a while ago), and it's been really helpful for us to break big lumps after digging through. It really is back breaking work getting clay into a fine tilth but after 2 years we can see a difference.

The major cons of the Lidl one is that it's electric so you really need to be very careful when using it in the garden. It's useful enough for that price for a home garden.

gamston

i'm look for an aerator for the lawn,
i've seen a "Rotavator" fitted with straight blades that just slices lines (about 3"s deep) into the lawn
anyone used or got something like that

lufoo7

surely the handles are folded down?

sirbrainy

It's a cultivator

Garden Cultivator FGH 710 A1

Take the hard work out of soil preparation and cultivation

• Easy to operate
• 4 smooth-running, specially hardened cultivator blades
• Powerful 710 watt motor
• Automatic motor overload protection
• Start protection and safety switches
• Sturdy, fold-down aluminium handles for space-saving storage
• Includes practical belt clip to help keep the mains cable out of your way
• Max working width (cm): 36
• Max working depth (cm): 18
• Mains cable (m): 10
• Size approx (cm) 132 x 55 x 27
• 3 year manufacturer’s warranty

http://www.lidl.co.uk/cps/rde/xchg//lidl_uk/hs.xsl/index_18998.htm?offerdate=&ar2=

matt987106

to be fair, for 50 quid you cannot expect it to be a commercial unit, its got a 3 yr warranty, its 50 quid

you cannot go far wrong with it

djohn2002uk

matt987106 wrote: »

to be fair, for 50 quid you cannot expect it to be a commercial unit, its got a 3 yr warranty, its 50 quid

you cannot go far wrong with it

But it's no good for digging up a lawn. The video shows that all it does is breaks up soil that has already been dug over. Don't see the point.

gamston

looks like i'll buy a spkier from argos today
just want to get job done

stumpycat

Got one today & I've been playing with it!
It does work best on soil that's been loosened up a bit with a spade or fork - and produces lovely fine soil.
It does pull at you quite hard (I did the comedy being-taken-for-a-walk by it at first) but if you move it back and forwards it works really well - I'm very impressed!
Off to cultivate more of the garden...

ginvzt

Thanks for testing it! I won't be able to do this until the weekend.

I don't mind breaking ground into clumps with the fork or spade. But when the soil is heavy, those lumps are still very hard and long job to get into a finer soil. I know - it took me whole day to break up the lumps to refill the raised bed. And to illustrate how compacted it was, to fill 30cm high red I only added 125 l of multipurpose compost, 75l of soil improver, 50l of manure, and some sand. So, what 'on paper' worked out like 580l of compost/soil to fill the bed, it took me 250l. Ok, it is not full to the brim, but it is more than 4/5ths full.

gardenroute

What's the obsession with creating a fine tilth? The only time I would do it is before raking it out for seeding grass/turfing.
When you break up the soil into a tilth you are breaking down the soil particles into smaller pieces. This allows them to pack down closer together when its walked on or even just rained on. The compaction then gets worse as the soil gets finer and finer.
The key to a good soil is improving the soil structure, not breaking it down.
Repeated mechanical cultivation on clay also leads to smearing at the tines' depth level which will also create problems.
The soil should not be too wet or too dry when using a tiller/rotvator.