What's going on everyone? Welcome back to the epic gardening podcast today. We're going to talk about hand-tillers. So this is an interesting topic for me because I'm in the market for one. I've picked up a couple and I'm testing them out and the question then becomes okay well well what's the best hand tiller for you or for me and so today I'm going to

talk about what they are how to choose a good one, and just a couple of the recommendations

that I personally like.

And so, first of all, what is a hand tiller?

We all know what a rototiller is,

but what is a hand tiller and why would we use it?

So before you plant your crops, you have to till the soil to loosen it.

Now that's not technically true, there's the no dig method and the no till

method. You don't have to do this. But what it does do is it makes the ground

softer. It makes it easier for young roots to penetrate. There are no till

methods, like I just said, but a lot of us will

still go out into the garden and loosen our soil by hand in the spring. And so to do

this you're going to need some sort of tool and a hand tiller is a wonderful tool if you work in a small space or you have a small garden like most of us.

So it's handheld or it can be a long-handled tool.

So there's two types of hand-tillers right there.

You've got the handheld tiller, literally holding it in your hand,

and then you have the long-handled tiller that's a bit more heavy duty,

but certainly not as heavy duty as

something like a rototiller and so what we'll do with hand tillers is

sometimes you'll blend in supplements like vermic compost you'll add in some

purlite if you wanted to increase that aeration maybe You'll add in some perlite if you wanted to increase that aeration.

Maybe you'll add in some slow release fertilizers and a hand teller is a good way to mix that in.

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