It doesn’t matter if you are planning a vegetable garden, or you simply want to till up your flower beds, a garden tiller can provide excellent results and make a back breaking chore much more manageable. A garden tiller is a gas-powered or electric machine that is used to break up the ground and turn the soil. Because garden tillers have spinning tines, they are also excellent for amending soil with compost, leaf mold, and other nutrients.

Garden tillers come in a wide range of sizes, styles and price ranges so you should consider your needs and long term plans before you buy. Lightweight hand held garden tillers are the least expensive and as you can image, also the least powerful. These tillers are much like a garden trimmer with a tiller replacing the trimming head. They are excellent for small flowerbeds with developed soil. I would not recommend this type of tiller for large jobs (anything beyond a 20 X 20 space) or hard compacted clay soil. These tillers cost between $100 and $300 typically.

For larger tilling jobs, you should consider a front tine garden tiller with rear wheels and a metal stake to break up the soil as the tiller passes through. These tillers can be quite a handful when they are running and take a great deal of arm and shoulder strength to control. They are propelled by the pulling action of the front times and will bounce and jump around when they encounter hard soil and rocks. For larger areas of developed soil, they are efficient and do an excellent job. These tillers can be found priced between $250 and $500.

The last type of garden tiller you should consider is the rear tined self propelled style. These garden tillers are easy to operate and control. They normally have both forward and reverse gears and have at least 2 forward speeds. The rear tines are pushed down by the weight of the machine and they can effectively till pretty much any type of soil except aggregate. Expect to pay between $500 and $2500 for this type of garden tiller.