The Mantis Tiller/Cultivator giveaway!

What could be more fun than tilling the garden? Welcome middle age, here I come.

I love tilling and find it incredibly relaxing. Cheaper than therapy, tilling is the way to live life.

Whether your garden is big or small, every gardener wants a quality tiller/cultivator. Fact! Whether you have raised beds or sow directly in the ground, you require a tiller to topple those weeds and cultivate the top inches.

Spring, summer, and fall, you need a tiller. But only the best please, the cream of the crop with the Mantis 4-cycle Tiller/Cultivator. Hello, Honda® four-cycle engine.

The strong and silent type, this terrific tiller turns up the ground to one’s utter satisfaction. Hard-packed clumps of dirt transform into perfect, powdered planting soil. So magical!

And it’s a good-looking tiller if you know what I mean. Lightweight and easy to maneuver, the Mantis is able to tackle any task for the home gardener. No cord because it uses a gas/oil mix. Can I get an amen?

You are going to be smiling ear to ear if you win this amazing tiller valued up to $500 MSRP from the marvelous Mantis!

How to enter to win!

Simply fill out the SweepWidget form at the end of this post. Winner will receive a gift code that will ship a Mantis 4-cycle Tiller to a local store for pickup or straight to their residence.

Multi-tasking with your multi-purpose machine!!!

You only have so much storage space in the shed or garage so you require tools that can multi-task.

This is where your Mantis Tiller/Cultivator really shines.

First, use it to chomp the tough sod in garden beds and landscaping until it looks friable. But it’s equally powerful as a cultivating tool.

To change to cultivating mode, switch the tines to the weeding (or cultivating) position. This takes less than a minute!

After the soil looks satisfactory, and the weeds are all removed or tilled under, I like to add my amendments. My vegetable garden soil tends to get depleted, so I like to sprinkle a few additives on top to replenish the soil.

But I don’t want these amendments to stay on the surface, instead, I want them tilled into the soil to reach the roots. This is when the cultivating position comes in handy.

The Mantis Tiller also works amazing against fences if you want to plant right next to a fence.

I’m considering tilling up next to our neighbors beautiful white vinyl fence to add a humongous row of lavender plants for scent and style!

My veggies tend to get lots of weeds in-between the rows as summer unfolds.

With such a small tiller, I can destroy these weeds around my smaller plants without fear of destroying established roots or delicate seedlings (cultivator setting.)

Tom wants to rotatill scrappy parts of our lawn to plant grass. I plan on using the Mantis throughout the summer to dig a few planting holes.

Then there are the perennial beds that require attention each year. I like to bust through that hard-packed clay soil to add a few new plants and bulbs. With a Mantis, it’s now a breeze.

Tom and I have several fruit trees we plan on using this tiller for and two blueberry and two raspberries bushes we are eager to add.

The Mantis tiller should be ideal for both situations!

One can also buy attachments making this tiller even more versatile such as a lawn aerator, lawn dethatcher, border edger, and plow.

My favorite features of the #7940 Mantis Tiller!

The older I get, the less noise I like. Peace and quiet all day every day. Ever try to take a siesta on a lazy summer afternoon only to hear your neighbor powering up their weedwacker? Yikes.

Part of the beauty of the 4-cycle engine is that it does run much quieter than other tillers. Unlike a noisy lawnmower, no ear muffs are required! And it’s wonderful not to have to mix the gas and oil.

The engine is only 9 inches wide making it amazingly cute and compact. It’s ready to tackle border patrol. When you want to till right up against a fence, wall, or any other tight space, this tiller can get down and dirty.

A bigger tiller simply wouldn’t fit in smaller areas like raised beds or for weeding in-between planted rows.

And it’s reliable. This tiller starts up with no fuss. After pressing the primer bulb 8 times to fill it with gas, I pulled the starter cord lightly with a short, brisk pull. It started immediately.

At just 24 pounds, this Mantis Tiller weighs far less than my 5-year-old, so hauling it around the yard and garden is a breeze.

The Mantis Tiller/Cultivator also moves at your own ideal pace. Not too fast and not too slow. I enjoy pushing it back and forth till the soil becomes all crumbly and ready to plant in.

The grippy handles are also awesome. How I love those soft, rubbery handles that don’t hurt my hands. I still wear garden gloves when tilling, but those well-balanced handles are so comfortable to hold.

Speaking of handles, you’ll also appreciate the black handlebar on top used to make this machine earn the most portable ever award!

But my favorite feature is that it is cordless. I’ll never forget the day when I switched to a cordless vacuum. I’m getting the same positive vibes by using a cordless tiller. Just amazing!

No cord getting in your way to accidentally cut with the tiller or trip over.

Finally…simply put the Mantis is one sweet-looking tiller.

What would have taken me three full days to hoe, till and rake by hand took less than 20 minutes. Mantis Tiller, you are a serious time saver.

Product specs of the Mantis Tiller #7940

Engine	4-cycle Honda (no gas/oil mix required) 25cc
Warranty	Two-Year Warranty. Engine is warranted separately by the engine manufacturer.
Tilling width	9″
Tilling depth	10″ or reverse tines to shallow cultivate 2″ to 3″
Weight	24 pounds
Starting/Operating	Recoil (pull starter rope to start)
Tine Speed	Up to 240 rpm
Grips	Over-molded Sure-Grip comfort grips
Kickstand	Included
Handle	Folds easily for storage or transport

Q & A – What is the difference between a 2-cycle and 4-cycle engine?

A 2-cycle engine requires that you use a gas/oil mixture in the fuel tank. A 4-cycle engine requires gas in the fuel tank and oil in the engine. No mixing rocks my world. But it doesn’t take much these days.

An ageless, gender neutral tiller!

In a brilliant move on the part of my husband and myself, we just discovered that my 12-year-old daughter is capable of more than we credited her for.

She is now the chief lawnmower of the household.

In a similarly brilliant move, we discovered that she was eager to try her hand at tilling. She’s able!

Truly, this tiller is an ageless invention because a pre-teen can till but so can your 90+ grandma if she’s willing.

Not gender-specific either, this tiller fits perfectly in the hands of a man or woman.

So anyone can haul this tiller all over the yard and garden without a ton of effort. It has a black handle on top to use for carrying it around.

Just as easily, haul it to your friend’s house to help till their gardens. A woman can just as easily lift this tool as any man! So there!

Besides, when you require a break and run inside for a quick cup of lemonade, just leave it propped up on its kickstand. Your Mantis Tiller will be waiting for you when you come back!

The kickstand is amazing (just like a bike kickstand) while you dash into the house or to use for storage purposes. (Mantis model 7940 comes standard with a kickstand, other models require the kickstand attachment).

Chilling and Tilling! How to operate your Mantis Tiller!

There are times I till by hand and I have a few tools to help me with this manual task. But this is mostly for tiny spaces and patio planters.

My three raised garden beds are 16 feet long and 6 feet wide. I am not tackling this by hand! Not only would it take several days but the work would be excruciating. Your back? Arrghhh.

Enter: A Mantis Tiller to save the day.

If you’ve never had the privilege of operating a tiller before, you are in for a big surprise. It’s very similar to vacuuming. You just oscillate your tiller back and forth, even in a backward motion to work the soil.

Work the same area again and again until you’ve dug to your desired depth. As you break up the sod with those sharp, tine teeth; you’ll see the clumps break up and become fresh, fine, and friable soil! Time to plant!

Bear in mind that as a Tiller, your Mantis chops up the ground to a depth of about 10 inches. As a cultivator, it breaks the surface about 2 to 3 inches.

Insider Tip!

Your Mantis Tiller actually tills best when you go backward, this gives extra resistance to the tines so they can dig deeper! Even better? When you maneuver backward you erase your footprints so you aren’t stepping over the soil you just tilled.

Sharing is caring with your Mantis Tiller

Transportation is real with your Mantis Tiller. That’s right, by all means, use it at home but feel free to take it on a road trip because it’s easy to haul around.

Weighing in at just 24 pounds nothing could be easier to lift and move than your Mantis Tiller, especially with the carrying handle.

Maybe you want to take your Mantis Tiller to the community garden, your daughter’s school garden, or your mom’s house to help her till her beds. All easy options!

Lightweight and incredibly portable, you’ll be the talk of the town zipping around your town or neighborhood with your tiller in tow.

Your Mantis Tiller will easily fit in the truck of your vehicle and the fold-down handles make the transporting process that much swifter, not to mention storage more convenient.

Besides, the engine is only 9 inches wide. I actually got out my measuring tape to verify this.

Just make sure you empty the tiller’s fuel tank first before placing it in your car or truck.

Insider Tip!

After you start your engine, let your tiller warm-up for two to three minutes before you use it. And before you put your tiller away, let it idle for a minute to give the engine a chance to cool down!

Final thoughts….

This is a little embarrassing.

But for years, we borrowed our neighbor’s tiller to cultivate our raised beds.

We never had our own before. What a mistake!

Especially when you can purchase a tiller of such a high caliber from Mantis. The metal used is of such high-quality right down to the nuts and the bolts.

Many thanks to Mantis for sending me such a marvelous machine!