</font><font color="blue" class="small">( 2 years ago I got my wife one of those Mantis tillers. )</font>
Mike, I think Mantis was the one that set the standard for these small tillers many years ago. A mantis was the first one I used. I thought it was a toy until I tried one a friend had. After that when I saw my Ryobi, I couldn't resist. What I like about the Mantis and the Honda is that the engine sits right on top of the tines and gives a little extra mass to the tiller near the ground. The Mantis also has easily reversible tines for different digging conditions.
Last night I was in the garden doing some tilling between more rows. It's been dry here, but the ground is still moist down about 2-1/2" deep. My corn has 7 to 10 leaves. At about 15 leaves, watering will be critical up until 20 leaves on the stalk and full maturity of the plants. I'll have my soaker hoses in place this weekend and give everything a drink. When the temperatures get into the 90s, the plants use a lot of water.
The only plant with obvious bug damage right now is my okra. /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif I think it must be small grasshoppers doing the damage (light). A few plants have about 1/2 the leaves eaten away, but that's 5% or less. Everything else seems to be relatively bug free for now. Maybe I need to put a bird feeder in the garden to encourage birds and cut down on the young grasshopper population. With dry weather ahead, it will only get worse. /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif
