Finding the Best Garden Tiller – Our Top 10 Picks and Reviews

What Is a Garden Tiller?

A garden tiller, also called a rototiller is basically a farm plow that is scaled way down.  A garden tiller will lift up the soil and break apart dirt.  It also turns over the soil and plants while aerating it.  A garden tiller is most often made up of a gasoline or electric powered engine that powers tilling blades.  Gardeners most often use a garden tiller in the Fall, to get the soil ready for Spring planting.

In the chart below, you will find my top 10 rated garden tillers.  For a more in-depth review of each model, please click on "Read Review."

1.  GreenWorks 27072 8 Amp 10-Inch Corded Tiller
2. Troy-Bilt TB146 EC 29cc 4-Cycle Cultivator with JumpStart Technology
3.  Remington RM4625 Homestead 25cc 2-Cycle Gas Garden Cultivator with Premium Tines
4.  Southland Outdoor Power Equipment SFTT142 Front Tine Tiller
5.  Sun Joe TJ603E 16-Inch 12-Amp Electric Tiller and Cultivator
6.  Earthwise TC70001 11-Inch 8.5-Amp Corded Electric Tiller/Cultivator
7.  Earthquake MC43 Mini Cultivator Tiller - 43cc 2-Cycle Engine, 5 Year Warranty
8.  BLACK+DECKER LGC120 20V Lithium Ion Cordless Garden Cultivator/Tiller
9.  Mantis 4-Cycle Tiller Cultivator 7940 Powered by Honda
10. YARDMAX YT5328 Compact Front Tine Tiller, 79cc

The two basic types of tillers are rear-tine tillers and front-tine tillers.  As the names suggest, a rear-tine tiller has blades placed behind the wheels while a front-tine tiller has blades placed in front of the wheels.  A rear-tine tiller can dig deeper than the front-tine type.  Also, many rear-tine tillers run the tines in opposite directions of travel which give it more power.

Rear-Tine Tillers

Front-Tine Tillers

All Rototillers are made to break through ground. They all use blades to break through the terrain. 

After carefully reviewing the top 10 tillers on the market, we've picked the  Sun Joe TJ603E 16-Inch 12-Amp Tiller and Cultivatorchoice as the best tiller on the market. 

Before buying a garden tiller you want to make sure that you consider three things.  

Some tillers may look just incredible.  You watch the video and think, wow, I could get done a lot of work very quickly with that monster.  But make sure that you have the strength and stamina to work with and operate the tiller that you choose.   Also, make sure that you have a place to store the tiller when not in use. 

Survey the job that you will be asking this tiller to do.  Can it handle the work?  If you have very rough terrain and a lot of ground to till, then make sure you get a tiller with enough power to do the job.  The point is to make the machine do most of the grunt work.  Make sure you pick a machine strong enough to handle the task.  

A tiller can make your gardening so much easier.  Here are a couple of advantages to owning a tiller.  

A tiller is going to allow you to get fertilizer down deep into the soil where the roots will reach and hence the whole plant benefit.  

Simply put, a tiller will make your job easier.  It will take out a lot of physical labor of tilling the soil.  

Here are some of the most popular questions about tillers. 

A tiller can make your gardening job much easier.  It can also do a job better than manual labor could do, since it can reach way down deep into the soil to turn it over and insert fertilizer.  I hope that this guide has helped you to pick out a tiller that will best suite your needs and budget.