How To Use A Rotavator
A rotavator saves your back on heavy digging as long as the soil and the machine are ready before you start.
The short answer
To use a rotavator, wait until the soil is dry enough to crumble in your hand, clear weeds, roots and stones, then check the fuel, power lead or battery. Work the ground in slightly overlapping strips, keeping the first pass shallow at around 2 to 3 inches and going a little deeper on each pass after that. Keep a relaxed, firm grip and let the tines do the digging.
Digging over a plot with a spade is slow, heavy work, and on clay it's back-breaking. A rotavator's spinning tines chop through the ground and loosen it in a fraction of the time, turning a weekend of digging into a far lighter job.
The machine in our photos is a petrol rotavator we bought for heavy-duty work, cutting through clay soil full of thick roots. For turning over a vegetable bed or a small allotment plot you won't need anything that powerful, and our round-up of the best rotavators for different garden jobs covers petrol, electric and battery models.
Hiring Or Buying A Rotavator
For a one-off job such as preparing ground for a new lawn, hiring a petrol rotavator for a day or a weekend makes sense, and most tool hire shops stock them. If you've got a vegetable plot to turn over every spring, owning one saves the trip to the hire shop each year. The steps below are the same either way.
How To Rotavate A Garden
1. Check The Soil Isn't Too Wet
Rotavating wet ground does more harm than good. The tines smear the soil, big sticky clods wrap around them, and on clay you're left with lumps that dry as hard as brick. Dig up a handful and squeeze it. If it crumbles apart, the ground is ready. If it holds together in a sticky ball, wait for a few dry days and test it again.
2. Clear The Ground Of Weeds And Debris
Deal with the weeds before you start. The rotavator will happily chop them up, but that's the problem, as every scrap of perennial root it spreads across the plot can grow into a new plant. Spraying the area with a weed killer for clearing ground a few weeks beforehand works best. If you'd rather not use chemicals, dig the weeds out by hand a few days before.
Pick out stones, bricks and any thick roots you can see on the surface. After a tree or conifer has come out, the stump needs dealing with first, and our guide on removing a tree stump with or without a grinder covers both methods.
3. Set Up The Machine
How you prepare the rotavator depends on what powers it:
- Petrol: Fill the tank with fresh fuel and check the oil is at the right level on the dipstick.
- Electric: Make sure the cable reaches the far end of the plot, add an outdoor-rated extension lead if it doesn't, and keep the cable behind you the whole time.
- Battery: Charge the battery fully and keep a spare charged for larger areas.
Set the depth bar to a shallow setting for the first pass.
4. Start Rotavating Safely
Wear sturdy boots and gloves, and add ear defenders if you'll be behind a petrol machine for a few hours on a large area. Keep your hands and feet well clear of the tines at all times.
When the tines catch a root or a buried stone, the rotavator will jump or lurch forward. Stay relaxed, keep a firm hold of the handlebars and let it ride over the obstruction rather than fighting it. Leaning hard on the handles makes the jumping worse.
5. Work In Overlapping Strips
Work the plot in straight strips, much like mowing a lawn. Keep the first pass shallow, at around 2 to 3 inches, then set the rotavator a little deeper on each pass after that. Overlap each strip slightly with the last so no ridges of hard ground are left between them.
Keep going until the soil has a fine, even texture across the whole area. The machine tells you when you're getting there, as it runs more smoothly once the ground has broken down.
Our Tips For Rotavating Heavy Ground
- Let the weight of the machine do the digging rather than pressing down on the handles
- Keep both hands on the handlebars whenever the tines are turning
- Work across gentle slopes instead of tackling steep angles head-on
- Clear thick roots and rubble before you start, not halfway through the job
- Switch off the engine before pulling anything tangled out of the tines
Watch Us Rotavating Clay Soil
The Short below shows our rotavator working through heavy clay in the patch where several conifers used to stand. Once they had been removed, we rotavated the whole area so it was ready for laying new turf.
Need To Break Up Soil? A ROTAVATOR Is What You Need! Here We Are Rotavating Clay Soil #shorts
Preparing Rotavated Ground For A Lawn
Freshly rotavated soil is loose and full of air, so it needs firming before turf or seed goes down, otherwise the new lawn settles unevenly and leaves dips. Tread the whole area with your heels in small shuffling steps or go over it with a garden roller to firm and level the soil, then rake it level and pick out any stones the tines have brought up.
If you haven't settled on how to finish the area yet, we've compared grass seed and turf for a new lawn to help you choose.
Your Questions Answered
Can you rotavate wet soil?
You shouldn't rotavate wet soil. The tines smear and compact it, clods stick to the blades, and clay dries into hard lumps afterwards. Squeeze a handful of soil before you start. If it crumbles, the ground is ready to rotavate, but if it holds together in a sticky ball, wait a few dry days and test it again.
How deep does a rotavator dig?
How deep a rotavator digs comes down to the size of the machine and its depth setting, and larger petrol rotavators go deeper than small electric or battery models. Whatever you're using, build the depth up gradually. Start with a shallow first pass of around 2 to 3 inches, then go a little deeper each time.
Can you rotavate grass?
You can rotavate an old lawn, but the chopped turf and roots stay in the soil and regrow in clumps. Kill the grass off first or strip the turf with a spade, then rotavate the bare ground underneath. That leaves a cleaner seedbed and saves a lot of weeding once the new lawn or bed is in.
Should you rotavate before laying turf?
Rotavating before laying turf breaks up compacted ground so the new roots can grow down easily, and it's how we prepared the clay patch where several conifers had been removed. Once the soil is broken up, rake out stones and roots, firm it by treading or rolling, and rake it level before the turf goes down.
Is a petrol rotavator too much for a vegetable bed?
For most vegetable beds and small allotment plots, yes. We bought our petrol rotavator for clay full of thick roots, which is a much tougher job than turning over a bed that's dug every year. A smaller electric or battery model handles that kind of ground and is lighter to move about, and our round-up of the best rotavators covers all three types.
Is it better to hire or buy a rotavator?
It comes down to how much use it'll get. Preparing ground for a new lawn is a one-off, so a day or weekend's hire from a local tool hire shop makes sense. A vegetable plot that gets turned over every spring is a different story, and owning a rotavator saves you the trip to the hire shop each year.
What do I do when the rotavator jumps on a root or stone?
Hold on firmly but stay loose, and let the machine ride over whatever it's hit. Fighting it or leaning hard on the handles only makes the jumping worse. The best fix is prevention, so clear thick roots and rubble from the plot before you start rather than finding them with the tines.
Why does rotavated soil need firming before turf goes down?
Rotavating leaves the soil fluffy and full of air, and it sinks unevenly as it settles. Lay turf straight on top and those dips show through in the finished lawn. Heel the whole area in small shuffling steps or run a garden roller over it, then rake it level, picking out any stones the tines have brought to the surface.
Archie is our gardening specialist. He started out as an apprentice at a gardening firm, built up his own knowledge from there and now writes most of our garden content.