Every nurseryman struggles with thechore of weeding . That ’s why we ’re always looking for that wizard smoke to make weed a little less taxing . The Tertill Garden Weeding Robot is an interesting Roomba - vogue invention to help gardeners with their most terrible of job . But a little planning has to go into your garden to maximise the usefulness of the Tertill .
“ Tertill is a solar - powered weeding robot that subsist in your garden and weeds intermittently for a total of 1 - 2 hours every day . Its specially designed wheels churn up the top stratum of grease preventing most weeds from sprouting . If any pot do grow , Tertill chops them down with its string trimmer .
Proven as efficient as paw - weeding by the Cornell School of Agriculture ”
When Ifirst started gardeningI left a mint of outer space between plant life . One quickly learns that the more space you have , the more weeds you have . I learned to obtusely set my perennial bed with shrub and flower that cycle throughout the time of year and add fellow traveller plants to my vegetable and fruit beds . By the first daytime of summer , there is little heart-to-heart infinite that ’s not in a weed - suppressing shadower from an next plant . I also use compost to feed thesoil food webandpine barque mulchto insulate the soil . With minuscule space available to weeds , the effort of weeding is reduced substantially , especially if I can pull them when they ’re small .
The Tertill Garden Wedding Robot is basically a Roomba for the garden . The Tertill internet site instructs that for optimum results , your garden soil should be level , free of obstruction ( besides the plants ) , and bordered with brick or some other raised barrier to keep the Tertill from vagabond out of your garden . The musical theme is that you allow the Tertill kind of dwell in your garden bed where it will police for an hour or two each day , recharged by solar energy , and whack down little weeds as they appear ( Tertill includes wire barriers you may place around seedlings to protect them ) . A very cool idea to say the least .
I put the Tertill to the test
Being the man I am , I ignored the directions on the website about creating ideal condition – I wanted to describe its strengths and weaknesses .
When I unleashed Tertill in the raised garden bed that hold myblueberries , it had considerable difficulty due to the very wanton stratum of grunge ( lot of peat moss and compost have been added over the year to the top level ) . There are also some leftover cuttings frompruning my blueberry bush shrubsearlier . I leave these obstacles in Tertill ’s manner intentionally – it was interesting to determine the weeding golem manoeuvre around obstacles , grow and head in the diametrical counseling . Pretty cool .
In spite of the condition , Tertills ’ particularly designed wheels cultivated the top level of filth , which is a good thing . It had some difficultness mowing down weeds with its drawing string trimmer joist , but I allow it alone and decide to come in back after to see how it did . I also allow it roam in my perennial beds without edges and it did a moderately adept problem of turning around when it encounter lawn . But it had difficulty channelize between mylilacand coral bell – it dug itself into a maw . In mystrawberrybed , it did much well as the Tertill apparently found it easy to navigate between the strawberry mark “ hills ” .
Tertill App
Tertill offer an app for iPhone and Android that touch base via Bluetooth to your weed robot . It ’s necessary for downloading software updates to your Tertill , to see its operating condition , and to check out supporter document like a ready acknowledgment for what the various patterns of LED lights imply .
Conclusion
I had n’t expected much from Tertill . I did n’t create an optimal garden bottom for it and only cleared out a few errant stones and twigs . But I estimate I ’d “ set it and forget it ” and see what happened while I worked on giving it a “ meh ” review . When I checked on the garden bed 4 solar day later on , I was astonished at how many weeds the Tertill had indeed thin down , just as promised . See the before and after movie below .
Naturally , this only works if you give the Tertill enough space to do its business . In my recurrent bed , which are dumbly plant , I would n’t expect these result , nor would I want them . But in a vegetable bed , it can be quite a time saver . I ’ll belike let it run over my pepper and tomato beds before imbed just so I do n’t have to fuss with the weeds and can do something else . Like lay in my hammock .
