"Nick Wagg" wrote in message
...
Janet Baraclough wrote:

Imho it often doesn't make sense for amateurs with an average size
garden to invest that kind of money in a machine for limited brief
seasonal use. If you wait till all the leaves are down then can clear
them in a day, £500 will buy many years of hire. Collecting and
returning the machine is a consideration (can be shared with a
neighbour, like the cost), but the plus side is, you don't have to store
an idle bulky machine all year or insure, service or repair it. Hire
machines are usually a larger more industrial model so do the job faster
and better.

Sound advice!
--
Nick Wagg

If the leaf quantity is not huge I find raising the blades on my rotary
mower and vacuuming them up works well! I certainly wouldn't want something
sitting in the shed for 11 months (you could bet it wouldn't start when you
wanted it, as suggested I would hire.

--
Charlie, gardening in Cornwall.
http://www.roselandhouse.co.uk
Holders of National Plant Collection of Clematis viticella (cvs)