In article , Janet Baraclough
writes

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.

Janet.


I bought a Viking (subsidiary of Stihl) shredder and it's been wonderful
and a damn sight better than those spindly little jobs from the hire
shop. They don't hire blowers locally so that would be a consideration
Janet.

The leaves get around the pots in my garden which then really need
sucking out as blowing the leaves wouldn't get some of them from between
the individual pots. However you made me think twice \nd perhaps I'll
leave it another year or so.

Thanks

Janet


--
Janet
Hedgerows & lawns
http://www.lancedal.demon.co.uk/plants

".......I bought a Viking (subsidiary of Stihl) shredder and it's been
wonderful ......."

Nice machine, just a pity they don't blow from the side, I spend so much
time clearing it from underneath, but a very good buy if you have a lot to
do.


--
David Hill
Abacus nurseries
www.abacus-nurseries.co.uk

On Thu, 20 Nov 2003 09:31:58 +0000, Richard Kerry wrote:

All good points Rod. I've also heard that hand held blowers are
excellent too, I looked at the Echo & Ryobi hand held blowers but have
been told that the engines aren't up too much. A backpack blower may be
overkill BUT as this is a one off purchase I'd like to get the best I
can afford without the need to revisit/upgrade later on.

Which hand held blower do you have?

Richard

Zenoah Komatsu HB2300. We have 2, they've been 100% reliable since we
understood about the spark arrestors and took 'em out. Don't know who
imports them (Allen?) Ours came from Major R Owen, Penrhyndeudraeth.

-----
Rod
http://website.lineone.net/~rodcraddock/

On Mon, 17 Nov 2003 21:52:55 +0000 (UTC), "Richard Kerry"
wrote:

I've been told by several people that the shred and vac ones aren't
practical for the following reasons;

1. Not as powerful as the blower variety

2. Usually only have small collector bags e.g. lots of leaves to collect =
lots of time spent emptying the bag.

3. Can get clogged up quite easily, especially with wet leaves

Also, I was told that professional garden folks use powerful blowers so they
can gather and direct all the leaves into one area and then collect. This
makes sense.

I was also advised by my name to purchase a STIHL blower, not cheap (circa
£500) but will probably last forever!

regards,
Richard

It must be a pretty high spec blower to cost £500. My latest is a
STIHL SH55 blower and vac which cost me £190 last summer. The trade
price to hire one from my local hire shop is about £14 a day and
unless all the leaves fall at once you will probably need to hire it
twice. If you have a lot of leaves this is still probably better than
laying out the best part of £200 for something that will stand idle
for most of the year. I use it in my garden maintenance business for
cleaning up after strimming grass etc also so purchasing was my best
option.

I find that as mentioned in other posts it is not very effective as a
vac when leaves are wet. Wet debris builds up in the pipe to the bag
and it soon clogs up. However it is very good for vacuuming up dry
leaves that have blown into corners etc. I also use it for vacuuming
heather clippings after the flowers have been cut off. It takes a bit
of time to get used to how far away from the plant you need to be to
get the clippings and not the heather but like most things practice is
the key. You can also vacuum small privet bits from gravel if you are
careful.

As far as getting up large quantities of leaves are concerned I blow
them into heaps and pick them up from there. Much easier than raking
when you are dealing with some gardens where it takes two days to just
collect up all the leaves! If the leaves are very wet it will not blow
all of them off a garden without also blowing some soil so it does
need to be used with discretion.

David

(Nick Maclaren) wrote in message ...
In article ,
(jane) writes:
|
| I guess if you have a drive or lots of paths and loads of trees and just
| want the leaves off the surfaces, a blower is best. Off a garden or largish
| lawn, probably a vac. I did notice how yellow the lawn was under the
| relatively few leaves that were round the back... so I guess I'll be
| resowing the wretch yet again...

That was my point. Based on observation of them in use, blowers
aren't much good even for that!

That excludes the minor detail that merely clearing a path though
grass during leaffall is a waste of time, and it will cover again
the first time there is more than a breath of wind. And wind isn't
exactly rare in autumn, even in the south east!

Having seen blowers being used on tarmac and pavement paths, I can
tell you they do work fairly well, even on the evil glued-down, wet
leaves, but it raises the question of what to do with them afterwards?

Dave