Gardening thread
Comments
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Does anyone have any recommendations for lawnmowers? The little mountfield is no good for the new garden. I am guessing lawn size is around 600sqm, so fairly large. Preferrably cordless and under £500.
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We just got a Stihl battery powered job. Very effective and the batteries last for ages (they're the size of house bricks) - will easily deal with that size of garden. Cost a bit more than your budget but there are a few models in the range.
"I spent most of my money on birds, booze and fast cars: the rest of it I just squandered." [George Best]1 -
I have a lot of Stihl kit from my time as a pro gardener, is expensive but works well and lasts a long time. And I'm stihl/still using it. 😉
Sorry but don't have a view on std domestic type value for money kit.
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Currently using a mountfield cordless mower which has 2 batteries and does my lawn easily enough. Approx 100sq metres on less than half a charge. Actually cuts better than my old petrol mower. Uses the stiga batteries. I'd have had a bigger one if I had a bigger lawn. I did look at the dewalt ones but wasnt as good and and was more expensive.
Too many bikes according to Mrs O.1 -
Our gardener recommended it !
"I spent most of my money on birds, booze and fast cars: the rest of it I just squandered." [George Best]0 -
I got a smaller version of this and have been very happy with it so far.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/LawnMaster-Cordless-Lawnmower-Batteries-Chargers/dp/B09RRX1XVV/
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Thanks all, very helpful suggestions. I'll have a proper look at all your recommendations over the weekend and make a decision. If anyone has any others to add to the mix feel free to suggest.
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First harvest of bloobs.
Cherries are ripening fast.
1985 Mercian King of Mercia - work in progress (Hah! Who am I kidding?)
Pinnacle Monzonite
Part of the anti-growth coalition1 -
We have a Bosch cordless which will easily do front and back lawns on a single charge. Battery is like a house brick. Guessing the lawns are about 300m2 total?
(Got £1000 to spend on a long service award so £400 went on the mower and the rest was Sonos speakers. All still going strong. That must've been 2018. They made me redundant in 2019. Maybe they were softening me up...)
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Mind you, the rear wheels now appear to be developing a bit of play, so maybe some of the plastic bits aren't designed for decades of use.
I shall spend the winter engineering an elegant rear wheel upgrade involving ceramic bearings...
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Google suggests the wheels are freely available as spare parts so clearly regarded as consumables...
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Just to update, I went ahead and bought a Lawnmaster 48v as per @briantrumpet suggestion. Bought a hedge trimmer and strimmer as well direct from the Manufacturer for £415 so pretty good value ( 2 x chargers and 4 batteries included as well).
Gave the garden a cut today, all done in 15mins. Nice and easy to use and the grass bag is big enough to only need emptying once.
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Hope it carries on doing a good job. I've not yet managed to break mine in its first three years...
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Sure it will, thanks for the recommendation BT!
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I must admit that, for the money, I didn't expect it to be as good as it is. My neighbour's petrol rotary mower didn't do as good a job. I like the fact that it's got a really high setting for the first pass. (Even so, I do still have to get a bit creative with my technique, angling the front of the mower even higher for the thickest/tallest patches before letting it return to all four wheels.)
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Yes, I had to lift the front end slightly too on the longer patches. I think I probably had it on slightly too low a setting to begin with, I shifted it up a couple of notches and that worked perfectly. I will knock it down to the penultimate setting over the weekend and give it another trim.
I think the body is fairly cheap plastic but it looks as though they have put the money into the blade and the motor/ batteries, which makes sense. My only slight concern was battery life but I did the whole lawn quickly and they are still showing almost full charge so no issues there at present.
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First sample lift of Charlotte new potatoes today, quite a lot of well sized ones there plus quite a few smaller, so cropping well. Should leave them a couple more weeks before really getting wired in. They are a lovely tasting tattie.
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I can recommend these. It has a battery somewhere. 😀
Open One+ BMC TE29 Seven 622SL On One Scandal Cervelo RS2 -
Wheelspinner I'm sorry mate but your out of order, you've just upset a few on here with mower envy. 😅
Too many bikes according to Mrs O.0 -
First time I've seen my garden in early July. The lawn is looking fab, having lush regrowth after its thorough Lawnmaster mowing in early June. The unripe cherries that were on the tree have all gone, but I harvested a large handful of sweet gooseberries, and a few blackcurrants.
I'll probably give the lawn a mowing before I go at the end of the week, though might be tempted to either do just half of it, to see how the two halves compare when I come back in late July, or just leave it all.
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Very pleased with my crocosmia this year.
Managed to get one decent punnet of cherries but the fruit flies have claimed most of them.
1985 Mercian King of Mercia - work in progress (Hah! Who am I kidding?)
Pinnacle Monzonite
Part of the anti-growth coalition0 -
Lawnmaster did the biz this afternoon before tomorrow's rain... about a battery and a half's worth, roughly 30 minutes including lots of emptying of cuttings. A botanist friend who stayed for a couple of days this week (well, he's actually a very clever physicist ex-pupil, who has an encyclopaedic memory about botany and beetles, as well as being a superb jazz trombonist, the talented bastard) said it's important to remove clippings to stop the soil getting smothered, so it's open for new seeds. It'll be interesting to see if even this year it's all scorched off by August... at least it's looking good for the moment.
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Mrs. 666 has been doing her Tom & Barbara stuff (I claim no credit other than funding then project)!
Garlic picked and drying out in the potting shed while she decides what to plant in its place in raised bed 1:
Meanwhile in raised bed 2 the beetroot and courgettes are coming on nicely. Netting up to keep the birds out and stop the dogs using it as a bloody sandpit:
"I spent most of my money on birds, booze and fast cars: the rest of it I just squandered." [George Best]2 -
When I get to spend longer here, and the breaks in between are shorter, I'll be thinking about other things I can do.. I'd really like a more extensive herb bed inc. chives, marjoram (though, like thyme, it grows in abundance in the wild here), maybe basil. I suspect a raised bed wouldn't work, as it would dry out too quickly in the heat, and vegetables need to much frequent TLC. An eating apple tree is on the agenda for this autumn/winter, I think.
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Sounds like you need stuff that grows without needing too tlc and heat/drought resistant. We have our very own Monty Don fangirl who's out there every day tending to the garden. Not sure about raised beds and water, but probably safer to stick to hardier plants unless you known your stuff (I don't).
"I spent most of my money on birds, booze and fast cars: the rest of it I just squandered." [George Best]0 -
Nor me... it's a case of 'try it and see' with me... I've given up on on blueberry (myrtille) as my first plant failed, and everyone says it's really fickle. My first bay (laurier sauce) died, but the second one seems to have made it to its second summer, probably thanks to a very wet first half of the year here. Apart from the lavender, I'm not doing decorative plants, just 'erbs and fruit... I like the idea of a productive garden.
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Best bet is presumably to look at what grows naturally in the area I guess.
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Our bay tree started as a 12" high sapling in a pot on a balcony, which only just survived until we moved to a house with a garden and could get it in the ground. It took another couple of years to settle in. Now it's tall enough to need professionals to prune it, but that's 20 years on. Lots of other stuff has been and gone in the intervening period. I think half the trick is buying plants in multiples on the assumption that one or two won't make it.
We also have a blueberry bush but they like acid soil so we keep it in as big a tub as we can manage, which does mean we have to water occasionally during dry periods.
1985 Mercian King of Mercia - work in progress (Hah! Who am I kidding?)
Pinnacle Monzonite
Part of the anti-growth coalition1 -
My expert gardening tip is don't plant laurel bushes. My sister gave us her very young ones when she moved house and we planted them on our front boundary. They're now really hard to keep under control and it costs a few hundred each year to get them cut down and the cuttings cleared. I didn't get them done last year and the top now needs lowering by about 2m. It's not something I do myself anymore as even the professionals stuggle to avoid it looking like a patchy mess and it's becoming a chainsaw job rather than a hedge trimmer. The hedge also blocks light meaning my front lawn is mainly moss and we get a large crop of mushrooms each year. I'm tempted to just get it cut down completely this year but it does provide a place for several birds to nest each spring.
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As I've got just the one, and it's for cooking, I'll keep my bush well trimmed.
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