I’m looking to buy a petrol powered strimmer to attack the jungle that is the garden in the new house. It is uneven ground with lots of bushes and trees with the occasional bits of rubble thrown in so a lawn mower won’t work. What I want to do is chop down the high grass and weeds to get it a bit under control now before trying to tidy it up properly in the spring. The whole site is about a third of an acre but not all of it is garden obviously. Does anybody have any recommendations? Cheers.

I’ve got a Ryobi 25cc one it’s really good considering the cost. My house was similar when we moved in and it soon cut it all down. If you don’t think you will use it much have you considered hire?

I would rent one, you will probably never use it again if you buy one, just like I did when i bought a leaf blower and vacuum, used it once, was too bloody noisy.

Catflees,

I did wonder about hiring but I think we will probably be going for a bit of the ‘natural’ look for parts of the garden rather than manicured throughout, longer term so it will come in handy for keeping that under control. I had a quick look at a few sites there. That would be around £100 for one of these.

I have two gardens, ones separate from my house, It has no power supply and isn’t really big enough to warrant a petrol mower. Eventually I’m going to turn it into an allotment type garden, but for now the strimmer is fine. I think mine was about £150, I’ve used more powerful and expensive ones but once you get it under control they seem a bit like overkill. You will make lots of friends owning a strimmer as people always want to borrow it. I would also reccomend branded 2-stroke oil for the fuel mix, it smokes less and smells nice.

Yeah, I don’t want to go all OTT and get the All Mountain equivalent of a strimmer when all I need is a XC hardatail. Thanks for the advice about the petrol. I can probably use the strimmer to keep the lane under control too.

In the hire shop we hired out these.

http://www.hss.com/g/62116/Brush-Cutter-4-Stroke.html
Not to expensive and if they could withstand the abuse handed out by hamfisted customers, I’m sure it’ll do the job for you.

Don Simon,

I had a look at that when organic said to hire rather than buy. I couldn’t see a make or model to try to price one. If they can take abuse from a ton of customers it would be more than enough for me.

They were Hondas in my day, but which model I couldn’t tell you. Pop down to your nearest HSS Hire shop or call and ask them.

Our local hire place, Didcot Plant, use Stihl equipment.

The Stihl range of ‘lightweight’ petrol strimmers is here.

I know my uncle has Stihl chainsaws on the farm, but that’s the extent of my involvement with them!

I’d go on a limb and say the HSS one is this one, only based on the weights given.

I use garden machinery as part of my business, every day.

Get a good Stihl one, even if you need to sell after a while the re-sale value is superb. Also you can repair them as all the parts are available.

Try ebay for bargins, this is coming the end of season. You can’t buy new ones online as Stihl won’t allow it.

Don’t buy Ryobi or any cheap make cus it’ll break. 😉

Don Simon,

The Honda one looks like it would do the job, but not cheap.

Markie and Flip,

Even I have have heard of Stihl. I think maybe a hunt for one on ebay is the answer.

Thanks guys

At work we use 50cc Ryobi tough as old boots.(about £250)

At home i have a petrol Ryobi that has a head that can be swapped between a hedgecutter, strimmer, leaf blower etc. This makes it very versatile for home use. I use it to strim and it cuts my 6ft High by 3ft deep hedge with the hedge cutter attachment in no time at all, no cords to bother you either.This will easily stand up to home use, no need to go OTT on equipment.

Off for a play with one of these now.

Indecision is a terrible thing. Definitely don’t want something that costs a fortune, but will fell trees in its spare time but equally don’t want to waste money on something that will die at the first sign of a blade of grass. Maybe I should just stick to buying bike bits and leave the garden alone.

just cover it in black impermeable membrane till spring then rotovate it all in.

I got a superb deal on a flymo at Homebase about 12 months back. Really good piece of kit. Display model so they didn’t want to sell as they couldn’t warranty it; I agreed to buy a £10 warranty and got the strimmer reel and 3 year cover for £45!!!!

Just be careful when strimming in flip flops; it makes the eyes water if you fail to move your feet from the area you’re strimming….. 😕

Just bought and old Stihl tonight for £20, now where are the weeds? 😈

Get a solid pair of shears and put your arms to work! 😉

I paid a little more for a decent 4 stoke strimmer. It uses normal unleaded, like the mower, so I dont have to mess about mixing things. It has benn worth the extra £30 odd pound to me, might be an idea for you?

And don’t forget…

Oliver and Razor,

Maybe not thanks.

Mikertroid and mf,

Safety first always.

Matt,

You are a jammy git. In the nicest possible way. Will the mods allow that comment? I guess patience is required.

Ro5ey,

I think a four stroke would be a whole lot less faff and if the price differential is only going to be £30 odd quid if might be worth it. I’ll just need to remember not to drain diesel from the car for it or kerosene from the heating tank. I should be able to manage that OK.

Sounds like you may be better off renting for a weekend. I have a shaft drive Stihl that I got secondhand and it’s great. Used with a ‘normal’ head and this for tough stuff – cuts through nearly anything: