MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
We will be in touch
Going to have a lot of pruning to do this autumn and all our secateurs, loppers, shears, etc. are a bit decrepit.
What tools for massacring my garden?
Bahco Laplander saw. I just cleared a quarter mile of my driveway with one. That's nearly twenty loads in a 14 foot Ifor Williams trailer, and its still pretty sharp. Get a pair of Stihl secateurs on ebay for the smaller stuff.
If it's proper massacring you're interested in... you need man tools, you need a flame thrower.
We moved into this house last November. It has a 300' long back garden, which then turns right and continues for another 200'.
Pretty much the entire boundary fence is lined with trees and bushes, plus there's a small orchard with half a dozen apple trees and a couple of pear trees.
It's not been cut back properly for 3 years or so...
[url= http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2580/3837427407_87c56e111f.jp g" target="_blank">
[url= http://www.flickr.com/photos/mike_mc/3837427407/ ]New Garden 7[/url] by [url= http://www.flickr.com/people/mike_mc/ ]miketually[/url], on Flickr
We've a bit of work to do...
It took me about two weeks to prune our driveway, mostly working on my own. I had to prune nearly 60 trees. 30 years of neglect. If you've can rustle up a few extra hands, it is a really satisfying job. If you cant burn it renting a shredder/chipper would be worthwhile at the end of the job.
If you're looking for a hedge-trimmer, I can heartily recommend Makita.
http://www.makitauk.com/products/front/?id=1267
I have one and think it's ace - and the [s]tree surgeon[/s] aerial arborist we use also uses Makita tools.
Then again, I've only got 90m of hedging to deal with, perhaps you'd be better of with a McConnel:
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Japanese blades at there best......
[url= http://www.silkytools.com/products.html ]Silky[/url]
Bahco and Stihl, i use them in my business never had problems.
Cheers everyone.
I'm slowly building up a collection of cool shit for messing about in the garden. So far I've discovered that petrol strimmers are ace, and owning an axe is fun.
Depends on what outcome you are looking for.
Machine and flail gets it done, but may not be so pretty and is dependent on space. Would just get that sided, rather than sided and topped myself, leaves the possibility of laying then
By hand I'd go for silky pruning saws, by power tool some power pruner by a forest machinery company so that you can get spares (Husqvarna, Stihl - not mcculloch, ryobi).
Then you can either trim back, lay it as a hedge, depends how much privacy you want. Burn the brashings, lay over winter when the wildlife is gone, but near to autumn or spring so the sap keeps it pliable.
Or if you just want it gone, a 5 tonne digger