Garden tools
By Nim
United Kingdom 
We have just moved to a house with a very mature but overrun garden. I am not a very knowledgable gardener and am pruning quite a bit because paths are a bit claustrophobic. What I would like to know is what mechanical garden tools are essential to make my life easier. I have already bought a mechanical garden shredder to reduce the volume of the waste although it really is time consuming but obviously worth doing when the results are seen. It doesn't seem to do leaves very well as they seem to block the feeding chute but having done some reading this seems to be a common problem. I was either thinking of a petrol blower vac or a petrol brush cutter. Does any one have any suggestions which models have a good reputation and also would either of these be what I should buy next and if not what would you suggest? Is a brush cutter suitable for mulching a big pile of leaves or would a blower vac be better? Also when blower vacs are advertised they have mulching ratios. Maybe a silly question but is 10:1 better than 5:1? Is petrol obviously better than electric for the freedom?
Thanks in advance.
27 Jul, 2008
Re shredding - if you wait a couple of days (preferably dry ones) before you shred your prunings, the leaves will have dried out a bit and block the shredder less. I do not prune things like conifers as these contain stuff that blocks the shredder (ditto one or two shrubs with sticky leaves such as escallonia). I also find cotoneaster wood splits into long strips that wraps round the blades too so don't shred these either. Yes, it takes a long time but the results can either be spread as a woodland path or left for twelve months to break down into good compost.
28 Jul, 2008