A USEFUL GARDENING GADGET

By and large most of the gardening gadgets that come onto the market are nothing more than gimmicks, and do little or nothing to assist with the back breaking chores that is the daily life of the gardener. You can imagine my surprise when I discovered one that actually works and makes life a lot easier.

As I have mentioned before my pet hate in the garden is cutting the hedges, and as hedges surround me on all sides (only one of them my own) I do have to suffer occasional discomfort when they need trimmed. By far the worst part is picking up the trimmings, especially in the scree beds where they get tangled with the plants.

Over the years I have tried lots of different methods of catching the trimmings, polythene sheets. Cotton sheets, shade netting, and numerous other ideas, albeit without much success.

My last method and the most successful one was with a large gardening bag that opened out square at the bottom. The trimmings were gathered by hand and put into the bag, which was then brought to the garden shredder and carefully fed a handful at a time, until the last piece was disposed of. Occasionally the shredder would jam because of the moisture in the leaves, which would build up a deposit at the outlet. The apparatus would have to be dismantled just to free the blockage, and five minutes later the same thing would happen again

The other problem with that method is that part one part of the hedges is Berberis thunbergii atropurpurea. A thorny shrub and not very user friendly. So after each hedge trimming session, a few hours would spent removing the thorns from the fingers. Gloves were of no benefit as the thorns that were missed on the previous cut, when dried and seasoned, went straight through the gloves as if they didn't exist.

The magic solution is a Garden vac, with a shredder combined. This gadget not only lifts the trimmings but shreds them as well, and it doesn't jam like the old shredder.

As an added bonus there is an attachment that converts it into a powerful blower. This is ideal for blowing leaves into piles that can then be shredded into leaf mould almost immediately just by changing the head. The collecting bag when fitted stays in place, and can be emptied by way of a convenient zipper down one side and across the bottom.

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