And even they can clog, and they fill remarkably quickly.
Mine used to do about 200 linear meters per grass box empty..on a 36" wide cut..if I left it a couple of weeks.
What I did was find a place inside a thicket of thorn and elder and hazel. And I made three piles. This year's pile, last year's pile and the year before last year's pile.
After a few years I had deep rich humus everywhere in that area.
Its is amazing how fast and how far it all compacts down. What started of as a several foot high tip over a few square yards ends up after a year as less than an inch..
I have a flail, but a rather high-spec one compared to most of the rubbish sold in the UK. My wife was complaining about the length of grass on the garden and the problem with cutting it using a petrol mower. I ran the flail over the garden after setting it to cut down to the same height as a lawnmower. It did a wonderful job, so much so that there doesn't seem much point using the mower, and yes there's enough garden to make it worthwhile running a 55HP tractor around.
It doesn't need anything else, if you leave it long enough. Sure it goes through and acidic slime phase, but leave it some more, and its eventually just organically useful humus.
I am surprised thpugh, Mine gets mixed wit smashed up branches that fall off te trees, autumn leaves, rabbit deer fox dog and cat turds, etc etc. All grists to its mills..;-)
The message from The Natural Philosopher contains these words:
I have 2 piles of grass cuttings but they are used on the basis of closeness, not time. I don't think I have disturbed either in a decade. I only have about one third of an acre of lawn grass but the shape is awkward and I probably cut getting on to twice that each time I mow.
Fallen branches are mostly picked off before cutting and, judging by the evidence (or lack of it), the local roe deer don't usually get into the garden itself although I frequently see evidence that they are often in the adjoining fields at night time. I have seen them in the garden on 2 or 3 occasions over the years and I have a Leylandii that a stag half trashed trying to develvet his antlers.
After a sales pitch like that, I can probably discount them then ;-)
Finish is not too important...and reasonably often should be ok if it is not a major job each time.
How would you define "plenty of HP" for a mulching beastie with say a
30" ish cut?
At least 10 I'd say. I thnk there is an 11 and a 13.5bhp B&S
The model I'd still go for is the John Deere X110. No frills and pretty tough.
Apart from punctures, but they ALL get punctures if you have thorns.
The only collector that works is a brushed collector and that means westwood/contax etc.. and instead of 1600 quid its 2 1/2 frand..nah. A grand for nice stripes?
And they are not tough. tho the engines are OK.
Nope I think that in terms of sold mowing and mulch the JD is probably the toughtes in the 1500 quid class. Its a bit bigger than you wated..but its tough.
The tractor format appeals since I can see the ability to tow barrows/carts would be handy from time to time.
I expect I can avoid most of the trees - since they are quite low canopies, and I doubt I would be able to get in that close without coping a face full of branch. Romping round them with the hayter ought not be too onerous.
I can live without stripes!
Don't mind having bigger - just I could cope with less I expect.
I fear they are all much of a muchness in the domestic class. You have to buy a Kubota garden tractor with a flail to get professional standards and then they're £5K and up. I know, I looked. :o(
Yes I was going to suggest Kubota but the price is OTT for a small plot. The other alternative is an old second hand beast, ive got a 38 year old Case
I looked for S/H ride-ons because I was appalled at the price of the new ones, and found them very difficult to find and even more appallingly expensive for what you were getting. Things may have changed in the intervening 18 years. I suspect there's a very small market for ride-ons in the UK, since most people have such small gardens.
Probably more like 2 miles, unless you're very fast - and since that would be faster than the mower self-propels, you'd need to be pushing it, which makes it really very hard work...
cheers, clive
Certainly the newer westfield type small ones are in demand and even when completely shagged fetch a ridiculous price second hand, not worth considering imho
But the larger 60s beasts were well built you can still pick a runner needing some TLC for £300/500
A nice small one like a Ford120 would probably be more.
-In message , Clive George writes
Maybe it just seemed like 4 miles:-)
Mountfield Empress, probably 3mph. Much of that hour was carrying the grass to the compost heap.
regards
Sheep?
Pigs, they will get rid of EVERYTHING.
Oddly that is one of the recommendations I got from my Aunt who uses a combination of the occasional sheep and a Contax ride on... Still they are a strange lot over in Suffolk ;-) (Come to think of it, she must be quite close to TNP, so that could explain a bit)
SWMBO was quite keep on the sheep idea, but did not rate my suggestion that we could have them for dinner at the end of the season. (or the fact next time there is a foot and mouth outbreak someone would want to cull her pet)
Graze nice and close, but beware that most dangerous of creatures, an ambitious sheep. They also have only two ambitions: to escape, and to die.
Someone's bound to suggest goats: they're hopeless for the task. They browse, rather than graze, so you'll be left with lots of grass, and no roses. Quite astonishing watching such an apparently soft-mouthed creature eating roses, and hawthorn. Entire males stink once they're more than a few months old, and fetch even less at the abattoir than females or castrates.
Pigs, as TNP suggested, will certainly clear your lawn of weeds - and grass. Wonderful creatures to keep, if you can keep them in (a couple of strands of electric fence, till they short it all out with a particularly well-placed excavation). And home-reared, traditional breed pork and bacon is unbeatable.
The message from Paul Matthews contains these words:
Sheep can give grass a very good finish but there is a downside. Copious quantities of sheep shit to get on the soles of the feet and from thence just about everywhere.
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