I'm looking for a very shallow mower to get under low tree branches

[tinnews]

We have a big garden, well it's more of a smallholding, 9 acres in all. I thus spend quite a lot of my time and energy keeping it vaguely in trim. Over the years I have acquired quite an array of mowing machines and, in the main, we have a "mower for every occasion".

However the one job that I still haven't really got totally sorted is mowing under the trees in our orchard, currently the best for this job is our Bosch strimmer which has wheels which enable one to use it in a sort of "vacuum cleaner" mode under the trees. It's not ideal though as it gets rather hard on the arms after several dozen trees and sometimes it's rather hard work for the strimmer as the stinging nettles get quite tough after a while and there are always a few twigs and bits and pieces.

So I was wondering if a small rotary might be a better approach, the major requirement then is that it is very low and thus able to get under low branches. The Bosch strimmer is probably 10" or so high and that makes it to most places OK. The mower would need a handle that can be dropped down low in use.

Can anyone suggest anything that might suit? Petrol or electric, doesn't matter too much which. Thinking about it we once had an incredibly small and cheap B&D (I think it was) with about a 12" cut, if such a thing had a handle that could be lowered it might be just the job.

[sm_jamieson]

My next door neighbour old lady uses a tiny probably old rotary electic mower on wheels. Like an inverted tray with a tiny motor on top, and the handle looks like it would fold flat to the floor. I would look for something like that. The depth will depend on the power of the motor, so the feebler the better, as long as it will do the job ! Simon.

[tinnews]

That sounds just like the old B&D I was remembering, could well be a good solution and would be very cheap too. I'll take a look around.

[chris French]

Flymo's have some mowers like that - no wheels.

The Microlite seems the smallest in the current range:

[RW]

[Adrian C]

Well, same idea - you could prop an electric garden hedge trimmer on the edge of something like a shopping trolley frame such that the blade traverses parallel to the ground.

Or an angle grinder ...

[Rod]

I thought that I saw a robotic mower that was very shallow. And very expensive.

[John Rumm]

[tinnews]

Unfortunately I suspect they'll eat the trees too, like our horses do after a while in the orchard. Nor will they be able to get to the bits under the trees I'm talking about, unless they eat the trees first! :-)

[chris French]

Guinea pigs?

[Adrian C]

Umm, do sheep eat guinea pigs? :-p