Lawn edgers

[Capitol]

She forced me into the garden again today to fight with the useless strimmer in order that her lawn edges were neatened up. This was the usual nearly 2 hours of broken strimmer cord, rewinding the cord again as the bobbin was empty and a failed mains lead where she had pulled the wires out of the plug again.

As a consequence, I decided to look for a lawn edge trimmer. I had one from B & D, 50 years ago and it worked quite well. In a moment of folly, when we moved here 40 years ago, I binned it as we had no grass which was edged. I have discovered that apparently no one in the UK sells an electric lawn edger. I can buy at least 4 types in the US. The snag is that when I read the reviews, they are all crap! The reliability of the mains powered US ones looks very poor and the battery one is described as wimpy. The new US B & D (LE750) is now using a reduction gearbox, where the gears strip. My old B & D was direct drive and pretty unbreakable if you didn't make it emit the magic smoke! Has anyone found a mains electric one in the UK that I have missed? If not, I guess I"ll have to buy her the US one on our next trip. Yes, we have

110V available in the garden.

[Tim Watts]

Not a trimmer, but the B&D Li-Ion 36V strimmer I have is quite powerful. The only fault is that the mains charger cuts out all the time, needing about 3-4 reinsertions of the battery to get a full charge.

If Bosch ever do a 36V strimmer or trimmer, that will be good. I have their lawnmower and hedge trimmer (both 36V and take the same series of batteries) - they are brilliant.

Sorry - not really answering your question...

[John Rumm]

How about:

;-)

[ss]

I gave up on strimmers as they are more bother than they are worth. Depending on the size of lawn, I use an edging spade once a year to get a neat edge and then the manual edge shears with extended handles every so often. I have found it to be quicker and easier than all the messing about with power gadgets.

[Brian Gaff]

No I had one that fitted to a Qualcast lawn mower, it either jumped all over the place or when it jammed broke thetoothed belt that drove the mower.

I guess its one of those things that you need to do very very regularly, and clean up quite often to allow the automated wotsits to have half a chance. Brian

[Chris Hogg]

+1

A simple half-moon edger, one like this

takes a lot of beating. Or even ordinary garden shears, just to keep the lawn edge sharp.

I've also inherited a little B&D electric edger that has about half a dozen little replaceable plastic blades that are thrown outwards by centrifugal force as the hub spins. Not used it yet but my mother found it very successful. I imagine it's similar to the one the OP ditched.

[Tim Lamb]

If you are not short of funds, there is a metal strip available to create a permanent lawn edge. Everedge? Around 7ukp/m!

You still get the overhanging grass but easily dealt with by shears or small strimmer.

[Capitol]

She doesn't do petrol! but thanks.

[Capitol]

The original had a single centre mounted steel blade.

[damduck-egg]

How much have got do and what are the budget considerations.

You can get mini tillers that have an edging attachment.

One example is the Mantis, sold on both sides of the pond in Petrol or electric versions, the UK site is here

I bought an electric one a few years back for use in the poly tunnel and the edger came with it, you replace the two std tines with the edger and a wheel. . TBH for the amount of lawn that we have with bare edges a half moon manual is as quick as getting the tool out but you may have hundreds of yards.

often find some on ebay where people have found they really needed a bigger machine. Adlidliy sometimes sell something similar, but I don't know if they have an edge attachment.

G.Harman

[fred]

Many moons ago I bought an Allen Spintrim edger. Battery powered on four sm all wheels. Came complete with charger. The wheels were too small making it hard to manoeuvre. Still have it in back of shed somewhere. Now have the edger attachment for the Stihl split boom. Plenty of power but I find these type of edgers difficult to keep to a line. Got a FH-KM 135° scrub cutter attachment to put manners on a long ditc h and actually find it quite good at edgeing

[Capitol]

Thanks, that's worth a look at.