Strimmers! Ugh!

My cheap Black and Decker is reliable Gadabout, and this year I was given a tip that Home Bargains sell the spools that fit them for £1. I've got a couple of spares but can't see I'll need any more for a long time.

Must say I hate strimmers too- but for different reasons. The noise, and especially the fact that they maim and kill lots of wildlife, hedgehogs, grass snakes, frogs and toads, etc.

They should not be used without proper training, as they do with the National Trust and Council environment volunteers.

The Black and Decker Reflex range are pretty trouble free because they self feed. I used to have a re-chargeable one, but there was not enough life in one battery to do the whole edge of the garden and steps. I then bought a spare battery, but after a season or so neither held it's charge for long. I have now bought another Reflex one with a lead, which is a pain, but it does a much better job.

I bought this one, would thoroughlt recommend.
www.amazon.co.uk/Black-Decker-GL5028SB-Reflex-Strimmer/dp/B004RSKT4I/ref=sr_1_2?s=diy&ie=UTF8&qid=1370283290&sr=1-2&keywords=black+and+decker+reflex+strimmer

Had no problem with strimmers until DH strimmed bits off my washing basket when it was minding its own business beside the washing line

My OH strimmed bits off his leg! - do not strim wearing shorts!!!

Or sandals!

Strimmed ferns are very 'splashy'. Do not wear light coloured clothes that you care about while strimming ferns.

Having a strimmer to keep the ones that grow out of our 'holding wall' (holds the hill up behind the house) has made that job easier by several orders of magnitude. For flat more gently sloping areas I use a scythe, but the strimmer is good for awkward bits where you can't swing a scythe. I'd use a sickle if I could find a good one.

Recently a strimmer hit a stone which then went through my patio door like a bullet. This is the second time in 3 years that this has happened. There is little point claiming on house insurance because that would make me uninsurable for 5 years and my premiums would go up. Gardening can be an expensive hobby.

I have broken up a cardboard box and place that at the lower halves of the patio door as I have been told that the stones only wreck the lower half and rarely hit above.

Wow, if it destroyed your washing basket- can you imagine what it does to hedgehogs!

Actually we use a strimmer too of course, but VERY VERY carefully- against the fence or stone walls, and also later in the Summer in the meadow at the bottom of the garden, around the fruit trees- but never there in Spring when all sorts of kritters hide to breed near the pond.

We couldn't manage without our petrol driven strimmer as we have two acres to look after. Sadly we can't find afford a few nice quiet peasants with scythes but there are no neighbours to complain about the noise and hedgehogs don't like the fens.

I have just been brandishing a hedge trimmer at a shrub in my garden wearing.. A sleeveless top. Shorts and open sandals. No injuries but not a good idea.

Added to which, my arms and shoulders were already giving me a lot of grief. I only came indoors to check if I could safely hard prune the shrub, Choisya ternata sundance, after I done it.

Which is why I am now on GN not clearing up in the garden. My cut and run attitude to pruning probably explains why I have never been invited to exhibit at the Chelsea flower show. Sigh!

I always wear safely specs for strimming since a stone flew up and narrowly missed my eye! So *Charleygirl they can sometimes hit at head height.
I heard a story (could be made-up) about a man seeing his neighbour using a strimmer on his hedge so, thinking it a good idea, proceeded to do the same on his own. Later that day the two men met up in A&E with injuries sustained from this.

merlot Your serfs have deserted you then! Just cant get the staff these days! I blame the black death and the peasant's revolt.

Got a couple of acres here too Merlot- but we only have about 1/3 acre as a tamed (sort of) garden with perennial borders. We strim the orchard a couple of times a year, so butterflies and bees always have plenty of food. The field is taken care off by my farmer neighbour's horses - no strimmer required there

nelliemoser

I could do with a neighbour's horse, granjura. The problem with fertile fen soil is the moment you turn your back the nettles have taken over. We don't spray anything in the garden but we did have to spray the bottom end of the field last year as we are hoping to re-seed it with grass this autumn. Once the nettles have been strimmed the chickens move in and do a good job of scratching up the soil underneath.

Bees and butterflies love the nettles so of course I leave some....

Shysal- that is what the glazier told me, I know zilch about strimmers and the damage that they can do to body and buildings. They have always been too complicated for my simple mind.

Thanks for all the responses - & warnings. Don't worry granjura, we don't have that much to strim & I'm well trained to look for frogs etc. We've also had a nightly visit from a hedgehog in the last few weeks - the first we've seen in years in our garden. We also ensured the old cemetery nearby is only strimmed in crucial places & at certain times of the year. At present it is full of wild flowers.