Autumn Blow

Autumn, it's that time of the year again when we're back to chasing daylight...

With the length of days shortening at a fast pace, it's becoming increasingly difficult too to get some garden chores done after work, when nearly all of them require good lighting to be done properly. Sure there's always floodlights (and we even have head lights now, nifty gadgets!) but nothing really beats the illumination given by the good old sun.

Anyway, before I digress even further what I'm really meant to say is that we're back to mainly being weekend garden warriors again. And with it being autumn it means that one of the garden jobs we have to do is giving the garden a good leaf blowing.

Now this is one the tasks I actually don't like doing and leave it for almost solely for Gaz to do as he doesn't mind it at all. In fact he's actually really good at it. Which is handy because of all garden maintenance that we do that produces the most visual impact in a short period of time of doing so, leaf blowing is the one that takes the top position.

Now why do I dislike doing the leaf blowing so much? It's mainly because of the cable. I'm clumsy with cables and feel that they always get in the way for a smooth and effortless job. And it's bad enough that I have to cope with them when using the vacuum cleaner but needs be I should. Sure there are loads of cordless ones out there but up to now nothing really beats the power of one that is still corded (and with three cats, we do need powerful ones).

Going back to leaf blowers, the same principles goes that it should be powerful enough to do what it's supposed to do and perhaps only a cabled one would do the job...

Until the our friends at Stihl offered us to try and review one of their new products which is a cordless leaf blower.

A cordless leaf blower, will it be powerful enough blow away those autumn leaves running just on rechargeable batteries? And will the batteries be light enough that the blower can be easily maneuvered into delicate angles? And how long can the batteries last, will it be long enough that it can finish the job and beyond that? The scepticism is there of course but a lot of the negativity has been neutralised from the start knowing how reputable a brand Stihl is.

Stihl, we were both very excited to try the product out and to satisfy our own curiosities.

And so we did. And the BGA 56 did not disappoint, far from it...

The battery was quick to charge, was easy to slot in, and was light enough at 3.3kg including the battery that it made the assembled leaf blower easy enough to carry and maneuver while doing the task. In fact it actually felt lighter to carry around than our existing corded one. The design is so much more compact and sleeker too that the airflow seemed more 'precise' that debris was much easier to blow away with much less effort on the arms less exposure to the surrounding plants (and pots!). 

More importantly, was it powerful enough that it was able to do what it's supposed to do? A glowing yes! It's combination of being cordless, a sleeker design, relative light weight, powerful blow, and overall less set up time made the completion of the task a lot quicker, which was a fab bonus! \The length is adjustable to suit you use. Usually it takes Gaz an hour and a half to do the entire garden, having to keep moving cables and the extension lead. This time around, it was done in forty minutes. The battery is said to give 20 mins of continuous blowing, although it lasted longer for us.

A big credit though has to go to the compact lithium ion battery which didn't lose intensity during the entire duration of its use and lasted longer than claimed.

And yes it is cordless! And I had a go to too and thought it was fun to use. Looks like leaf blowing won't be solely Gaz's job from now on.

Thanks Stihl, it's a really great product!

Mark :-)

The Stihl BGA 56 is available from all the usual Stihl stockists.

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Pergola, Sicario, and Festive Lights

Funny how you can get inspired from the strangest of places or circumstance, like after watching a very violent film...

Last year after watching the film Sicario, I took note how lovely the pergola was that was featured on the film festooned with garland lights but with big round bulbs, rather than tiny fairy lights usually seen on Christmas trees. I won't go into much detail on what happened under that pergola in the film for the benefit of those who haven't seen it but suffice to say it was very memorable. Anyhow, I jotted it down as a garden idea for 2016.

Fast forward to June and in the midst of searching online for something similar to what we have seen on the film, we have received an email from Festive Lights giving us an opportunity to review one of their products. Lo and behold, there it was in amongst their products are the lights very similar to the one I was looking for, how lucky was that!

So I immediately requested for them and they sent them straight away for us to install and try.

They sent us a 15 meter bundle of the 5 meter festoon warm globe lights, interconnected with an outdoor battery pack as its power source. The length was perfect for our existing pergola on the bottom patio, to arrange them in a similar fashion as to how it was on the film (with a bit of slack on the wires as they hang randomly across the pergola).

We would have preferred lights that were mains connected as they tend to be brighter but this turned out to be fine and sufficiently bright running on size D batteries. Plus, with no wiring involved on to mains electricity, connecting and installation is much easier and convenient to place practically anywhere.

We are pleased with how they look installed on the pergola and how they illuminate the area when it gets dark. Makes hanging out at the bottom patio a tad bit nicer during the night.

Unlike the film, no violent endings on our pergola please! Or anywhere else for that matter!

Mark :-)

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Product Review: Evolution Aqua Evo 55

Our koi pond has been up and running for just over a year now, and so far things seem to be working as intended. We were recently offered the opportunity to add an Evolution Aqua Evo 55 UVC by Swell UK. Evolution Aqua have been developing a range of good quality pond accessories over recent years with a full range of filters and accessories for koi keeping. A UVC on a pond system helps to reduce algae by killing the algae as the water passes through the UVC, it also helps steralise some of the bacteria in the water.

The Evo 55 is simple to fit, it comes with fittings to connect to flexi-pipe however as we have a rigid pipe based system we needed to use slightly different fittings. Fortunately these are of a standard size so single screw into both ends of the UVC.

All our filter equipment is connected to water proof power supplies, although there shouldn't be any water splashing about in the filter house we wanted to be extra careful, and so far this has worked well. It was a simple job to connect the power to the UVC.

With the filters operating for a the last 15 months, it looks like we had the right approach in over filtering and under stocking. The fish have really benefited being relocated from their old small pond, growing well and also having fewer problems. Cleaning the filters has also worked out as we had hoped, not taking too much time as its such a simple almost automated process. At first I had to follow the instructions each time but now it just is second nature.


We are hoping the water quality and clarity continues to improve as the filters mature and with the addition of this UVC. 

Gaz

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Let There be Light

We had been thinking about adding additional lighting to the garden recently - it can feel quite spooky almost after dark. So it was rather fortunate to receive an email from Philips asking us to try out part of their new solar range.

Philips have been investing heavily into solar power research and have street lights run from solar panels. Much of that technology and knowledge has found its way into these smaller scale lights.

Philips myGarden Solar Wall Light

They sent us 4 solar garden lamps, 3 of which had a separate solar panel - allowing this to be placed for maximum exposure to daylight, and with a 7.5m cable to connect to the lamp itself.  I found these very easy to install as it was simply a case of using 2 fixing screws for each item, and then connecting the cable. If anything there was too much cable as I didn't need to fix the panel too far from the lamps themselves. However these could be very useful if you were illuminating a passageway or somewhere else that gets little light during the day.

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If Only We had a Lawn...

As regular readers will know we no longer have a lawn in our garden, which combined with our love for gadgets made us wish we still had one when looking at the Miimo, the robotic lawn mower from Honda UK. When we did have lawn - the last section of grass was prior to building the filter house for the koi pond - it was mown the traditional way, by me!

However the Miimo takes over the grass cutting duties, automatically cutting the grass several times a week, providing the weather is good enough. This is not the first robot mower of course, there have been several others available in the UK for a number of years, Husqvarna have had one since the mid 1990's. Where Honda have the advantage is through the use of genuine robotic technology, most people will be familiar with the humanoid robot Asimo that featured on QI with Stephen Fry.

The technology that Honda have been developing with Asimo is not just for publicity such as TV appearances, there is genuine real world applications. One such application is the Miimo, which unlike other robot mowers is able to "see" obstacles and avoid them rather than bump into them and then reverse to go round which is the common approach with most other automatic mowers.

So other than looking good and having some clever technology, is the Miimo actually a god mower. It is still a fairly new product so looking for long term reviews is difficult. However the early indications are all positive. Miimo doesn't collect the grass clippings, instead it chops them into a fine mulch which it spreads on the lawn. Whilst there has always been a debate over whether to rake up clippings or leave them, the Miimo chops them so finely that they fertilise the lawn. From reading a number of reviews of the longer term effect of this chop finely and disperse approach (admittedly reviews of other robot mowers) most agree that this does have a beneficial impact on the health of the lawn.

In terms of cutting the lawn itself Miimo has number of options it is able to cut in a random pattern, which is most best when mowing larger areas that contain a number of obstacles or complex borders. Honda explain that this produces less stress on the lawn which should lead to healthier grass. Alternatively you can tell Miimo to follow a particular directional pattern, which can be used when mowing areas with simple, straight borders and minimal obstacles. Finally the mower can follow mixed mowing pattern that gives a combination of both approaches.

The mower is also weather proof and has its own charging station, where it returns to charge up, its quiet and energy efficient too, one estimate of power usage I read was that the estimated running cost for one summer is in the region of £12. That said this is not an inexpensive gadget, with prices online from £1990, although is competitively priced compared to similar mowers from other manufacturers. 

So now all we need is a robot gardener to do the rest of the chores! 

Competition time

We are giving one reader the chance to win a £50 gardening voucher.

To enter tell us what gardening task you would love a robot to be able to do for you.

Extra entries can be made by following us and sharing this competition on Twitter or by liking our page and sharing the competition on Facebook. An additional entry can be made by "following" this blog via Google Friend Connect

Terms and conditions: This competition closes at 23.59 on 7 October 2013. Any entries received after this time will not be counted. Entrants must be UK residents aged 18 years or older to enter. By entering this competition you agree and consent to your name being published and by taking part in the competition, entrants are deemed to have read, understood and accepted all of the Terms and Conditions and agreed to be bound by them. The winner will be selected at random from the correct entries and will be announced here on the blog. Please make sure we are able to contact you if you do win, as we will need to arrange for your prize to be sent to you. 

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Omlet Hungry Bin Worm Composter

Those lovely people at Omlet have sent us a Hungry Bin to try out. The Hungry Bin is a new worm based composter designed to quickly and efficiently produce compost and a liquid plant food, from kitchen scraps as well as weeds and other organic waste. The worms can apparantly get through 2kg of scraps every day (nom nom nom)!

According to the makers, the Hungry Bin has a larger surface area than other wormeries in the market, resulting in a greater population of worms. This reduces the time it takes to convert food waste into compost. The tapered shape of the bin compresses the compost as it forms, encouraging the worms to the surface, which makes the hungry bin more efficient than other systems. This also ensures that worms don't have to be separated from the finished castings, which are then collected in an easily removable container.

Ours arrived last week and with the nice weather returning I got it set up in the garden.

Unpacking reminded me of the Russian Dolls, each part fitted neatly in the one before.
Twinkles in the background keeping an eye on proceedings.

The instuctions were clear to follow, and unlike me I actually read them rather than just dive in and hope for the best!

And there it is!

 After assembly the next thing was to add the inhibitants, the worms!!

A kilo of worms in bedding arrived to get the bin started, once they get established they breed, and breed and breed!

And there they are, in their new home, ready to eat!

This is our first foray into having a worm composter, so we will see how we get on, and report back on how the process works for us. Mark is keen to make his own "worm tea" for use in the garden. We now have to get used to saving scraps for them, my first few scraps were placed carefully on a plate in the kitchen, only to be tidied into the trash by Mark, we will have to get used to recycling our scraps rather than throwing them out!

Gaz

Hungry Bin can be ordered directly from the Omlet Website - www.omlet.co.uk

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