New gardening tool

[kenneal - lagger]

I've used a brushcutter with a steel blade but it's slow and the damned things just grow back from the root. Perhaps the best idea might be to hack them back to ground level then rotavate to rip the roots up.

A rotavator will chop the roots up into bits and each bit will grow. Dig the roots out by hand and mulch with cardboard and straw and/or compost. We've dug brambles out to a depth of 2ft (600mm) and they've still grown back. Be prepared for a long job. Keeping pigs on the land for a few years is probably the best idea. They will nip the brambles off as soon as they come back and wear the root out so that it doesn't have the energy to grow back.

I like the idea of goats though, will they really eat bramble ? Do goats strip bark from trees ? If not, they might be the answer. I've also read that curried goat is popular.

Can a goat be kept on a chain fixed to a peg ? So many questions, I'll have to do a bit of googling.

Thanks all.

Goats will eat brambles, they will strip the bark from trees and they will eat a wooden peg, escape and eat all your vegetables. If you're lucky the goat will strangle itself with the chain before it escapes and eats all your vegetables. The best thing about a goat is goat curry and preferably someone else's goat. They have all the hassle and you have all the joy.

[contadino]

EDIT// After a bit of research it seems tethering a goat is not a good idea at all, it leaves them at the mercy of fast weather changes and any stray dogs that may come along. I'll have to look at fencing requirements instead but the goat is apparently a renowned escapologist.

Apparently it's okay for short spells if you're in sight of them. You also have to use swivel pins on the peg and collar ends of the chain.

I'm just about to build a paddock for goats, and from what I've heard/read 6ft chain link fence, with concrete foundations and concrete posts will hold all but the most persistent goats. I'm planning on putting a strand of electric wire around the inside of the fence too, to prevent them from climbing it.

[kenneal - lagger]

I'm just about to build a paddock for goats, and from what I've heard/read 6ft chain link fence, with concrete foundations and concrete posts will hold all but the most persistent goats. I'm planning on putting a strand of electric wire around the inside of the fence too, to prevent them from climbing it.

That should just about work.

[skeptik]

Do you favour Chinese over the older imported Japanese stuff?

http://www.affordabletractors.co.uk/search.php?area=2

I hear the Japanese stuff (Kubota, Yanmar, Iseki etc) is built to last, the Chinese stuff hasn't been round long enough to prove itself yet. Bloody cheap though. Which is suspect in itself....

A common experience with Chinese motor scooters (going by comments in various forums) which having been flooding the European market over the last few years is that the cheapest of them fall to pieces in about 3 to 4 years, sometimes faster. Quality control does seem though to be improving.

That's the main reason I decided to stick with Honda when I recently purchased a scooter, the SH125i.

The most successful motorised road vehicle of all time in terms of sales is the Honda Cub motor cycle, which seems to last indefinitely if regularly maintained. Designed in 1958 and still in production, essentially to the same design, though unfortunately no longer sold in Europe. Many examples from the 1960's are still on the road.

I owned a second hand one of these back in the late 70's, the C90, and the only time it ever let me down was when I switched to reserve tank and then forgot to fill up -no fuel gauge. (Out in the sticks and a 6 mile push to the nearest petrol station - Doh!)



I would be very suspicious of extremely cheap Chinese agricultural kit, and inclined to stick with Japanese, even at more than twice the price.