The New Member of our (Gardening Tools) Family

Meet the Green Machine.  He arrived this morning and I am so grateful to Allen for assembling it!  And then, to make things even better, he put it to work today too!

You see, normally my work load in the garden is limited by the yard waste barrel.  I can clip until it's full and then I'm done for the week until the city comes to empty it.  I can make more room in the barrel by clipping each branch into much smaller pieces so they can snuggle down, filling the nooks and crannies.  But that means a lot more clipping.  My poor hand gets so tired!  By the time the barrel is full, I need the rest of the week for my clipping arm to recover. 

Did I mention the garden club is coming in a couple of weeks?  I had lots of clipping to do!  Allen said, "If only you had a chipper."  Good idea!  I went off to Home Depot to get one.  They don't sell them at the store, only online.

As I compared them online, I found that Amazon had a bigger selection and sold them much cheaper.  And since we have Amazon Prime, the shipping is free.  For only $8.99 they delivered overnight!  Within 24 hours, the Green Machine moved in. 

After I ordered the chipper, I got to work on the creeping fig on the back fence.  And the Pittosporum was in the way so I clipped that too.  While I was at it, I cut it a little shorter.  Then I cut another Pittosporum back too.  I ran out of room in my folding barrel, then filled up the middle sized tub.  I tossed the bigger branches into a huge pile and just left it there. 

The Green Machine arrived this morning.  Allen put it together and started chipping those branches.  I felt lazy watching him work, so I went to the front yard and started cutting the branches sticking out from the Indian Hawthorne hedge.  When Allen finished the branches in the back, I took the Green Machine to the front and started in on that pile.  All those chips went into our compost bins.  Instead of tossing those branches, and buying mulch, I will turn the branches into mulch.  Score!

I started in on the leaves with the Leaf Hog.  The Leaf Hog doesn't pick up sticks.  The Green Machine doesn't do piles of leaves.  So Allen started in again on the little branches left behind by the Leaf Hog.  The Leaf Hog cleaned up the remaining debris from the Green Machine.

Dump the last bits.  Roll up the cords.  Park the garden power tools in the garage.  It's time to sit with a glass of wine and enjoy our accomplishments!