So. Here I am, back from the land of wine, escargots and incomprehensible opening hours, staring at my garden thinking Bungalow Ben, my neighbour who offered to ‘keep an eye’ on my garden, must have pitched a tent, got in some supplies and lived out here for a couple of weeks because it’s looking great. I must remember to throw a bottle of my good calvados over the hedge when I see him next.
The luggage is, if not unpacked, at least in the process. Mrs Drew is not a woman to leave things undone for long and, let’s face it, she doesn’t exactly travel light…
My Luggage…
…Mrs Drew’s Luggage
Hmm. Of course, there is always something to tackle in the garden, no matter how much work has been done, and I can see a spot of deadheading and shrub pruning might not go amiss, but it’s the lawn I am really thinking about. Not that there is anything wrong with it, just that, having looked at my old lawn mower in the garage, and looking at the finish on the lawn – neat enough but not perfect – I wonder if I don’t need a new one.
And if I am doing that, what do I go for? I see Dick has been writing about electric mowers this week and, while looking at this I suddenly found myself thinking about battery powered lawn mowers. Even considering taking the plunge. “What?” I hear you say “Buying one? You? Mr Petrol? Are you mad? What are you thinking?”. Well, while I was enjoying the fermented fruits of the apple tree (it’s cider, I don’t care how you pronounce it) and the vine and basking in the lush landscape, wonderful food, friendly welcome and unaccountable sunshine of Northern France this Summer,I picked up some English magazines as I had I left my book behind by mistake and found myself absorbed in reading some stuff about about modern batteries. I know, those holiday nights just flew by, but it beats Agatha Christie in French from the local Bibliotheque.
Lithium – from the Greek for stone ‘lithos’ – is a metal, and the lightest metal and least dense solid element we know. This makes it ideal for batteries, contributing to the low weight of these new tools.
Lithium-Ion batteries are fast becoming ‘the thing’. They are several times the power of your old Ni-Cad versions, producing even smooth power through the charging cycle, with no ‘fade’ and can be charged successfully at any time during the cycle with no loss of power.
So these batteries are lighter than traditional batteries and designed to produce consistent power with no fumes and less noise to bother you or your long-suffering neighbours. They also have the advantage of being cordless of course, so you don’t have the annoying trailing cables of mains electric machines to tangle round your apple tree or trip your spouse up while they are carrying a tray of sangria.
But are they really any good? Your average gardener is bound to be sceptical. I mean batteries are all very well for a torch, a small drill or the latest kid’s toy but we’ll never see a cordless battery powered lawnmower with real power will we? Duh! Yes we will! They are out there already.
I have mentioned lithium-ion batteries before, a short while ago, while ranting about cockney rhyming slang with reference to a cordless Greenworks Long Range Pruner. Rather splendid machine in fact, but a lawnmower? Can a battery mower really rival a petrol beast eating up your sward like a four-wheeled dragon?
Again… yes it can. Scientists have been beavering away in their hermetically sealed laboratories creating increasingly powerful batteries, not just 20 Volt batteries for smaller tools but 40 Volt versions like the one Greenworks have had out for some time now, Mountfield even have a even 48 Volt Lawn Mower out, (See image below) and many companies, like Al-K0, are getting on the battery powered train.
The Mountfield machine is good, with enough charge after 2 hrs to cover 300m2. That’s pretty impressive and it beats the old two-week charge for an apparent running time of 2.4 seconds of the ‘old days’.
In fact. MowDirect now have a whole range of cordless mowers and other equipment, and from the look at the reviews, they are becoming very popular.
Looking forward, seems the future of Li-ion is going to be flexibility as well as power. I’m talking about the ‘one powerful battery fits all’ model. I shall probably expound on this at a later date but many companies are developing garden tool sets that have a universal charging station so you can power your lawnmower, hedge trimmer, strimmer, chainsaw all with the same battery. Or have two so one charges while you use the other.
Some day soon we may all soon be gardening with tools that are quiet, powerful, go-anywhere, ecologically advanced and easy to use.
So watch this space. The future of garden machinery looks lean, green and healthy. Enjoy your garden… battery powered or otherwise. Drew Hardy.
