using a azada with dodgy wrists

[NOG]

I know I always sound like the mad burning man from Surrey. But...
BURN it off. don't bother even cutting it down, Get some pallets and any old wood and start a fire in the middle of it and when it is going rake out the fire to a bigger area. It will kill all the weeds and do the soil a world of good. Then dig out the roots that remain.

I love my Rotovator but after using it I feel like I have been tied to the back of a pickup and pulled round the town.

My Azada is much lighter then my mattock and it does not fit the pole properly so it takes out some of the shock. I think it is designed like it.

[Hazel at the Hill]

I know I always sound like the mad burning man from Surrey. But...
BURN it off. don't bother even cutting it down, Get some pallets and any old wood and start a fire in the middle of it and when it is going rake out the fire to a bigger area.....

....then call the fire brigade....

[Becca]

hello mad burning man from surrey :O) it's already chopped to about a 6 inch- 1 foot tall (it was mostly about 10 feet tall and completely impenetrable at first, I am planning to bonfire alot of whats left if it will burn but was worried about starting fire before I'd cleared the ground a bit as I don't want to be responsible for setting fire to other peoples allotments! would i be ok to build a fire in the middle of the the chopped down patch? would have thought I'd need a clearish area around the fire for safely?

[Protea]

Hi Becca (i'm also a Becca!), i have an Azada from get digging, that i bough when we took on our new allotment 2 yeas ago - i have to say using it on my horrid bedfordshire clay was not the best thing to do, especially since the last chap had run a rotavator over it just to keep the weeds down (A massive unused plot was split up into smaller ones which was what i got), the compacted soil 1 foot down didn't get broken up by the azada, if anything it made it worse, and it killed my back and arms (its a twisting action on your back). Deep digging and addign manure was the best thing for my plot, but after the soil is improved i would have no problem going back to my azada - for light cultivating on good ground its fine (i gave one to my Mum and Dad who have an ancient veg patch and the soil is lovely - perfect for an azada.) I knoe the site says you can clear branmbles etc much quicker than digging but in my experience i wouldn't try.
Weight wise, i have the medium one and its not heavy, but obviously the weight is at one end so you have to weild it a bit like a mad axeman!

[Becca]

Hmm, maybe the azada isn't sounding quite as fabulous as it's sold.. It sort of depends where in the arms it causes problems.. have quite muscly upperarms because I've spent the last few years having to work around weedy/painful wrists so it if could be used effectively whilst wearing metal supports to keep the strain off them I'd probably be ok in short bursts at least, but if the technique for using it depends on wrist movements then i'd be a bit stuffed

[Protea]

I'd say its more lower arms (the muscles on the top bit of my forearm are the ones that hurt), not really 'wristy' but if you've got hard ground then concussion goes right up through your arms, it used to make my arms itch like when i use the rotavator (vibration itch!!)

[HeyWayne]

Like anything being "sold" it's always made to sound better than it is. However, I guess there is an element to finding what works best for you. Personally I get on better with my azada, but hen being my height and size I get a pretty good swing. I was watching a chap several plots up from me at the weekend, and he was pretty much rotavating his entire plot by hand. Moving along, row by row using nothing but a spade to turn the earth over. I was there for about four hours, and he'd managed to cover about half the plot. I'f I'd of tried that with my back, I'd of been going home on a stretcher!

The azada can send a right shock up your arms if your hit a stone (as I often do), but once you get a technique going, it's like anything, you either get on well with it, or not.

By the way Protea, where in Beds are you?

[Becca]

the ground actually seems relatively soft, a fork goes in easily enough, it's just a b*gger to pull out due to the nettle roots, I'm hoping there won't be too many stones in the 2 main regions are apparently the 2 ridges running across the plot are made up of all the stones a previous owner shifted off her beds (so anything is going to be hard going in those places..) I suppose the worst that can happen (as long as I'm careful not to injure myself of course) is that i end up buying one and selling it on again if it doesn't suit..

[Two_Sheds]

As you're not going to be planting for about 4 or 5 months, I would cover the lot with carpet or thick layers of cardboard to cut out the light ... this will considerably weaken the roots, and come springtime you will find digging them out so much easier. We did this on mother's plot, where the brambles were higher than the shed.