Rotavators, love 'em or hate 'em

[WendyC]

We used to have someone with a noisy rotavator but what was worse that he would scream at his bored (and therefore mischievous) children over the sound of the rotavator. If they appeared I would go home. Fortunately they gave up.

[bobbin]

Though I can't say rotivators have been too noise invasive this year,I notice a lot more use of them.Our garden backs onto the allotments and I find noise from strimmers much worse. I realise weekends are some folks only free time to do stuff but when summer evenings are light I do think a bit of effort could be put into these jobs on an odd evening,rather than a Sunday when folk are trying to enjoy their outside space. We tried a " no electric tools use on Sunday just in our road ...not the lottie" but all but a few ignore it. I can never grasp why retired folk use Sunday to mow a lawn!!
I'd never other than hand rotivate (it's exhausting mind you) as I don't get why you'd want to chop couch grass into a zillion bits and sprinkle it and worms etc all over your lottie. Yes it's quick and of course not all have the luxury of time to sit labouriously weeding so I get that bit. However then it's left for weeks to sprout and go bezerk again. You need commitment to work an allotment and sadly folk don't always realise this and take too much on. I've only ever hand weeded and boy do you reap the benefits! Even though folk think I'm crackers and make fun of me.

[4390evans]

I love em but I only use it every other year because I feel sorry for all the poor worms I must be tearing up

[SarrissUK]

I don't mind the noise of the machines, nor the smell of petrol - I don't mind it at all... I do mind when someone does the same thing time and time again, and fail spectacularly every single time. I have no patience with stupidity. I did try to say that he'd have a better result if he just hand pulled the weeds instead of rotavating the same four beds for hours on end, then leave them to go crazy for weeks, then rotavate them all again in order to deal with the weeds he'd chopped up weeks ago.

So, maybe I don't hate rotavators at all... I just really don't like stupid people lol

[Muddy_Boots]

Was back down the plot this evening and ......... peace, no noise. The rotavator couple were nowhere to be seen, just the Chinese man beating his plot to submission with a bamboo cane (what's that all about ) ahhhhh.

Don't get me wrong I don't mind the sound of strimmers, trimmers, mowers or even rotavators in small doses, even have a petrol mower at home for my huge lawn (must get a sit on, getting lazy in my older age). Just that they do it every time they arrive, and as said on QI the fact is that chopping a worm in half does not result in having two worms, you just have 2 halves of a very dead worm. Those things mean you have a plot with no worms in which means the soil structure has been damaged. There are times when I've been digging that I would of loved to started one of those things and done it in 5 mins, but there is the satisfaction in knowing most of the persistent stuff has been removed and not chopped up to multiply to triffid invasion proportions later on.

[Spunky]

I use a strimmer and if people dont like it I'm afraid i don't care lol

[Alison]

I use a strimmer and if people dont like it I'm afraid i don't care lol

Do you use it whenever you want regardless of the time of day? I was at my plot before 8 this morning, I would consider creating a lot of noise at that time of morning to be very rude. By later in the morning it would be far more acceptable. Call me old fashioned but I think it is always important (and good manners) to consider the effect of your actions on others before you do things.

[Spunky]

Yes I do without a shadow of a thought

[Alison]

Yes I do without a shadow of a thought

I'm hoping you're trying to get a reaction out of people but if not I pity your neighbours. Do you care about the effect of anything you do or is it just strimming? Manners cost nothing and whilst there are obviously limits to how obliging you can be, a little thought and respect for others makes for a much nicer world.

[Spunky]

Lol it's in my opinion that it's nobody elses business when and how I take care of my allotment, if they for whatever bizarre reason get offended by a bit of noise for 10 minutes I'd suggest they put some earplugs in or maybe pop home for a bit instead of trying to tell me what to do on my weekends

[Spunky]

And thankfully as most people on my allotment are fairly normal people we don't have trivial problems like the one trying to be raised here lol

[Alison]

And thankfully as most people on my allotment are fairly normal people we don't have trivial problems like the one trying to be raised here lol

Are there any houses near your allotments?

[veggiechicken]

It would appear that Spunky is being deliberately controversial - I suggest we apply Spunky Rules and ignore them. We won't tolerate rudeness on here for long.

[Nicos]

If I recall there is a legal obligation to minimise noise between 11pm and 7 am ?
Outside those hours there may be local authority enforcements?

Those are legal requirements...social obligations are a different matter sadly.

[Muddy_Boots]

I didn't start this thread to have controversial opinions aired, just my rant over a couple that don't appear to possess a spade or a fork in my allotments and which I reckon we all have to some degree wherever we are.

Anyway an update ...... today I was down the lottie planting out my 50+ sweetcorn so the Badgers are fed later in the year when they decide to raid us soon as they detect the cobs are near ready. Was also planting out 15 Runner Beans and 2 X 15 Climbing French Beans in my 'Great Wall' of Bean poles when ............ they were back .......... the Rotavator couple.

But after 15 mins there was still ....... silence

Another lottie couple had their son and girlfriend helping when he brought out and industrial strimmer with the visor, ear defenders, and leg protectors (he obviously does this for a living) and proceeded to strim the edges of their plot. Not to be outdone the Rotavator couples husband got out his contraption, there then proceeded to be a war of who could make the most noise between them lol.

You can guess who lost, then silence once again descended on the area.