• Podcast
  • Instagram
  • About
  • Blog
  • Contact
Menu

Laetitia Maklouf

Gardening in Five Minutes a Day
  • Podcast
  • Instagram
  • About
  • Blog
  • Contact
This post contains a paid advertorial for Gardena UK. All thoughts and opinions are my own, unaltered and unedited as always.

This post contains a paid advertorial for Gardena UK. All thoughts and opinions are my own, unaltered and unedited as always.

Rake Progress: The Gardena Combisystem - one pole, many tools {Sponsored}

October 25, 2019

As a keen gardener of some years I’ve been given many tools. A small number of them are still going strong, and in use most days. A rather larger number have been used once or twice and quietly passed on to someone else, or else been left in the place where tools go to die in the corner of my potting shed. So I thought long and hard when the kind people at Gardena asked me to try out some of theirs, but then I took a closer look and immediately loved the genius idea of having one handle (long, extendable, ergonomic) that would fit many tools. It’s the same idea as having one battery for many machines, and, as someone who is short on space, it’s one I’m extremely keen on.

Earlier this year I wrote about setting up an automatic watering system, and similar to that one, this system is mercifully intuitive and easy to set up, either using the very clear drawings that come with the products, or just your common sense. I was sent a branch pruner, a garden saw and a rake.

All the attachments fit onto the pole in the same way - you simply slide the thing on and tighten the bolt. The pruner and saw have an extra safety clip to keep things secure, but it takes five seconds to get each thing on or off (rather more than that if you are doing it with one hand and videoing for Instagram with the other) but let’s gloss over that!

Combisystem Anvil Branch Pruner

Combisystem Anvil Branch Pruner and pole

Combisystem Anvil Branch Pruner and pole

There’s no magic here, or batteries, or scary mechanical bits and bobs; it works with a simple piece of cord, attached to the pruner blades which runs down to a handle further down the pole. You shorten or lengthen the cord so it’s in a comfortable place, choose your branch and pull the handle. That’s it. I’m slowly but surely opening up my old apple tree which was badly pruned a few years ago, with the result that it is now congested with hundreds of water-shoots (shoots that go straight up to the sky, rather than slowly out, as they should) - the pruner made light work of a few of them after the school run this morning. It takes a bit of practice to get the handle where you need it to be, but once you’ve got the hang of it, it’s a breeze. The pole itself extends to 5m. It’s very light, which makes it easy to move around when it’s extended fully.

Combisystem Garden saw 300pp Curved

Pruning saw (Combisystem garden saw 300pp) with pole

Pruning saw (Combisystem garden saw 300pp) with pole

This is one for the larger branches that you can’t lop off with a pruner. Like the pruner, you can use it with or without the pole, just as you would an ordinary pruning saw. The trick here (and with any pruning saw) is to start gently and create a groove in the wood, and again, it does take a bit of practice when the saw is on the end of a long pole, but go slowly and gently, and suddenly you have a lovely straight channel and the saw will do the rest. There’s a handy hook on the end which I used to pull the branch downwards and get it out of the crown of the tree.

Combisystem plastic fan rake XXL Vario

The XXL Vario Combisystem plastic fan rake

The XXL Vario Combisystem plastic fan rake

Friends. I didn’t think I’d fall in love with a rake, but look, it’s happened. I already own a perfectly good spring tine rake, which I adore using, not only to tidy up lawn leaves, but also to scarify. This one though, has totally eclipsed my poor old rake. I feel sorry for it, I do, but look, we all have to move on at some point. So what do I love about this new love in my life? Well, it’s weight is the first beautiful thing; it is so light that it almost bounces over my grass, meaning that I don’t have to pull it so hard. Secondly it’s enormous (77cm in width), meaning I get more leaves per stroke, which is pretty important when you have a large, awkwardly shaped lawn like mine, and lots of trees shedding all over it. Third and best, it morphs into a leaf picker-upper…

Rake divided

Once you’ve raked, you can remove the attachment from its pole, divide it into two enormous claw-hands and pick up your leaves with them. So the making of leaf mould (which is something I do every year) becomes not only a joy, but a FAST one at that.

SOLD to the lady in the leopard print jumper.

All of Gardena’s products have a 25 year guarantee (which is properly, stunningly GORGEOUSLY German of them) because this type of stuff is made to last - no built-in obsolescence here. And once you’ve found your perfect pole, you can add to your collection slowly and with consideration and forethought…as you should when buying anything new.






x Laetitia

← The Five Minute Garden book is here!Book review: Wild about Weeds: Garden Design With Rebel Plants by Jack Wallington →
Blog RSS

Latest Posts

Featured
twine in a teapot
Sep 18, 2020
Strings and things - my favourite hacks and clever products for tying things in.
Sep 18, 2020
Sep 18, 2020
IMG_0766.jpg
Sep 11, 2020
What's on my terrace: Five plants for low-maintenance, textural bliss
Sep 11, 2020
Sep 11, 2020
garden of vegan cover.jpg
May 20, 2020
Book review: The Garden of Vegan by Cleve West
May 20, 2020
May 20, 2020
snippers.jpg
May 12, 2020
The Chelsea Chop
May 12, 2020
May 12, 2020
aphids.jpg
Apr 21, 2020
How to control aphids
Apr 21, 2020
Apr 21, 2020

My newsletter is much more personal than my blog - it’s where I document exactly what I’ve been doing in my own garden each day and it pops into inboxes on a Saturday or Sunday. People say it gets them motivated to get out there and do a bit of gardening which is brilliant! If you want it, just put your email in the box below, and know that I will NEVER share you details with anyone, EVER. x

Sign up to the newsletter

I do a weekly newsletter full of five minute gardening tips and there's usually a special project too. It’s much more personal than my blog, and subscribers say it gets them motivated to get out there and do a bit of gardening which is brilliant! If you want it, then put your email below, and know that I will NEVER share your details with anyone else x

Sign up to the newsletter