[NCSULandscaper]

handles 3' diameter circles no problem.

[PSUscaper]

The only thing I can say is only one rental center carries a bed edger in my area. That one is the bed shaper, and he makes you buy the blade first before you rent the machine, and then you have to keep it and reuse it each time you rent it. Last time I rented it, he basically said that when it breaks, he's not replacing it with another as guys were just beating the piss out of it trying to make it work.

A few years ago, I asked rental centers why they don't get a edger to rent, and the bottom line was people complained they didn't work or, worse for them, the machines came back broken from guys pushing them too hard trying to get them to work.

Much like tillers......almost useless around here. the only one that works is the large hydraulic model...think it is made by Barretto, has like a 20hp honda on it with a hydraulic drive wheels and hydraulic drive splines....that thing works pretty well, but again, its a monster, and I've even had that thing jump across the ground.

I've found that the mini-excavator is perhaps the best edger ever made.......get a flat piece of metal across the bucket (can slide over the teeth and create a staight edge instead of a tooted one) and you have a fine edging machine!

[Mark Oomkes]

One of the things I didn't like about the Brown (there are a few) is that if you are redefining and you have ground cover, low growing junipers, you really have to cut out a ways so the groundcover isn't shredded. Maybe they have a different blade now, but at the time that was the only one available for the Brown. The other things--I don't like going backwards, going around trees is difficult, and I am lazy and don't like to work as hard as the Brown makes you work.

We have a Bedshaper, had the B&S POS engine on it, had so much compression, you dang near lifted the machine off the ground when attempting to start. It was best to have a can of starting fluid close by. Ended up installing a Honda on it. The angle of the blade (to the machine) can make it difficult to get perfect circles, but with some practice it isn't too bad. It works good going around trees, although I have never measured a tree ring, I think 3' would be a good estimate. It does work hard going through clay, but it will do the job.

The Bedshaper is OK, but I would really like to give this a try:

http://www.turfteq.com/

Looks like it might fit our needs better. The problem is we already own the Bedshaper and it does the job.

[baker bros]

am thinking of renting a bed edger to install a mulch bed in the center of a existing lawn. after digging the edge in the shape i want, how do i remove the existing grass from the center of the edge as esy as possible...thanks

[Bamboo]

Dont waste your time with that bed edger.
Why dig a ring in your lawn?
I would get a sod cutter first (if its a big enough area to justify the rental.)
Cut out the grass in your new bed and roll it up and dump it.
Get a roto tiller to finish the job of softening the soil and adding amendments.
You can also fine tune the edge w/ the roto tiller if you blew it on the sod cutter.

[Stuck in NH]

Pennscapes..

If I look at the picture of the blade on the machine that you rented..

Then I look at this other blade offered by turfteq with the accompanying description from that page

The serrated disc blade creates a very neat border by slicing the turf edge with minimum disturbance

Blade hops up over roots to minimize damage to mature plants and root systems

Seems like if that blade hops over roots it isn't gonna dig rocks..
Maybe a different blade on the same machine would make a big difference

This is the turfteq blade for "opening beds"



-Stuck

[mnglandscaper]

Hello,

We are a small company that at this time rents our edging machines when we need one. I have rented the Bed Edger and the EZ Trench. I go with the bed edge if I can. Our beautiful Wisconsin soils can range from sandy, gravely, fill, to clay and actual soil if you are luck! (I stress the lucky part). The Bed Edger has a lot of power to go through rocks and does not clog up too bad in the clay. Mostly for me though is that it is alot more sturdy that the EZ Trench, at least in my experience. The Bed Edger is on my wish list for equipment to get soon!

-jesse

[Fine Edge]

That's a bunch of soil outside of the trench! Ours is just like Stonehenge's and leaves very little soil outside of trench, I can usually blow the soil back into the bed. A definite time saver.

[Hamons]

I love my brown Bed Edger!

I bought mine from the place I used to rent it. Renting a bed edger is VERY expensive. 10 minute job and an hour of runnign around returnign it.

[spiderlily]

Okay, this was going to be the week we buy this puppy. Time to do some research on GTX. Yikes! Which one should it be? Bedscaper, Bededger, Sidewinder, Bedshaper, EZ-Trencher? Y'all are not making this easy!

And then, I read this thread to Bamboo's post, and I wonder...do I really need one? The only problem I see with Bamboo's plan is that with the sodcutter, there is so much waste to haul away.

If I understand how the bededger works, there is no waste to haul away, right? It pulverizes the the edge and throws it into the bed?

If I have a sodcutter, but I have about 250 beds to edge, do I want a bededger, too? And then, which one?

[johnkeegan]

Get the Brown Bededger. Cuts that perfect angled edge, no crap to pick up, goes through anything. If you have 250 beds to edge, yes you need one. Just remember though don't be charging your normal hourly straight labor rate when you're using it. If you're edging the bed in 1/5 the time, you need to recoup the return on investment... and then some.

[Bill Schwab]

You can also get over 80 different cutters for the Brown unit, including one that trenches up to 10" deep. We used that alot to bury downspout lines and I can see where an irrigation company might make good use of it on small add on projects.

[NCSULandscaper]

i prefer the Brown because no tonly do we use it to edge beds, but trench through light rock, trench in landscape lighting wire, irrigation lines, and small stump grinding.