Bag filling.

Hi,

A couple of years ago I was kindly given lots of well rotted horse manure; trying to hold the bag open in the wind whilst using the shovel to load the bag was a frustrating long job. I always work on my own but I needed help so gave the problem some thought; I cut the bottom out of a bucket and used the bottomless bucket as a funnel; wow it worked brilliantly; I was filling aggregate bags at the time but this morning I've been using the same method whilst filling dustbin bags with lots of garden debris whilst I've been trimming back the big hedge at the top of the garden.

Open the bag fully then insert the bucket allowing both to sit on the ground; peel back the top of the bag then simply keep filling the bucket lifting the bucket when full by pressing on its contents which as if by magic are deposited in the bag; it helps whilst cutting hedges etc to cut the debris into short lengths then these are easier to handle. Bagging ivy and cleavers was no problem at all.

I've since seen this bag filling method shown on YouTube whilst bagging woodchips so I'm not alone. Just passing the tip on; it works for me and no longer a problem if it's windy..

Kind regards, Colin


Place the bucket into the bag then keep filling the bucket; this sure saves lots of torn bags.


As the bag fills keep withdrawing the bucket.


The bucket with its bottom removed; it was an old bucket so didn't even cost me anything.



Just part of the job; the hedge is 60' long; the car I believe must be broken down it had been driven right into our overhanging laurels; I let the police know about the car yesterday in case it had been stolen and as the lane is narrow I was concerned about it causing a serious accident if left overnight because idiots use the lane like a race track.

 

We do something similar at work when filling net bags with fire wood.
If you cut a 2in wide strip off the top of the bucket you can put the bottom less bucket in the neck of the bag then fold the top of the bag over the lip. Put the cut off part of the bucket over bag from the bottom and slide it up the bucket to trap the sides of the turned over bag.

 

Hi,

Thanks for your excellent suggestion pete; much appreciated and very useful to know.

Kind regards, Colin.

 

When cutting our hedges i put down an old bed sheet then cut hedge, when lots of trimings on sheet, roll up and take to compost heap or fire, less sweeping up to do

 

Hi,

I too use the sheet method Jiffy; it's excellent isn't it. Our site is very steep indeed and I find it to my benefit whilst at the top of the garden; I like to shred as much as possible so lay a tarpaulin on the ground and load this with garden debris; the tarpaulin makes a very good sled and it takes little effort to bring the debris down to the shredder.

I use both bed sheets and tarpaulin whenever I can for tip runs because it saves filling bags and saves time at the tip but I've not been into anything too serious today so took my time to fill bin bags using the bucket method; it's surprising though how many big full bin bags that can be fitted into our Skoda Yeti; with the rear seats down it turns into a decent sized van.

Thanks Jiffy for mentioning using sheets it's another excellent and useful suggestion.

Kind regards, Colin.



Our rear garden it being our mini park; it's very steep as indicated by the angle of the gutter but looks lovely from our kitchen window. The garden is 60' wide and definitely hard work to keep on top of.