Gardena Hand-Held Spreader M: Spreader for simple distribution of fertiliser, seeds, and salt with a spreading width of 1-4 m, for lawn areas of up to about 100 m² (431-20)

When reading reviews for this product bear in mind that Gardena make several different types of lawn spreaders and Amazon have listed them all together. This review is for the type 'L' drop spreader.I first bought a cheap hand held rotary spreader that did spread lawn fertilizer successfully. Unfortunately, it was too easy to spread the fertilizer onto the garden borders and paths too. The problem then is that the fertilizer contains a ferrous compound to kill moss and when it rained it left large rust stains on the concrete flags of the path, despite trying to brush the fertilizer off first. These stains are near impossible to remove even with proprietary acids and rust removers for concrete. Hence I've chosen a drop spreader which spreads the fertilizer only on the lawn.I considered several different makes of drop spreaders before deciding on this one. Gardena is a reputable German manufacturer and I've been pleased with the quality of some of their other products.The spreader was supplied in a substantial cardboard box complete with all the parts including the instructions and the 6 screws needed to assemble it. Assembly was quite simple and took only a few minutes, the only tool needed was a cross-head screwdriver, but a little force was required to insert the self-tapping screws. Another reviewer points out that the spring attaches directly to holes in the plastic and recommends that a metal ferrule would be better to avoid any chance of the plastic eventually splitting and I would agree with this. There is a plastic foot at the bottom of the spreader to keep it upright when stationary. This keeps the footprint of the spreader to a minimum and, unlike another type which uses protruding bars, enables the spreader to be stored more easily. The spreader is quite light in weight and could easily be hung on hooks for storage but no hooks are supplied. Gardena states that all the parts are rustproof, it can even be used to spread salt, and the spreader should be washed down after use.The quantity of fertilizer, seed etc. can be adjusted by slots in the handle that is connected to a steel cable to adjust the opening of a flap on the spreader or the flap can be closed completely by releasing the handle. IMPORTANT: the cable is connected to the handle with an orange plastic clip and two other reviewers have said that this clip detaches in use, one reviewer includes a video showing this. However, this can only be because the clip was not correctly attached to the handle. The instructions clearly show that there's a right way and a wrong way to attach it (see photograph). If fitted correctly the clip will not come off. There are notches in the handle that this clip goes into and this controls the dosage of the product being spread.I tested it with the recommended 32 grams of lawn treatment on a white sheet to ascertain how fast I had to move it and how even it spread the granules. This wasn't successful because it dropped most of it as soon as I opened the flap with the handle. It was more successful when I increased the quantity to 96 grams and covered 3 times the area but still dropped a lot when I first opened the flap. I think to be able to spread it at the correct dosage it needs to have a much larger quantity than a small test area and you need to move the spreader before opening the flap. I also think it would help to reduce the dosage for each pass and to go over the ground again but at 90 degrees across.I've hosed it down (don't do this where lawn treatment may leave rust stains), wiped it and left it to dry completely in the sun.I wanted to review this without waiting too long after I received it because the lawn treatment instructions say to apply it in April so I'll update my review when I've treated the lawn next month.So far though I'm prepared to give it 5 stars for the ease of assembly and quality of manufacture and 4 stars for how easy it is to spread until I update my review.18-05-2024: I need to update my review of the Gardena lawn spreader. Having used the spreader to put weed and feed (Westland all-in-one) on my lawn, I am mostly pleased with the result. I went up and down the length of the lawn and then went over it again from side to side. After a couple of weeks, the treatment has killed the moss and greened up the grass in most of the lawn, however, there were some bare patches where it appears the treatment killed the grass but this may have been down to me not moving it quickly enough.Also, because I only intend to put the treatment down in spring and autumn, I intended to disassemble the spreader and pack it away between treatments. Unfortunately, I hadn't realised that once the wheels are attached and the plastic caps are pushed in, then they can't be removed and the spreader cannot be put back in its box with its wheels on. If you wish to pack it away between uses, I therefore recommend that you leave off the plastic caps in the centre of the wheels.

Good materials used for this spreaderEasy to put togetherDoes the job and should last longer than my last spreader

Not a fan of the process of depositing various contents on the garage floor and then weighing them to find the right setting, but I guess this is an inevitable step for any such product. After getting past the faffing around, I noted down the settings and it'll be easily adjusted for future uses.Happy that this works well, I managed to spread seeds, fertiliser and gypsum very quickly and easily across our lawn. Blasted it with a hose afterwards to make sure it was clean. Great.

It's easy to use and works pretty well.There aren't any instructions but really it doesn't need any. There's a setting lever thing on the front that controls the rate that the product (seed, lawn feed, etc) comes out of the container. Just look inside with it empty to see it in action. Then there a button on the top that you press to let the product out at all, and release to stop it. And there's a crank handle on the side that you turn to whizz the contents out, the faster you turn it the further the product is thrown and the faster it's used. That's it, not rocket science.The hopper isn't particularly big, but big enough. Full of lawn food and it probably weighs around 2kg.The tricky part is knowing how to spread your product at the correct rate. This isn't something that the manufacturer of the spreader can tell you as depends on whatever you're spreading, and it's affected by the setting of the lever, how fast you crank the handle and how quickly you walk.This is what I did (I was applying lawn feed but I think it should work for whatever).First, I worked out the total amount of product I was going to use (area x product rate per m2). For 100m2 of lawn at 35g per m2, this meant I would use 3.5kg of feed in total, so if I spread this evenly over the lawn, I was done.I found a measure that conveniently held 350g of feed i.e. enough for 10m2, so I was going to use 10 measures. I filled the hopper with just 2 measures at a time (it could hold 4) so the rate I used up the measures to refill the hopper gave me a good idea of my progress. I started by deliberately spreading it more thinly that I thought was needed, so when I gone over the whole area I had about 1/3 remaining - about 3 measures. By this time you've got a feel for speed of walking and speed of cranking. I went back over the area again at right angles to the first, spreading more thinly and using it all up. Done. Going over it twice like this helps to even out the spreading and avoid missing patches altogether.I have another lawn of 150m2. Together it probably took less than 30 minutes to treat both. It felt really quick. If I had more lawn I'd probably have a wheeled spreader but for what I have it works just fine.

Bought to overseed my small front lawn and this spreader goes through seeds in the hopper very fast. Smooth to operate and feels well put together. Good spread and overall happy with this at a decent price.

It's a lot smaller than what I thought it would be. Didn't like the idea that it had to be sent overseas and the only option was with UPS. I'll have to make sure I look better at where the items are coming from in the future.

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A prezzo pieno non costa poca, preso in offerta a poco più di 20€ è un prezzo più che giusto.Dovevo seminare per la prima volta l'erba per il prato, operazione che non avevo mai fatto, mi sono trovato molto bene, si riesce a regolare la portata secondo le prorie necessità e la stesa è stata uniforme.Per chi non semina tutti i giorni lo consiglio vivamente, ovvimaente è idoneo per giardini non enormi risparmiando parecchio rispetto al carrellino.