My view of gardening is that you need two tools. A hedge trimmer for anything above ground level and a rotary mower with collecting box for everything at ground level.
First use the trimmer to take down hedges, bushes, trimming trees. Allow clippings to fall to the floor. Then mow the area. The mower will chop up the trimmings from hedges, bushes and trees collect them up and allow for easy transfer into black sack, green bins or compost heap (not sure what this is for though - feeding the plants has no future).
I actually have a weed lawn. We cleared all the difficult to maintain shrubs and whilst waiting for me to arrange repairs on the window frame (still waiting!) allowed nature to take its course. Now I just run the mower over it every couple of weeks and it looks not too untidy. I wouldn't walk over it barefotted though.
Putting the mower on its lowest setting and going over the weeds on the paths gives nice green borders to the paving slabs.
