Autumn gardening

Sorting out your garden in Autumn Gardening

Autumn gardening from the BBC

Autumn gardening tips in the USA

We are almost at the end of Summer and it is already time to prepare for those Autumn gardening jobs such as lawn care, cutting and trimming roses or shrubs, the pruning and lopping of large shrubs and trees all in preparation of the Winter shut down. I have a good selection of top quality brand named garden tools in the shop to help with your gardening for all seasons under the following sections :

Loppers - there is an array of different loppers on the market today but each is designed for a specific task. A tough woody thick stem will require a heavy duty geared anvil lopper. These are really too heavy to handle those smaller thin fleshy stems which should be tackled with a lightweight by-pass scissor action cutting blade. These by-pass loppers give a clean cut and avoid the crushing of stems. However, sometimes you just simply need to get some leaverage in to cut through those thicker branches. A geared action mechanism in a heavy duty lopper is ideal. The better the quality of steel, the longer the sharp edge will keep, so the more expensive the lopper, usually the better quality tempered and hardened higher carbon quality steel you get. The Sorby & Hutton loppers are more expensive, but you get what you pay for .. they are excellent. For trees and taller shrubs use a tree lopper, tree pruner or pruning saw. A tree lopper can extend to 3.5 metres and will save you having to use a ladder and risk falling off. There are telescopic tree pruners and sectioned jointed aluminium tree loppers both designed to saw or cut using a ratchet or pulley rope system. when using your pruning saw, first cut under the branch then saw off from above. This will prevent ripping the bark of as the branch falls off (watch out from above !).

Pruners - for small scale cutting and trimming, I have included a range of top quality anvil pruners and traditional by-pass secateurs. My best advice is to choose on size and action. If you are needing accurate cuts on delicate stems, then choose a by-pass scissor action pruner. Alternatively for heavier duty work on tougher stems, choose an anvil action pruner. If you have a weakness in your hand, then choose a ratchet pruner or geared action pruner and finally if you are left handed, then select a left handed pruner which has been designed for your needs. Left handed secateurs are available in most of the range, but Felco pruners are particularly recommended. Please note that I now stock most of the Felco pruners which are Swiss made precision pruners used by most of the serious professional gardeners of today. Felco pruners are made from very high quality steel and retain their cutting edge. Felco pruners have replaceable components which are readily available. Felco pruners are amongst the best pruners you can but ... go on ... treat yourself ! By the way, there is no difference between a pruner and a secateur, however, you can prune but you can't secateur !

Lawn Care - in this section I have included the lawn care tools needed for those autumn jobs such as lawn aerator, lawn spiker and lawn sweeper, or leaf sweeper. Most are from the Sorby & Hutton range which are British made to very high specifications and should last you a long time. Lawn spiker and aerator tools are designed to open up the lawn to allow air to enter. This is an important process for maintaining your lawn free and helps with drainage and allows for back filling with sand and autumn lawn feed. Make sure that you sweep up those leaves using the lawn sweeper and keep your Sorby & Hutton garden tools well maintained.

Hedge Trimming

As well as pruning and secateur(ing) your shrubs and trees, now is your final chance to cut and trim those hedges.Hedge trimming should not be left too late or the frosts will get into freshly cut stems and kill them back. I do not stock electric power tools only the hand held traditional hedging shears for hedge trimming and hedge cutting. Again look for high quality tempered steel blades which will keep your hedging shears sharp for longer.

Living in the UK ? - If you live in the UK - you can buy garden tools from my affiliate site as below - brackets ( ) indicate number of garden tools available per category - so there are plenty to choose from :

Knives (20) Shredders (18) Grass trimmers (102) Lawn mowers (81) Rakes (51) Axes (61) Bulb planters (3) Edging irons (15) Loppers (57) Spades (41) Hand Forks/Trowels (76) Lawn scarifiers (18) Scythes& hooks (6) Tree pruners (9) Chain saws (74) Hedge trimmers (9) Log splitters (3) Secateurs (99) Watering hose & accessories (50) Garden shears (5) Shredders (9) Spreaders (3) all from Wilkinson Sword, Wolf, Spear & Jackson and other top makes.

Happy Autumn gardening for all seasons in a garden for all seasons.