Winter
is here
More
information about Winter Gardening
We
are in the depths of winter and the general advice
is to keep off the garden as much as possible
whilst it is wet. When you get a chance and if
the ground is reasonable condition, you can continue
with tidying up, cutting and trimming roses or
shrubs, pruning and lopping of large shrubs and
trees. 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
for winter gardening 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 winter gardening 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 !).
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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.
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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. Winter gardening cont.
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 winter gardening section I
have included the lawn care tools needed for those
winter 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 lawn
feed. Make sure that you sweep up those leaves
using the lawn sweeper and keep your Sorby &
Hutton winter gardening tools well maintained.
Look out
for Bulb Planters
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.
Happy
Winter gardening for all seasons in a garden for
all seasons and watch out for the flying winter
gardener as well as the gardening angels and the
city gardener.
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