Hiring a Gardener

Its getting to that time of year again. When you look at your kitchen windows and the garden has developed into some kind no mans land undergrowth. You know something had to be done but sometimes it can be difficult to find the time to get it sorted. This is where hiring a gardener comes into play and here are some tips for getting the best in the business.

Recommendations

This is without doubt the best way of finding a gardener who knows his stuff. A family or friend who currently uses a gardener can tell you his rates, hours, personality and a live preview of work completed.
 

Online Reviews

If you don't have friends or family with crazy, good gardeners then the next best place to look is online on credible review websites like freeindex.co.uk. These provide reliable accounts of gardeners, good and bad, and is an excellent parameter to use.
 

Experience

  

Experience is key. Don't get me wrong I'm not saying that all new gardeners are totally rubbish at their jobs and that they are going to make mistake after mistake but this is a lot less likely to happen with experienced gardeners.

Importance of Safety Equipment in Forestry

There's a large amount of safety equipment in forestry is to stop you injuring yourself or others from the various possible dangers involved in forestry. I'm going to highlight some of the most necessary safety equipment involved in forestry.

Earmuffs

 

Working outdoors for long periods of time with power tools that can create a large amount of noise which over time could damage your ears and possibly though unlikely cause deafness in later life. This can be prevented by wearing earmuffs. There is some danger with earmuffs however as you may not be able to hear people around you or most things happening around you which could have dire consequences while working with power tools so you need to put the extra effort in to be aware of your surroundings.

 

Goggles 

 

When working with chainsaws or especially axes there is a danger of splintering which most of the time would not be to dangerous could get into your eyes. This could potentially cause quite a lot of damage so its always a good idea to have goggles on in forestry.

 

Safety gloves

 

Unless your hands are extremely callused when using a chainsaw or an axe you could get a lot of blisters on your hands and the easiest way to avoid this kind of injury is to wear safety gloves. This means you'll be able to work longer in a day than without them.

 

How to split hardwood

Using a splitting maul

When it comes to splitting hardwood a splitting maul is essentially a mix of splitting axe and sledgehammer. They are normally heavier than normal splitting axes but the added few pounds makes the job easier on you. The axe side is used for chopping wood not splitting it. Do not use this side. Essentially what you want to do is use the maul side to drive a splitting wedge into your wood. This means you can get it to go with the grain of the wood so its a much easier job for you and repeat until the wood splits.

Length of wood

Most stoves only take wood of about 20 to 50 cm. to save time make sure you cut your wood to size before trying to split it. The added benefit of this is the shorter the log is the easier it will split.

Set up a chopping block

This is normally a large section of a former tree and this is where you will put your wood to split it. This helps with swinging your axe  and causing less strain on your back. The block shouldn't be high or low enough for ricochets to be dangerous in case of a glancing blow.

How to mow your lawn in winter

The rate of the grass growing will drop continuously as it comes closer to winter but it never fully stops so you should be prepared to mow your lawn only a less often.

You should wait on a clearer day with not much frost or rain as these will make mowing extremely difficult to do neatly and uniformly and you will probably need to clear some leaves before you can start and the ground will probably be soft but leaving the lawn for a long time then mowing it all at once is bad practice and can look untidy so if you keep it up it will look a lot better coming back into spring for it.

You should also consider raising the setting for the lawn mower by a setting and be careful not to walk over the grass or let anyone else over the grass too much when its frosty or you could leave footprints where the tips of the grass have been snapped off.

Its a really good idea to mow your lawn a week or so before Christmas or new years to make it look substantially tidier for the holidays when family or friends visit and can really lift a winterized garden.

Definitely do not scarify your lawn unless there's a good chance of natural recovery as the lawn will go white and horrible if it goes frosty after scarifying and moss could grow in bare areas by spring time which is odd as some companies still do this into winter and they're supposed to be the experts. There are a lot of advantages to mowing and keeping a tidy lawn in the winter such as it helps keep pests away such as mice and insects and other damaging pests and it will look a lot better.

The Benefits and disadvantages of an Electric Chainsaw

When it comes to chainsaws most people don't know whether an electric or petrol chainsaw would be better for them so I'm going to cover the main advantages and disadvantage of an electric chainsaw.

Disadvantages

Less power 

 

An electric chainsaw may not be up to the task of anything bigger than a small sapling but they are still useful for outgrowing branches and to trim hedges.

The cord

 

Electric chainsaws have a dangling cord that limits range and freedom of handling. They also sometimes will sometimes need an extension for the cord to reach far outside.

Advantages

 

More manageable

 

An electric chainsaw is smaller and less powerful but this make ts easier to handle and maneuver for smaller than average users and helps take the intimidating edge off.

Easy start up

 

Petrol chainsaws require a pull start while electric chainsaws require a switch to be flipped. Electric chainsaws also remove the issue of having cans of flammable petrol around.

Easy storage

 

For electric chainsaws all you need to do to store it is remover the plug and place its protective blade scabbard on it.

The Wedge and String Method for Hedge Trimming

Cutting a perfectly straight hedge at the top and at the sides can be quite the task. The slightest error and your hedge will go from the perfect cube to a polygon of unknown origin. Today we're going to show you how to ensure these mistakes are kept to an absolute minimum using the wedge and string method.

Wedge and String Method 

  

Step 1. Position 4 wedges of equal length and width at the four corners of where you want the hedge to be. This may be inside the hedge which can be difficult but still doable.

Step 2. Get a length of string and tie it around the wedges at the height you want your hedge to be. Make sure the string is tied tight.

Step 3. Any part of the hedge that falls outside of the string you simply. This will leave you with a hedge exactly the shape you want and all you have to do is follow the lines.

How to use a Saw Bench

There are a lot of people unsure of how to maximise effectiveness from their saw bench. This will help with some general information and some tips for using your saw bench.

General information

There is some confusion over how high a saw bench needs to be. My advice is to make it 20" and it can be cut down a bit at a time to get the best height. You should also be aware that any lower than 18" carries the risk of hitting your shop floor with your tools. The best materials off one to get is clear heavy construction grade lumber. To clarify splayed legs are not necessarily a good sign of stability.

Tips

On a regular saw bench you can shortcut at most 36" and the easiest way to use it and keep the board still is to use your legs as the clamps. Keep the leg opposite your cutting hand on top of the board e.g. (right handed left leg) while keeping your other leg firm against it. I personally prefer the ripping notch to get started and make sure your cutting arm swings over the cut line. For long cuts use the same legs as clamps idea to allow for similar cutting.