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Category: Garden Equipment Tips

Secateur and Secateurs Tips

Secateur and Secateurs Tips

anvil-secateurs-052

Americans may call them pruning shears or hand pruners but my short handled pruners are called secateurs. Secateurs are like special scissors for cutting stems and branches that are less than a finger thick. They have a form of spring to open them and a catch to lock them in place.

Tips for Secateurs

  • Buy a good pair (or one of each style see below) and look after them.
  • Keep the blade(s) clean and honed sharp. Old plant sap needs to be wiped off at the end of use.
  • Do not twist the secateurs to cut through a stubborn stem as it can strain the blades.
  • You need to find your secateurs when you put them down so choose a bright colour or add some paint to make them visible.
  • Select a pair with good feel and balance – they will work better and so will you.
  • After use give then a spray of WD40 or plunge in an oil/sand tray.

Types of Secateurs

  • Cheap secateurs start from under £5 but you get what you pay for. A top line Felco pair will cost around £45.
  • Anvil secateurs have only one blade which closes onto a flat surface or anvil as in the picture above. They are reputed to crush the stem but I like them for many jobs particularly chopping down stems for the compost heap.

bypass-secateurs-038

  • Bypass secateurs work exactly like a pair of scissors with one blade passing the other to make the cut. At least one of the blades will be curved with a convex upper blade and either a concave or straight lower one.
  • Parrot-beak secateurs consist of two concave passing blades which trap the stem between them to make the cut. These are suitable only for narrower stems and intricate work.
  • Bonsai have there own pruning tools including leaf cutters like miniature shearing shears and sharpened pincers.

 

wet-stone6

Maintain Your Secateurs

  • Anvil secateurs remain reliable when slightly blunt but are easy to sharpen on a wet stone.
  • Use an oil stone or wet stone to sharpen the blade.
  • Two types of wet or oil stones are shown above.
  • The liquid quickly makes a grinding paste which is how the blade is sharpened
  • Normally 5 or 6 strokes will be enough to hone an edge but when renovating an old pair like the ones in the picture more effort may be required.
  • Only sharpen the outer blade on bypass secateurs.
  • Clean off sap and plant juice before putting secateurs away.
  • I spray moving parts monthly with WD40 to keep them in good condition

 

Felco and other Secatuers from Amazon link

 

Best Value Cold Frames

Best Value Cold Frames

coldframe

Series of well ventilated cold frames.

Cold Frames are an excellent low cost method for developing and growing young seedlings. Cold frames make a good alternative to the the cost and size of conventional greenhouses.
To some extent you can make your own cheap cold frames. See this post – Home Made Cold Frames. I have just used a redundant double glazing unit to make a cold frame for my alpine plants.

Cold Frame

 

A good cold frame needs to have an easy mechanism for allowing air in. The cold frame can then be closed at night to protect seedlings against frost. This wooden variety helps keep the heat in. For best results keep at a south facing wall. The wood also makes quite an attractive feature for the garden.

The only problem with cold frames, is that  once you realise how useful they are, it soon becomes full and you start wanting a greenhouse! Of course, a cold frame can be an excellent choice for those who find the greenhouse overflowing at this time of the year.

Cheapest Cold Frames

Some of the cheapest cold frames can be bought for under £50. This Gardmen cold frame holds 6 seeds trays (1000mm *650mm) and can be bought for less than £50. Cold Frames at Amazon.co.uk

The smallest Greenhouses (6ft * 6ft) will come in at over £200. Greenhouses

Plant Pots that Push the Boat Out

Plant Pots that Push the Boat Out

Scarborough

If bunches of flowers can be arranged in a wide variety of containers and vases why not growing plants.

I liked this boat on a wall at Scarborough which was cheerfully full of Pansies. The variegated Ivy provided a bit of light green colour and texture and even the plastic sunflower was not out of place.

Tips for Unusual Plant Holders

  • If you make a creative container ensure there is drainage so plants do not drown. I guess these boats were holed below the plimsoll line!
  • Containers under the eaves of houses or in a rain shadow from the wall will need watering more frequently.
  • Ensure the container can hold enough compost or soil for a good root run.
  • Use water retaining gel or special container compost.
  • Pick of dead flowerheads to encourage new blooms.

 

This boat was in a park at Ross on Wye and it would be hard to tend the plants in the middle as the boat was quite large. It creates a whole new mean to houseboat as this is a real gardenboat.

 

Read Collecting Containers and Growing Veg in containers

Glasshouse and Greenhouse Preparation

Glasshouse and Greenhouse Preparation

Octagonal cloche

Get the best gardening results from your glass in a cold frame, greenhouse or glasshouse. (The difference I am told is that a glasshouse has controlled conditions).

Preparation  for 2011

  • Make some glasshouse resolutions and stick to them. What will be grown and when. What experiments may be worth trying etc.
  • Plants need light so clean the glass thoroughly inside and out.
  • Take down any bubble wrap insulation and clean with Jeyes fluid. Replace damaged sections before reinstalling.
  • Clean out  guttering and algae from cracks between the glass. A plastic plant label may help you get into tight spaces.
  • Clean and disinfect all surfaces, benches, gravel and capillary matting.
  • Wash any pots taking care to get rid of bugs lurking under rims and on bottoms.
  • Treat wood frames with a wood preservative.
  • Check windows for damage or loose panes.
  • Ventilate well and allow the area to dry
  • Replace any soil or compost according to your resolutions above

Do not forget to clean other equipment like temporary plastic structures, cold frames and cloches.
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Tips for Looking After Hanging Baskets

Tips for Looking After Hanging Baskets

golden acre gardens leeds

These tips may seem commonsense but they are always worth repeating.

Tips For Good Hanging Baskets.

  • Water early in the day ‘and or’ in the evening. Give plants a good drink regularly.
  • After 4 weeks in the same compost the nutrients will be reduced and you should add liquid feed. I use half strength fertilizer with every watering.
  • Many hanging basket plants will self deadhead but if you have zonal geraniums in the basket they will benefit from nipping the deadheads off.
  • Turn the basket round, if one side near a wall for example, is growing less well.
  • Look out for aphids on the soft lush growth.
  • If you get unexpected gaps in leaf or bloom you can still  put in new plants.

Hanging Basket Holidays

  • If you go on holiday you need to think about care of your baskets whilst away, even just for a weekend.

    Read More Read More

Home Made Plant Protection

Home Made Plant Protection

Bottle Glass House

This ‘double glazing for plants’ is getting these early onions off to a good start at the beginning of March.

Each plant has its own baseless pop bottle for individual cover. Then there is the glass sheet that will keep off the snow and the sink sides to keep out some frost. Intensive care for plants that can be treated as individuals may be worth the effort when our local vegetable show comes around (no wonder I have lost to this neighbour before.)

Winter Protection

This is another of the local money free protection schemes where the Leeks are grown in lengths of drain pipe. I guess this helps with blanching  but more importantly extends the cropping season. Talking of Leeks, yesterday I bought some seed of Swiss Giant Zermatt to pick from July as baby leeks and some Blue Green Autumn Neptune for resistance to Leek rust disease.

Measuring Aids When Gardening

Measuring Aids When Gardening

Ranunculus  seguieri

Bodgers know about making use of the ordinary to help achieve results and here are a few tips for gardeners when measuring in the garden.

Your own body has natural measurement so check them out against a tape measure or ruler and remember the key ones. A stride is about 3 feet, a hand span from tip of thumb to tip of little finger is about 9″, an index finger 3″, heel to toe in a gardening boot 12″, arms akimbo 6 feet, hand width 4″ etc.

Home made measuring sticks can be created, from a 3 foot cane you have a yard stick, on a longer strip of wood paint a mark every foot or every 6″. On your garden rake or other tools paint sizes or lengths.

Buy your watering can with measures already marked or test the capacity with a kitchen jug and record the size with a permanent marker pen. Invaluable when mixing concentrated chemicals.

Buy a graduated dibber and trowel with marks every 2″ or make your own. Measure the depth of the blade on your spade.

Tie a known length of string to two pegs and stretch it out to get a straight edge of known length. If you are a sports field groundsman you may have a metal linked chain for your cricket pitch which will be 22 feet or ‘one chain’ long.

Areas are harder to measure but 4 by 3 foot canes in a square equals a square yard and this can be useful for spreading dry fertilizer and lawn weed killers.

Thermometers for the greenhouse and rain gauges are best bought from your hardware store of Amazon like the tri dial weather station.

Even the RHS promotes the use of a homemade Measuring Stick

Best Lawn Edge Trimmers

Best Lawn Edge Trimmers

Garden edgesKeep Off The Grass Not on My Pavement

Neat, well trimmed edges make your lawn and garden look tidy and cared for. World class gardens take care of neat edges especially on formal lawns. In most cases you need to avoid obstructions that prevent achieving a well trimmed edge as these painted rocks do. Grass growing at the base of these rocks is hard to trim to the same length as the rest of your grass even if you use a strimmer.

  • Plants growing close to the edge will get in the way of a lawn mower or over-hang the lawn and weaken the grass.
  • A path in the lawn made from stepping stones should be sunk below the sward so that a lawn mower passes over the path edge and cuts right up to it. If the path is proud of the grass you may damage the mower and leave an untidy edge.
  • Where ever practical leave a gully or channel at the edge of the grass before the planting starts.

 Best Tools for Cutting Edges

Lawn edgers allow you to cut back the edge by removing a sliver of soil. Useful if you have walked near the edge and it has crumbled or spread out.

Strimmers are useful on rough grass and hard to reach spots.
Book CoverBlack & Decker Strimmer

Lawn shears have a blade at 45° to the handles and are my favourite way of trimming lawn edges.
Book CoverBahco Lawn Shears

For many jobs you can’t beat a traditional spade. If you are trimming an edge use a line or string to keep you honest.
If part of an edge is in poor condition you can cut out a square foot as a turf and turn it around by 180° to make the inner cut as the new edge and the ragged part a foot inside the lawn. Fill any gaps with sand or top dressing.

 

 

 

Fallen Leaves Good for the Environment

Fallen Leaves Good for the Environment

The fallen leaves of Autumn are a sign of the the hope and regeneration of future seasons. You can pick up inspiration from the sight of golden brown and russet coloured leaves. Who has not been enraptured, at some stage in their life, by the scent of damp leaves or the rustle of crisp, dry leaves kicked up as you pass through a leaf strewn glade.

Uses of Leaves

  • Broad-leafed trees shed their leaves annually to create a carpet of slowly rotting organic matter in woodlands.
  • The carpet of leaves acts as a mulch and encourages worm activity that takes air and water down to the tree roots.
  • Leaves are habitats of a variety of creatures and provide nesting and hibernation resources.
  • Gardeners can collect leaves separately from the compost heap and they will rot down to form a good quality leaf mold. It is a cold and thus slower process than composting.
  • Shredded leaves can be added to the compost heap, in small quantities,  as part of the ‘brown constituent’ of the pile.

You can collect fallen leaves with a multi tine rake
Book Cover

For a labour saving job you can buy a garden vacuum from Amazon.
Book Cover
Read more Easy tips on Composting leaves

Autumn Environmental Tips

Autumn Environmental Tips

Autumn Crocus
Autumn Crocus

Feeding birds and providing habitats continues through autumn and winter. Planning to reuse, re-purpose or recycle also contributes to the Environment. Why take your car to the garden centre to buy more plants in containers when you can derive pleasure from growing your own.

Clear up and Clean up

  • Tidy borders, lightly hoe or fork over to deter weeds and collect up canes, pots & nets.
  • Clear away old crops, leaves and plant debris adding it to your compost heap.
  • Keep one natural corner area  and leave debris to rot down.  Add  a pile of twigs or logs to provide food for insects and shelter for small creatures through winter.
  • Wash all pots and soiled items ready for reuse next year. Save and recycle what you can.
  • Rake up tree leaves as they fall, wet them and put  in to a wire cage or plastic bag with some puncture holes and they will rot down to leaf mould in 18 months or so. (they do not rot quickly or heat up like compost but make small amounts of good friable soil).

Plant Care

  • Plant your spring bulbs, Daffodills go in early to develop good roots but Tulips should wait until November.
  • Save buying new plants by lifting and dividing clumps of herbaceous perennials.
  • Collect your own seeds and plant those to avoid buying new next season.
  • Give your surplus plants to others so they do not need to buy new.
  • Conserve key plants by covering tender specimens such as tree ferns in hessian or move plants into a safe zone.
  • Spread your rotted compost to protect the crowns of plants through winter and give them a good start for next year.

Tools

  • Look after your tools. Clean and oil them.
  • Use a whet stone to sharpen bladed tools and store them safely through winter.
  • Broken handles can be replaced or new long handled tools made by putting a trowel on a broom handle.
  • Think about Christmas presents for you and the garden

Other Resources

Royal Horticultural Society RHS ‘Gardening for All’
National Council for Conservation of Plants and Gardens ‘Conservation through Cultivation.’
Garden Organic National Charity for Organic Gardening.
BBC Gardening