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020 3026 8712

Opening times
  • Call Weekdays 9am - 7pm (Closed Between 1pm & 2pm)
  • Saturday Phone Lines 10am - 4pm
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What’s Lurking at The Bottom of Your Garden? Why Not Clear It and Find Out? Here Are A Few Tips.

The bottom of the garden is a funny old place. It’s the natural habitat for fairies, it’s the traditional area for building or finding ‘secret dens’ when you were a child, the home of the treehouse and the rope swing and it’s where your uncle Bob who has been boasting about vaping and how long he hasn’t smoked for, skulks off to have a crafty cigarette during the barbecue, hoping no-one will notice.

Tanaka line trimmer

Versatile: Tanaka TBC 2390 line trimmer

It’s also the part of the garden you might have just ignored during your busy fun-filled summer and the bit that our own uncle, uncle Dick Roberts, Country Gardener, mentioned yesterday in his blog about the Tanaka TBC-2390 Line-Trimmer, a very fine piece of equipment and just right for attacking the overgrown bits round the back of the greenhouse, behind the compost heap or round the back of the summerhouse.

 

Oh and by the way, this superb line-trimmer also comes with TWO yes TWO free gifts, a brushcutting blade and 83 metres of free replacement line. £40 worth in all. That’s not bad bearing in mind it’s also on sale on our site for only £239, saving £90

Anyroad up, the point is we all need to do something about the overgrown areas in our gardens, be they at the bottom or, as in my case, just round the side of the shed. They can get really out of hand and, as we all know, weeds can spread fairly rapidly if they are left for too long.

My little wilderness, or as Mrs Drew calls it, The Amazon, has been ignored for some time and I swear I’ve a couple of animals lumbering about in there that were thought to be extinct and possibly a celebrity or two trying to get out of there.  It desperately needs sorting and Mrs Drew has been on at me to create another herb garden there, as if she doesn’t have enough herbs to be going on with.

So. I know what I am doing, allegedly, and I shall be tackling the removal of the wilderness this weekend. I’ll tell you how I am going to do it, so if you need a couple of clearing tips, read on.

“Now, is that a panther or the neighbour’s cat?”

So first things first. Don the pith helmet, pack a lunch and some bottles of beer, grab the machete and wade in. Well, actually when I say machete I actually mean my trusty brushcutter (see above for details) and when I say pith helmet, I actually mean gloves, sturdy boots, goggles, long trousers and a helmet with ear defenders. It seems excessive but it really is always best to be safe and wear the right equipment where possible.

As it happens we have a great deal in our sale for a good quality Einhell trimmer with loads of safety gear thrown in. Why not check it out. Oh, and when I say lunch,

I mean just lunch and some water… no bottles of beer until after the work is done. Right? Right!

So what then? Well. I shall approach the jungle with supreme caution, checking as I go to make sure there are no hazards, domestic pets, large rocks, old Lambrettas, outdoor survival experts, or anything else that could damage my machine or be damaged by it.

I shall try to do it in sections, rather than just go headlong. This makes it easier to see what you are doing.

I shall use the trimmer in an arc, moving from right to left as most trimmers/brushcutters heads rotate anti-clockwise and if you move right to left all your cuttings fall onto the already cut area. Then, because the grass is REALLY long, I shall probably do another pass over each section, going back the other way.

I shall tremove all the fallen weeds, brambles and so on as I go, in shifts, as it were, not leave them to continue propogating my garden, and either take them to my local dump facility or even have a bonfire, if it’s possible. Don’t forget to always check if bonfires in the area are allowed, there are often time restrictions, and we need to be sensitive to the neighbours’ wishes and expectations.

Then, when  it is all cleared I shall go to find Mrs Drew and get my reward, a cold bottle of Dr Grubs Finest Amber Ale, and drag her out into the garden to decide just want she wants planting there. herbs, flowers, who knows. By then at least we will know what the ground looks like.

So. Remember, checklist

  1. Wear safety gear and sensible clothing
  2. No alcohol
  3. Check the area for hazards/obstacles
  4. Work in sections so you can see what you are doing
  5. Right to left trimming to make cuttings fall properly
  6. Clear away fallen cuttings in batches to dump or burn (check bonfire rules)
  7. Beer or Tea afterwards and plan your newly liberated patch.

And that’s it for me. Have a great weekend, good luck with the clearing and enjoy your garden.    Drew Hardy.

 

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