What you can expect from modern gardening equipment
In the minds of many amateur gardeners, the working season in the personal plot is associated with unavoidable physical exertion and labor. On the other hand, giving up the “attractiveness” of the garden and the surrounding life is no less worrying – the breakdown of lawns and flower beds, as well as care for them, requires not only certain physical efforts, but also a professional approach to new tasks.
Whether you like it or not, but even the most conservative owners of personal actions need to pay attention to the promising (after advertising) opportunities that promises modern garden equipment.
Even the fanciest shovel, as well as a helicopter, is not able to facilitate a significant portion of garden work and operations. Only machinery can be a mission of this kind. Fortunately, modern manufacturers understand this very well, so the choice of garden equipment for the novice consumer only seems huge.
Although, in fact, everything is not so terrible. A large number of technologies for the garden means at least its functionality. Therefore, there is something for everyone.
Garden types of “wizards”
Garden technology, like any other, is mainly designed to reduce labor costs and simply save effort. At the same time, the quality of work improves, which is especially nice, despite the minimum of effort. Nevertheless, each of the types of modern garden equipment differs not only in function, but also in design features:
- Devices for mowing the grass. This is, of course, the most famous type of “helpers” of the technical garden. They include various modifications of trimmers and lawnmowers, which, in turn, are differentiated by the type of power, there are petrol, electric and even mechanical.
- Equipment for various agricultural works. This includes not only the well-known sprayers and cultivators, but also pruners and power tillers. This type of garden equipment will help to cope with tree pruning, tillage and other activities. Therefore, it is especially relevant for plots with a large area.
- Technics for various agricultural works. This includes garden grinders and garden vacuums. This type of garden equipment is designed for processing trash and waste, as well as for cleaning the site in the off-season.
Trimmers – the universal scythe for “Trin-Trev”.
Functionally, trimmers do the same job as lawnmowers – cut weeds and wild grass. However, its operation is much more mobile, simple and convenient, although it is manually driven.
In fact, the trimmer is the same scythe, which allows you to cut the grass in any area, even leveling a difficult surface. At the heart of the device is a cutting system based on a fishing line, or knives attached to a fast drive. The thicker the line, the higher the performance of the device. A trimmer equipped with knives is efficient and sufficient when working large areas.
Gasoline trimmers give the necessary result regardless of the availability of electricity and the vagaries of the weather, and equipment with additional attachments allows “an easy movement of the hand” to turn the trimmer into a brush cutter or cultivator.
A trimmer is needed if:
- Working on uneven terrain
- The grass does not need to be the same height
- Lawn clippings are collected over the entire area.
Lawnmower or trimmer? How to determine which you need?
Taking care of a garden plot usually has one goal – either practical, when there is a need to get rid of badly overgrown weeds and grass, or aesthetic, when the lawn constantly needs to be corrected.
If the agenda is to maintain the design of the lawn to a certain standard, such as striped or honeycomb, you can’t usually give away a lawn mower.
Only a device called a lawn mower can provide a perfectly even lawn surface with uniform grass height throughout the area. And although a lawn mower can hardly be called mobile due to its heavy weight, there is no better equipment for mowing lawns today.
And at the same time, if the problem of lawn care is so acute, it will not hurt to take care of the purchase of aerators – vertical and scissors. Usually, such words cause at least a simple confusion in Russian people. However, if you learn their translation from English, it becomes clear that these names are most directly related to the care of the lawn.
Ploskorazor “saves” turf before compaction, improving water and nutrients, oxygenating, and using the depressions in the soil, made by special blades.
The scarifier, like the aerator, is equipped with knives that remove the remains of cut stems, dead roots, moss and lichen from the soil of the lawn. The Vertikutter should be used twice a year, in spring and fall, to achieve its full effect.
Despite the obscure name, Schleister performs very important functions. By loosening the soil, this device clears the site of debris and collects it in special garbage cans.
Agricultural machinery – what is it good for
Preparing the soil and sowing seeds – perhaps the biggest headache for amateur gardeners. And all because the main stages of this process with the inevitably followed by weeding, loosening and recultivation of mounds are considered to be the most labor-intensive.
However, if you cast aside doubts and, despite the tendency to act in the old fashioned way, pay attention to the achievements of modern agribusiness, you can make many real discoveries.
First on the list are power tillers – light and handy devices, equipped with special sickle-shaped blades for loosening the soil. With the help of power tillers the soil becomes soft and “fluffy” to a depth of 25 cm and the roots of weeds are practically destroyed.
An even more versatile device, providing serious support in the struggle for the harvest, is a tractor of walking behavior. Not so long ago, power tillers were equated with tractors because of their functionality.
And this is not surprising, because the usual power tiller is a heavy wheeled machine, which is equipped with a gasoline four-stroke engine. And its standard equipment offers not only an attachment for plowing the soil, but also the possibility of using attachments for weeding or milling. It can also be used for removing debris or snow.
How to mechanize sowing
Whatever you sow, today’s farm machinery industry will respond to requests. Of course, we’re talking about the seeder.
However, the choice of type of device depends on the type of plants to be sown: If spot planting is needed, that is, planting in which the seeds are placed in the floor at a certain distance, A, then a seeder with a closer seeding is used. If we are talking about a global lawn, it is enough to buy a lawn seeder, which is simpler in design.
This uses fertilizers – very convenient, but so far little-known devices. With your help, not only organic fertilizers, but also sand can be added to the soil.
To the happiness of the gardener.
At first glance, it seems that caring for trees and shrubs – not to dig over, endlessly loosen, with slides. On the other hand, fruit trees and shrubs are maintained and pruned, and ornamental shrubs in general have to constantly keep in shape. And it turns out that the gardener, as well as the gardener, cannot do without equipment.
In the arsenal of every professional gardener there are two most popular tools – a chainsaw and an office.
The chainsaw, of course, is not easy, to work with it, at least you need a manual, and even better – an experienced mentor nearby. On the other hand, no other tool can provide such efficiency when cutting down old trees, removing branches or making firewood.
Gardeners are considered a relative of the chainsaw – with the help of this unit cut small branches, decorate hedges, and sometimes remove plants with thick stems.
Of course, this is not the whole list of means that modern gardeners have at their disposal. However, if you find an opportunity to use at least some of the listed devices, your dreams will find a real embodiment in a happy personal life.
Question: What work is important in the garden in winter?
So that it does not have to be involved when “reviving” the site in the spring
Unopened buds and blackened shoots are not always the result of severe frost. Without them, there are enough threats to the successful awakening of the garden. But most of these threats can and even should be spared from the garden.
1. Snow on shrubs and trees Why: Snow protects plants from the cold, but if it accumulates too much, the branches and stems of young annual seedlings can bend and even break.
If you are still annoyed and find broken branches and stems, there is no need to despair and perform resuscitation. The sooner you do this, the better chance the plant has of recovery.
Return large branches or shoots to their original position and secure them with staples, cloth or other devices. Be sure to clean up the joints with a knife and dab some oil-based paint. It does not hurt to bandage the wound with cellophane film. Just do not forget to remove the association at the beginning of hot days!
2. Carefully inspect the branches of trees and shrubs in search of insect pest nests. Cut out the nests you find with secateurs and then burn them.
Why: As spring begins, dealing with overgrown pests will be much more difficult.
As a preventive measure against test insects, attract birds to your garden. Hang a feeder and regularly refresh seeds, grains, and pieces of unsalted lard. In the spring and summer, bored birds will thank you for your care and destroy insect pests in your garden.
3. update the white wash, why: It protects trees from sunburn (white pulses the sun’s rays), disease, pests and frost.
White-washing is usually carried out in October-November, but it should be renewed in late winter or early spring. To do this, the trunks and skeleton layers are covered with a lime or chalk solution (1 kg of chalk or fresh lime per bucket of water with 250 g of copper sulfate. For better bonding add 1 – 2 kg of tar or 1 – 2 cups of milk). It is better to plant in a pot on a warm sunny day, so that it dries and does not freeze.
By the way: another effective way to protect against sunburn
4. First aid for injured plants, why: If you have time before the sap starts (i.e., in spring), the damage may not be as significant.
Look for frostbites. These are distant cracks in the bark of trees that can penetrate into the heartwood. Frost bites cause disease, reduced yields and even death of fruit trees. Frost bites appear both on boles (trunks) and on branch forks. The most susceptible to their appearance are fruit-trees: pears, apples, plums and cherries.
- Before sap runs out and buds swell, it is necessary to clean the wound: clean the dead bark with a metal brush, sharp knife or scraper (the tool should be disinfected).
- The cleaned crack is treated with a 5% solution of copper sulfate or a 1% solution of Burgundy mixture. This will kill any fungi and microorganisms that may have had time to get under the damaged bark.
- The treated wound is cauterized with sound or gardening out, which can be made with your own hands on the basis of paraffin, beeswax with the addition of turpentine and pine resin. Or buy ready-made gardener’s cure at a special store for gardeners.
- Now the crack can be replaced. However, if the damage is serious, you need to tie a linen sacking (when it gets wet, dry it quickly and do not dry the tree under it), and tie it around the shoot with wire.
Be prepared for a time-consuming treatment process for Frost Poplar. You should repeat the described manipulations the next spring and a year later (among the first works in the garden after winter). If the tree cannot recover, there are two options: grafting new branches onto the marked trunk or perching and planting a new tree.
5. Wrap the trunks and branches of trees, it is sacking linen, spruce needles, special covering materials, thick paper or just newspaper. In specialized stores you can buy nets for protection against rodents. It is categorically not recommended to use only polyethylene. Choose a “breathable” material. Set the canvas and slightly deepen it into the ground. In addition, it is necessary to wrap not only the shoot, but also the joints of the lower branches.
Why: to protect against frost, invasion of rodents and rabbits (they can swallow the bark and chew the thin branches, leading to the death of the trees).
Tip: If you use only or roofing material, you should remove the wrap during the thaw. At elevated temperatures, condensation can form under it, which negatively affects the condition of the trunk bark.
Pictured: Spruce pine needles left over from tree trimming in the summer are a great protection for your garden. It will not only cover and warm the plants, but also protect them from rodents
In the photo: In order to wrap the trunks and branches of trees, it is convenient to use a special garden tape. It comes in rolls and is sold at specialty garden deals
6. Protect the garden from rodents that paw at trees Spruce or net to protect trees from rabbits and rodents in winter. Many measures include fall site preparation. Read about it at least now and do it next season (especially if you’re seeing gnawed trees on the site).
- Compact the snow around tree trunks and water it to form a thin layer of ice. In winter, mice move around under a layer of loose snow, and when they sink it, it will be hard for them to reach the bark.
- Trees and premises around them shall be treated with a mixture of clay and cow dung (4 kg of sound, 4 kg of fresh mulberry, 100 g of creolin, 90 g of carbofos concentrate shall be well mixed and diluted with water to the state of sour cream and diluted with water). The obtained solution is applied to tree boles and skeletal branches.
- Strengthen the fence, make it more reliable and higher, it is better from solid material, so that rabbits can not get to personal property at all, but a net will do quite well. The main thing is to set such fences at least 30 centimeters into the ground, and the height of the fence should be at least 1.2 meters, so that the animal will not undermine and jump over it.
- Cover tree and shrub bed circles with wormwood with cuttings or pieces of rendered pork fat. Run them over the trunk and large branches. Or shrubs and trees with a mixture of fish oil and mothballs in part 8: 1. Haze does not take out paved smells – wormwood, blood, miscephalous grease, naphthalene.
- Spray the garden with a Karnofer solution. This can be done in winter as well.
7. Clean the braids off the trees Why: Braids are bad for cultivated plants, clog microscopic bark holes, which means air gets to the inner tissues of the system, and also serve as a primer for some pests, like the scale.
That’s right, the greenish-gray mark on the branches of shrubs with rough tissue and healthy bark. Tree trunks and branches are cleaned with wooden clippings or the back of a garden knife. After cleaning, the bark should be disinfected with a 1% solution of copper sulfate and 3% iron sulfate.
8. Covering young conifers (against sunburn) Why: Conifers suffer from sunburn during the second half of winter. The light improves reflection from the snow and damages the needles.
What to do: Wrap the crown in linen sacking. This protection can be removed when all the snow has melted. In a few years, the young plants will adapt and will not need to be covered.
IMPORTANT: Loutrasil (Spanbond, Agrotx), a lightweight, unweakened material in white or black (although it is excellent for protecting plants from spring frosts), should not be used to cover plants in winter. The fact is that the lutrasil does not let it come back. Therefore, in winter under such protection, plants suffer from overheating. And in the spring, their needles will begin to shrivel and fall off.
In the photo: such a cover will protect the tree not only from sunburn, but also from an avalanche of snow that can fall from the roof of the neighboring building during a thaw
9. Cover the fruit (against frost). Why: Severe frosts can damage crops. But even more dangerous are temperature spikes that mislead plants. Abnormally warm days in the middle of winter completely knock plants out of their biological rhythm. Many of them (especially those that flower earlier than others) take the spring thaws, and when the winter cold returns, they no longer fall into a deep sleep, freeze and die.
Fact: Fruit trees that freeze the most are autumn and winter varieties and stone fruit plants: apricots, plums, and cherries. Trees that yielded a large crop last year and spent a lot of energy on fruit ripening, as well as aging crops and recently transplanted ones are most at risk.
What to do: Winter care for fruit trees is simple but very important. Heat-loving plants should be sprinkled with sawdust, fallen leaves at the onset of frost, and covered with spruce and other insulation. After a snowstorm or just a strong wind, it is useful to check the integrity of these insulators in winter and, if necessary, correct them.
A good “insulator” is snow. Throw in with it with the onset of spring numbered bushes, laying flower buds from the previous year (currants, meadowsweet, barberry, honeysuckle, spirea, forsythia, Mahonia and others). In especially harsh winters, even in fully zoned plants, flower buds often freeze, and the plant does not blossom and produce fruit. Such bushes should be protected with “head” and all snow should be thrown off them. If the winter with little precipitation, you need to do it artificially.
Cover the root collars of fruit trees, which are easily damaged by frost. The snowfall is usually enough to cover them. But in low-frost winters, the snow should be additionally rolled.
Do grafting. This should be done in order to improve the fruiting of plants, increase endurance and ornamentality. The interbreeding of two different plants, though permanently interbred, is somewhat damaged by frost. A change of snow, natural or artificial, will only help if the grafting site is low to the ground. In other cases, we use artificial covering material.
- Green color, there is nothing to worry about – the tree is not frozen;
- Light brown, slightly flattened – means the tree is frozen, but it is likely to recover.
- Dark brown or black – alas, there is nothing to treat or save. In this case, it is necessary to inspect the roots of the tree. If they are black or dark brown on the cut, then the plant is dead. If the roots are alive, then it is necessary to remove the damaged branches before the buds swell.
By the way: Sometimes severe frosts can benefit plants. For example, when stone plants are affected by such a dangerous fungal disease as moniliosis. Mild winters favor the spread of this fungus, but hard frosts destroy some of the infection and help trees recover.
10. Take care of your lawn “Don’t Walk on Lawns!” – In winter, a sign with such an appeal would come in handy in the garden.
Lush snow protects grass from overcooling. But if it is constantly tamped and trampled, plants can die from frost, and in the spring bare spots will appear in that place. For the same reasons, it is better to throw snow on bushes and trees that grow nearby and form dense drifts.
Another threat to the lawn is the ice crust which comes from sudden changes in temperature. It disrupts air circulation, so the so-called snow spot appears on the grass. And with the beginning of spring it has to be treated. In addition, the layer of crust prevents the growth of bulbous flowers that awaken in early spring. There is only one solution to this problem: you need to destroy the crust with improvised means, without trampling them.
You are at the turn of … What winter garden work do you do before the season starts? What measures do you take to protect trees from pests and diseases during the winter? Tell us in the comments below the article
