Hit the Dirt; Power Tool Tips

Good morning this is Dave Weigel from the nerd. By now you're all aware that I advocate a system of landscape management and today I want to talk about some of the tools and methods I like to use in my system and the advantages and disadvantages of the ways that I try to do things. And one of the big things that I have noticed in our grounds keeping landscaping efforts is that people have a real dependence on power tools nowadays everyone seems to think they have to have huge gas riding mowers trimmers chain saws tillers weed whackers. There are all sorts of power tools that emit all sorts of noise and pollution that we are dependent on to keep our grass green and our gardens growing and it seems to me in times gone by that we people were able to take care of their yard without all these power equipment at their disposal. And today I still like to apply that to my method of grounds keeping I think that a chain saw is a very valuable tool and I couldn't imagine trying to do what I do without

one. But at the same time I think there used a lot of times when they're not necessary I've got a hansol that's supposedly the world's fastest chainsaw it's turbo style saw blade that has three pointed sharpening sharpened blades on the edges and a raker pattern that I can take down a six inch tree in a matter of a minute and a half with no problem limit up. Make no noise emit no pollution in the air. The only energy consumed is the energy that I put into it myself and I get great satisfaction out of dropping a tree with a hand saw and cutting it up and making firewood out of it or cutting the little tree pieces into blocks for kids to play with is a recent task that I was given to do that I have had great pleasure out of. And so my advice is. If you have a lot of pruning and tree felling to do around your yard look and see which are the smaller

trees what can be done easily by hand and then save the bigger trees for your chainsaw and do it at a time when the noise won't be as invasive to your family and your neighbors and the other piece of equipment that I really sort of take offense at is power mowers used to do huge lawns I can't. I don't see the sense in having an acre or two acres of lawn around a house to begin with. But if we confine our efforts to small lawns then we're able to use the old fashioned type hand real mower to cut the lawn with and that's my favorite new toy that I've bought this year that gets a much cleaner cut on the grass the old type the real mower is the only actual cutting mower as opposed to the Rotary mowers that actually chop the grass instead of cut it and. Once again it's very quiet it emits no pollution. And there find it.

It's a different way a different way of looking at the lawn in the landscape and the advice I have if you're interested in using a real mower is try it before you buy it. There are a lot of new advances new materials they've used to make real mowers and some are very inexpensive and some are more expensive and there's a wide range in quality some of them work very well and some some don't work so well at all. So if you're interested in purchasing a reel mower I would suggest don't purchase one through mail order unless you know someone else that has the same model and you've tried it out. So the advantages to using hand tools as opposed to a power tools is that gardening becomes a more quiet experience and to me that's the very essence of what gardening is all about if you're out in the yard tending your flowers and your lawn in your trees. It's time to think and be retrospective and to. Write. It's a time to think and be introspective and to really commune with nature

and enjoy what you're doing instead of making a lot of noise and pollution will disturb your family members yourself and your neighbors and you'll also be doing the other gardeners in your neighborhood a favor by not making any noise or pollution and if they assume similar methods to yours then you'll have a quiet gardening neighborhood and we can all enjoy the peace and quiet that a gardening can bring. This is Dave Weigel for the dare to talk to you next week.