Gardens - Garden Tips 8

Another hectic week in the gardens, the phonetype with the springy tines.
has been ringing non- stop this week withPlace the rake down on to the lawn, stand
everyone wanting something carried out in eithersideways to the rake so it goes diagonally across
their front or back garden, but as usual theyour body, now place one hand at the top of
trouble is that they want it done yesterday!garden rake and the other about half way down
Unfortunately it does not work like that, withand pull back rake with a slight upward arc so
some customers getting quite upset because youthat you flick the tines on the rake. Repeat this
say there is a waiting list; luckily these people areprocess, getting in a rhythm, you will find that it
in the minority.will bring the dead grass and moss to surface just
Some clients make us smile after telling themleaving the blades of grass standing up with the
there is a waiting list they respond with "but weground being nice and clear. A good garden tip is
only live in the next village" we just grin and sayto then just run your mower over the lawn and
politely "it does not matter whether they live nextcollect all the rubbish.
door or 100 miles away there is still the sameMethod two and three
waiting list" and the response is generally "can'tYou can buy a mower with an interchangeable
you just squeeze us in".head that you can use or you can hire a
We do make every effort to help these peoplededicated scarifier from a local hire company or
out, as we know that when you have made youreven some large DIY outlets.
mind up to get something done you just want toThese machines are used just the same as if you
get on with it, so we will try and help them bywere cutting the grass. Just go up and down
passing them on to a couple of good friends ofcovering the lawn with a slight overlap on the
ours in the same line of business, but quite oftenprevious pass. Once you have covered the
the people who contact us have beencomplete area use your mower to collect all the
recommended to us by friends and family whererubbish up that was brought to the surface. Once
we have worked and so the list goes on as theythis is carried out do another complete scarifying
then become quite willing to wait until we canof the whole area but at a 90 degree angle to
carry out the required work in their gardens.the previous one, then just as before pick up all
Garden Tipsthe rubbish with your mower.
As the last article on advice and tips on laying aTwo good garden tips here are if you have an
new lawn in your garden we thought we wouldinterchangeable head it is best to borrow a
carry on the theme. Yours garden lawns need toneighbours mower to collect the rubbish so you
be de-thatched or scarified, what this means issave time changing heads and also do not put the
that all the dead bits of grass that have foundrubbish you collect on your compost heap, bag it
their way down to the bottom and the grassup and take to your local recycling centre.
blades that are laying on the surface need to beIf you need to hire a scarifier another good tip
brought back up to the surface and disposed of.would be to share it with your friends and
There are two different ways of doing this, theneighbours, keeping costs to a minimum and
first method and the hardest is to rake it byeverybody will benefit from having great looking
hand, this is carried out by using a lawn rake - thehealthier lawns next season.