This has GOT to be the final cut....

I can't believe we are still doing final cuts on grass in December!

I have been telling customers that this will be the last mowing visit for about a month now - but still it keeps growing!

I was hoping to service and moth-ball the mowing equipment back in November but we are still cutting. The poor machines have had a really tough season and luckily have lasted the course without any real problems, just a few wear and tear stuff like strimmer handles getting broken off and drive belts getting shredded etc but no large mechanical failures.

On the other hand, we did have an unusual one a few weeks ago with the hedge cutter. We were doing "the Hedge from Hell" for one of our letting agent customers in Kintbury which had not been properly cut back for quite a few years. The Council was starting to complain as the hedge had gone 18" over he pavement, making it a bit of an issue.

Basically, we were commissioned to reduce the size by at least 18" on the face as well as about 18" on the top. Instead of a nice hedge, this was a pyrocanthus, a very hard wood bush with nasty thorns which make you go septic if you get impaled. We decided that chipping the waste would be the best course of action to remove the huge quantities created.

As we started, I could see this job going a bit pair shaped as the shear toughness of the stems was proving quite and challenge even for our mega Stihl 30" heavy duty cutter, let alone our Husky commercial one. Chipping was also proving to be a challenge as the branches were so tangled together it was impossible to get them in the chipper without chainsawing them into chunks!

I sent one of the guys to trim the top of one of the hedges with the Husky, when after a few minutes he came back looking very sheepish. I asked him what the problem was and he said I should come and see....well I don't know what had happened but instead of a flat 24" blade, he had managed to bend it like a banana. Somehow, the teeth had got caught under each other and bent the bar! I took it to Kalehurst Garden Machinery and they had never seen the like of it!

Eventually we got the hedge finished and the customer was delighted - even though it cost me dearly in repairs!

Leylandii Hedges - Another one bites the dust!

I love Leylandii Hedges, especially as they disappear into the chipper!

This week I had a nice job for a fellow BNI Networker. Ann Merrick of Infineo wanted her Leylandii hedge removed and replaced.

I first met Ann through Karen of The Best of Newbury. Ann's company Infineo provide Tech support to small and medium businesses, including remote support and backup. This has helped us on many occasions, including a total machine failure which would have meant disaster if Infineo had not been doing our daily remote backup. They charge a small monthly fee - its worth it not to have the hassle of dealing with PC's and backups.

This was the Monday after my stag do and I was not feeling particularly great still. We decided to get to site very early and crack on. Then disaster struck. My very reliable Landrover decided today was the day to spring a diesel leak - not just a drip or two but a major split in the pipe, spraying diesel everywhere.

I called a mate to come and take a look to see if it could be fixed at roadside - not a chance! It was still drive able, so I drove to Lancaster Landrover in Thatcham. I have been using these guys for about 15 years and know most of them, but even they couldn't sort this one out quickly - the tank needed to come out and parts to be ordered.

This really screwed me up. You cannot hire anything with a towbar. So I got a lift home to pick up my shooting truck, a beat up old Suzuki, just to recover my helper and tools. It was then my neighbour Cliff Pursey of Snelsmore Shetland Ponies came to my rescue. He has an old Ford Sierra with a towbar which he lent to me - what a Diamond Geezer!

Having lost half a day, we really had to move to get the trees down, and chipped to keep on schedule. My Landrover was fixed by lunch on the Tuesday, so we worked until 6:30 to get the stumps out, which were a bit stubborn to say the least! Its not the first time we have worked in the dark - I must buy some floodlights as its becoming a regular happening!

We have re-planted a new Leylandii hedge which we will hopefully keep under control. One thing I forgot to do is the "before and after" pictures of this job - its a shame because the change was so radical - you cant remember everything especially when suffering with hangover and car failure!

Hedge Laying - a dying art or in revival?

Before Hedge Laying started




After Hedge Laying





Last weekend, I was lucky enough to be invited to attend a hedge laying course by my one of my neighbours. He is fortunate to have loads of neglected and over grown hedges all around his land and so we were a bit spoilt for choice really as to which hedge to do.

Our instructor for the day was John Savings of Oxford. John is one of the top hedge layers in the UK and competes and wins more often than not in the national championship - so we were in good hands from the start.

When I was a young lad, I used to help my granddad do this but even then tractor driven hedge cutters and flail cutters were just taking over and hedges were being dug out to make larger fields for more food production, so I never really took a great deal of interest in learning more about it.

Luckily, landowners and conservationists are slowing realising that open fields and barbed wire is making the countryside look terrible and that a properly layed hedge is a great wildlife habitat and an asset as it is virtually zero maintenance and lasts 50 years or so - this combined with a government grant makes hedge laying more attractive.

Anyway, we all met at Howard's house (our host) for breakfast. Alan, a teacher and brother in law of Howard, Howard, a top London Barrister and Christopher, also a Barrister started the day with a hearty cooked "Fully Monty" before we set off to work.

The hedge chosen by John was in fact possibly the worst hedge on the estate. It was full of rubbish, dead trees, fallen barbed wire fences - you name it and it was there. John's comments of "If you can lay this hedge you can lay any" filled us with some dread.

John proudly displayed to us the tools of the trade - a collection of ancient billhooks and slashers all sharpened to perfection (we soon changed that!) and of course the obligatory chainsaw. John started by attacking the hedge with the chainsaw, clearing out everything dead or not required, leaving us to drag out the debris to make a huge bonfire. It's at this point I realised that Howard had managed to rope in several volunteers to sort out his hedge Free of Charge - no wonder he is a top Barrister!

Anyway, as the Sloe Gin appeared and the sun got hotter, we soon started to learn just how effective this form of hedge repair is and as our confidence grew, the pace picked up and by lunch we had layed a good 25 metres of hedge.

Lunch was a welcome break and we all had worked up an appetite by then. Conversation was pretty much geared to hedge laying and other anecdotes from John (who has hundreds!) as well as many funny comments from the rest of the group - Alan was particularly amusing and had us crying with laughter on several occasions!

Back to work and the worse was yet to come. This hedge had a number of Elm trees in it, some dead some almost dead and some smaller ones fully alive. We were all amazed that a tree approximately 8 inches round could be layed as easily as a small Hawthorn bush - John just took it all in his stride. He even managed to drop a tree on Howard - thankfully a small one which just bounced of without injury!

The icing on the cake was to finish off the hedge with woven hazel sticks, called binders, and hammer in the stakes and trim to size. This basically holds it all together and creates a very strong and attractive hedge. The before and after pictures really show what a difference we made to this pretty awful hedge and just how attractive and nice them finished item looks.

We are all keen to attack the rest of the hedge over the coming month or so and complete this project, so I will keep you informed as to progress.

I would like to say a big thank you to Howard and Catherine for the invite and lunch etc, Alan for just being really funny, Karen my other half for the pictures, Christopher for nicking all the wood before I had chance to and John for a most enjoyable day.

If any of you want quotes for hedge laying - just drop me a line....