Snappers, loppers, and saw for tougher pruning jobs.

27/03/2021Tools, wheelchair gardening toolsJackie Elwin

My favourite and most used tools in the garden are my Darlac cut’n’hold snappers. I have the 655mm and the 1000mm versions. They are great for reaching over and through plants in the border. I hold onto the left wheel of my chair with my left hand and can reach quite far with my right hand to prune and dead-head. They are made of aluminium and the smaller one is quite light. The cutting head can swivel which means it can be used with the left hand (which is sometimes useful and sometimes annoying) and there is a little catch that you can flick with your thumb that keeps the grips closed without you having to grip them closed. They hold onto the stem so it is easier to bring the cut piece to put in a trug rather than them falling back into the flower bed. The long one really requires both hands as it needs to be stabilised. I can use it single handed but it is very sore, as the hand operating the mechanism has to bear the full weight. It is much easier to use with one hand supporting the long bar to take the strain. It can be useful just to pick things out of the bed or even out of the pond. I use the long one especially to cut the climbing roses at the top of the arches. I have found another use for the smaller one: it is great for getting some weeds out! Because it has such a good grip I (much better that the ordinary household reacher aids for disabled people) I use it for taking out grass seedlings and small weeds like hairy bittercress. It has 2 gripper bars that hold onto the cut stem and a blade that does the cutting. I may actually get a new one and keep that for pruning, and take the blade of the old one and keep that one for weeding. It won’t take out long rooted weeds like dandelions.

Darlac cut’n’hold snappers

snapper cutting head

These bypass loppers are ancient and well used. I find them very heavy to use and they really require two handed operation. I can use them if they are pointing up or down, but if I have to use them out to the side I just fall over as I have no core muscles for stability. I can lop some branches that are low down, and I have managed to lop branches by bracing one lever on the wheelchair and pulling the other lever down. Much easier just to ask for help.

Loppers

The long reach pruners are not used much any more. I find them too heavy and unwieldy to use properly. You need to pull the rope to cut the branch and you need a bit of strength to do this. It is also difficult to see exactly what you are doing and finding the correct branch to lop. I have used this with the blade facing me, and also with the blade facing away form me, but if you don’t have enough strength to get a good cut then the blade can get stuck. Harry has sometimes come home and found this dangling stuck in a tree if I have not been able to free it myself.

Long reach pruners

This Wilkinson tree saw can be a useful tool, not only when the branches are quite thick but also when the branches may be in a difficult position. Loppers can sometimes just be too big to get into some areas. The teeth cut on the backward stroke and you get a good clean cut through the wood. I like the safety features on this one as it can lock in the closed position as well as the open position. The cutting action is not the same as normal saws so it can take a bit of getting used to.

Wilkinson Sword tree saw

I don”t really use shears and as I would have to use them at my side rather that straight on as I would just fall over. I do have some single handed shears but actually just end up using scissors instead. These days I just use my Darlac snappers and tree saw, and ask for Harry’s help with anything they can’t cope with or that I can’t reach.

Secateurs, snips, and scissors for pruning and dead-heading.

21/03/2021Tools, wheelchair gardening toolsJackie Elwin

I have been a paraplegic for many years now: I have very little in the
way of core muscles, have arthritis in both hands, and get
supraspinatus tendinitis in my shoulders if I do too much. Therefore, I have to pace myself when working in the garden. My tool-trug always sits in the garage ready for me to put it on my knee and trundle down the ramp into the back garden so I don’t have to keep going back and forth to retrieve any tools that I may need. It contains my favourite secateurs, snips and other small tools that I use regularly. This post is about the tools (secateurs, snips, and scissors) that I find the easiest to use in order to prune small twigs and plants, and to dead-head plants that are within easy reach. I tend to use one hand for holding onto my wheelchair wheel to stabilize me, while reaching out with the other to do the pruning.

Tool-trug

My Felco 8 Classic secateurs must be my oldest and most used tool. I could not do without them. They are comfortable to use. They are easy to clean and maintain. They have an anvil blade with a sap groove. As long as I remember to clean, oil, and sharpen them, they should last me my lifetime.

Felco 8 Classic secateurs

My Kew gardens collection ratchet secateurs are great for the slightly thicker, tougher branches that the Felcos cannot cut through. I used to always wonder why no one had invented a ratchet type before… and then I found some! I so wish I had found these before I injured my finger by trying to cut through a thick branch with my Felcos. (I was just being stubborn and did not want to ask for help with this last branch and I damaged my tendon and now I cannot bend that finger). They are made by Spear & Jackson and can take 4 steps (squeezes) to cut a tough branch. They are great for someone with little grip strength although can be tricky at times and can get a bit stuck in the branch..

Ratchet anvil secateurs

These Darlac Cut’n’ Hold flower snips (DP636) are very handy. I haven’t had them long but it means I can hold onto the spent flower head and put it straight into a handy trug instead of letting them fall to the ground to be swept up later. They are nice and light to use, and if you are cutting flowers to put in a vase, they have a small stem crusher in the centre of the handle.


Darlac Cut’n’Hold’ flower snips

For dead-heading delicate flowers or flowers that are in an awkward place, these mini deadhead snippers are fantastic. I especially use them for dead-heading my Streptocarpus saxorum as the flower stalks are tucked underneath the small fleshy leaves and these can get right in there and snip them.

Deadhead Snippers

These trusty old tough kitchen scissors are my favourite tool for cutting my decorative grasses that are in pots.. They are also great for some stems that are rather bendy that don’t cut well with secateurs. I trim my iris leaves and other plants with long strappy leaves with these.

Tough kitchen scissors

It is a good idea to have some spare secateurs for any willing helpers you have to use. I hate giving my Felcos to anyone else to borrow. Also, I have had a few tools go missing which may have been thrown out by accident along with the clippings.

For arthritic hands though they all use the same action which means my hands get very sore even after a short amount of time pruning and dead-heading. I have seen some electric secateurs on the market which may be something of interest but are pretty expensive. I would like to try-before-I-buy just to make sure they aren’t going to be too heavy to use, and see how stiff the trigger is to use as my first finger is the worst affected by arthritis and won’t bend much at all.

When buying any hand held tool it is worth getting the feel of them before you buy as they must be comfortable to use. Some makes have different sizes depending on your hand size.

Spring 2021 has sprung at last!

09/03/2021plantsJackie Elwin

Some of the bulbs are up now adding some lovely splashes of spring colour. The dwarf narcissus Tete-a-Tete are really cute. I have a couple of small clumps of these that were in the conservatory last year.

Narcissus Tete-a-Tete

The dainty crocus (unknown name) looks so delicate compared to the big bright purple ones but only a few survived – I think the mice may have eaten a few.

Dainty crocus (unknown variety)

Same goes for the Cyclamen coum Ruby Star. I had a few planted at the edge of the stumpery but kept finding that something had dug them out and nibbled some of them. Only one survived so I took it into the conservatory over the winter and it is now flowering in a small pot. Maybe I can collect seeds and get a few more going.

Cyclamen coum Ruby Star

The hellebores have suffered a bit with all the rain we have been having and are looking rather bedraggled and soggy, so I have only photographed the slightly better ones. I am still waiting for a few doubles to flower that I bought a few years ago as very small plants.

Deep purple hellebore

Purple hellebore

Double white spotted hellebore

My Iris Katherine’s gold alpine have gone over already. Having pigeons sitting on them didn’t help. I haven’t seen the Iris reticulata this year? Not out yet or have they died off? The primroses are only just flowering, as are the pulmonaria.

Primroses by the stump

Out in the front garden the Mahonia is flowering away and has a fabulous scent. There are large daffodils along the hedge and are about to put on their bright display.

On the patio the pink erica goes quite nicely with the blue glazed pot. Usually the patio is full of seedlings and cutting that I have prepared for the Duddingston Kirk Garden Club plant sale, alas, covid 19 is still among us so that event has been cancelled along with many others. I did have 3 trays with some cuttings taking cover under the bench but the foxes were about last night and pulled them out ad even pulled a few small plant pots out too in their quest to find the mouse.

Erica carnea Westwood gold

Although I didn’t buy more bulbs last year, the conservatory is still pretty colourful. The cyclamen always do well as the temperature is pretty cold but kept frost free.

Conservatory colour

Not quite spring yet.

22/02/2021raised bed, stumperyJackie Elwin

This was the first time in months that I have been able to do any gardening outside as it is fairly mild and not raining. Hooray! It was mainly cutting back old, dead bits, or rotting, damp foliage from perennials. Some of the evergreen ferns are looking a bit bedraggled so some of them were cut back too. The huge fern in the raised bed I just left for the time being as it still looks fine. Later on I will take the old fronds off ready for the fresh new ones to appear.

Everywhere looks rather brown and flat at the moment but there are bulbs already through like the snowdrops, and a few hellebores up and flowering (although they are still not quite at their best. Other bulbs are pushing through, such as narcissi and tulips. The verbena is still flowering sporadically, the witch hazel is in full flower, and there are signs of little catkins on the tortured hazel. It is not quite spring yet.

snowdrops in flower and a tulip pushing through

We are still waiting for new neighbours on the stumpery side ,therefore still waiting for the adjoining wall to be fixed before we do any new planting in that bare, shady patch.

I do love all the twisty branches of the tortured hazel or corkscrew hazel (Corylus
avellana contorta). Now and again, I have to take out the odd branch that has reverted to just plain straight branches and leaves in order to keep the twisted look of the shrub.

corkscrew hazel, tortured hazel, Corylus avellana contorta

tortured hazel, corkscrew hazel, Corylus avellana contorta

The raised bed will soon be overflowing with periwinkle, tulips, ferns, bluebells and geraniums. The snowdrops are flowering away happily under the main shrubs, and I planted a hellebore there last year but it is still rather small and getting used to it’s home.

We haven’t seen the fox family for a few days but there was a pile of feathers in the stumpery. Could have been either the foxes or the sparrow-hawk. Harry is still in the middle of dismantling the old trellis and it may be some time before the whole lot is done. He haste DIY. I hate the way it looks just now: it should either be all up, or all down, in my opinion. It is so frustrating not being able to do these jobs oneself.

Foxes In February

11/02/2021fox, snow, wildlifeJackie Elwin

Yet again I have been very lazy about winter gardening. I keep the birds fed and watered, and check on the patio plants, but tend to leave everything else just to get on with things.

It is nice to keep seeing our foxy visitors through the window. Harry took a short video this morning and I have a couple of snapshots from it. These foxes were living in the vacant house next door, and passers by even saw them looking out the front window. The authorities were informed and the foxes can just have to make do with the gardens now. These 3 Foxes In February look very relaxed in the garden. I haven’t seen any pheasants this year and it is probably down to this lot prowling about looking for some dinner.

It has been snowing on and off over the last few days and has been very cold. It got down to about -22 C in Braemar last night. Only a balmy -7C in Edinburgh! As Harry is working from home during this covid lockdown, he can easily help keep the pond from fully freezing, and I don’t have to muck about clearing snow from the patio in order to feed and water the birds. There isn’t as much snow this year as there was in the winter of 2010/11 and it should thaw fairly quickly. I get cold very easily and am so looking forward to some warmer, dryer weather to have a potter round the garden and seeing how all the bulbs are doing. The ground hasn’t been dry for months – if it hasn’t been raining – it has been drizzling and I can bet that some weeds have been thriving despite freezing temperatures and wet.

Feb 2021 snow in the garden from the upstairs window

Foxes in autumn.

23/10/2020fox, wildlifeJackie Elwin

There are lovely autumn colours out now but I haven’t really been in the garden much over October. Harry and I have both had a bit of ill health (no not covid) so I really couldn’t be bothered doing much. I did pot up a few pots with narcissi, tulips, and bluebells but not much else. The bay that was on the patio was brought into the conservatory for the winter, I did my best at keeping the rain off the irises but the leaves look awful just now. That huge aster will have to be dug up as it is now huge and I just can’t get past it (although it has loads of flowers on it at the moment). Once Harry is feeling a bit better I will ask him to plant the new cornus in that clay area just in front of the patio. The plants are rather small so will look tiny there so I may put other pots around them to cover the bare soil or maybe bark chips. That is the area that the pigeons have made a path to get to the seeds that fall out of the bird feeder so I will need to protect the new plants while they are still young.

Harry did manage to take a few photos through the back window of our little visitors. They have found a mouse and are hunting in between the pots for it until they get a scent of something else I think. I frequently find pots knocked over on the patio. The squirrels have been digging in any bare soil in the pots burying nuts and looking for other nuts so I used to always blame them for knocking them over.

As usual, the louts setting off fireworks have been out and about already!! We had to call the fire brigade and police out the other evening when these youths rather stupidly decided to build a bonfire just beyond our back garden in the golf course, and then threw fireworks into it! The fireworks near us have been so loud that our dog is terrified to go outside now. They are being set off at all times of day and night so you can never tell when it will be a good time to take him out. Oh how I wish there was a total ban on fireworks. Trouble is that somehow folk would end up making their own home-made fireworks which would be far more dangerous in the long run. Ok rant over.

Review your garden.

13/09/2020flowers, plantsJackie Elwin

As I trundle around the garden every morning search for slugs and snails I tend to do a mini review of what is doing well, what needs tweaking, dead-headed, weeded, staked etc. Now and again though I do a bigger review of certain areas that just don’t work for me. Some plants may have outgrown their space. Some I just don’t like how they have grown ie their shape or colour or their relationship with the plants next to them. I am trying to be ruthless so am having to make the decision whether or not to keep the aster I planted (rather too close to the path), or move it further back, or do away with it altogether. It isn’t a plant that I love but it is a good do-er. I think I will wait until it has gone over and then find a replacement – one that I do love. The area near the patio where the soil can get quite wet and is rather clay-like is still annoying me. A thorn-less rose like Zephirine Drouhin might do well there, but then maybe a couple of dogwoods would thrive in those conditions? Is there room for both dogwoods and a rose? Another area of uncertainty is the central bed where the large tree heath is growing just a bit too large. You can see from the photo that it wasn’t pruned right after flowering this year (you can see the old white blooms have gone brown) and I would like to cut it down in size to allow the other plants a bit more room. How far down should I prune it? I don’t want to take it right down to the base so maybe just take a 1/3 off? That would mean I wouldn’t get any flowers next year but I can live with that. We are still waiting for the house next door to be sold (been a few years now) and both the front and back gardens will be in a right state. The garden wall is needing fixed as the previous owner removed the buttress on their side and has started to fall over at the back. I haven’t been able to sort that area out and plant up as we don’t want any builders walking all over it. Major pain in the backside! Hey ho.

There are still a few plants which are flowering sporadically and some that come into bloom fully at this time of year so the insects can still enjoy a feed. The Japanese anemones, cyclamen and persicarias are looking great just now. A couple of heathers are about to bloom. A few of the hellebores are in flower, so too are the nepeta, mint, oregano, aster, coreopsis, viburnum, weigela, geum, knapweed, prunella, deadnettle, roses, parahebe, and even a few flowers still on the geraniums and foxgloves. The apples are looking good. They are not really keepers so I always have a bit of a glut at this time of year so I make apple sauce, apple pies and crumbles, stewed apples to freeze, eat some and give some away to pals. Today however I will just be weeding and browsing my bulb catalogues.

Ajuga coming through a saxifrage

Large aster bulging over path

Tree heath

Persicaria amplex ‘Blackfield’

Some pots on the patio in front of weigela

Jobs to do in July

19/07/2020flowers, plantsJackie Elwin

There is always something to be done in the garden these days. The never ending dead-heading and weeding, the chopping down and cutting back, re-positioning unhappy plants, potting on, sowing seeds and buying more plants. This last week I have been pruning (with some help from Harry) the deutzia, philadelphus and weigela, which have all finished flowering now. In the raised garden I have cut back some geraniums and dug some out that had outgrown their space. The violas had spread far too much too so they were hoiked out. Most of the foxgloves have finished flowering now and I have pulled a lot out but will save the seed from a couple to sprinkle where I would like the next lot to come up. I am thinking of just getting rid of all of the nettles along the side wall now as I had originally grown them for wildlife, and I have not seen a single nibble on them over the last six years so I think it is time for them to go – a job for Harry as I can’t reach them.

In the conservatory the cactus had five lovely big flower buds at first but the weight of two were too much and they fell off. I put them in a vase so I could still appreciate their wonderful scent. They only last a day or so which is such a shame.

5 cactus buds ready to open

only 3 flowers left on cactus

2 cactus flowers in a vase

cactus flower side view

At the moment I am loving the combination of the Heuchera ‘Rachel’ coming up beside the Spirea Japonica ‘White gold’. The spirea buds have a pink tinge to them which go so well with the pink flowers of the heuchera.

Spirea Japonica’ White gold’ and Heuchera ‘Rachel’

The moss roses are looking good just now too. Harry thought that they were covered in greenfly but it is just the kind of furry, mossy look that they have. I have found that if they get chopped quite low then they don’t get such a straggly look. They tend to behave more like a shrub rose. The other roses are doing ok but the ‘Munstead wood’ has some rust on it.

Moss rose ‘William Lobb’

I treated myself to some air plants during lockdown. Harry had given me some Spanish moss (Tillandsia usneoides) at Christmas which I split into two clumps and I have kept thinking about some of the other Tillandsias that might go well with them. I am keeping them upstairs which means that I had to get a grow light for them. The trouble with upstairs is that I need all the blinds and doors shut to keep out the summer sun, which means that any plants I have would have to cope with very low levels of light. The grow light I did buy has a few settings and I have chosen to use the pink light for 9 hours per day and see if they like that. I don’t actually like the look of this black light in front of the plants so I may try to find a way of clipping it to the side of the shelf but the lead is quite short.

Collection of Tillandsias and couple of ferns

collection of Tillandsias and couple of ferns with pink grow light

And lastly, here is a photo of a moth pupa I found nestled in the corner of a door in the conservatory. I did keep it until it hatched but alas I did not get a photo of the moth. It looked kind of khaki coloured and I looked through some moth charts but couldn’t identify it.

Moth pupa

Noticing what is around you.

21/06/2020flowers, foliage, foxgloves, plantsJackie Elwin

I have found that most of the time while working in the garden or doing slug patrols, you tend to be so focused on the job in hand that you may not notice what else is going on in the garden. It is a good idea just to wander around and really see what is happening around you. Our rhododendron is flowering quite happily after it’s move last November so it never went in a sulk after all. Mind you, I did keep it well watered just to make sure, then gave it a wee feed just before flowering. We planted a couple of new shrubs (Enkianthus companulatus and Sambucus nigra f. porphyrophyla ‘Eva’). And to fill in a bit of space, added all the foxgloves that were found in the wrong place (just till I figure out what should go in there long term).

Rhododendron Gomer Waterer

Just along from the corner is arch that I have been trying to grow a rose over (Rose Generous gardener), in place of the Clematis montana alba that died. It is not an ideal place for them as they can only get the sun in the morning, and they are under the sycamore trees of the golf course. I need to keep them well watered and that has meant watering them almost every day this year. They are looking good so far, and once the elder is bigger I think the contrasting colours will look even better.

Rose, geranium and elder.

The foxgloves are the tallest they have ever been in this garden. Harry is a about 6′ 1” and he is standing next to one that looks about 7′ tall. There is one in the middle of the stumpery which is even taller. Although I read (Guiness world records) that the tallest ever foxglove was grown by Lydia Foy in Ireland in 1997 – 10’10” (3.29m) WOW!

Harry and the tall foxgloves.

In the conservatory there were a few nice colour combinations or just nice colours that I liked. I had a vase of roses and honeysuckle together and the buds of the honeysuckle were a bright deep red colour before they opened to release their exquisite scent. Little things catch my eye, like the purple foliage of the axalis against the pale green velvet cushion. Dangling roots of the sempervivums, and the little tufts of hair at the points of some of them. Others have web-like hairs across them, and some go through a colour change from green through to a mahogany brown. The tips of other sempervivums are very pointed and look like they have been dipped in ink.
It is always worth taking a few moments to do nothing but look and be aware of what is around you.

Purple oxalis leaves against pale green cushion.

Purple oxalis leaves against purple cushion.

Honeysuckle buds beside purple rose in vase.

Honeysuckle buds.

Seedling against purple rose.

Sempervivums (mixed).

Sempervivums.

Sempervivum with hairy tips..

Sempervivum roots and web/hairs.

Woodland/stumpery/cottage garden?

14/06/2020flowers, plants, stumperyJackie Elwin

In the stumpery – woodland area I have mixed some wild plants along with plants you might associate with a cottage garden like foxgloves and geraniums as they like a semi – shaded aspect and are often found in woodlands. I mostly let the foxgloves seed about where they like but if there are too many, otr they are just too close to the path, they get hoiked out and replanted in another area. The foxgloves are looking great just now and are mostly untouched by beasties. There is some damage on a couple of flowers – possibly snail damage. A couple have toppled over but most of them are standing up by themselves. The main colour scheme are shades of pinks, red, mauves, purples with splashes of white and gentle yellows. I don’t particular like orange plants in this garden but I do like coppery foliage of some plants especially ferns.

Foxgloves standing tall.

Foxgloves and geranium.

Foxglove damage.

We have had a very sunny and hot May but so far a rather foggy, cold, and drizzly June. The knapweed in my previous post is looking very bedraggled, and covered in mildew and brown leaves. I want to chop the whole thing back to the ground where it will shoot again, but there are loads of buds on these horrid looking stalks. What I may do is; once I have chopped it back, I will take off most of the foliage and put the stems in a vase, so that when the buds open – the bees can still visit them and I can enjoy both the flowers and the bees.
The deutzia is covered in flowers. It is usually covered in bees too, but not today as it is so cold there are only a few brave bees about. It may be Deutzia ‘Mont Rose’ but I don’t know for sure as I bought this from a sale with no label on it and no body knew what the plant was. It is under planted with a red astilbe which is now getting a bit smothered, but I will be cutting the deutzia back after it has flowers so the red flowers of the astible will become more visible.

Deutzia ‘Mont Rose’

Geutzia ‘Mont Rose’ closer.

There is also a Jacobs ladder on the corner near the deutzia but I am not sure that I want to keep it. When in flower it does look pretty but the slugs go for it and the stems are quite easily broken and it always looks a bit scruffy.
The tierella are looking a bit ‘lumpy’ this year and have taken ages to get going. I need to lift and divide them, then re-plant a little deeper. As they can take about a year to establish their roots it is often better to do it in spring rather than in autumn, so that can wait until next spring. After a few years they have a tendency, like the heucheras, to kind of extend themselves up wards out of the soil and can look very straggly, lumpy and generally scruffy. There are more tierellas in the sunnier bed by the patio, but they have been so trodden on by the massive wood pigeons that I am thinking of replacing them that can withstand that kind of treatment.

In corner, where the gutter down spout empties, the weigela, rodgersia, Soloman’s seal, and the ferns are looking good. The weigela is covered in flowers which the bees love. There is a pink astilbe there and it has grown quite tall, slightly taller than I had expected. I planted a variegated form of Jacob’s ladder at the front along with he twhite version of ragged robin to brighten up that slightly more shady area of the corner. The weigela often needs trimmed back to keep it under control so that can be done when it has finished flowering.

Weigela corner.

The new nepeta arrived this week so they have just been planted in
the right hand border ,where it gets a bit more sun than the stumpery,
and this time some organic slug pellets were sprinkled around them just
in case. I lost the first lot of plants so I don’t want to lose this
lot. I do slug/snail patrols every morning and Harry does a patrol at
night to try and keep on top of the slug/snail number. Nepeta are
another one of these plants often found in a cottage garden and they
have a very gentle habbit and pretty flowers – again bees love this.
Behind the nepeta are the circisium which are always covered in bees and
beside that are the poppies (Patty’s plum) which have huge flowers on
them. They do need staking though and I was a bit behind with this so
they had already fallen over by the time I asked Harry to stake them so
they are looking a bit trussed up now.
In the next few days the
weather should brighten up a bit and will hopefully be a bit warmer
too. It is much nicer to do the weeding when it is warm than when it is
cold and drizzly.

Cardesque Garden

Gardening from an ageing, paraplegic perspective.