A Brand New Garden Toy
My Birthday passed a month ago and I have been wanting this pole saw for 4 years and could not talk myself into it because of the cost, but year after year I was really aware how much I needed a good pole saw. Not on like my last one. That one was a frustration. So this is my Bday present to myself. I love my husbands Japanese saws that he has in his shop. They do make work so much easier.
A woman on the perennials forum who is a professional gardener in England and does orchard work and has an allotment with lots of trees on it recommended this saw. She lives like me in old clothes and cars but loves a good tool so my ears perked up. I decided on the 16' Hayouchi Silky pole saw.
I was out there first thing this morning in my nightie trimming cedar branches off some tall cedar trees... no hardhat... bad girl. It cuts like butter. It cut beautifully on the pull stroke and never bound or bent on the push stroke. One has to lighten on the pressure on the push . I did not go for the oaks because I have no way of spraying wound sealer on the wounds.... yet, and it is the wrong time of year to trim oaks safely in regards to Oak Wilt.
I went back on the computer to do research on it, and came up with this really simple cheap solution repurposing my useless old rusty pole saw pole into a trusty ol' spray doohickey . I just need to get/buy/scrounge a strap hinge , hose clamp, twine , a nut and bolt . Real simple. I probably have them hanging around, but finding it is the difficult part. We have walls of hardware stored in our 2 workshops. Check it out the design below.
PRUNING SEAL SPRAY DOOHICKEY ON A STICK
I do have a question . Do people oil or wax the blades to protect them? If you do, what do you use?
Here are some pictures of my precious baby. I have not named him yet. Each one of those sections is taller than me.
Comments (15)
micheletx
6 years ago
roselee z8b S.W. Texas
6 years agolast modified: 6 years agoRelated Discussions
my new garden toy
Comments (7)I love my new truck ! I plan to keep lots of BIG garden tools in the giant tool box behind the cab . Note the bull guard on the front . That will come in handy in my pastures ....See MoreI'm Getting A New Gardening Toy!
Comments (9)YEA! I just bought Chamomile tea - so that item is checked off the list for now, I pretty much have everything but the Thermometer and a marking pen. I'll be putting the set up together myself, so figure it will at least be an all day project. Dawn, yeah, I usually put my seed trays on top of the fridge until they germinate. Right after I see a few pop up, I move it to the lights and let the rest follow suit. I have grown African Violets before, and they are also easy to propagate from leaf cuttings. Regular AVs are small plants (can get pretty wide), but there are also some very small, tiny even, AVs that are super cute. As a former avid Begonia grower, I also used to grow a lot of them under lights, growing from seed (very tiny, dust-like seeds), and some will root via leaf cuttings like the AVs, pieces of rhizome for the Rhizomatous varieties, and stem cuttings from the canes, shrubs, semps, Rex (which I don't grow because they are just more finicky than I care to deal with), thick-stemmed, a few tuberous (not the large-flowering ones that like to grow in the cooler Northern climes). I used to show my begonias at the local, regional, and national show levels. But that is a very long time ago. I recall one of the entries was a fish tank in which I put plants I had grown from seed - about 10 different ones, that were meant for a high humidity environment, and it was gorgeous. I may get back into some begonias in a very small way. Begonias of this category really do like light gardens because they are shade loving plants and lights don't emit anything close to the intensity of outdoor sunlight. There is a local begonia show around March or April here in the city, of the Barkley Branch of the American Begonia Society, and they always have a plant sale along with it. If I can remember, I may go and p/u some there. The small Rhizomatous are better suited to light gardening. The fluorescent tubes that come with the garden are T-5s. Apparently this is a good blend of the red and blue spectrums for good growth. Mmmmmmmm, a Mesclun or microgreens mix sounds very, very good. Thanks for the suggestion. Yes, I am thrilled - I always put everyone else in the family first - I don't buy clothes or shoes, except when I have to, or anything special, other than my coffee beans, so it's kind of a guilty pleasure I'm indulging in. But, life is short, and it only took be approx. 30 years to make the decision to go for it. I'm sure I have tons of seed in my "seed box" that will be suited for growing this time of year. I'm attaching a link to an image of several different rhizomatous begonia leaves just to show that there are so many more types of them than what we see used as bedding plats. Susan Here is a link that might be useful:...See MoreNew kitchen, new toys!
Comments (9)When we moved 7, 8years ago, i took the opportunity to thin out the toys. The original owner, a single mother, put in a downstairs back room baking kitchen for extra income. We use it as a project room and pantry so i still have all the toys but none of it is upstairs in the main kitchen. It has been nice to just have the basics and my favorites. No appliances like a toaster, microwave, or any counter clutter. Wanted to go back to the basics of chopping by hand, cooking fresh and rustic. No plastics, glass fridge storage pyrex, etc. Oh, sure, it all finds its way back up every once in a while but i do a 'sweep' once a month or so and back it goes. My drawers are no longer junky and stuffed. My favorite things i remember when i moved... -all fresh new spices, one set was a gift -treated myself to good cooking oils and vinegars -2 new big cutting boards,(even though i have a dozen misc ones) -restaurant quality water kettle and coffee grinder -fresh new pot holders and kitchen towels. I've always had good knives and cookware, cast iron all sizes and enameled cast iron, all sizes. No longer use non-stick anything. 2 appliances most used and loved that have easy accessed under counter storage... Breville juicer and Blendtec blender. So worth the high cost for quality. I never wanted a kitchen aid since i don't bake but found one at a yard sale last year for 15$. Finding many uses for it now that i have one. (it had a loose screw in the housing that made it run with a gruff rumble, brand new and fixed with-in minutes of bringing it home) -yard sales are still a favorite way to add something 'new' without the sticker shock. Like triciae, i always have something collected from years of traveling like a pot or bowl with something fresh from the garden or a vase with flowers from the yard. A few weeks ago it was sunflowers...last week it was a leggy purple cabbage and chives, this past weekend i treated myself to a small rosemary tree....See MoreNew garden toy
Comments (16)I have this one - Gorilla dump wagon. Much easier for me than DH's mega wheel barrow. Not only for my tools, compost, plants in pots - People have borrowed it when moving for household goods. DH keeps it clean for me, even the tires. I used it myself the night I was on my way to bed when I realized the compressor was failing in my refrigerator. I loaded the food into the wagon in my kitchen and wheeled it out to the garage refrigerator. I don't know that I would want to take it to the cemetery though, little bulky for loading. For years DH cleaned there with cordless shears. He'd take a bucket, brush, whisk broom, shears. These days he goes with gas weedeater and tries to time his visits when he won't be disturbing people. And, many times, people will come up to him and ask if he will clean around their family head stones while he's there - our cemetery has new ownership the last few years and new owners don't keep things up as well. They have taken out some of the faucets too that were strategically placed around the grounds and now water for watering plants or cleaning isn't readily available there. He was just reminding me last week of being at the cemetery, had cleaned, edged around several family graves (he has a big family) and was standing back admiring his work. Someone from behind placed their hand on his shoulder and he screamed, came clear off the ground ;) (he's kind of fun to startle, it's quite a reaction). That poor woman was so embarrassed, she'd only wanted to ask him for help with some headstone maintenance since she could see he had products to make it easier....See Morewantonamara Z8 CenTex
6 years agolast modified: 6 years ago
dbarron
6 years ago
javiwa
6 years agolast modified: 6 years agowantonamara Z8 CenTex
6 years agolast modified: 6 years agobostedo: 8a tx-bp-dfw
6 years agolast modified: 6 years agowantonamara, Looks like a very nice saw with that hi-tech silky blade. Can you tell yet of that bottom sickle is effective at cutting the bark on the underside? Tearing a strip of bark down the remaining branch/trunk as the cut falls away is a problem that is hard to prevent with the standard saws.
A noid ~22 ft pole saw/lopper came with our house.... and its two mature fruitless mulberry trees. The 30-something year old blade is rusty and never been sharpened, but still cuts reasonably well after one or two major pruning sessions every year. I have occasionally rubbed (candle) wax on the blade to reduce drag/binding rather than protect, but has rarely been a problem. The mulberrys could put out new branches faster that any other tree I've ever dealt with.... which quickly taught me to catch them while still small enough for the lopper to avoid the additional time and energy needed to saw them later. I have probably made 10 to 15 lops for every sawn cut on "buggy whip" producing trees like mulberry or Chinese pistache; though it's much closer to even with the fewer cuts needed on oaks. This is the mostly lopped pistache pile from last Monday:
Most of these branches will be run through the shredder/chipper this week and placed somewhere back in the yard.
wantonamara Z8 CenTex
6 years agobostedo: 8a tx-bp-dfw
6 years agolast modified: 6 years agowantonamara Z8 CenTex
6 years agojaviwa
6 years agowantonamara Z8 CenTex
6 years agobostedo: 8a tx-bp-dfw
6 years agolast modified: 6 years agoI need a chipper. dang. Looking at that pile and thinking I could make it neat looking.
Ran the branch pile through our small 6.5HP chipper/shredder late yesterday and ended up with this:
For reference, the ~ 24' x 4' x 2.5' pile of loosely stacked branches was reduced to 12 sq ft of mulch and a few bits of limb too big for the equipment. Neatness nice - time needed, less so. Took nearly 2 hours to do solo, though two people could probably come close to halving that. The bottleneck is the additional lopping needed for the trimmings to fit the feed chute on a smaller machine like ours:
Suspect it would move much faster with one like Eric's Mighty Mac.
wantonamara Z8 CenTex
6 years ago
javiwa