Use the right tool for the job
Last week, we outlined the importance of late-summer pruning of trees, shrubs, evergreens and perennial plants. But what tools are best for each job? Herein, your answers, from the smallest to the largest pruning jobs:
Hand pruning Light trimming is best performed using a sharp, quality pair of hand pruners. These are light and useful for removing growth up to one centimetre in diameter, or about the thickness of your baby finger. Make sure your hand pruners are sharpened every time you use them, as well as cleaned and lubricated.
Loppers are a large version of hand pruners that work on the same scissoring principle, using either bypass or anvil type cutting blades. The main difference is that loppers have long handles — sometimes with extensions that help you reach up to a metre into a tree or shrub to cut out mature, woody stems. The long handles and heavier blades of loppers make cutting green branches up to 2.5 cm, or an inch, in diameter easy.
A pruning saw Unlike the crosscut and rip saw, a pruning saw cuts on both the fore stroke and back stroke, reducing the work required to do the job by half.
Unlike your camp saw, used for cutting small branches for building a campfire, a pruning saw is designed to cut green wood. You will find the difference striking. And the work of using a good, sharp pruning saw a joy compared to anything else.
Chainsaw Unless you have been trained on the proper and safe use of a chainsaw, we recommend that you skip this. Removing one of your own limbs is never the idea behind a good pruning job.
There are now some excellent rechargeable, long-handled chainsaws that are light and relatively easy to use. Stihl makes an excellent rechargeable model. After all if the chain is a couple of metres away from you, what can go wrong? A lot — for instance, a limb falling on your head. Which is another reason why signing up for a chainsaw course, as Mark did, is a good idea. Landscape Ontario has an excellent one at horttrades.com/training.
Your pruning equipment does not end with the cutting tool. Other essentials to help ensure a safe, effective job:
■ Heavy gloves. Say you miss cutting the branch and instead the blades hit your finger. Do not laugh. Heavy leather gloves help to protect fingers and hands. If your gloves have a long cuff to protect your wrist and forearm, so much the better.
■ Goggles. Obvious and important. The sawdust created from limb removal is one hazard to your eyes. So are the small branches of shrubs and trees since we often don’t see that little stem coming at us.
■ Long sleeves. Wearing a longsleeved shirt is an especially good idea if you are working with evergreens that have prickly foliage. Exposed forearms that contact junipers often suffer from “juniper rash.”
■ Safety boots. For all the limbs that crash to the ground from somewhere up in a tree, there is the potential for a foot injury. Not to mention tripping on the roots of mature shrubs and trees while your attention is focused on the limbs above your head. Steel-toed boots provide a level of confidence for the wearer that is hard to describe, and they aren’t always as clunky as the construction boots you likely have in mind. We like Blundstones. Let’s put it this way: when you know that the potential for personal injury is minimized, your confidence level goes up and that helps to make smarter choices. Leave the flipflops on the deck.
If all of this sounds a little obvious, we give you credit for your risk-awareness. Unlike the rest of us, for whom this reminder can be very useful.