Winter Mess: Your guide to the best tools for a messy garden this winter!
With the colder winter months, plants and shrubs stop growing - but that doesn’t mean there’s nothing to maintain in the garden and, while the autumn months bring falling leaves, winter brings the risks of muddy and messy gardens.
It’s also a great opportunity to prepare your garden for the spring and summer periods.
Here’s a guide to what garden tools you should consider using during the autumn and winter.
Best way for collecting leaves
Collecting leaves can be a breeze! While grass cutters and lawnmowers are also great as leaf collectors, they aren’t ideal in winter as the leaves are usually wet and difficult to mow (and there's too many of them for a standard lawn mower). Leafblowers, however, are perfect for rounding up leaves, that have fallen from trees and entwined within your flower and shrub borders and across your lawn, ready for picking up.
So to help you in the garden, our cordless leaf blowers are lightweight to carry and quiet so are ideal for smaller gardens and gardens with neighbours nearby where you want to keep noise down to a minimum such as housing developments, urban and suburban areas. But if you have a large garden and lots of trees that shed their leaves on to your garden borders, paths and lawns then consider our petrol leaf blowers which will last longer when clearing up larger areas.
View our selection of leaf blowers, leaf collectors and garden vacs for sale
How to clean dirty paths and driveways
Slippery paths and driveways are a hazard. Whether it’s squished-in leaves, moss or something else, there’s plenty of debris in the winter to make paths, patios and driveways slippy and muddy. And the annoying part? It’s trying to remove the muck that has so brilliantly engrained itself into the surface.
Luckily, at John Miller Garden Machinery, we have a great range of pressure washers for patios and drives that are built to remove ground in dirt and moss easily and quickly. Our large range of pressure washers leave your garden paths and other areas looking shiny and clean.
Have a look at our range of pressure washers for sale
Heavy winds can require heavy-duty equipment
High winds can result in broken branches and even worse, fallen trees. And clearing up debris after a storm can require some heavy-duty garden machinery. Having a chain saw will help to remove fallen trees and large branches much quicker. There are many different types and sizes of chainsaws to buy online, from cordless chainsaws to petrol chainsaws.
We have a wide range of heavy-duty garden tools that are ideal for clearing messy gardens this winter. To give you a good start for clearing thick branches, have a look at our range of chainsaws for sale
If you have an open for or wood burning stove in your home, make sure to cut the wood to the right size and have a location to store the wood where it can dry out and be kept dry.
Is there a law for burning wood in a wood burner?
In the UK, the government has advised owners of open fires, wood burners and stoves that burn wood can no longer use coal or wet wood. To be exact, the strategy is that all wood sold for domestic use in volumes of less than 2 cubic metres must have a moisture content of less than 20%. All manufactured solid fuel will have a 2% maximum sulphur limit and a smoke emission limit of 5g per hour so that the emissions into the air are less harmful to the environment, so always ensure the wood you use is dry.
What are Tillers, Cultivators and Rotavators used for?
Preparing the ground for the new season is where Tillers, Cultivators and Rotavators make preparing ground for growing that much easier. As winter comes to an end and the days start to get warmer, it’s important to prepare the ground for the spring and summer months.
A tiller or rotavator is a great tool for ensuring the soil is healthy and full of nutrients. The STIHL MH585 Tiller, for example, replenishes air pockets by digging to a depth of 10”, allowing water to soak to a greater depth. The result? Healthier soil and roots for plants to grow when the sun finally decides to appear.
Other garden machinery to consider in winter include lawn scarifiers to aerate lawns and that help promote the healthy growth of grass and our multi-tool combi system for clearing gardens which allows you to use several tools for different tasks such as sweeping or clearing away moss and debris from surfaces.
Have a look at our range of Tillers, Cultivators and Rotavators for sale
Have questions?
If you have any questions about finding the right equipment for your garden this winter then get in touch. Call 01249 652 573 or contact the team at our garden machinery shop in Chippenham and we would be happy to help.