The Right Tool For the Job

I enjoy working in my garden a great deal. I love pruning plants and creating ‘the look’ I want for each plant. I’m not a formal gardener, but plants do often need to be pruned for their health, and to keep them ‘in scale’ with the rest of the garden.

I have several banks of heather bushes that basically had never been pruned. That’s not good! They’ve been in the landscape for at least 8 years and were getting pretty gangly and unruly.

I pruned 4 banks of heather using a hedge trimmer. It required me to bend over and hold the hedger in front of me as I twisted from side to side. That motion, it turns out, is the kiss of death for my low back. Puts it out every time! I was in a lot of pain after I finished those heather banks.

I spoke to the guy who mows my lawn, and I asked him if he could do the rest of my heather plants for me. I just can’t do that with my back condition!!

He agreed to have his guys do it on their next visit.

When they showed up to work, I was amazed at what I saw them do.

They had some sort of hedger on a long handle. They didn’t have to bend over AT ALL to hedge my heather. They didn’t even really have to twist from side to side. They did all the rest of my heather in about 10 minutes. It took me a couple HOURS to do what I had done.

What a wakeup call! I would have never dreamed that such a piece of equipment existed, yet it made the task almost effortless. My way of doing it was labor intensive, time consuming and PAINFUL!

It was a great reminder that often times we can really make our lives and chores easier by finding the right tool for the job. It’s worth a little investigating and effort to match the right equipment to the task!!

A good reminder for us all!