My gardeners and outdoor grounds crew use their tools all year long, so it is important to keep them clean and in good working condition at all times.
If you're an avid gardener, you know sharp pruning tools not only make chores easier to complete, but they also make cleaner cuts, which allow plants to heal faster. Making clean cuts also exposes them to less damage from diseases, insects, fungi, and weather extremes. Everyone on the crew cleans, sharpens, and conditions their pruners, snips, and shears regularly. The process only takes a few minutes, and it keeps these gardening implements in proper working order.
Here are some photos, enjoy.
Pruners are among the most essential tools here at my Bedford, New York farm. Pruners, or secateurs, are used for grooming all the garden specimens. Their primary purpose is to remove dead, diseased, or damaged stems, and branches from plants and bushes.
Here’s Brian using his pruners on the hedge around my pool.
And here he is cutting the dead wood from one of the raspberry bushes.
Each member of my crew has pruners. We all like to use Okatsune secateurs. Bypass garden pruners such as these make nice, clean cuts using two curved blades that bypass each other in the same manner as a pair of scissors. One blade is sharpened on the outside edge and slips by a thicker unsharpened blade.
Because they are used so often, every few days my gardeners take stock of their cutting tools, and clean and sharpen their hand pruners. Here, Brian shows his pruners before they are cleaned and sharpened.
For this task, Brian uses a coarse cleaning block and a whetstone. Both are soaked in water for about 10-minutes before using. A whetstone will help keep the pores of the stone clean, dissipate frictional heat, and ensures smooth sharpening.
This little cleaning block has a slightly rough texture for removing grime from the blades. Cleaning blocks are great for removing rust and other debris. They’re made of a semi flexible rubber compound with abrasive grits for scouring.
Brian uses the block to remove any dirt, sap, etc.. Brian goes over every part of both blades. One can also use a medium grit sandpaper.
Here, it is already beginning to look a little bit cleaner.
It is important to also get all the dirt off the metal parts – anything left on tools can attract and hold moisture and cause rust.
Sharpening stones, water stones, or whetstones are fine-grained stones used for sharpening the edges of steel tools and implements through grinding and honing.
Next, Brian uses the whetstone to sharpen the blade. Brian holds the pruners firmly and places an even and gentle pressure drawing the stone along the blade from hilt to tip.
Here’s another view. Most secateurs are single bevelled – Brian sharpens the outside, and then smooths off the inside, going slightly over the edge.
Brian holds the whetstone at an angle to sharpen the edges and maintain the bevel. The bevel is what makes a tool sharp, and blades are factory ground to a precise angle that’s just right for each tool.
These blades are now very sharp. And be sure to always watch what is being done – keep fingers away from the blades.
Brian carefully feels each side to be sure there are no burrs. A burr is a bit of waste metal forming at the edge. If a burr is present, one will feel a slight catch on the blade.
Brian lightly lubricates all the clean, sharpened metal parts. Oil will help the pruners perform more smoothly.
He also oils the joint where the two sides meet. After oiling, it is a good idea to open and close the pruners to hear how the parts move together – they should work smoothly and evenly.
On the left is a clean and sharp pruner – on the right, an uncleaned, unsharpened pruner.
Brian does the same process for this pair – first, he uses the cleaning block…
… then the whetstone…
… and after oiling, he wipes it down with a cloth.
Now both pairs are ready to go back out into the gardens. Cleaning and sharpening supplies are available at many garden shops and online. It is crucial to keep these garden tools sharp at all times. Sharp pruners for working in the gardens… it’s a very “good thing.”
Berry picking season is over now, so it's time to trim the old canes and branches back and get the bushes ready for next year.
I love growing berries and have been growing them for a long time. Here at my Bedford, New York farm, I grow patches of red raspberries, golden raspberries, black raspberries, gooseberries, blueberries, and currants. Many berries are best eaten raw, but they can be used in a variety of ways - as ingredients in jams and jellies, pies and tarts, and delicious summer juices. For the best yields from these plants, it's crucial to keep them well-maintained - they need to be pruned properly and regularly. Pruning produces larger berries in greater volumes. It also helps to control diseases that might otherwise spread through the berry patches. We do a more aggressive pruning in late winter or early spring before the foliage returns, but recently, my gardener Brian O'Kelly, trimmed the long canes and cut out any unproductive old and dead wood.
Here are some photos - enjoy.
I have several rows of raspberries on one side of my main greenhouse. They all produce so many fruits every summer because they are well-maintained through the year.
Here is what these raspberry bushes looked like in late June – full of sweet berries. Summer-bearing raspberry bushes produce one crop each season. The fruits typically start ripening in late June into July with a crop that lasts about one month.
Botanically, the raspberry belongs to the Rosaceae family, in the genus Rubus.
The raspberry is made up of small “drupe” fruits which are arranged in a circular fashion around a hollow central cavity. Each drupelet features a juicy pulp with a single seed.
The leaves of raspberry plants are light-green and spade-shaped. They are also toothed along the edges.
Flip the leaves over and healthy leaves will be a light greenish-silver color.
Here are the bushes before we started grooming them. Raspberries are unique because their roots and crowns are perennial, while the stems or canes are biennial. A raspberry bush can produce fruit for many years, but pruning is essential.
The upright posts are made of granite and they have heavy gauge copper wire laced through them to support the long canes.
The wire can be tightened or loosened depending on the need.
The copper wire is on both sides of the canes holding them up.
Brian first prunes all the old, weak, diseased, and damaged canes at ground level. Unpruned raspberry bushes will still grow, but won’t yield more berries.
He checks all the canes to make sure he cuts all those that are necessary. Leaving them unpruned makes them more prone to disease.
It’s good to keep the base of the bushes within a 12 to 18-inch footprint by also pruning out any suckers that poke up outside those parameters.
Here is an old, dead cane that already produced berries. It is brown in color.
The young canes are still bright green.
Brian stops for a quick photo. Pruning the berries takes some time, so we do it over a course of days in between other more time sensitive tasks.
There are a few fall berries, but not many.
Here is a pile of old canes cut from the plants. After this pile gets a bit bigger, it will be loaded onto one of our vehicles and taken to the compost yard.
The last step is to trim off the tops, so it looks neat and tidy. Here is one row all evenly cut on top.
It is important to use sharp tools in order to get consistently sharp cuts. It is also crucial to keep tools clean. Leaf sap quickly builds up on blades and clogs up the mechanisms making them less efficient.
This area looks so much better. The rows of raspberries now have wide aisles between them. A little care for these berry bushes will keep them producing delicious fruits for many years. It’s a good start to fall, and there is lots of work to do.
Here at my Bedford, New York farm, even rainy days can be extremely productive.
Whenever it's stormy outside and my gardeners and outdoor grounds crew are unable to work in the woods or gardens, I encourage them to take stock of the equipment, clean everything, and then organize all the tools and supplies. After I bought this property, it became quickly apparent that I would need a large building to store equipment. The structure is about 40 by 120 feet, with a substantial amount of height. It is where we keep our mowers, blowers, tractors, tools, and other pieces of important machinery. Yesterday, while it rained for hours, my foreman Chhiring Sherpa cleared the space, cleaned, organized, and inspected every item before returning it neatly to its spot, so everything is in good order and ready to use. Keeping things well maintained and properly stored will always save time in the long run.
Enjoy these photos.
I wanted this Equipment Barn to be an attractive structure in an easy-to-access location. This building is just off the carriage road next to my Pin Oak Allée, hay barn, and vegetable greenhouse. This is one of two giant sliding doors – one at each end.
On top of the standing seam aluminum roof, I have three lead-coated copper finials. In winter, these can be seen clearly from across the paddocks.
Inside, the Equipment Barn is well lit with these big overhead lamps. I use very utilitarian lighting and fans where I can on the farm.
Natural light also comes through these windows.
In the back corner, we have this bank of lockers for the crew. Everyone has their own set of lockers where they can store safety equipment, extra shoes, clothing, and other personal items.
Each set of lockers is labeled. Safety helmets are kept on top for easy reach. There’s plenty of room for everyone.
On this rainy day, I asked that the equipment barn be well organized. All the pieces of equipment are brought out onto the driveway for inspection and cleaning.
Chhiring makes sure each piece of equipment is in perfect working order. Then, using a power washer, he thoroughly cleans each piece, so it is ready to use. This is my Kubota ZD1211-60 zero turn riding mower. It has a 24.8 horsepower diesel engine and a wide mower deck.
Once it is cleaned, Chhiring parks it back in the barn, in a designated spot, where it can easily be driven out when needed.
We have a fleet of Kubota mowers. They are used almost daily during the warmer months.
Our blowers are made by STIHL. We’ve been using STIHL’s backpack blowers for years here at my farm. These blowers are powerful and fuel-efficient. The gasoline-powered engines provide enough rugged power to tackle heavy debris while delivering much lower emissions.
This is STIHL’s backpack battery and hand blower. The backpack battery eliminates the cost of fuel and engine oil and can be used with several other useful accessories.
STIHL’s most well-known tool is the chainsaw. STIHL designed and built its first electric chain saw in 1926 and 94 years later, it is still one of its best pieces of equipment. The chainsaw has soft grips for comfortability and secure maneuverability.
Ladders of various sizes rest against one wall close to one set of large barn doors.
All the garden tools – hoes, spades, shovels, and rakes are hung on sturdy hooks.
On this section of wall, we hang all the leaf blowers, long handled hedge trimmers, and weed-whackers – also by STIHL.
This is our wood chipper – an important piece of equipment at the farm. I am fortunate to have this machinery to chip fallen or cut branches and then return them to the woodland for top dressing various areas. It has a special parking spot in one corner of the space.
I keep this vintage Allis-Chalmers tractor from the 1940s in this barn also. It reminds us how much these farm pieces have evolved over the years.
These broadcast spreaders are cleaned and then suspended on hooks, so they are out of the way.
Blowers, tillers, edgers, walk behind mowers, and generators are all parked by type and frequency of use.
We even have an area to store spare tires.
Once everything is back in place, the rugged cement floors are all blown of debris, swept, and washed. At nght, this barn also accommodates all our farm vehicles. So much can fit into this Equipment Barn, especially when it is clean and all the tools are properly put away.
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