Summer storm activity in Australia is not unusual, and this violent weather often leaves many damaged trees in its wake. You know you need to get outside and get your trees trimmed now, before they cause any damage to your home. However, did you know you could do more damage to your trees than any summer storm just by using dirty lopping tools? Dirty tools could disease your trees, so be mindful of these maintenance hints this summer.
Why Do Lopping Tools Need To Be Sharp?
There are two main reasons why you need to sharpen your lopping tools before you use them:
To sharpen your lopping blades, you need to purchase a sharpening stone from your garden centre. You must be careful when using a sharpening stone as you could cut yourself if you use it improperly. There are three alternatives to sharpening your lopping tool blades yourself:
The other thing you need to remember if you are going to do the tree lopping yourself is that the blades need to be clean too.
Why Do Lopping Tools Need To Be Clean?
The blades of your lopping tools need to be clean because if you have previously cut trees that are diseased, you do not want to be spreading the disease over to your healthy trees when you're trimming them.
Cleaning the blades is not a tough job, and you only need to use a bucket filled with warm, soapy water. However, once you have washed the blades it is important you lightly oil them to make sure they don't get rusty. Motor oil is one product you can use to keep your blades corrosion-free. Alternatively, you can purchase blade oil at your local garden centre.
If you do not have the time to get your lopping blades clean and sharp before attending to your trees, get a professional service like Ashmere Tree Solutions in to take care of the trees for you. This way you can have the peace of mind of knowing this year's summer storms are not going turn your trees into dangerous flying debris.
Share1 December 2015
Hi, my name is Christine. As a lifelong lover of the Shel Silverstein book "The Giving Tree," I have always been interested in the many different relationships one can have with a tree. I own a relatively large property with several trees, and I have worked hard to make those trees an essential part of my life. Some of my trees provide me with food, others provide me with energy-efficient shade that reduces my air conditioning bill and others create recreation opportunities for my kids in the form of treehouses or swings attached to the trees. Still other trees boost my property values just by being beautiful. If you want ideas about using your trees for fun, form and function, please explore this blog.
