Trailoftears

Being abused is not.

Of course,in an ideal World,we shoud be unionised,but given our generally isolated roles that probably isnt going to happen.But really,to be expected to do our jobs @say £10 an hour is worse than insulting-Given the weather/physical demands and danger of many of the tasks faced and expected of us.

This is a rant basically! I've been s.employed for what?40 odd years now,and without bigging myself up, I'm pretty damn good at what I do.That is to say-a multi discplined trade.When I look at the wages offered for horti roles-the wages offered-at best,are frankly insulting.For instance,a typical N.Trust job will ask for say,Chainsaw cert,herbicide cert.Public facing skills,the ability to run and maintain a fleet of various horticultural machines,the ability to organise and train up trainee gardeners.Plus budgetry skills/competence too.Nothing wrong with that,but given the demands,these are £40,000+jobs all day long.BUT not in Horticulture-we are supposed to take on roles like this for £22,000-if you are lucky!This offends me so deeply.Is it because Gardeners are seen as 'thick'? It angers me,in that say the National Trust are hoping they will be able to get multi disciplinary professionals on the cheap-i.e at half the salaries they should actually be earning.Whilst I understand the N.T. have a finite amount of resources-the wages offered in my profession deeply offend me.As an example,as a S.E. gardener,I make somewhere around the £40,000 mark a year,its hard work and I often have to do 6 days a week to get my schedule done.Its bloody hard work-easy money it AINT.My point is we Are ALL worth this sort of wage level. Dont let the 'employers' tell you any different! Will the guys and Girls in suits back at the office mow soaking wet lawns on a Monday morn/get down on hands and knees to weed a border/fell a dubious ash tree/drain a ride-on mowers sump-etc,etc?Nope,cuz they have an extremely limited skill set-unlike most of us used and abused in this sector.

Its in its own way,q.fascinating,you cant help admiring how these hugely successful plants adapt and evolve to what ever the environment and Human intervention throws at them.I've walked thru a low lying woodland area next to a ditch close to riversides and made a mental note to deal with them asp given the population is heavy/2' high.Next time the whole area is full of river debris after a sudden spate and their population is trashed/flattened.A week on,they slowly struggle back up/re-generate nodally.

I notice with dealing with Himalayan Balsam over the same riverside areas over several years-both hand-pulling the bigger individuals and sometimes b/cutting both large and small plants that not only can it flower at the usual heights,say 2-4' high.But over time it starts to flower at really low heights-4-6" hiding in coarse riverside grass.So really hard to track given its flowering under the grass population.N.R.W. did make an attempt to control it in my area a few years ago.Suffice to say,that didnt go well.I have visions of well-meaning volunteers sobbing amongst thickets of gorse and wanting to go home!

When you say stem inject it,do you mean every single stem in a large stand of say 60 stems?At what height do you inject each stem-down close to the rhizome mass say?It seems to have much the same internal discrete nodal system as bamboo.Do these 'boxed off' nodal areas inhibit internal travel at all?🤔

From past experience I find these cheaper stihl homeowner/farmer chainsaws are a lottery really.Bought a 170-horrid little saw,,bought a 180c-still serving me well after doing things it was never designed for 12 years later. Bought a 250 some years ago-went back to the dealer 4 times under warranty-they couldnt fix it/I couldnt fix it-worst saw I've ever bought.On the other hand I've rarely had issues with their pro saws-or indeed the 'vintage' old farmer saws they used to sell-the older 0 prefix saws seem bulletproof.

Bit of a negative thought tbh,but depending on the useage you've had over 7 years plus the cost to replace/repair ratio assuming you may have to pay for a main dealer diag./repair.Assuming you've had good value out of it.May be worth buying a new unit and keeping all the known good parts off it?These small budget homeowner saws tend not to be Stihl's finest tech/durable items to be brutally honest.If you've had 7 odd years of decent graft out of one of these units-you've done ok frankly.

Himalayan Balsalm!A very old friend!Pulls up really easily-then it dawns on you there's 700+individuals ranging from 3" up to 5'+ in front of you!Throw it on the ground in the damp,and it will root from its nodes.I've dumped barrow fulls on tarps in the past,even then,the top layer slowly rears back up growing on its fallen comrades!Plus that explosive seed dispersal action too-a worthy adversary.

Fascinating.I'm surprised there's no market that I know of for bracken compost bagged up.The Acid-loving plants dream medium I would imagine.Highly regarded for blueberry cultivation I gather.Back in the days on upland Welsh hill farms they would cut/dry and haul down bracken to litter under the animals all winter.Unlike straw,it cost nowt and there was plenty of it!Politically incorrect now,but the same applied to peat too-trench,cut,stook it to dry,hauled down from the hills and re-dried on the zinc roofs.Would pretty much keep them warm thru the Winter plus they couldn't afford coal in those pre-grant days.Probably the hardest work I've ever done!

Interesting how the fashions in veg come and go,I worked at a Country house Hotel some years ago.So,I tended to grow the slightly more unusual stuff then and thats coming back now I find.Flat parsley,asparagus pea,florence fennel bulbs,sweetcorn,Curly kale etc.The old mainstays are out now it seems-carrots,2nd early spuds,r.beans. Still an argument for growing your own onions I'd argue-bit more intense flavour. My cycle is-leeks and p.sprouting broc/maybe sprouts put in the Autumn.Come the spring they come in,plus a couple of old beds of asparagus/rhubarb come in too.followed by br.beans,grdn.peas,garlic,shallots,onions ect.then the salad crops start to come in-salad bowl lettuce/sw.chard/mizuma/spinach/chives/sp.onions etc,also herbs,coriander/fennel/basils.Then fr.beans/courgettes/sweetcorn/curly kale,followed quickly by red cabbage,globe beetroot.In the G.house,the finest most productive large cherry tomato-Sakura+bloody butcher-an early greek-type tom with a few plum type san marzano cooking toms.Also a cucumber or 2- half size f1 fem types,fembaby/socrates etc.If you have the luxury of a small g.house+2/3 decent sized raised beds its entirely possible to be pretty much self sufficient re: veg for 10 months of the Year.

I recently took out via a bladed bruschcutter a stand of say,3 sq.metres of knotweed immediately nxt to the riverbank on the flat With a view to future spray app..Then I discovered it was growing right down the stony/undercut bank virtually into the water.Dealt with that the best I could (wet feet) fascinating tho to notice that big lumps of rhizome are literally hanging in the air over the water waiting for gravity or a flood/local riverbank collapse to drop lumps into the water and away they go.

Timing is an interesting question.I've always aimed for catching plants on their way up/growing strongly re:application with glyphosate.My theory being- A:the plants are growing strongly and accordingly will absorb/translocate the herbicide more effectively. B:The tissue being attacked is softer/younger and therefore more vulnerable to herb.app (+you need to apply less volume and closer to the ground),which is safer for you and better for the environment.But apparently, regarding J.Knotweed and also bracken-and possibly other 'difficult species' too-brambles? The sweet spot is when they approach the max height/senescence.Which I find really surprising given they are presumably pretty much 'standing still' at that point in their annual growth cycle.I can see that that point would give you max leaf volume to attack,but also much harder to apply effectively given the height and density of a 6'x6' stand of knotweed?Another reason I guess is that you have to consider the insect/bee population should you spray in conjunction with flowers on.

Something I meet more and more,and also due to media scare stories makes most of my customers faint at the very sight of!As much research suggests glyphosate works surprisingly well.I encounter it regularly alongside riverside properties,which figures given its propensity and talent to use railways,canal and rivers as easy highways.I find it surprisingly easy to control at the standard rate of 50:1 re: glyphosate application.Given its glossy/moisture repelling leaf structure,I find it effective to either trample it,or give it a damn good thrashing in a Fawlty Towers style pre application!You could also use a leaf surfactant too I guess-You cant beat thrashing an alien species with a big stick tho-I'm thinking our caring Tory gov here...As to Jap.knotweed and Glyphosate-,it controls it- note the lack of the magic word 'eradicate',apparently,the rhizome structure can if needed,sit tight for 20 odd years!Now thats a robust lifeform.

I agree with a lot of the comments on this post,people DO want to learn,grow their own stuff.I suspect far too many people regard gardening/growing as 'difficult',and some particular talent confined to middle-aged white men with flat caps that belong to arcane societies who signal their membership by furtively exchanging home-grown carrots whilst glancing nervously around lest some members of the general public accidentally spot their furtive machinations! Therefore it puts youngsters/learners off.A huge gap in the sector,market is a t.v.programme actually teaching the BASICS-how and when to sow seed/aftercare/watering PROPERLY/soil prep/planting etc,etc.Instead they get middle-class oxbridge knobs in woolly designer jumpers-with suspiciously long/clean nails exhorting them to install mirrors,paint their sheds pink,go out and buy mature designer plants for huge expense etc,etc.No wonder most peeps think-'ukking fell',these people are seriously strange-gardening is not for the likes of us.

Pertaining to the couple mentioned in my opening post.The gentleman is a v.keen barbequer.last Year he was pulling up my/his half-grown onions and I was finding the golf ball sized bulbs in the compost heaps more often than not.I had a wtf?moment-and asked him why?He thought they were sp.onions-which I also grow for them in the same area....🙄

Thinking back,growing up as a Country boy my/our chief pastimes were bird-nesting- v.politically incorrect I know!But I've ensured my place in Valhalla now by reparations I hope.Also snaring sewin/salmon which went to the chosen few on my Dad's milk round.But my favourite pastime was via a stable of ferrets/purse nets rabbiting!Again,they were sold on to the more discerning customers of my Dads biz.And 2 or 3 young lean rabbits are are damn good eating.I couldnt help smiling to myself at the thought of slapping 3 young rabbits in the fur,thoughtfully gutted by myself on the worktop of my modern 'right-on' customer referred to in my o.p.She would shriek wildly,slam the door in my face-then sack me due to the horror.....😄

Apart from the usual landscaping routine maintenance stuff,I also grow a fair bit of veg/soft fruit for various customers in their own veg patches/raised bed areas etc.One of my female customers decided to take our relative glut of salad crops down to her friends on her days in work.These are salad crops grown organically by myself 15 odd metres from her fr.door-curly kale/salad bowl lettuce/spinach/chard etc,etc.Not content with washing them-it was (apparently) necessary to wash them in hot water!Its like-why?What horrors lurk within?a lone small keel slug?I found it profoundly depressing that even educated people's default position is that veg is 'dirty' and potentially suspect because it doesn't arrive in polystyrene packages shrink-wrapped.A very depressing moment tbh.Does she feel the need to hot water wash the 'piccolo' tomatoes via m&S they eat all Winter which come from god knows where?I v.much doubt it. What a World....

The issues I see with the 'modern' technique of membrane+gravel ornamental stone-or indeed membrane+bark is 1.the stone is generally dredged out from somewhere-estuaries? so filthy and being organic/silty will grow weeds with gusto,and so presumably not hugely environmentally friendly either.As to membrane-when I've been asked to remove it from areas over the Years-when stripped off,the soil beneath is in a truly,truly shocking dead state.The worm population is zero-no opportunity to cast?The soil surface beneath is shiny,polished and undulating,tbh it resembles some sort of lunar land deadscape.

All that being said, I've come to terms with my extra leg now-I fondly call him Sid....

All that being said, I've come to terms with my extra leg now-I fondly call him Sid....

Crazy,when I think back over my career the stuff you used without thinking about it.Looking back when I managed a an old Mansion property re-purposed as a high class Country House Hotel with extensive Rose gardens.My scary chemical of choice was dimethoate-a seriously heavy systemic insecticide than came in a v.impressive metal flask!The logic for using it back in the day with my limited knowledge-?Efficiency plus you didnt have to completely saturate all the total bulk of rose bushes+yourself with shedloads of inneficient 'contact' insectides like pirimic arb/pyrethrum etc.Even more chillingly,back in the days when I 'helped' at shearing/dipping as a young kid in the Elan valley when we dipped a couple of thousand sheep over two days-the very best job as a kid was to be allowed to 'dunk' the sheep as they hurtled endlessly and splashed the fekk out of us all day in a solution of undoubtedly a cocktail of industrial systemic chems!

Interested to hear other forum members opinions on this much vexed subject. Over the Years I've used many different chemicals-paraquat-the liquid hoe-never on veg.areas for me tho.Pathclear-diquat/paraquat and amintrazole (I think),Sodium chlorate-the bomb makers choice. Now for simplicities sake+its biodegradable properties my weapon of choice is glyphosate-generally the generic versions due to monsanto losing their exclusive patent plus them being an evil company.I still get pushback from various customers due to their not unreasonable aversion to any chem.application.However,given many of them have 800 metre hardcore drives+extensive areas/sweeps of huge car-parking areas,I often have to gently point out to them that the days of employing multiple youths on their knees painstakenly manually removing individual weeds at sixpence a month+a bowl of gruel daily are long gone now!Thoughts!?🙄

Funnily enough, being younger and more optimistic than I am now-many years ago!I bought a husky 'pro' mower with an alu deck and ticked a lot of boxes re:pro use.(I can hear the forum members laughter at my stupidity from here).Now that was well weird,the shiny orange underdeck paint flaked off extremely quickly at the least attempt of cleaning.More alarmingly,the underlying surface seemed completely dusty/crumbly and you could just tell instinctively it simply had no long-term future-at all.