Cordata

How have you dealt with it over the time you've been in business? It's early days for me so obviously figuring things out

Don't even know a specific thing, just after lots of physically demanding days something in it went when walking to the truck and could barely move at all. Had the same with my neck before as well

Lol. Yeah I thought this was a homeowner with a stump or 2 question, I defer to the machinery people..

I dig stumps out all the time with a mattock, if you post photos I could say if it's doable and what I'd charge

That's cool, hope it goes well 👌

Wow.. I vaguely knew from being here a while you did this arb website and the webdev stuff but that's cool you've gone into other things as well, mega entrepreneur !

I have looked into that a bit before since drop shipping is such a meme, but don't think I would want to do it. I'm pretty interested in making things myself, my own online shop, doing my own fulfilment etc.. Could maybe try making some arb equipment 🤔

The way you do it is pretty interesting. I can imagine doing both is a pain as you say, running different things at the same time must be challenging. The problem I guess is to try to not get spread too thin, and be able to allocate time to each business effectively? I love what I'm doing at the moment and if I could run it like it is now which is essentially me doing almost everything with the odd bit of help when I need it, it would be perfect. I don't think I really want to start getting teams together and send them out on jobs. Just need to think of that other way to make money on days off - I actually enjoyed work today since I was rested from taking yesterday off

Yet another day off with a back injury, going 110% all day every day has caught up with me. I've often thought about running another business alongside my tree one to give my body a rest. I'm the main climber, do almost everything myself, and don't really have any days off because I feel like I need to keep going to make it all work. I'm pretty uninterested in consultancy and surveying even though they are an obvious type of work to get into, which doesn't involve manual labour. Does anyone do something else? Can't keep ruining my body at this pace, but if I could split days between the physical labour, and another thing I could make it work.

Don't cut completely flush when pruning branches, go to the branch collar. If you attach a photo people here will show exactly where to cut to do it correctly

Interesting.. Why are they preferable to steel?

I just checked it's a KM 131R. Which when I google says is a 4 mix engine? It has been absolutely abused which may factor into it

I've heard of these underground anchors but never used any yet.. Just checked the price and if I'm not mistaken it's around £80 per tree I'd need to spend which is prohibitive for what I've priced already. The 8ft posts (if I can secure them properly in the ground) I'm sure will be more than enough, it's not an exposed garden, it's surrounded by a tall hedge and buildings.

Thanks appreciate the advice. Practically how do you use the pinch bar, just hit the ground with arm strength or hammer it in? And just the pinch bar's diameter in the ground will do, or I should try to make a sizable hole with it? I looked up those hammer/mell things and lots of options, don't know which head weight is best- 4.5kg screwfix one ERROR: The request could not be satisfied WWW.SCREWFIX.COM 5.4kg one with wooden handle Access Denied WWW.ZORO.CO.UK 6.4kg bulldog one, imagine it gets tiring quick but I like that brand, makes quality stuff Bulldog Fencing Mauls 6.4kg WWW.SAM-TURNER.CO.UK Features: One piece 36" heavy-duty fibreglass handle Epoxy paint coated cast head Soft-grip Head tempered for strength and rigidity

I've used a kombi Stihl hedgecutter for years now with the hedgecutter long reach attachment. I got it so I could change to the pole saw attachment when needed Is the dedicated HL94 any better for hedges than the kombi? I never researched if it was lighter or anything. The sound from mine is completely deafening I don't know if that's unique to my machine or not..

Hi all, I have been offering services planting fairly big trees for a while now and I have one coming up where I need to plant two large birch trees, size class 18/20. The person at the nursery recommended getting 8 foot posts as the standard smaller wooden stakes won't be tall enough to support the trees once driven into the ground. I've planted large trees for this customer before and had so much grief getting the posts in, it was stony the further I dug down. I used a post knocker like this: , and couldn't hit the posts hard enough to drive them as far as I'd like. Even hitting full force with that wasn't doing much. Thankfully they've held +1 year later, can be shoogled a bit but it worked. I want to do a proper job this time but need to take a different approach so the posts are definitely solid, some suggestions online say use a steel bar like this: to make a kind of pilot hole. Others say use a big post knocking hammer, I could probably hit with more force using that.. any tips for getting them in the ground, how you approach it if ground conditions are tricky?

Can someone ban him already^

Thanks everyone, good to know species & that I can cut it back 👌

I have a tree/(large shrub?) I would like to reduce quite a lot but I don't know what it is, and if it takes hard pruning well. There are no growth points to take to past the outer crown - if I cut it in the inner woody sections without any foliage (as you could with a laurel for example and it would come back fine), is this suitable for this plant? Advice and an ID would be appreciated.

Yeah me neither, no character at all like the old stone houses nearby. The client was pretty chilled out, he even mentioned the builders probably put loads of crap in the soil so it could be a case of changing plans after we started digging and problems arise

I for whatever reason didn't know that characteristic of hornbeam, liking moisture. From a few google searches it could be the perfect thing to plant, maybe even digging a trench and mixing some compost in with the naturally occurring clay in case it is devoid of nutrients. Because all the websites I'm reading say it's moisture tolerant and does well in clay, maybe I don't need to create a raised area of soil as @Stere says?

Thanks, that is very true about just creating a place for the water to pool in, I'm just not sure what the best thing to do is. I like the idea for a raised section & what that website says, I will ask the question and see what they say. Hornbeam is similar to beech that would be good, I think it's quite a lot slower growing though. I've suggested 1.75-2m trees, and they want the hedge to grow up past the fence for privacy, so the time taken to grow might make them want something else

Hi all, I have been asked to look at a job where the customer wants a beech hedge planted along one side of their garden. The whole area consists of heavy clay soil and there's evident waterlogging, ground squishy everywhere. The neighbour directly over the fence where the hedge is to be planted, has put in a French drain, to collect the water and take it away. I've attached an image showing the site and direction of water flow. My question is: how best to prepare the ground for the beech hedge going in? I am considering a metre-wide trench, the existing clay soil completely removed, and refilled with 50:50 soil/compost. Maybe even digging lower than required for the trees (50cm?) and putting a small layer of rocks/gravel in the bottom to alleviate potential drainage issues. I don't know if I should consider additional drainage methods, as the water flows towards where we want to plant, is it possible to take TOO much water away? Forest research says - "Beech can grow on mineral soils of poor to medium nutrient status including calcareous ones, but does not tolerate compacted, waterlogged or very dry soils". So waterlogged (as it is currently) is bad, but I don't want to overdo drainage so there is no moisture available, if that's even possible. Anyone with experience of this situation able to offer advice? Thanks

I replaced the air filter, fuel filter, and spark plug and it seems to have fixed it, but thanks for the suggestion I'll look out for that in the future

I got a service kit with new air filter, fuel filter, and spark plug and when fitted this seemed to solve the problem. I did pick up a fuel solenoid as well since you mentioned it, and some googling & youtube videos tell me that it's good preventative maintenance to replace this every so often, so I'll get round to replacing it when I have more time Looking at this article on how to replace - How To Change A Solenoid Valve On Your Machine | STIHL Blog BLOG.STIHL.CO.UK Solenoid valves can wear due to dirt in the fuel tank on your petrol machine. Check out our quick guide to changing the solenoid valve here. - it says to 'coat the solenoid valve below the collar with press fluid' Did you do this, and if so what is and where can I find press fluid? Thanks