Must-have tools for pruning and trimming your garden

By now, your plants should be in full bloom, whether they’re purely for decorative purposes or you’re harvesting homegrown food. However, just because you’re starting to see the fruits of your labour (literally), it doesn’t mean now is the time to put down the gardening equipment – after all, a gardener’s job is never truly over!

Now more than ever is the time to be out in the garden pruning and trimming away to keep your bountiful blooms producing until autumn. To do that, you’re going to need a few essential tools, and that’s where we come in! At Smiths Hire, we’re no strangers to garden maintenance; in fact, we have an entire range of gardening tools and equipment to help you take care of every task you can think of, from pruning to trimming to mowing, spraying and beyond.

 

Why is pruning still important in summer?

When you think about the time to prune, your mind probably goes to autumn and winter, when your plants are dormant, and you’re chopping them back to encourage more growth in the next season. While this certainly is the case, it’s not the only time you need to be out and about with your secateurs. It may feel counterintuitive, but cutting back your plants in summer can actually encourage more growth and it prevents them from outgrowing their plots and taking over your garden.

Pruning in summer also helps you:

• Encourage your plants to produce more fruit
• Prevent your plants, especially those in the cherry and plum families, from getting diseases
• Promote better flowering
• Train your shrubs to grow in the shape you want

The best tools for pruning this summer

Now you know why it’s important to trim your plants even in summer, let’s talk about tools and equipment for getting the job done. Hand pruners or secateurs, as they’re also known, are the ideal handheld tools for getting clean cuts on both your live and dead branches; they’re perfect for rose bushes, harvesting fruits and herbs, and young saplings.

For thicker branches that are slightly higher up, you might struggle with a pair of hand pruners, and that’s where bypass loppers and garden shears save the day. When it comes to keeping your hedges and shrubbery in check, a hedge trimmer is going to be indispensable. At Smiths Hire, we offer a variety of hedge trimmers to meet all your needs. Whether you require an electric trimmer, a petrol trimmer, or a long-reach trimmer for higher hedges, we have you covered!

 

To maintain a beautiful garden, it’s important to care for your lawn by mowing it every 1-2 weeks to encourage fresh growth. It’s important to pay attention to the edges around your fencing as well as any other areas that your mower can’t reach. Keeping these areas uniform with brushcutters and grass trimmers helps promote healthy growth, prevents long grass paths from forming and prevents those pesky weeds from infiltrating your beds!

 

In our gardening equipment range we have everything you need to take care of your garden year-round, whether you’re pruning, spraying weeds, chopping trees or building yourself some raised garden beds for next year’s harvest!

 

You can find all of these tools right here on our website, or if you’d prefer to come and take a look at them in person, you can pop on down to one of our 17 tool hire depots! Our depots are spread out across the North, in major cities like Manchester, Liverpool, and Leeds. Got questions? Give our friendly team of experts a call on 0333 323 2100 and we’ll be happy to help!