Not an industrial injury, but...

Planted a couple of bags full of daffodils in the garden today. Instead of forking over the ground first, I just pushed holes into our clay soil with a trowel, I wasn't wearing gloves either.

Be sure to use all appropriate Personal Protective Equipment and labour saving tools when doing stuff...

Or get a gardener😎

I don't have that problem. The last time I needed stitches in my hand they had a hell of a job getting the needle through my skin!!

Agreed! - Carrots, beets and even Daffodils!

Joe..

That's the trouble with office workers hands, I get a blister just using a broom, maybe I should use one more often!

Mike

Ditto with office hands. Did a a hedgelaying competition on Saturday for the first time.
Four hours of axe and billhook work plus binding the top of the hedge in the rain. Gloves soaked. Hands were a complete mess yesterday. On road to recovery today though.

A chap has just laid a hedge near me, it looks so much nicer than a hedge that has just been flailed into shape. It took a few days to do what a flail would do in a few minutes though.

Mike

Always hammer daffs into the ground. My wife shouts at me and I suddenly find I have a free afternoon.

Works every time.

Regards,

Richard.

The competition I entered, novices had to do 8 yards in 5 hours. Intermediate and open was 10 yards in the same time. As a novice who hasn't had that much experience, the time was very tight. Mind you I was the only competitor not using a chainsaw.

I think the two biggest surprises of my life were (1) my dad becoming a scout leader and (2) him teaching the scouts how to lay hedge.

I knew he grew up on a farm but it had never occurred to me that he had any 'rural skills'!

Neil

OK, I'll bite. What constitutes 'laying a hedge' ????

Pete

Hi Peter,

Useful explanation here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedge_laying.

Gordon.

Thanks Gordon! I always knew you Brits were a bit batty about horticulture but just how many ways are there to tame a hedge are there?? More than a dozen it seems....

Lost arts....

Pete

We are drifting way off the original topic here (sorry) , but here is before and after from Saturday. Not a competition winner, but gives a good idea of what it is all about. I ran out of time to finish it tidily. The idea is to make the hedge stock proof by cutting the stems (pleaching) and laying down to fill the bottom of the hedge. Stakes and binders are put in to stabilise the hedge until it grows back up from the bottom, which it does surprisingly quickly. The idea of pleaching is to cut the stem almost through enough so that it can be bent over but allowing enough cambium to keep it alive. It takes skill to be able to do that quickly without going all the way through... There are many different regional styles, this is Midland. The competition was held on the main road between Burford and Stow on the Wold, just past The Merrymouth Inn if anyone wants to take a look. It is a great rural skill to learn and keep alive. Given the heavy rain on Saturday, I would have rather have been in the workshop though!

Can't comment on hedges but gardening is very dangerous. I cut a buddleia bush down last years and had to go on quite powerful steroids because I had been poisoned - apparently. Nasty stuff - like a chemical weapon

Phil H

You miss out on an awful lot of wildlife by not having hedgerows.

In the 70s my mum told me that American tourists complained that when they visited the Uk they couldn't see the landscape because of the hedges along the roads

We don't have hedgerows that I know of. We do have fence lines that grow wild and that's where the critters are!

Thank you all for the enlightenment!

Pete

A properly laid hedge is impenetrable to almost any animal!

I'm wishing I'd known about 'laying' years ago. I would have planted something suitable just so I could try it! There's a lot of wire fence I'd like to replace with a layed hedge.

Pete

Many Years ago back in history it was a capital offence to do damage to a land owners hedge ?

I once saw a hedge Kettering way that had been shaped to resemble a full sized steam train mind you that was 40 years ago it might have tender and coaches now.