Tag Archive for: garden

Recharge your garden

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Recharge your garden: Imagine a battery: powerful enough to drive lawn mowers, intelligent enough to automatically recognise whatever garden tool or machine it’s in, and versatile enough to tune the power to match it!

That’s exactly what Mountfield‘s new E-Power 20V technology has delivered. Designed, developed and produced by STIGA engineers specifically for the Freedom 100 range. Available in both 2Ah and 4Ah capacities – this 20V battery helps make every day gardening jobs easy!

Recharge your garden

Recharge your garden

Innovative E-Power battery that does the thinking for you
At the heart of the 20V battery lies a Smart Tool Recognition System. This battery management microchip optimises the performance of the battery to each tool by analysing the electrical resistance. It then adjusts the power output and current levels accordingly – constantly balancing charge and discharge rates with the temperature to maximise the battery’s storage ability, longevity and run-time.

Achieving the perfect size-power-safety balance 
Expertly designed, the lightweight battery unit…

– Is small enough to handle power easily and efficiently, but big enough to ensure maximum airflow.
– Has Lithium Cobalt Oxide cells that are carefully spaced to allow sufficient cooling.
– Has a charging terminal protection that offers even greater safety thanks to the smart long-life transistors which open to isolate the terminals if an alert is activated.
– Has energy saving power indicator lights that also mean the battery’s charge is only displayed when the status button is pressed, meaning 100% of the charge is preserved to power the garden tool.

Tested for the ‘real world’, not just to pass the standard test
Like all Mountfield batteries, the E-Power 20V system is tested at a full, ‘real-life’ usage current. This goes far beyond the common, but less demanding, Industry Standard test of only 300 charges at 20% of the ‘real-life’ usage current.

Testing methods that stipulate that E-Power batteries are still going strong after 600 charges – the equivalent to an owner running down and recharging the battery twice a week for six years. In actual gardening terms, that’s 30 lawn mows, five tree-pruning sessions or 30 leaf-blowing occasions!

Whatever the tool, whatever the job, this cost-effective, convenient and adaptive 20V battery performance is something none of Mountfield’s main competitors in this price segment have come close to matching.

Easy Mows it
Easy Blows it
Easy Cuts it
Easy Trims it
Easy Prunes it

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Fueling the future of garden machinery

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Fueling the future of garden machinery: Leading power tool manufacturer Makita UK is offering end users the chance to get their hands on FREE LXT and XGT products with the purchase of selected cordless garden machines. With a wide selection of freebies on offer, the deal is perfect for professionals looking to start or expand their existing Makita cordless range.

Makita’s latest garden machinery promotion gives end users the chance to claim the highly sought after MR002GZ01 Bluetooth Site Radio (compatible with LXT, XGT and CXT batteries), or 18V LXT DMP180Z Inflator, or 18V LXT DUM604ZX Grass Shear with the purchase and registration of a huge selection of its leading LXT outdoor products – including blowers, grass shears, hedge trimmers, line trimmers, brush cutters, split shafts, lawnmowers, chainsaws and the Twin 18V DDG460T2X7 Brushless Earth Auger.

Fueling the future of garden machinery

Fueling the future of garden machinery

In addition, those who purchase selected XGT 40VMax outdoor equipment (including blowers, hedge trimmers, brush cutters, linetrimmers and more) can redeem a free MR002GZ01 Bluetooth Site Radio, or MP001GZ XGT 40VMax Inflator, or ML003G XGT 40VMax Work Light.

Kevin Brannigan, Marketing Manager at Makita said: “At Makita, we believe that the future of garden machinery is cordless – which is why we are offering end users the chance to introduce new cordless products into their armoury with our latest promotion.

“Our 18V LXT and XGT 40VMax outdoor equipment has been designed to offer professionals the power and performance needed to tackle any task with ease, without compromising on battery run time, user safety or productivity. With over 270 LXT products and 50 XGT models in our wider range, we are helping end users achieve a truly cordless jobsite.”

Makita’s latest redemption offer launches on 1st February and will run until 30th June 2022. Customers who purchase any of the qualifying models in this period will have 28 days to register their purchase and claim their free product.

For more information on the promotion and terms and conditions, visit: www.makitauk.com/redemption

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Fight against the Garden Chafer

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Fight against the Garden Chafer: International Pheromone Systems is looking for trial sites as part of its work to develop lures and traps to help monitor and control an insect pest that is menacing golf courses, race courses, amenity gardens and parks across much of the UK.

Dr Sam Jones, Technical Manager for IPS, explains: “Garden Chafer beetles are turf pests and are most problematic in locations where turf must be kept pristine.

Fight against the Garden Chafer

Fight against the Garden Chafer

“While adults can cause some damage from feeding it is the grubs (larvae) that are the most damaging as they feed and develop on the roots of the grass. In certain locations populations of the Garden Chafer can proliferate. There has been an increasing demand for an environmentally friendly, biocontrol method of managing these pests particularly following the ban of some pesticides. We estimate that a typical golf course would probably need 8 – 12 traps to efficiently monitor for these pests, dependent upon size, shape and planting.”

Monitoring provides early warning of a pest’s presence and identifies areas to be targeted, rather than treatments being applied to large regions where the beetle may not be present. Any trials would be expected to take place between May and July when the pests are usually most abundant.

“We don’t have a pheromone for either the Garden Chafer or the Welsh Chafer, so we currently use plant derived attractants which in the case of the Garden Chafer are floral odours. The hope is that our new lure formats will attract both species. This work will later be extended to the less damaging pests, the Rose Chafer and the Cockchafer,” Sam added.

Chafer larvae are distinguished by their “C” shaped body, which is white with a pale brown head. Garden chafer larvae reach up to 15 mm long when fully grown. Larvae feed on the roots of grasses which results in the formation of patches. Damage is often exacerbated by badgers and crows which like to dig into the turf to feed on the larvae.

“Damaged turf on sports pitches can sometimes impact on player welfare. Once weakened the turf may not provide adequate traction which can result in increased slips and falls and potential player injury.

“As well as injuries there can be loss of revenue for the facility if a sporting event has to be cancelled and the capital costs of replacing the damaged turf can often be substantial,” Sam explains.

International Pheromone Systems offers a nature-based approach and specialist knowledge for natural and safe solutions to monitor and manage pests in agricultural and domestic environments.

The company’s highly skilled entomologists find solutions from nature itself. Together with universities, scientific partners and growers, the IPS team works to find natural solutions to help reduce pesticide use and support integrated pest management (IPM) in agriculture, horticulture and forestry businesses.

A healthier, safer and more productive environment is achieved by using the natural behaviour of pests and finding the right pheromone combination and trapping solution specific to a particular species.

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Water Garden wins second KAR UK award

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Water Garden wins second KAR UK award: For the second successive year, Water Garden UK has won the KAR UK Top Sales Award after its impressive distribution of Kasco Marine products.

Water Garden UK, a leading supplier of high-quality water gardening products, now has its name engraved on the trophy for both 2019 and 2020 after yet again excelling in the sales of Kasco marine products.

Water Garden wins second KAR UK award

Water Garden wins second KAR UK award

The family-run business based in Portsmouth, Hampshire, successfully market and sell the established brand of Kasco products which includes lake aeration equipment and decorative fountain technology – all of which are supplied to them by KAR UK.

As importers of the Kasco brand, KAR UK has seen a huge increase, year-on-year, in the demand for the products. It is a side of the business which is rapidly growing, with KAR UK recently awarded Kasco’s European Distributor of the Year 2020 which follows the 2019 Top Sales Growth Award.

Commenting on the award, Roger Lupton, Regional Sales Manager for KAR UK, said: “This award is another phenomenal achievement for Water Garden UK who continue to go above and beyond in actively promoting the Kasco brand.

“From all at KAR UK we would like to say a huge congratulations to the whole team. We have been working very closely with Water Garden UK for several years now and it has been a pleasure. I look forward to continued success with them in the future.”

For more information, please visit www.karuk.com

You can also follow KAR UK on Twitter @KARUK_LTD for much more news, reviews and insightful views

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Terrain Aeration for London garden square

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Terrain Aeration for London garden square: The award-winning Earl’s Court Square Garden was originally laid out as part of the Edwardes Estate in the 1870s, and construction of the properties of Earl’s Court Square began.

It was well-managed with professional gardeners until the Second World War, when the original cast-iron railings were removed and five emergency water tanks filled the southern half of the garden. Post-war it became much neglected and remained more like a building site until the mid-seventies when the present layout was designed. A children’s playground was added in 1980 and the mature London plane trees were pruned and maintained. The Earl’s Court Square Garden is one of the 37 Garden Squares in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea.

Terrain Aeration for London garden square

Terrain Aeration for London garden square

The garden is much used by residents and hosts neighbourhood social events which ultimately led to the ground becoming severely compacted and dried out in summer, while in winter it became heavily waterlogged. Aeration was done regularly, and the grass re-seeded, but the problems remained.

“We learned of the work done by Terrain Aeration in Hyde Park after Winter Wonderland,” says Katrina Quinton, Chairperson of the garden management sub-committee, “and we thought the principles would apply here. They were scheduled to come to us in 2020, but a period of heavy rain and then Covid-19 intervened. The garden was a godsend for the community during lockdown, but the pooling was still a major problem.”

As soon as they were able, Terrain Aeration treated the area using their Terralift Tracker, which is designed for access in tight spaces. It works in the same way as the full-size Terralift machines used in Hyde Park. The Tracker hammers a hollow probe one metre into the soil, releasing a blast of compressed air to fracture the compaction and create interlinked fissures. They simultaneously injected dried seaweed into the fissures, and this expands and contracts with the moisture content in the ground. The probe is inserted in equal spacing on a grid pattern, to ensure the underground fracturing overlaps. The resulting holes are top-filled with Lytag, lightweight aggregate, to provide a long-term aeration and ventilation shaft which will encourage air and water into the root zone. The result is a healthier soil structure; the compaction is relieved and a stronger root growth is promoted. The areas in the garden around the trees, which are greedy for water, were also treated to a depth of eighteen inches.

Katrina says: “the wonderful collection of people from Suffolk and their strange-looking machine came and worked without fuss, leaving the area clean and usable immediately. The following day it rained heavily and we’re delighted to say there was no longer any pooling. A great job.”

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