Hi to you all, it is the just few days into 2011, after reading here one of the threads at the forum about maintenance of lawn edging - I thought that you must here this story.
It is a real story, about my father in law that may effect the way you think in life.
I remember that I came to the uk at the first time 1996 , I just came to visit for few weeks, it was summer I stayed at fiona's parents (today my wife and mother to my 4 daughters).
John, my father in law, just like me liked to work in his garden, thier house surrounded with lawn all around and he also has his veg patch and green house, apple trees and more... It was beautiful.
I remember how impressed I was to see him cutting the lawn with no engine lawn mowers. You have to understand -I never seen anything like that in israel- we always had petrol mower.
I still remember him worring no t-shirt enjoying a sunny day- actually only sunny afternoon and cutting the lawn for over an hour or more.
I asked my wife one day- how come that he does not buy a new one engined power- after all they have more than enough money and I just loved her answer that it is greener . After all I LOVE GREEN i HAD YEARS OF very high maintenance gardening as a contractor to doezens of private gardens and I hate all the smooke coming from all these tools- and much more prefer natural gardening. ( in israel, where i used to live at the time, things grow so fast that some hedges needs cutting every 2 weeks).
I actually admired my father in law, john , for being green, I saw how he actually worked hard cutting the lawn their with his very old mower. In my job working as a contractor I was very calculated and I thought how many hours could he save by using a better lawn mower- LOTS OF HOURS- so I actually admired him more.
My biggest surprise was about 3 years ago and I saw john cutting his lawn with electric lawn mower...
What ???? I was a bit shocked and asked him- I see that you got a new lawn mower what happend to the old ? I asked him.
" Oh Ofer, this is fantastic, Mrs ....... said that she does not use it so I can have it and... you can not imagaine it . I cut the lawn at third of the time"
I got to know john well in the last few years that we moved to the uk to leave near the english side of the family , and I like john, he helps a lot recently. and john is very conservative traditional man. He much prefer the old way and it take a lot for him to trust new things ( like built in GPS, computer and so on)
NOW LETS DO THE CALCULATION: FOR YOUR FAVOR ONLY
IF JOHN USED TO CUT THE LAWN FOR 30 YEARS, 80 min each time 15 times a year.
It is 600 hours in total - so if he could do it in third of the time he could save 400 hours
lets say that I am wrong and it is only 200-300 hours . that is a lot of hours- worth a lot of money and you can do a lot with IF only you would try it 30 hours before.
So If you like to implement something that save you time - do not wait for age 70.
So what happen with the old mower- we have a tiny patch of lawn with 2 rabbits on so only 3-4 times a year we cut it to get it straight.
So Why did I write about it?
I did a calculation once that by using a recycled plastic edging you can save more than 65% of the time.
- IT REDUCE THE OFTEN THAT YOU NEED TO WORK ON THE EDGING BY 50%
- YOU WILL THAN NEED TO USE THE STRIMMER ONLY HORIZONTAL WAY- SAVING YOU LOTS OF TIME
- EVEN THAN IT IS SO MUCH EASY AND FASTER AS THE EDGING IS A GUIDE TO YOUR STRIMMER.
- IN MANY CASES NO NEED TO STRIMMER AT ALL JUST PLACE 2 WHEELS OF THE MOWER OUT OF THE LAWN
THERE ARE SO MANY SHEAR USERS THAT USING OUR EDGINGS AND ARE SO HAPPY WITH IT.
I KNOW SOME OF YOU DO NOT WANT TO save time of work as you may think that you will have less of work,
If that is the case- you will find that your customers are so happy that you find for them new solutions and you can claim your trade discount for the edging and charge for installation.
If you are a designer you should want your project to look well maintained for years so finding the right edging is a must. That is what I used- strimmer proof edging. For 2011 we have wide range of it.
see attached file.
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