What did you do in the garden today?

[Dadanga]

Oh I bought two cheap chainsaw skins off aliexpress that used makita batteries and wow they were like woodchippers on crack going through ficus like hot butta. But they burned out because we'd constantly use them jobs that were far too demanding. At least with your ryobi skins you're covered if the unit burns out.

But I tell ya what, you're gonna have some good fun. I wish I had one to take care of the base of this honey locust that has bushed out heaps.

 

[Dadanga]

This guy uses half strength of hydroponic fertilizer until the first flower and then switches to full strength. I tried this method and it worked, but its labor intensive. I used a planter base and filled it once in the morning, it gets absorbed by end of day.

The pot size he uses in the video holds about 3 gallons of coco peat.

I'm always so envious of those nice neat little setups. One thing you'll learn about me is that I hate labor intensive and save that for the soil garden beds. I try to automate things as much as possible but with kratky I know for some of the plants I can see a res change in the future, especially if we get a toasty summer.

I'd love to be able to find those awesome earth boxes you've guys got, they look durable and nice. I know bunnings sell a bunch also. Now I'm tempted to use one of my old rails just for cherry tomatoes.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Those look like daylilies to me. I never dig mine and they can survive winter even in zone 3.

Thank you for your comment. They may be day lilies, I don't know. But they are huge, varied and magnificent. Some are ruffled, some not. Colors range from pink to maroon, yellow to tangerine, with a variety of throats and eyes. We got them from a now-deceased friend who'd spent a lifetime breeding them. And we did not dig them because of the weather; we've never dug them before. We dug them for a couple of reasons, primarily to thin them, as they've become badly overgrown. But also because a tree (catalpa? Not sure) has invaded the garden where they've been growing, sending up new trees from suckers into the midst of them and we had to remove the lilies so we can destroy the tree and its suckers. And finally, we need/want to separate the clumps and replant them so we can catalog them. The day we got them was in the heat of summer and we just had to jam them in the ground willy-nilly to save them. Now we want to see what we've got so we have to separate them.

 

[Sammster]

Got several of my gardens cleaned out, today. Chopped my wisteria waaaay back. My eldest son is going to finish my leaves for me on Sunday. I'm so grateful. He has a high-powered blower. It won't take him too long.

I'm smelling a skunk out there, somewhere. I think it might be under the shed. Ugh

 

[Sammster]

Yesterday my husband and I weed eated around the garden. Not much else. I did hull some acorns though. I was not expecting them to be so difficult to hull but they are done.

What will you do with them?

 

[Sammster]

Picked up a Home Depot Black Friday Ryobi special today - a new 18v Brushless 6 inch compact pruning chainsaw....

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I did not pay $149 for the pruning chainsaw. The Black Friday sale going on right now is buy a 2 pack of 4 Ah 18v Ryobi batteries, with charger, and get a free tool from a number of choices.

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So, today I picked up about $352 worth of regular priced tools for a Black Friday sale price of $99.00!

To make this purchase somewhat relevant to my gardening, all my powered tools are in the Ryobi line and will run on these batteries. Including a 18v mower, cultivator, mini tiller, brush cutter and well as the drills, sanders, and impact drivers I use to make my raised beds. I am hopeful that this new pruning chainsaw will replace my good old reciprocating saw with my 10-inch pruning blade.

The reciprocating saw with pruning blade is just about perfect for my needs, but this summer I cut down a large pine tree and had loads of small branches to cut up. If you get really small branches, sometimes the pruning blade will just grab a hold of the branch and shake it back and forth. In contrast, this pruning chainsaw is supposed to grab those small branches, draw it into the saw, and cut right through all that growth. That would be an improvement in both time and labor saved.

And as many know, all my raised beds use the hügelkultur system. This new pruning saw should make cutting those small branches easier than using my reciprocating saw or my other chainsaws. If not, I'll probably have to return it for a refund. Seeing some videos on YouTube, I think it will be an improvement over the reciprocating saw.

If something like that interests you, the Black Friday deal is sweet! Here is a review from not long ago...

Very nice! I have something similar, and use it often. Like today - on my wisteria

 

[Sammster]

Thank you for your comment. They may be day lilies, I don't know. But they are huge, varied and magnificent. Some are ruffled, some not. Colors range from pink to maroon, yellow to tangerine, with a variety of throats and eyes. We got them from a now-deceased friend who'd spent a lifetime breeding them. And we did not dig them because of the weather; we've never dug them before. We dug them for a couple of reasons, primarily to thin them, as they've become badly overgrown. But also because a tree (catalpa? Not sure) has invaded the garden where they've been growing, sending up new trees from suckers into the midst of them and we had to remove the lilies so we can destroy the tree and its suckers. And finally, we need/want to separate the clumps and replant them so we can catalog them. The day we got them was in the heat of summer and we just had to jam them in the ground willy-nilly to save them. Now we want to see what we've got so we have to separate them.

Lilies (of all kinds) are probably my favorite of flowers I have some I should thin out, too

 

[gtaus]

Oh I bought two cheap chainsaw skins off aliexpress that used makita batteries and wow they were like woodchippers on crack going through ficus like hot butta. But they burned out because we'd constantly use them jobs that were far too demanding. At least with your ryobi skins you're covered if the unit burns out.

But I tell ya what, you're gonna have some good fun. I wish I had one to take care of the base of this honey locust that has bushed out heaps.

Good info to consider. I am treating this Ryobi 6 inch pruning chainsaw as a niche tool for specific pruning sized jobs. I think I will be able to resist the temptation to use this small 6-inch pruning chainsaw for bigger projects, because I have other 12-inch to 18-inch chainsaws in the garage for those jobs.

Also, the Ryobi 6-inch pruning chainsaw does have a 3-year warranty. I don't know if your Aliexpress chainsaw was brushless, but the Ryobi 6-inch pruning chainsaw is the brushless motor which, in theory, should last longer.

Honestly, I have never had a Ryobi product fail within the warranty period, but I imagine that if you started cutting down trees or using these small chainsaws on jobs "far too demanding" for the tool, you could probably burn out any motor.

For the past 30 years, I got along perfectly well with my chainsaws for the big stuff and a reciprocating saw with a pruning blade for trimming up the trees. But this summer I had to cut up a mound of tree branches for either the backyard campfire or into smaller pieces to toss into the hügelkultur raised garden beds. I had some problems with both my big chainsaws and my reciprocating saw with a pruning blade. Neither seemed to be a great solution for the task, but obviously, I got the work done.

Anyways, I came upon the following 4+ minute video on YouTube that specifically addressed the issues I was having cutting up that mound of small branches. In the following video, this guy compares using the 6-inch pruning chainsaw for cutting up that small stuff versus using the reciprocating chainsaw with a pruning blade...

After watching that video, I decided to buy one of these small pruning chainsaws for myself and see if it is worth keeping or not.

Home Depot normally has something like a 30-day return policy on tools. However, if you use a Home Depot credit card to buy Ryobi tools, you get a 1-year return for any reason exchange period. There is some added value to using a Home Depot credit card if you are buying Ryobi tools at the store (or online).

 

[gtaus]

Very nice! I have something similar, and use it often. Like today - on my wisteria

I did not become aware of these pruning chainsaws until fairly recently. And then the regular $150.00 price tag on the Ryobi 6-inch pruning chainsaw stopped me from looking any further. But the Home Depot Black Friday special where you can get the two 18v 4Ah batteries and charger for $99, and then get the $150.00 pruning chainsaw for FREE, well, that made me reconsider the options.

Since looking into these small chainsaws made by all the brands now, I have heard lots of positive reviews by people who actually have and use them. So, I am looking forward to a nice day to go outside and try it out. I live in northern Minnesota and we already have snow on the ground for over a week. But the weather is supposed to warm up a bit for the next week and a half up into the mid-40's F. That will be nice.

 

[CNJ]

I'd love to be able to find those awesome earth boxes you've guys got, they look durable and nice. I know bunnings sell a bunch also. Now I'm tempted to use one of my old rails just for cherry tomatoes.

The original earth box is kind of expensive and they don't sell it where I live. I would have to order it online and pay for shipping, so I decided to make my own, the totes cost only $12 each and are kind of durable. I had the ones in the picture out in the sun for about 5 years.

I stacked two totes from Lowes and screwed two 2x4 on the top tote for the water reservoir and drilled some drain holes and two holes to fit two 4-inch net cups. The reservoir holds around 4 gallons of water.

I had to put a 1/4-inch wicking rope in the net cup to make up the 1/2-inch gap underneath. but I think I could cut the bottom of the net cup out and cut the rim off another one and slip it in to make up the gap. I will try that on my next build.