In winter, with heavy snowfall, the topic ofsnow removal from the propertyand the area of the backyard garden becomes very important. Although plants can survive frosts more easily under a down duvet, excess snow can also harm garden shrubs and lawn. See when it is necessaryremoving snow from plantsandhow to clear snowthe area around the house.
Frosted tree branches look cute but the excess snow makes it difficult to reach the plot
Winter has its good sides, not only for skiing enthusiasts.The snow-covered garden and frosted tree branches look amazing, often almost magical. Plants also need snow. A sufficiently thick snow cover protects them from frost. When there is a lot of snow, even plants that freeze easily can survive bitter frosts under it.
But the benefits of snow in the garden basically end there, and in some situations snow can also threaten our plants. First of all, the snow caps on the treetops can deform or even break branches. Therefore, especially from the columnar forms of conifers, you need toshake off the excess snowProphylactically you can also tie the columnar forms of coniferswith string , especially if you live far from the plot and regular visits to it will not be possible.
Too thick snow cover, especially stale heaps, cause plants to wither due to lack of oxygen and the overwhelming weight. When the snow melts on warmer days and freezes again at night, ice crusts form that do not allow air to pass through.They are particularly dangerous to lawns (snow mold develops easily then) and bulbs and tubers, which can rot under such conditions. At the end of winter, excess water from melting snow can worsen the condition of moisture-sensitive species. Therefore, when we clear snow from paths in the garden or around the house, remember not tothrow too much snow on the lawns and rebates
Excess snow, however, is a particular nuisance for us when we cannot leave the garage or we have to struggle through snow drifts to get to the gate. Then it will not be without snow removal. So how do you get rid of excess white down? And how to clear the paths so as not to endanger the surrounding plants?
First of all, I do not recommend sprinkling the surface with s alt. S alt is very harmful to plants, after dissolving, it goes deep into the soil together with water. If we want to sprinkle the icy paths, it is only sand.However, it's best to get rid of excess snow and ice with the right tools.
We can remove snow from the property by ourselves using a snow shovel
Small areas, e.g. around the house, can be snowed with hand tools, such assnow shovels and shovelsTheir advantages include simple operation, lack of environmental pollution and independence from energy sources. Well, maybe it is not so simple with the latter, because we need the strength of our hands. However, a bit of cunning and good equipment will make the job quite easy.
The simplest snow shovel imaginable are wooden scrapers made of a rectangular piece of plywood nailed to a wooden shaft. However, working with such a shovel is not very comfortable.It is much better to use snow shovels or snow shovels with heads (the part you take the snow) made of light plastic (most often aluminum or polypropylene), to which snow will not stick .The side edges of the heads are not sharp and arched upwards. The leading edge should end with a metal strip, which will increase the strength of the snow shovel and allow it to break even thin ice. It is also worth paying attention to the good balance of the tool, the profiling of the handle and the comfortable handles. It is good if the parts by which we grip the shovel are covered with rubber, which will reduce freezing and slipping of the hands during work.
If the paths are covered with a thicker layer of ice or icy snow, in addition to the snow shovel, it will also be useful toice removerthe remover heads must be very durable, so they are usually made of hardened steel. The heads can be flat or slightly sunken, rectangular, trapezoidal or semicircular.I sometimes see people using regular shovels to break the ice. However, I do not advise you to use the shovel in this way, because its head may be damaged. Ice extractors, as a rule, have much harder, more durable heads.
It happens, however, that the garden or areas around the house are too large to remove snow with a shovel or snow shovel. Sometimes our condition, he alth, or simply age make such work too hard for us. This is wheresnow blowerswith electric or combustion engines.
How do such devices work? Snow blowers for amateur use in home gardens, resemble lawn mowers. However, instead of the grass cutters, there is a rotor at the front of the machine which collects the snow by means of spiral blades. The snow pulled in by the blades is directed to a chimney-like ejector. Through the ejector, the snow is thrown to the side of the track (depending on the capabilities of the device - even several meters).
Snow removal from the property will be facilitated by an electric or diesel snowblower
As with other garden equipment, snow throwers can have electric or combustion engines. To clear snow from small home gardens,electrical appliancesthey work quieter than combustion appliances (so we will be less burdensome for neighbors), they are easier to use and maintain, and usually cheaper than petrol snow blowers. However, it must be remembered that we will need access to an electrical outlet at a distance of no more than 30 meters. With a longer cable it is not only more difficult to maneuver, but also the power of our device decreases with the length of the cable.
If we do not have access to an electric socket or we have a much larger area to remove snow, choosesnow thrower with a combustion engineThey can be devices with two-stroke engines (with a power of about 1.5 KM) powered by a mixture of oil and gasoline or devices with even more power with four-stroke engines, fueled by gasoline.
Regardless of whether you choose an electric or petrol snow thrower, it is worth paying attention to several parameters and functional features.
The basic parameter issnow removal width(working width) . The greater it is, the faster we can clear large areas of snow. In practice, however, this parameter must be selected according to the size of our garden and the width of the paths. Therefore, for small home gardens, choose a device with a working width of up to 0.5 meters. It can be hard to maneuver with a bigger one.
Another thing isworking height , which is how high a layer of snow the device can collect. In urban garden conditions, with regular snow removal, a working height of 10 cm is sufficient. Outside cities where the snow cover tends to be thicker, devices with a working height of up to 30 cm or even more will be useful.
"To prevent snow removal from being too tiring, it is also worth paying attention to whether the rotor in the selected model slowly moves the device forward by itself or whether there is a wheel or track drive.
Depending on the slope of the terrain, the thickness of the snow cover, and whether the snow is dry (light, loose) or wet (much heavier), a snow blower may come in handygearbox The maneuvering is also facilitated by the presence of a reverse gear.The last very important parameter is the distance the snow is thrown to the side, and
the possibility of adjusting the ejection(rotating ejector).Manufacturers usually specify a range of distances over which snow can be thrown, e.g. from 1 to 4 meters. Where do such differences come from? Wet snow, and therefore heavier, will be thrown shorter than drugs, fluffy dry snow. In principle, therefore, you need to choose a device in which this minimum recoil will meet our expectations.
And how to calculate what will be the minimum recoil for us? For example, if the driveway to the garage is 5 meters wide, and the snow can be thrown only on one side (on the other side there is a building wall, fence, or a bed with plants that we do not want to cover with snow), the recoil distance should be not less than 5 meters.Otherwise, by clearing snow from one part of the driveway, we will be throwing snow on the other part. Removing snow from the second part, on which we will accumulate an additional layer of snow, will therefore be more labor-intensive or the same snow will have to be removed several times. When assessing this parameter, it should also be remembered that here manufacturers may sometimes overestimate the value of this parameter, because it depends on the conditions in which the device works and in which the measurements were made. The terms wet snow and dry snow are quite imprecise, and the throw distance can also be affected by the wind blowing. Ultimately, when working with the device, we can see that the recoil distance is smaller than the manufacturer provided. Therefore, in the case of this parameter, it is worth choosing equipment that slightly exceeds our minimum requirements. "