The heat of summer is on the way and as the water dries up from the ground and plants need to be watered on a daily basis, your water bill starts to rise and talk of a hosepipe ban is in the air. However, 2019 could be the year that you change the way you […]
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It’s May, and that means Spring is well and truly upon us. But while gardeners up and down the country are out coaxing bulbs into bloom, giving their lawn its first cut of the season and mulching their flower beds ready for the heat of summer, garden hedges everywhere are beginning to take over. There’s […]
Robotic technology is everywhere, even in your back garden. One of the most popular lawnmowers on the market right now is the robot lawnmower. In this blog post, we outline what a robot lawnmower is, how they work, and why they’re proving so popular. What are robot mowers? The robot mower is a self-cut lawn […]
It’s useless to pretend otherwise: the market for garden equipment is saturated with products. For the experienced gardener, this is the grown-up equivalent of being a kid in a candy store, but for the humble beginner the sheer amount of tools available to you can feel overwhelming and even put you off starting a proper […]
You wouldn’t necessarily expect the field of lawnmower design to be a place where major technological strides are being made. You’d assume that robotics would be focusing on driverless cars, military drones or household servants before moving into gardening – but you’d be wrong. Autonomous and semiautonomous robotic lawnmowers have been in the market for […]
It can be incredibly difficult to buy for loved ones. Unless you’re on a pretty tight budget, most people either buy or save up for the things they want most rather than waiting for the holiday season to come around. Without spending a small fortune, it can be difficult to think of anything that that […]
For a long time battery-powered tools were sneered at by serious gardeners, as typically they couldn’t compete with the power and uninterrupted operation offered by their petrol equivalents. Now though, things are changing in the world of horticulture. Modern battery technology has reached the point where cordless tools not only offer similar levels of performance […]
We always recommend that you purchase a filter funnel with a new petrol mower. As we think funnels are so important to the ongoing maintenance of your machine, we sell our basic 4″ funnels for just £1.99. Not a lot, is it?
One of the main reasons that some people are reticent about investing in a robotic lawnmower are concerns over safety and security. Can you really trust a machine enough not to cause damage if you relinquish control over your lawn maintenance? And how do you know that some passing chancer won’t hop over the fence […]
There are a lot of different hedgetrimmers on the market these days, the majority of which feature double-sided blades. Double-sided hedgetrimmers are thus by far the most common type of hedgetrimmer around, familiar to home gardeners and professional landscapers alike. But these are not the only hedgetrimmers available, as you can also buy machines with […]
Wherever and whenever someone seeks to make anything grow from the earth, soil cultivation is vital. This is because the soil conditions must be perfect for whatever you are planting if it is going to thrive, regardless of whether you’re at home in the garden or preparing extensive vegetable patches for commercial growing. Effective soil […]
Gardening is only a chore when you don’t have the right tools. For many home gardeners this has long been a problem though, as frequently you are forced to choose between corded electric tools (which are only really suitable for use in the smallest gardens) and expensive petrol equipment (which is loud, dirty and often […]
Ladders are undoubtedly a practical way of reaching things in high places. They have been for a very long time; Jacob famously dreamt of one in the Bible, for instance, while pictures of primitive ladders have been found in a Spanish cave dating from over 10,000 years ago. Neither Jacob nor Neolithic Iberians, however, ever […]
Autumn is a time of changes; the days start to get shorter, the weather gets colder and the country’s trees get naked (despite the reduced temperatures). There is undoubtedly great beauty to be found in the latter of these processes: in northern America, for example, tourists known as “leaf peepers” travel great distances to see […]
Honda’s founder, Soichiro Honda, was an exacting man by anyone’s standards and once told his employees the following; “We have to aim for 120% product quality. If 99% of the products we make are perfect, that would seem like a pretty good record. However, the customers who become the owners of the remaining 1% will […]
The last few decades have not always been glorious ones for the British manufacturing industry. The number of people actually making things (as compared to selling things or selling ideas or selling imaginary money) in the UK has been in steady decline since the 1960s and these days we’re more likely to own products made […]
The summer is when you’ll most want to use your garden, whether simply relaxing and enjoying the sunshine or hosting a BBQ for friends, relatives and neighbours. But hot, dry summer weather can also leave your lawn stressed and unhealthy, hindering growth or even causing it to go dormant until the autumn. As such it’s […]
The world has changed in many significant ways over the past decade; for example, we’re all now able to access centuries of accumulated human knowledge via tiny supercomputers that fit into our pockets, scientists have found the “God Particle”, and never before have we been able to communicate so freely with other people all over […]
Everybody knows that we should be trying to recycle, what with the looming possibility of environmental catastrophe and all. For most people this simply involves sorting out bottles, cardboard and other packaging for the council to pick up fortnightly. But the green-fingered among us know that recycling encompasses far more than just separating glass from […]
Every gardener knows that regular mowing is an important part of everyday horticulture and that failure to do so will leave your grass untidy, unruly and unpleasant to look at. It’s odd, then, that many people seem not to realise that hedge maintenance is equally important. Without trimming and pruning hedgerows, shrubs and bushes on […]
Line trimmers and brushcutters (sometimes collectively known as “stick trimmers”) are vital parts of the horticultural armoury, but to the newcomer the sheer variety of machines on the market today can be baffling. There is, for example, a big difference between a lightweight domestic grass trimmer designed for tidying up long grass and weeds around […]
You might have heard of mulching. It’s definitely becoming increasingly popular with horticulturalists around the world, professionals and amateurs alike! It’s even been officially recommended by Warwickshire County Council. How many other horticultural processes can say that? More than anything, though, mulching is a brilliant way of recycling grass clippings which also ensures a dependably […]
HONDA’S REPUTATION FOR INNOVATION is such that whole books have been written about it (see Driving Honda: Inside the World’s Most Innovative Car Company by Jeffrey Rothfeder if you’d like all the juicy details). Here, however, we’ll make do with a brief summary of some of principles behind Honda’s ongoing success. And since here at […]
From Isaac Asimov’s concerns about loopholes in the laws of robotics to The Matrix’s SFX-laden Cartesian nightmare, humans have long been anxious about the possibility of a robot apocalypse. But this isn’t fair. If the world is going to end it is far more likely to be the result of something humans have done – […]
How’s your back? Bit of a twinge on a cold day now and then? Starts to ache if you’re forced to stand up for too long? Makes peculiar cracking noises when you sit down? Maybe it just hurts the day after a long weekend hard at work in the garden? Well you’re not alone, as […]
In Hanna-Barbera’s 1960s sci-fi cartoon The Jetsons, the titular family are waited upon by Rosie the Robot Maid. Although originally hired to do the housework, Rosie proved herself to be more than a mere automaton with her caring but stern approach to serving her human masters and eventually became a beloved member of the Jetson […]
Bosch has long been a purveyor of some of the world’s leading electric garden tools for hobby gardeners. More recently this has included a variety of exceptional battery-powered tools, incorporating everything from cordless lawnmowers and leaf blowers to the powerful AKE 30 Li cordless chainsaw (as well as cordless grass trimmers, hedgecutters and shears). These […]
Honda has a longstanding reputation for doing things “The Honda Way”. This is the name given to the principles which inform all of Honda’s business activities and which all Honda employees are expected to understand. Key to this philosophy are the “three joys” which Honda have identified based on “a commitment to make products of […]
Moss is one of the simpler plants you’re likely to find in your garden – little more than a thin stem supporting an array of one-cell thick leaves – but despite this organic simplicity it can pose a big problem for gardeners. This is because moss loves to grow in damp, shady parts of the […]
