In the autumn and winter months, the UK wet weather can impact gardening businesses dramatically, making easy tasks a lot more difficult and sometimes more dangerous. There is a saying that 'there is no inappropriate weather just inappropriate clothing' which is true in a lot of scenarios but with the best of wills you can find yourself fighting a losing battle against the elements.
To give an example, we often suggest scheduling turfing projects for the autumn, as the ground has more moisture in which to help the roots take and for the turf to bed in. However, this is also our rainy season and sometimes we can be caught short.
The photo above shows the result after a day and night of heavy rain. What was a nicely raked and compressed new layer of topsoil became a sloppy bog. Our only option was to dig out drainage channels and wait for the water to subside before we could continue. Water will always find its way to the lowest point.
In this case, the heavy rain was more disruptive to our schedule than anything and we eventually completed the project as you can see below, A new leveled lawn with hard oak sleeper surrounds and pathway through the middle. All was not lost but as you can see we were hampered by the wet weather.
As you can imagine we often work in the wet weather and it is important that we stay as dry as possible whilst doing so. Looking after our clothing and footwear is a priority so we regularly treat our workwear with Nikwax waterproofing products, in particular Nikwax Tech Wash and TX Direct as well as Nikwax Footwear Cleaning Gel and Waterproofing for Leather. We find this the best way to reproof our workwear and recommend these products highly, to tradespeople and anyone who spends time in wet conditions. See the video below on how to use Nikwax products, the benefits, and how it works:
When the temperature falls below 0°, operations become even more difficult. Below you will see a video of our first day on a patio demolition and rebuild. The temperature was dropping to -5° in the evenings and a threat of heavy snow was forecasted so it was either put down tools, lose income, and delay the work or find a solution and carry on.
It is worth mentioning how freezing temperatures can affect your patio. In the winter months, if water has found its way underneath a patio into holes or gaps in the existing mortar or grout, it can freeze, expand, and push up the existing pavers and grout. This results in the patio degrading and becoming loose underfoot. It is now a health and safety risk and devaluing the property. Laying a patio on a solid mortar bed is always recommended. See the below video, we find all sorts when we strip out existing patios.
We went ahead and laid the patio slabs and used a winter mix in our mortar. This is an air-entraining chloride-free liquid admixture for mortar and concrete which also acts as an accelerator for work in sub-zero temperatures. It improves workability and freeze/thaw resistance.
We completed laying the patio at -4° and as much as our mortar was absolutely fine, we did run into other issues such as taps freezing, hoses freezing, sand freezing, as well as mild frostbite on our fingers and toes. Once again we could work around it all by continually defrosting the hose with hot water, working the sand more intensely prior to mixing, and plenty of hot brews to warm us up. Layered clothing consisting of thermal base layers, mid layers, and double-lined outer layers definitely played their part in keeping us going.
The project halted once the Indian Sandstone had been laid as the freeing temperatures were not right for grouting. So you see we can struggle in the winter for many reasons, but we do our best to carry on wherever possible and look forward to warmer weather that we hope will come sooner rather than later.
Follow our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/EPGardeningServices to see the finished project video and much more about what we do. Thanks for taking the time to view our blog.
By Ed Paterson @ EP Gardening Services 2024
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