Work of the week

TREES: Employ an expert if you intend to get garden trees reduced in their canopies.

Some may need total removal following recent storms. Tree surgery is a more or less unregulated profession and anyone with a ladder, a rope and a saw, can call himself an arborist. For a list of professional tree contractors and consultants, look up the Golden Pages. Be aware of preservation orders and conservation area regulations. Check with local planning before undertaking any work apart from light pruning. If a tree is dead, dying or dangerous it can be felled without permission, but it is advisable to check beforehand with your local council. Not all trees can be pruned at this time of year. Much depends on species, variety, and age. Seek advice first is.

LAWNS: During mild and dry weather, improve soil aeration and drainage on the lawn by removing plugs of soil with a hollow tine aerator. These two-pronged hand-held aerators are not cheap to buy (€80) but at least they’re fairly easy to source. Three-pronged and four-pronged models do not seem to work as well. With your feet, push the tool into the ground at roughly six-inch intervals, and as you progress, plugs of soil will be removed and ejected. When finished, you sweep up or collect the plugs for use in the compost heap. Refill the holes by brushing in a mixture of two-to-one of coarse sand and potting compost. Small areas done with regularity soon complete even the largest lawn.