I was given some cash for Christmas, and with it I bought my heart’s desire (or at least one of them – there are many): a pair of Felcos. My history with hand pruners is not good. Knowing myself as I do, I generally buy cheap pruners, anticipating that their life span will be less than a year. They will either be lost behind a shrub, rusted shut after being left to fend for themselves in the rain, or hopelessly dulled through misuse and abuse. Most likely all three. But this year – oh, this year! I will be good. So very very good. It is the new year, and all things are possible.
And so I vow that this year I will:
- Bring my pruners inside every day, and not leave them all alone outside perched on top of a fence post.
- Cease cutting wire with my pruners because I am too lazy to go inside to get wire cutters.
- Use a pruning saw to cut tree limbs, rather than mashing said limb into my pruners and forcing the blades shut between my elbow and thigh.
- Refrain from cutting nefarious woody weeds below the soil line with my pruners. I shall employ a garden fork to elevate the buggers and then behead them.
- Refuse to use my pruners for any non-gardening tasks, such as snipping the rage-inducing plastic ties that hold plastic toys to their plastic packaging.
- Clean the dirt and bits of greenery from my pruners on occasion. Promising to oil them regularly and disinfect them between cuts on a rose is going too far.
- Use my pruners gently, love them tenderly, and resist the temptations of pruner abuse.
These things I solemnly vow, at least for the time time being.
A Gardener's Lot 