Whipper Snipper Advice For Those Who Don't Like Gardening Jobs!

There's a whipper snipper lying neatly against the wall in my garden shed. It's just waiting, very patiently for the day that the grass grows so high that there will be no excuses left for me to make. This will be the day that the once neat garden beds will be framed by a long border of six inch tall grass swaying joyfully in the breeze. The day is coming ever nearer for this newly inherited task, unseasonable warm sunshine and rain is making sure of that.

The thought of using a whipper snipper never gives me joy. Maybe it's the noise, even greater than that of a lawn mover, they make, that high pitched scream that could be coming from me if that furiously rotating wire misses its target and connects with my leg. The way they slice through the grass and everything else that gets in their way should be enough to bring about a pause for thought. Although at least my whipper snipper only has a wire, so surely that must be better than those that have metal teeth.

My sister-in-law just loves her whipper snipper. It's her favorite gardening tool. In fact she looks so very comfortable using it, masterful in fact. You can tell a person who relishes in this task by the way they hold it and their confident stride as they cut their garden to perfection.

I have used one once, but it would have been obvious to anyone that the whipper snipper and I were not getting along at all well. For a start I was unable to cut a straight line, and I'm sure the grooves that were being carved through to the bare earth were not an attractive look. Of course it can be put down to a lack of experience, but there is definitely a skill involved in creating those beautifully manicured edges.

But what is the alternative? It really is a case of mastering the whipper snipper or going back to the dark ages of either hand clipping, or the manual edger. Somehow neither of these options arouses in me even the slightest amount of enthusiasm. That probably has something to do with the enormous amount of edging that will eventually have to be done. It takes an expert whipper snipper operator several hours to accomplish, so the job could well be an all day affair for me.

There is a way around it all of course, as there is to just about all of life's little trials and tribulations. Hire a gardener. These are definitely the professionals when it comes to using a whipper snipper. I've even seen them controlling and guiding their whipper snipper effortlessly as they walk backwards creating the perfect line. It's all in a day's work for them, whether it is a favorite part of their day, who knows, but it is definitely something that they become very proficient at very quickly.

The idea of hiring someone to attend to the whipper snipper chores is certainly very attractive, but the fact is I will never be able to think of myself as a gardener until this part of my education is complete. Providing the muscles are willing, a day spent with this noisy monster should either show a vast improvement or a surrender. After all, we all have gardening talents and for some this means whipper snipper prowess, and for others it may be that they are a whiz on the end of a pair of secateurs. My talents have yet to emerge, but I'll keep working on it.

Whipper snipper is a new addition in Sam Butler’s gardening shed. His website Lawn-and-Garden.biz explains how he gets to know and use those gardening tools he never thought existed.