A perfect lawn you would dream of

This is a well-maintained lawn, which I mowed recently in Templestowe.  Weeds are virtually invisible and being crowded out by the flourishing grass.  In contrast, most of garden lawns I have seen are invaded by weeds.  Without weeding, a perfect lawn is unlikely to attain.  Spraying weed killer is an effective option but many oppose it for the concern of the impact of chemicals used in weed killers. Fortunately, there is a choice of organic (non-toxic ) way of killing weeds. Some of my clients are passionately growing their own organic vegetables and fruits. Thus, they prefer organic weed killer to any chemical weed killers.

Overgrown hedges

Let your hedges overgrow without trimming, is not just an aesthetic issue affecting the presentation of your house.  In Australia (at least in NSW), the overgrown hedges could attract a lawsuit if they are severely blocking neighbours’ views or sunlight. Check this news in NSW.

You may want to go to http://www.lawlink.nsw.gov.au/lec and see Tree Disputes.

To see the content of the Trees Amendment click here.

In Victoria, Whittlesea, Knox and Maroondah city councils enforce a rule of clearance of overhanging tree branches from the ground level to 2.5 or 3.0 metres when over a footpath.

Does Vacumm Gutter Cleaning provides better outcome?

Some gutter cleaning service providers are using vacuum to speed up their work on gutter cleaning.  However, do they really produce a better outcome in gutter cleaning???

The traditional way to clean gutters involves in using ladder to climb up to see gutters and use hands and scoop to remove leaves, debris in gutters and downpipes.

In today’s world, we are bombarded with so many commercial campaigns, each of which is designed to imprint onto our mind so that we tend to buy in what they claim without using our logic thinking.  Jim Mowing, for example, is the most well known brand of gardening in Australia. Are they all the best bunch of gardeners or they are just franchisees who bought the franchise business for living?  The answer is obvious but most of people still tend to think of Jim Mowing when thinking of gardening services. That is the power of advertisement.

The benefits of using vacuum in gutter cleaning include “no need to climb the ladder”, “no need to go onto the roof”.

But look at the pictures here. In this scenario( or most of cases I have seen), I believe vacuum gutter cleaning is NOT doing any better (on the contrary they are worse) in cleaning gutters. Why?  In the following photos, the cleanliness of ultimate gutter cleaning can only be achieved by the traditional way. The vacuum gutter cleaning would fail in this type of roof design, which is very common in Victoria. 

1. vacuum gutter cleaning operator on the ground cannot see inside of gutters or valleys on the roof.

2. Valleys often become the catchment of leaves. In the pictures, vacuum operator on the ground would never be able to see or reach the valley. Even the gutters were cleaned by vacuum, the leaves in the valley could soon be flushed down to the gutters again and clogged the gutters and downpipes.

3. Many gutters are partially cover by roof tiles. This creates some blind spots, which vacuum cleaning would not be possible to reach. The traditional method with hands has clearly advantage as we can move tile up or use hand to brush out any debris covered by roof tiles.

4. Downspouts are better checked by high pressure water jet to clean and check their down-flow efficiency . The use of vacuum on the ground can never achieve the same level of result.

5. When gutters are filled with muds, the use of vacuum does not show any advantages as they can be blocked by the muds.