Hedge Trimming - Kolkata 2005-08-10 02050

A hedge trimmer, shrub trimmer, or bush trimmer is a

gardening tool A garden tool is any one of many tools made for gardening and landscaping, which overlap with the range of tools made for agriculture and horticulture. Garden tools can be divided into hand tools and power tools. Hand tools Today's garden too ...

or machine used for trimming (cutting,

pruning Pruning is the selective removal of certain parts of a plant, such as branches, buds, or roots. It is practiced in horticulture (especially fruit tree pruning), arboriculture, and silviculture. The practice entails the targeted removal of di ...

)

hedge A hedge or hedgerow is a line of closely spaced (3 feet or closer) shrubs and sometimes trees, planted and trained to form a barrier or to mark the boundary of an area, such as between neighbouring properties. Hedges that are used to separate ...

s or solitary

shrub A shrub or bush is a small to medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen. They are distinguished from trees by their multiple ...

s (bushes). Different designs as well as manual and powered versions of hedge trimmers exist. Hedge trimmers vary between small hand-held devices to larger trimmers mounted on tractors.

Types

Stand-alone hedge trimmers

The power source of stand-alone hedge trimmers can be

human power Human power is the rate of work or energy that is produced from the human body. It can also refer to the power (rate of work per time) of a human. Power comes primarily from muscles, but body heat is also used to do work like warming shelters, f ...

gasoline Gasoline ( North American English) or petrol ( Commonwealth English) is a petrochemical product characterized as a transparent, yellowish, and flammable liquid normally used as a fuel for spark-ignited internal combustion engines. When for ...

, or

electricity Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter possessing an electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described by Maxwel ...

. * Manual hedge trimmers (sometimes also called hedge shears or hedge clippers) are designed as large

scissors Scissors are hand-operated shearing tools. A pair of scissors consists of a pair of blades pivoted so that the sharpened edges slide against each other when the handles (bows) opposite to the pivot are closed. Scissors are used for cutting var ...

or large

pruning shears Pruning shears, also called hand pruners (in American English) or secateurs (in British English), are a type of scissors used for plants. They are strong enough to pruning, prune hard branches of trees and shrubs, sometimes up to two centimetres ...

. They do not need anything to operate and are cheapest/most environmentally friendly. * Motorized hedge trimmers allow work to be done faster and with less effort than manual ones. Their cutting mechanism is similar to that of finger-bar mowers. Powered trimmers are generally designed with safety devices such that they work only when both of the operator's hands are on the handles. ** Gasoline-powered trimmers tend to be more powerful but can be heavier and more difficult to start. ** Electrical trimmers tend to be lighter and less powerful (than gasoline variants) as well as less polluting/noisy, yet still require an electrical cord with most types (if not equipped with

rechargeable batteries A rechargeable battery, storage battery, or secondary cell (formally a type of energy accumulator), is a type of electrical battery which can be charged, discharged into a load, and recharged many times, as opposed to a disposable or prima ...

). File:Taille haie.jpg, A manual hedge trimmer with telescopic handles File:HeckenschereElektr.jpg, An electric hedge trimmer File:323HD60.png, A gasoline-powered hedge trimmer

Tractor-mounted hedge trimmers

Tractor A tractor is an engineering vehicle specifically designed to deliver a high tractive effort (or torque) at slow speeds, for the purposes of hauling a Trailer (vehicle), trailer or machinery such as that used in agriculture, mining or constructio ...

-mounted and tractor-driven hedge trimmers also exist but are uncommon. These

machines A machine is a physical system that uses power to apply forces and control movement to perform an action. The term is commonly applied to artificial devices, such as those employing engines or motors, but also to natural biological macromolec ...

consist of a moveable arm (

hydraulic Hydraulics () is a technology and applied science using engineering, chemistry, and other sciences involving the mechanical properties and use of liquids. At a very basic level, hydraulics is the liquid counterpart of pneumatics, which concer ...

boom) with a large hedge trimmer attachment at its end. Their cutting mechanism is similar to that of finger-bar mowers. Such large hedge trimmers are often confused with tractor-mounted reach flail mowers (booms with flail mower attachments), which appear similar due to the use of booms. And in

colloquial language Colloquialism (also called ''colloquial language'', ''colloquial speech'', ''everyday language'', or ''general parlance'') is the linguistic style used for casual and informal communication. It is the most common form of speech in conversation amo ...

both, tractor-mounted hedge trimmers and reach flail mowers, are imprecisely called ''hedge cutters'', or ''brush cutters''. In contrast to tractor-mounted hedge trimmers, reach flail mowers have a different cutting mechanism and are not only used for trimming hedges but also in several other fields of application (mowing taller grass, road verge cutting,

ditch A ditch is a small to moderate trench created to channel water. A ditch can be used for drainage, to drain water from low-lying areas, alongside roadways or fields, or to channel water from a more distant source for plant irrigation. Ditches ...

maintenance, etc.). File:2010-04-07 Unimog at Arthur Ibbetts machinery dealership.jpg,

Unimog The Unimog (pronunciation in American English: ''YOU-nuh-mog''; British English: ''YOU-knee-mog''; German: , ) is a Daimler Truck line of multi-purpose, highly offroad capable AWD vehicles produced since 1948. Utilizing engine-driven power tak ...

with a flail hedge and verge trimmer implement used in

agroforestry Agroforestry (also known as agro-sylviculture or forest farming) is a land use management system that integrates trees with crops or pasture. It combines agricultural and forestry technologies. As a polyculture system, an agroforestry system c ...

File:WLMMH (DerHexer) 067.jpg, A tractor-mounted hedge trimmer ("hedge cutter") File:Dücker Ast- und Wallheckenschere.jpg, Detail view File:Cullompton, Colebrooke Lane - geograph.org.uk - 44053.jpg, A reach

flail mower A flail mower is a type of powered garden/agricultural equipment which is used to deal with heavier grass/scrub which a normal lawn mower could not cope with. Some smaller models are self-powered, but many are PTO driven implements, which can a ...

used for cutting hedges

References

External links

* {{Garden tools Gardening tools