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Two Precautions That Landscapers Should Take When Working in the Rain

Whilst ideally, landscapers should not work when it is raining heavily, sometimes working in these weather conditions is unavoidable. If you are new to the profession of landscaping, here are some precautions that you should take when you need to work in the rain.

Use rubber outdoor mats when working on wet grass or soil

One of the best things you can do if you know you will need to work in the rain is to buy a few rubber outdoor mats that have holes in them that the rainwater can seep through. Use them whenever you need to stand on wet grass or saturated soil during your landscaping projects.

There are a couple of reasons why these mats are useful in this situation. Firstly, they will provide traction, even when you are carrying out landscaping jobs on a wet and slippery lawn. This will prevent your feet from sliding around and you from falling over as a result of this. This, in turn, will help you to avoid being hurt by falling over or by slipping and landing on one of your sharp landscaping tools.

Secondly, if you need to stand on soil that is so saturated with rainwater that it immediately sinks under the weight of your body, placing this type of mat on top of it will provide you with a stable 'floor' to stand on whilst you work. This, in turn, will ensure that you won't stumble or lose your balance when trimming a client's hedge or shrubs and accidentally lop off far more than you intended to. This is important, as a mistake like this could make your client very unhappy. 

Swap your electric tools for manual ones

If you have to work on a day when it is expected to rain for several hours, then it best to use your manual landscaping tools rather than your electric ones. For example, you might want to use your manual edging shears instead of an electric trimmer when removing weeds and overgrown grass from the edge of a lawn.

The reason for this is that it can be much harder to see clearly when it is raining very heavily. If you use an electric landscaping tool like the aforementioned trimmer in these conditions, there will be a greater chance of you misjudging the distance between, for example, your foot and the strimmer's fast-moving blade and then injuring yourself.

Conversely, if you accidentally bump a pair of manual edging shears against your foot because you can't see very well, the chances of this collision doing any significant damage will be very low.