GARDENING TOOLS

A visit to your local garden shop will reveal that there are many different gardening tool items available. These tools can make work much easier. (And when gardening work is easier, we will find ourselves enjoying our lawn or garden much more often.) The price range will vary from one piece to the next. The tricky part is buying what you need and not going for lots of expensive things that you might never use.

The first item that you will need is a spading fork. This gardening tool looks like a pitchfork, but it has a shorter handle and the tines are wider. You will need to use the spading fork to dig into hard soil and open the ground up for planting. Alternatively, use aerators as they are a great way to easily aerate lawn and garden beds. Simple straight forward aerators are best suited for aerating lawns without breaking up the turf. These will also cut down on the formation of thatch. For gardens and flower beds I recommend something like the Garden Claw. These little things are awesome for their power and simplicity. I once used one to complete the entire first plowing session of a thirty by thirty foot double dug garden plot. It cut right through the thick grass as it crumbled the earth. Garden Claws are also excellent for weeding around garden plants.

After your garden is dug up, you need to prepare the soil with the hoe. This gardening tool is wonderful to cultivate the surface of the soil. A well cultivated soil will allow nutrients and water to seep into the ground and nourish the plants. A round ended shovel is another item that is good for larger digging projects. With a round ended shovel, you can plant trees and shrubs in your garden.

Water is a gardener’s best friend. You need to buy a watering can that has a long nozzle. With a long nozzle, the rate of water coming from the can is very gentle on your plants. Also long nozzled watering cans let you water plants farther away from you. With young seedlings in your garden a watering can that has a detachable head is a useful gardening tool. Planters and waterers are important tools to have if you don’t have a lot of time to do everything manually. Planters can help shave off time if you have a busy planting schedule at different times of the year. For watering, you may wish to install a timed sprinkler system. If you have many garden or flower beds, consider using t-tap and a daily timer. This is inexpensive, conserves water and your time!

The best way to level your garden prior to planting is to use a bow rake. This rake has a metal frame that is shaped like a bow. The tines are short and are attached to one side of the rake. With a good bow rake the removal of large clods of earth or rocks can be done. When you turn to the flat side of the rake, you can smooth the soil and get it ready for planting.

Good but inexpensive garden shears can remove dead branches and stems from your plants. You can prune and shape your trees and shrubs with this gardening tool. Before you buy a pair of garden shears or clippers as they are also called, make sure that the shears will fit your hand comfortably. Lawn edgers may be another thing you need to help keep everything crisp and neat. Not only do edgers keep borders even and kempt, but can prolong the time you have before trimming excess growth in the garden. For the main lawn, edgers control grass growth of hardier strains like St. Augustine, while keeping walkways safely clear of excess grass growth.

A weed puller can make pulling weeds much easier. You may not mind squatting down to pull weeds, but if you find yourself putting off pulling a weed for some great weed pulling session, perhaps you’d benefit from the use of a weed planter. These nifty devices allow you to easily remove weeds without having to crouch or wrestle with weeds. If you have back problems a good weed puller is more like a must have.

These garden tools are just the basic ones that you will need the most. As your interest in gardening expands, you will gain more knowledge about the different gardening tool items that are available and what is best suited for you and your garden.

PS: If you find all these tools too intimidating, you may want to consider rock gardening.