Oct 27 2008
Essential Gardening Tools
As a child you have probably seen your mother or father pottering about in the garden. They seemed to be working with lots of tools. You might have played with a gardening tool as well. Now that you are grown-up and have your own garden you too will need those garden tools.
A visit to your local garden shop will reveal that there are many different gardening tool items available. 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.
Your first item should be a spading fork. It looks similar to a pitch fork, but with a shorter handle and wider tines. The spading fork will help you loosen the hard soil and work the ground so you can add plants.
You will need to prepare the ground with a hoe after you’ve dug it. A hoe will allow you to cultivate the soil so nutrients and water will be able to find its way to the plants. You may also need a round ended shovel if you plan to plant larger items such as trees or shrubs.
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.
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.
Buy good, but not necessarily expensive garden shears, to remove dead branches and stems. They can also be used to prune and shape shrubs as well. The most important thing is that the shears fit the shape of your hand and are comfortable.
These are just the basic gardening items to start you off. As your interest in gardening grows, you will also expand your knowledge of what other tools are available and what would be appropriate for you.
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[...] just my personal take on garden tools. What are the tools you use over and over and can’t live without? And do you think that men and women sometimes approach gardening in [...]