Tools Every Gardener Needs
Here are some tools that every avid gardener may choose to invest in. Very useful tools, though not essential, are an edging sickle which utilizes old razor blades and a lawn edger and grass edging shears. You should also have long-handled or pole-pruning shears, hedge shears and lopping shears. Other essential items include:
- A good sprinkler
- A deep cultivator such as the potato hoe
- A dibble for seedlings
- A stapling gun
- A pruning saw
- Soil sieves
- A wand for soaking the soil without getting water on the leaves
Here are some luxury item, not needed, but will definitely make maintenance easier:
- A pressure sprayer
- A root feeder
- A wheel hoe and cultivator
- A spreader
- A soil-testing kit
- A garden tractor and garden lawn sweeper
- A mechanical garden mower with mulching attachment and power rotary tiller
- An electric hotbed
Mechanical and power machines are making gardener much easier. The mower mulcher, for example, allows you to easily gather fall leaves and use them for mulching. You run it over the lawn as you would with a mower, and the leaves are then cut into small fragments and deposited beneath or to one side of the machine. Then they are sifted down among the grass leaves and form a light, protective mulch layer.
This material will decompose adding to the organic fertility of the lawn. For your hose, a reel is good to have, as well as a canvas hose. Other equipment to have on hand that allows you to spend hours enjoying working in your garden without interruption, includes:
- Plant ties
- Stakes
- Labels
- Burlap or canvas
- Chicken wire
- Garden line
- Yardstick
- Measuring cup and spoons
- Creosote and other needed paints
- Paintbrush
- Sand, peat moss, lime, plant foods, insecticides, and other chemicals
- Pots and flats
Storing Your Garden Tools
It is best to store the tools is an organized fashion, as this will make them last longer, and make it easier for you to find them. A tool house measuring 3x6 feet can hold and protect a great deal of equipment. Rust is a major enemy of tools, because tools are usually kept in unlighted places and often not wiped off after use. One way to protect against rust is to keep vulnerable tools away from air when not in use, storing them in a box of sand saturated with crankcase oil.
Do not use too much oil, so that the tools become greasy and hard to handle, and do not put the working parts of the tools, such as the pivot part of shears, in the sand. Preserve your hose by kepping it on a reel, draining all water from it, and keeping it from kinking.
The hose should not be left out in the hot summer sun. Coil it loosely on your reel or rack made on the exposed studding of your garage. You can use a wooden TV cable or wire reels to improvise if you have no reel. When you finish with a tool, it is important that you clean them before you put them away. This preserves their life and avoid running into problems that will cause you to have purchase new tools for your needs.
Cleaning Your Garden Tools
Tools need to be cleaned immediately after use, before the soil has dried on them. An emery cloth, wire brush or steel wool can be used, and crankcase oil can be rubbed in. Keep your wooden handles sanded down and preserve the wood with linseed oil. Sharpen hoes with an 8-inch mill file, stroking toward the cutting edge, but don't sharpen digging tools too keenly for when they are thin they nick easily.
Apply your file only to one side of the sickle, with the bottom edge kept flat. Power sprayers need to be washed with clean water and washing soda after each use, and the nozzle should be examined to get out any grit. Clean the sprayer's rubber hose with vinegar. The shower and the nozzle should be cleaned with kerosene. Oil the leather plunger washer after using to prevent it from drying out.