Garden Tools

Garden tools- Selecting the right  tools is most important. Having the right type for each job results in better care of your plants.

Quality  items properly cared for, can last a lifetime, so purchase the best  tools you can afford.  Spades, shovels forks made of  forged steel are stronger  and more durable than pressed tools. These  can be expensive, so if your budget is limited settle for lower priced tools of well known brands, where quality  has not been compromised. Choose tools which are comfortable to use, that are the right length and the handle feels right.

Looking at garden tools in depth the traditional shovel for digging and shifting soils, has a rounded pointed scooped face, making it the workhorse for most cultivating jobs. These are usually long handled, but the short  handled, square point shovels are ideal for other jobs like squaring edges, doing bottom of ditches and shoveling manure and clearing snow, etc. Spades generally have a shorter handle, square edged and a more comfortable weight,  ideal for women and specialised jobs such as breaking up earth clods and tiding up. Handles can be wood or steel with the `D` shaped grip.

Other garden tools are the Fork, a four pronged/tines impliment with a `D` shaped grip, similar to a spade, but the tines penetrate easily making it ideal for loosing or  aereating  and  turning the ground. The rake or bow rake has about fifteen toothed like prongs from a `T` shaped bar, which is used for levelling  off after digging leaving a neat tidy finish ready for planting. There are other variations of the rake, but will mention the lawn or grass rake, made of either steel, plastic or bamboo a light and springy  fan shaped garden  tool for raking up grass or leaves.

Another type of garden  tool is the hoe. there are two sorts, the Swan- Neck  Hoe and and the Push-Pull Hoe. The swan-neck type or chop hoe will cut the weeds off at ground level and work like a small pick to cultivate especially between rows. The other is a torpedo or flat disc shape, again for weeding by scraping the soil surface and breaking the soil crust. By rolling the tool over it can be used in a chopping motion and  you will find by working backwards you will avoid walking over the piece just cultivated.

Another garden tool, ideal for working in and around plants is the Cultivator. This is a three pronged-half hooked implement with the centre prong off-set from the outer two. Supplementary implements are the smaller hand type garden tools,  such as the Secateurs used for cutting wood or twigs up to 2cm thick. Similar, is the Lopper a garden tool with a 50cm long handle  giving it greater leverage and cutting strength to cut thicker items up to 4/5cm thick. The Hedge Shears have a long scissor-like blade foe trimming objects and shaping bushes. Also available is the electric Hedge Trimmer a more labour saving and faster garden tool. Pruning Saw is required for heavier and larger wood.

To keep everything tidy the need of a bin of some sort for composting,  may be a boxed area perhaps in the corner of the  section or a portable plastic bins now completes our list of garden tools.