Garden Tool Tips

When making a gardening tool purchase, a little knowledge of what you will need and their use can be very beneficial especially if you are a novice gardener. First rule of thumb is to always buy the highest quality of tools that you can afford. Remember, cheap garden tools won’t last very long and you will be constantly replacing them. However, quality does not mean neglect, proper use care of your garden tools is always important.

Before making a garden tool purchase of any kind, ask yourself the following questions:

• How big is my lawn?
• How big will I have my garden?
• Will I plant fruits, vegetables flowers or all three in my garden?
• How many trees and shrubs do I have and how much needs removing?
• How much time am I going to devote to my garden?

Once you have asked and answered these few questions you are now ready to buy your garden tools. Choose stainless steel garden tools for longevity because they are sturdy and practically trouble free. Be certain to select tools that fit your hand comfortably. If possible, try out ergonomically designed tools. They have soft grip handles and will fit like a glove, while making your gardening tasks easier.

List of the must have garden tools you will most likely be needing and their uses:

• WEEDER - designed for the removal of weeds with ease. Simply place the prong between the weeds roots and press the handle down
• GARDEN SCOOP – Is extremely useful for putting potting mix in planters, pots and digging holes in soft soil in your garden
• PRESSED FORK – Good for soft soil, for cultivating and weeding, and won’t go too deep
• MINI RAKE – Best for small narrow garden beds, pots and window boxes
• SOIL KNIFE – Excellent for planting seedling or bulbs and when you need a narrow slot or small hole
• TROWEL – Is great for digging, planting and repotting
• TRANSPLANTER – Just right for transplanting from pot to pot, garden beds, baskets and window boxes
• WIRE FORK – Cultivating, weeding and loosening soil
• CULTIVATOR – Raking over soil, pulling out long stringy weeds, mixing in fertilizers or compost and works well as an aerator.
  With so many durable stainless steel garden tools on the market, a purchase of these excellent tools should be done by choice or preference. In any case the durability of stainless steel is always a good investment that will last for years to come and as with any garden tools; proper care is always a necessity.

How to Use the Right Garden Tool for the Job
How do you use the right tool for the job? How do you decide which is the proper tool to use in any given circumstance? Here are a few tips for selecting a garden tool to match a task.

Things you’ll need:

• Bow Rake 
• Clean Rags
• Garden Spades
• Hand Cultivators
• Leaf Rakes
• Long-handled Hoes
• Pitchforks
• Short-handled Hoes
• Shovels
• Spading Forks
• Clean Rags
• Lubricating Oils
• Metal Files
• Shovels
  

Step 1 - Use shovels for digging and spades for scooping. Shovels have round tips and spades have a flat blade.
Step 2 - Employ flexible rakes for lightweight materials such as lawn clippings and leaves and metal bow rakes for moving and grading soil and mulch.
Step 3 - Arm yourself with a pitchfork when moving twiggy material such as small branches.
Step 4 - Use a spading fork to loosen hard soil or to turn the compost pile.
Step 5 - Look to cultivators to open the surface of the soil. Cultivators add oxygen to existing garden beds and are also used to uproot young weeds.
Step 6 - Take advantage of small, short-handled hoes or weed knives to remove weeds from existing garden beds.
Step 7 - Use large, long-handled hoes to remove weeds from an empty garden bed.

Tips & Warnings

• Treat wooden handles to an occasional swipe with an oil-soaked rag.
• Use a metal file to sharpen the blades of digging and chopping tools
• Use short-handled tools only for small jobs. Long handles are much easier on the back.
  

These are the main jobs in the garden broken down into four main categories:

• Tilling covers soil preparation and moving; basically plowing and carting.
• Cultivating is any job we do to maintain the garden, like weeding or pruning.
• Planting covers how we get the plants in the ground
• Watering - and finally, that most important task, watering.

TILLING
assuming you’re not doing an acre of veggies, your most important tilling tool is a good shovel or spade. This is the work horse, a real jack of all trades that hits almost every category (I have never tried to water with a spade and do not see an immediate need…). There is no point in going cheap here. This is a lifetime purchase if done well; you will be back here in a year or two if you screw up, so buy the best you can afford. I am a big fan of all metal spades; I have had the one I am currently dating for a decade.

I am using this tool in a professional capacity AND using it for my home garden; I have dug trees and shrubs, transplanted and split countless perennials and grass, cut sod and roots, and even hammered a few stakes with it and I foresee several more decades of the same (I hope I hold up!). A spade offers more versatility; the narrower blade and shorter handle make it easier for work in a small (or established) garden. The shovel is a better choice for digging that big hole (and for saving your back), but why choose? I have both and suggest you do as well.

If you do have that big area, or are just establishing a bed, roto-tilling is a good method but a quick word here; I do not feel that buying a roto-tiller is a good investment. Renting for the weekend to knock out that new garden makes much more sense, as yearly roto-tilling breaks down the composition of your soil (more so in clay soils). Repeated tilling also brings up weed seed that eventually decays if left in the depths of the soil strata. This may not sound like a big deal, but consider crabgrass. It can lay dormant at depths of up to three feet for 100 years, waiting to infest your bed and dive into the lawn.

The secret life of worms
I like to establish the bed with one good tilling and then let the worms do the rest. If you have provided organic matter and decent moisture they will come (adding a box or two of night crawlers from the bait shop don’t hurt any, either…). Worms migrate through the soil throughout the year, climbing from below the frost line in the spring to tear into the surface layers in the summer, diving back down in the fall to wait out the winter. They have a daily cycle as well, going deeper to escape the heat of the day. As they move through the soil they break it up and reconstitute it as castings, which actually add fertilizing nutrients to the soil. Let’s see a roto-tiller do that! So as you can probably guess, my favorite tilling tool is a box of worms.

Mattock
Breaking up the soil can be very difficult in clay situations, and working around established trees can leave you frustrated with the roots. The right tool for both jobs is a mattock. It looks like the offspring of a pick and a hoe and handles both these tough jobs and a lot of others. I do not own a pick; the mattock covers those bases nicely as well (I am fond of tools that multi-task).

Spading fork
A spading fork is a wonderful tool for transplanting and aerating; two together make such a wonderful device for splitting grasses and perennials that I have always had two hand forks (stab them back to back at the point you want to split and work the handles apart). They will also do the job of a manure fork, sorting hay, mulch and the like, at least for a smaller garden.

Pry bar
In the New England garden, rock is our constant companion, and those of you with hardpan know how difficult it is to break through. No list of tilling tools would be complete without the pry bar, or breaker bar. You know the one, 6'of iron bar just perfect for, well, prying and breaking things. This one gets a workout whenever I start a new bed, prying up the inevitable boulder or two that I run across. It also is another tool that can double as a pick, so we’re running out of reasons to own one.

If we’re starting a bed we’re adding compost and humus, mulching and perhaps even moving soil from one locale to another, so I include the barrows and carts in this group. This is a personal decision, based on what you are intending to carry and your own personal limitations. The traditional wheelbarrow with the single tire up front is great for working in tight spaces, but it can be unstable with a big load, and anyone who has had to shovel a load of gravel off of a lawn will attest that it is not much of a labor saving device if you dump it

Care and maintenance tips
Spear & Jackson goes to great lengths to ensure that our products perform to the highest standards. Using the care and maintenance tips below can help to extend the lifetime of our products, and give you years of reliable gardening pleasure. There are some tips to help keep you safe, too!

Shears
Clean your shears with a dry cloth after each session to remove sap and any moisture, and keep the pivot point on the blades well oiled. At the end of the cutting season, wipe the blades down with an oiled rag, to prevent corrosion. If cutting becomes difficult, sharpen the blade edges by carefully running a file diagonally away from you across the sharp edge, maintaining the factory bevel. Hone the final sixteenth of an inch of the blade with a sharpening stone.

Loppers
During heavy periods of use, make sure the pivot is kept well-oiled and sharpen the blade if cutting requires more effort. Always clean and dry the blade with a dry cloth after each day's pruning, to remove any sap or moisture. Wipe the blades down at the end of the cutting season with an oiled rag, to prevent corrosion. Maintain all sharp edges with a medium grit sharpening stone.

Pruners
During heavy periods of use, make sure the spring is kept well oiled, and sharpen the blade if cutting requires more effort. Always clean and dry the blade with a dry cloth after each day's pruning, to remove any sap or moisture. Wipe the blades down at the end of the cutting season with an oiled rag, to prevent corrosion. Maintain all sharp edges with a medium grit sharpening stone.

Garden saws
Always carefully clean and dry the blade with a dry cloth after each use, to remove any sap or moisture. Wipe the blade down at the end of the cutting season with an oiled rag, to prevent corrosion.

Tree pruners
During heavy periods of use, make sure the spring and pivot are kept well oiled. Always clean and dry the blades with a dry cloth after each day's pruning, to remove any sap or moisture. Wipe the blades down at the end of the cutting season with an oiled rag, to prevent corrosion.

Digging & cultivating tools
General use: Remove soils during use, and wash at the end of the day. Do not leave outside during extreme weather conditions. Wipe any moisture from the tool before storage. Store all the digging tools in a cool dry place such as a garden shed or garage. Always hang tools head up.

End of season: Thoroughly wash the tool head. Wipe all moisture from the metal parts and wipe or spray them with oil. Wipe the hardwood shaft with a rag soaked in linseed oil at the start and end of the gardening season.

Usage: These tools are not manufactured for striking, prizing or levering applications - for example, do not attempt to lift heavy paving slabs using the end of the tool.