Garden Tips & Resources

Archive for the ‘Garden Tools’ Category

Fall is a great time to clean up your garden. Begin by pulling out weeds that may have cropped up, and raking fallen leaves. Weeds and rotten leaves can carry insects and diseases that might be harmful to your garden. You should also rid your garden of spent annual plants, and harvest your vegetables and other plants that cannot withstand the winter weather.

After fall has come and gone, the leaves will be off your trees and you can see the rotten branches. Trimming off the unwanted branches from your trees isn’t necessary to your gardens health, but may help later on by not dropping branches on your plants and not blocking too much of the sun.

If you have younger trees you should consider wrapping them and supporting them with stakes to help them survive the winter wind and cold.

Putting mulch over your garden for the winter can be a helpful way to protect plants from sudden temperature changes and heavy snow. For mulch you can use about five inches of shredded bark, pine needles, or a variety of other materials. You have to be careful not to mulch too early, because some insects may still be alive and able to take shelter in it for the winter.

Once you are finished with your gardening tools you should clean them and make sure they are in a safe place where they won’t rust and you know where they’ll be for next year.

Before winter comes you should always set out slug repellent, as slugs are one of the worst bugs to have in your garden.

If you have a pool or fountain in your garden, be sure to take out any fish that you have in them and bring them inside. There’s nothing sadder than a fish frozen in a block of ice.

Even if you have very few weeds in your yard and garden though, a weed eater is a handy tool to have in your garden shed because it provides other functionality too. One of the best things you can use a weedeater for – besides cutting down weeds – is edging. Weed eaters are handy to trim the grass along the edge of your sidewalk, driveway, patio, and garden beds too. Weed eaters can clip grass that the lawnmower can’t reach too, such as that growing right against the house, or up close to your favorite apple tree.

There are a couple of different types of weed eaters you can buy, and there are also a wide variety of motor sizes and power settings too. These days weed eaters even come with different types of attachments and heads too, so you can select a weed eater that’s just right for your particular yard and garden needs.

Gas weed eaters are the most common type you’ll find, and these are usually considered more powerful as well. These weed eaters have a small engine on them which requires gasoline in order to operate. The extra power of these weed eaters is beneficial for some, particularly if you have a large number of tough weeds in your lawn or garden. Some people don’t like having to buy and store gasoline though, and with today’s gas prices being so high this may not be an ideal choice.

Electric weed eaters use the electricity from your home to run. Generally you need a long heavy duty extension cord so that you’re able to reach all areas of your yard and garden with this type of weed eater, and that can be a big drawback for someone with a very large lawn area to maintain. Electric weed eaters often tend to be less powerful than gas versions too, and this can be frustrating when you have very tough weeds to keep under control.

String heads are the most commonly seen type of head on a weed eater. These use thick plastic cord to actually cut the weeds. The cord is usually arranged in a coiled format inside the head, and the cord is extended out gradually as needed.

When you’re using a weed eater which has a cord or string style head, there is usually a button on the bottom which acts as a feed. When the cord breaks and becomes too short to cut the weeds, you simply tap the weed eater against the ground and more cord is extended. Depending on the type of weed eater you have though, this does not always work as well as it should. And a problem commonly seen with this type of weed eater head is that the cord becomes tangled or stuck inside, so the head must be removed and the problem fixed before you can continue with your trimming.

Another type of weed eater head which is starting to become more popular uses plastic blades. These are like small serrated knife blades made of thick, durable plastic. These blades often last much longer than the plastic cord does, because they don’t break nearly as easily. Often the blades have a shorter cutting perimeter than the plastic does though, and this can take some getting used to if you’ve always used cord style cutting heads instead. Some people don’t like the blades because of their shortness, and in some weed eater models the blades can pop off during operation, which means you must stop what you’re doing and reattach them.

If you’ve never used a weed eater before, your best course of action is to try one or more before actually choosing the type you’ll buy. Consider borrowing one from a friend or family member, or simply rent one from a small equipment rental facility. Then do a bit of research online into the different types of machines and their head attachments, see with other users have to say about each, and make your decision from there.

While experienced gardeners may be able to put garden tools to best use, it’s essential that beginning gardeners with fewer established gardening skills have the correct tool for every garden task they need to perform.

Here’s a list of tools most garden center and nursery experts recommend:

Two shovels:  One should be a spade with a pointed tip and the other a flat-headed model. Both should have wooden handles at least four feet long.

Pruning shears: A good pair of sharp shears is a vital member of any gardener’s tool collection to keep roses and shrubbery looking nest. Bypass the cheapest and most expensive models in favor of a mid-priced model.

Loppers: A long-handled cutting tool that can cut through heavier rose canes and through tree branches up to about an inch in diameter.

Two Rakes: A wide bamboo rake for light raking that involves collecting relatively lightweight garden debris and a heavier straight metal model for serious soil preparation.

Hedge shears: Long-handled, flat-bladed hedge shears are designed to cut evenly across both horizontal and vertical planes.

Tank sprayer: Because it’s difficult to completely clean tank sprayers, separate sprayers should be purchased for herbicides, fertilizer and insecticides.

Garden hose: Don’t buy one that’s too long or too short for you to comfortably use; a 200 foot long hose in a 25 foot wide garden makes no sense at all, nor does a 50 foot hose for a half acre lot.  More expensive hoses withstand the temperature extremes of summer and winter much better, and spending the extra money for a kink-free hose is well worth the frustration it will save you. Buy a rack or hose reel to keep your hose in shape.

Wheelbarrow or lawn cart: A wheelbarrow is the more versatile choice, usable for moving dirt for a new plant bed to mixing concrete for a patio fix. However, if all you need to do is move leaves, carts are cheaper and are not as heavy.

Spreader: Spreading fertilizer by hand causes some areas to get too much fertilizer while other areas get too little or none at all. Spreaders help all areas get the right amount.

Push broom: For keeping walks, driveways and patios free of lawn clippings or dirt from your gardening adventures.

Other tools: A hand-held hoe, heavy cotton gloves, a string trimmer, pruning saw, mower, hand trowel, big floppy gardening hat and watering can.

Tools are important to a gardener; they allow you to tend to your garden and complete chores with ease. Keep your eye out for end of season sales! This is the best time to purchase excellent quality gardening tools at a great price.

Most gardeners start out with some of the most basic tools they’ll need for working in their gardens, but over time there are many others which can be quite handy to have on hand too. So today we’ll look at some of those.

1. Hedge Trimmers – Even if you don’t have a full fledge hedge, you might be surprised at how useful hedge trimmers can be when you just have a few bushes. As bushes grow they become unruly and unkempt. Now you can of course simply prune and clip them regularly to keep them under control and looking nice, but once they reach a certain age and size it almost seems as if you can never keep up. And this is made worse when you have several bushes to maintain. Hedge trimmers however, allow you to make quick work of the basic trimming and shaping, then you can simply leave them as they are after you’ve trimmed, or go in with your pruners and do some fine tuning instead.

2. Tree Lopers – Again these are not thought of in the early stages of a garden, particularly if you don’t have any trees. Once you do have trees however, and especially once they start growing to respectable sizes, you’ll find yourself having problems trimming and pruning them. Tree lopers are simply giant sized pruners. They have long handles so you’re able to reach branches well above your head, plus they’re much stronger so you can easily cut through the thicker branches of a tree.

3. Weedeaters & Edgers – This tool is wonderful whether you have weeds in your yard or not. If you plant flower beds with borders around them, you’ll quickly find that it’s not easy to trim the grass right up against your bed borders. And this is where edgers and weedeaters shine: They allow you to trim everything neatly and orderly, without damaging any of your prize garden flowers.

4. Potting bench or shed – Potting benches make container gardening easier, but they’re also useful for dividing plants too. They simply give you a comfortable work space where all of your tools and supplies are right on hand. A potting shed is an extension of the potting bench idea. It not only gives you space to work, but it also gives you room to store your garden tools and materials safely and neatly.

5. Lawn Aerators – Aerating your lawn helps it to grow more lush and healthy. Many people don’t know that as the grass grows, it can eventually make it difficult for sun and nutrients to get down into the soil where the roots need it most. By aerating your lawn though, you simply poke holes into it which allow additional water, sun, and nutrients to reach the roots of your grass and ground covers.