Tools

Every gardner needs certain tools. You can get by with a few, but those few are crucial, so buy the best you can afford and take care of them.

LARGE TOOLS

You will, of course, need something for digging.  A shovel is necessary, a fork can be a lifesaver if you can afford one. A spade is not critical, but nice to have as well. The difference between a shovel and a spade is the shape – a shovel is rounded at the bottom, a spade is square. Unless it’s a poacher’s spade, in which case it’s narrow and round. And don’t ask me why it’s called a poachers spade – that’s a British thing. Shovels weren’t even available in the UK until fairly recently.

If you have hard soil, an English garden fork can be a lifesaver. Its much easier for a small or weaker person to drive into the ground (and get back out), it helps break up the soil and its easier to manipulate. It won’t take the place of a shovel for some chores but it can save your back.

HAND TOOLS

 You will need hand pruners for snipping, trimming, deadheading and like chores. Pruners come in two types – bypass and anvil. In bypass pruners, the blades cross each other and cut; with anvil pruners, one blade comes down on top of the other. I prefer bypass pruners and I got mine from a catalog called Women’s Work – they’re Japanese made, all metal, incredibly sharp and keep their edge forever. They’re not as comfortable in the hand since they have no plastic padding on the handles and you can seriously stab yourself if you aren’t careful – and I have – but they’ve been my favorites for years.

Loppers are basically long-handled pruners with curved blades. They are needed for cutting larger stems, thinning out and bigger pruning jobs.

You’ll need a trowel but you don’t have to get one in every size. If you plan to plant a lot of bulbs and bedding plants, get a  dibble , or even better, a bulb-planter- it will save you major time.  A dibble is an iron pointed tool with a cross handle; a bulb planter is a circular tool with a handle that, when plunged into the ground, grabs and removes a plug of dirt leaving you with a nice round hold to put stuff in.

One of my all time favorite tools is a Japanese farmer’s weeder. It looks scary – like a giant Bowie knife with serrated edges on one side. It isn’t as sharp as a knife but it will dig furrows, pry up weeds and small rocks, dig a planting hole, scrape mulch to one side, mash a slug and clean your nails. All this presumes you’re on the other end operating it, of course. And if you have gardens in two different parts of the country don’t try to take it through airport security. I did. They finally turned me loose, though.

Next post we’ll talk about hoes in all their myriad shapes and sizes and functions.