Gardening Tools

Gerry

Gardening tools are something that people are inclined to take for granted. You need a spade and you buy a spade. So what’s to know? That is the typical view of the non-gardening public and sometimes the beginner. It may once have been true but as most gardeners know, there are many different types of spade and this applies to most gardening tools today.

Each type of garden will have its own tools which will be needed to do the jobs required in that type of garden. If there is no lawn in a garden you are unlikely to need a lawnmower. If there are no trees it is unlikely that you will need a leaf blower and so on. A small garden will only require a short water hose.

Then there are more specialised tools for people with special needs. If have reduced mobility, for example if you are in a wheelchair you will need gardening tools that allow you to do your gardening easily from there. If you can stand but not bend you may require gardening tools with extensions.

This is a generalised list of gardening tools and a few tips.

The Secateurs otherwise known as a pruner.

They come in several different types. The commonest as far as I can tell is the bypass pruner. This has a wide flat blade that cuts against a thicker and not very flat blade. The cutting blade passes the other one, thus the bypass. It cuts in a similar way to the scissors. Then there is the anvil pruner. This one looks similar in basic design, but the cutting blade cuts against the other blade and the second blade acts as an anvil. This means that the cutting blade needs to be sharpened more often.

Both of these come in a variety of shapes with the handles adjusted to suit different people with different needs. So, try them out and make sure to get the one that you find most comfortable to use, bearing in mind that you may someday have a lot of pruning to do.

Garden Shears

There is an even bigger variety of garden shears available today. If you are trimming a hedge or a small amount of grass or a small branch too big for your pruner, this is the tool for you. There are different ones for use in different situations. You can get ones with extendable handles for “long distance trimming”. Take care with these especially when using them on a ladder or other climbing frame.

As with the secateurs make sure that it is sharp at all times. This makes the job of cutting and trimming easier and safer. Until the dawn of the electric strimmer the long handled edging shears was considered something of a blessing and no serious lawn man was without it. Again these tools are all on the decline because of the electric effort saving tools available now. The electric or motorised hedge trimmers are really excellent devices. They are dangerous if not used with extreme care, but they make the job of trimming the hedge so much easier than the old manual shears.

One of the strangest and safest of these that I have seen is Garden Groom Electric Hedge Trimmer. It vacuums in the branches where hidden blades trim them and they are then sucks down a tube into a bag at your feet. An amazing gardening tool.

The Garden Fork

As with all gardening tools the fork comes in a wide variety of designs. They come with long tines and short tines, long handles and short handles, four tines and ten tines and straight handles and D-grip handles and variations thereof. What more do you need? When buying a garden fork make sure to try it out in the shop or garden centre where you are. I know you will probably not actually get to use it there, but go through the motions. After deciding on the type of fork you need and the handle etc., the most important thing with a garden fork is to ensure that it is long enough that you do not break your back using it. You should not have to bend too much when using a garden fork. Everyone is different so you will have to decide for yourself.

The Garden Spade

The spade will never go out of fashion as a garden tool. Yes I know that you can buy rotivators and other powered digging machines, but you will always need a spade. For most gardeners, myself included, the garden spade is like an extension of our own bodies.

You only have to look at a gardeners spade to know how hard he works in his garden. If he has had the spade for some years it has very likely begun to wear in the corner. I notice that it is usually on the right side if the gardener is right handed and on the left if the gardener is left handed. I don’t know why because both sides if the edge of the spade go into the ground at the same time.

Anyway, when buying make sure the blade is good and strong with a strong footplate. I have sometimes seen them fall off over the years. But again as with the garden fork, make sure that the handle is long enough for you and of a suitable design, i.e. straight or D-grip.

More often than the footplate falling off I have seen the handle break. Make sure that the grain of the handle runs the length of the handle If it runs across the handles it is likely to break early in its life. This is important for both spades and forks as they are both used for digging and will get a lot of pressure.

Spades have flat blades and footplates. The footplates are just a slightly wider part of the blade at the top near the handle, which is used to push the spade into the ground with one’s foot when digging, dividing plants or cutting sods.

The Shovel

You do not always see this tool in every garden. Many people do not know the difference between a spade and a shovel. The spade is used for digging and the shovel is used for moving sand and soil around. It could be described as a large spoon. It is probable fair to say that in most gardens the spade does both jobs. However, both tools work best when used for the purpose for which they were designed. The shovel is almost impossible to dig with and does not have the footplates that the spade has. But the spade with its flat blade, although it can be and often is used for both it does not hold as much as the shovel and the concave and pointed shape of the shovel does somehow make it easier to use for its purpose.

The Garden Rake

Most gardens will also have a rake. Whether used for raking up the leaves in autumn the grass in the summer or the snow in winter, few gardeners would be without this handy tool. Garden Rakes come in a variety of material from wood for gathering hay to various coated metal ones and all the plastic ones in between. Garden Rakes come in a variety of widths and lengths. Some even have a little arm at the back to help you pick up the leaves you just gathered.

When raking leaves a light rake will do. But, if you are planning to rake the thatch of your lawn or rake stones out of your flower bed,  you will need a sturdy model. When buying, make sure that you ask at the garden centre about the best model for the job you planning. I don’t know about where you live but there is a tendency to staff shops and even garden centres with young inexperienced girls who through no fault of their own have no clue about the products they sell. So, make sure that you get to someone who knows what they are talking about.

The Garden Hoe

If you thought that there was a large variety of types in the other tools I have mentioned so far, you will be amazed at the variety of garden hoes. It seems that every Garden Tool manufacturer has produced their own design. I have to say here that I never really mastered the skill of hoeing the flowerbed myself. I always prefer to get down and dirty and do the weeding on my knees. This way i can pull the weeds and remove them. I always feel that the hoe is inclined to break up weeds and leave them or bits of them in a position to grow back. I have had this argument many times with fellow gardeners and we always have to agree to differ.

Anyway you can get hoes that you push and ones you pull ones that have forks and ones that have blades and ones that have both and ones that have serrated edges.

The hoe is a very useful garden tool if you can get the hang of it and have confidence that id does a good job for you.

The Pruning Saw

The pruning saw is used for the branches that the secateurs and shears could not handle. It has a sturdy short to medium length curved blade to make it easy to use between branches. Unlike many saws it cuts when you pull not when you push.

When buying make sure that the blade is strong and narrow. It must be narrow to fit between the branch you are cutting and the one above. The teeth should be slanted toward you. This means it will cut on the pull. Cutting on the pull is much easier and steadier than cutting on the push, when you are up a tree or a ladder.

Garden Trowel

The garden trowel is another of those tools that every garden has at least one of. They are involved in nearly every job in the flower bed. They often come in a set with a hand fork and a cultivator. I only recently realized what a variety of garden trowels there are now. You would not think that it could have been improved on, but, now there are several types of Garden trowel. There is the old and ordinary one that I am used to and the long narrow one that i sometimes use to plant bulbs. But now there is now another long one with a serrated edge that they tell me is good for weeding.

They have trowels now with extendable handles which would suit people with reduced mobility. The main difference between most of the trowels is the handles. But this is really good, because there are many people out there gardening with arthritis or some such affliction and it is important to get garden tools that fit their hand properly.

Garden Tools General

Care should always be taken when choosing your garden tools. It is always important to consider your needs when doing so. Make sure to get the right tool for the job. Do not use a tool if you do not know how or are physically unable to do so. Get another tool or get help.

If I had to choose a single garden tool that I could not do without it would be the spade. It is so necessary and versatile it would be hard to do most things in the garden without it.

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