Good morning, gardeners!
I have always wanted to write a diary about the tools we all use in our gardens, and how essential a good set of tools is to a gardener. Now I'm including all kinds of things you may not think of as "tools", but are absolute essentials- like hoses! Who could get through a dry summer without some good hoses?
How about something as simple as a good spray nozzle for the end of that hose? I don't know about you guys, but I go through two or three every summer. I've tried the more expensive ones and they fall apart as quickly as the cheap ones!
Now, please join me below the tangled hose for my essential tools.
Pruners
You simply cannot garden without a good set of sharp pruners. The most popular brand out there is the Felco pruner, which comes in several different types:
Now Felco pruners are't cheap, a pair will cost you $40-$50 or more sometimes, but it's one of the best investments in your garden you can make. These pruners will last a lifetime, even when they're left outside once in awhile. The pair I have is around 16 or 17 years old, and all I do is oil them a couple of times a year and sharpen the blade.
I prefer the #2, which are comfortable in my hand, and easy to sharpen:
Pruners are all purpose tools that you carry around with you as you putter- there's always a broken stem to cut off, or spent flower heads to remove! The Felcos are even good for small branches, but what you really need for branches is a good pair of loppers.
Loppers are great for a lot of different tasks, for me, they're essential at rose pruning time, as the long handles keep my hands out of the thorns when trimming back the older canes. They're handy in spring when pruning back your spring flowering bushes like Wedding Veil spirea or forsythia.
My most expensive, and most useful tool to date is my electric chopper:
I use it once or twice a year to chop up all my garden waste, which includes pampas grass and a stand of bamboo, plus container plants, and leaves and sticks and all the assorted garden waste you accumulate over the season. Here are some pictures I took off a website of a before and after photo of garden waste. The author of the story said the before pile was about 2 feet high and 10 feet long of branches, brambles and other waste:
And here is the after picture, a nice well mixed pile of brand new compost (chicken is not included with your chipper):
And here's a picture of my finished compost, about a year after chopping (and with turning the pile occasionally):
That chopper saves so much time, and I think recycling your garden waste and turning it into compost is better than dumping in our landfills (so many people out here do that!).
I put compost everywhere- I mix it in with my potting soil (helps retain water) to put in containers, I spread it on beds and on my grass, and anywhere the soil is a little needy.
And now for my most used tool in my garden- my hoses. Living in a semi-arid environment teaches you not to take water for granted, so every drop that goes into the ground and to your plants and doesn't evaporate is a bonus. That's why soaker hoses are just perfect for my garden.
Most of mine are buried under a thin layer of dirt and held in place with garden staples. I leave them outside year around, although they don't last as long. When we get warm spells in February, it's nice to hook up the soakers and give the plants a nice watering, especially if it's been a dry winter. Here's an innovative home set up for watering rows of plants in a veggie garden:
So those are some of my most used and favorite tools. What are yours?