By Pat Dray
The Garden Spot
Pat Dray.
January is a great time to review your gardening tools, clean and sharpen those that are in good condition and replace those tools that aren’t.
Whenever you are buying new tools, buy the best made ones that you can afford, since you may be using them for a long time.
There are some tools that are essential for both experienced and new gardeners. The first and most obvious tools you need are a spade, a shovel and a trowel. Although lots of times the terms are used interchangeably, there is a difference in them and their usage. A spade has a relatively short handle, straight up from the square edged blade, and the handle has a grip at the top. The spade blade also has a small “shelf” at the top which is used as a footrest. The spade is used for tasks like edging or cutting through sod, and is inserted straight into the ground, with the footrest helping you to dig deeper.
A shovel has a longer handle with no grip at the end and may have a straight or curved blade that is more angled up from the blade. The shovel is used more for scooping and is inserted into the ground at an angle. Some shovels even have serrated edges so that they can easily cut through roots.
Once you’ve done the serious digging, you would use a garden trowel for the smaller jobs, such as planting seedlings or moving small amounts of soil around. Trowels are like miniature shovels and are available in different sizes and handle types.
Once you have your planting tools, you’ll also need tools to keep what you plant healthy and well-shaped by using your pruning tools. These include gardening shears and loppers. Shears are used for branches or stems of less than three-quarters of an inch in diameter. I prefer to use what’s called a bypass shear, which is like a scissor. The bypass shear does less damage to healthy tissue as opposed to an anvil shear, in which the blade cuts down to an “anvil.”
Once your plant or shrub has branches greater than three quarters of an inch in diameter, it’s time to take out your loppers. Loppers are like pruning shears’ big brother or sister. They have long handles and are made to be used with two hands.
You’ll also need something to move around all the plants, soil, mulch and compost that you’re using in the garden. Although the professionals use wheelbarrows, I find that they are generally too heavy and unstable on uneven ground for me to easily manage. Instead I use a four-wheeled cart. There are many choices available, but the type with removable sides gives you the most flexibility. I can load mine up with a full load of mulch, wheel it to where I need it, remove the back, and then tip it over to spread the mulch.
Once you’ve got all your tools you’ll need to maintain them, which we’ll talk about next month.
Pat Dray is a past president of the Orange Garden Club and a master gardener.