Well, at this time of the year, we need to dig deeper: What Christmas gifts should we give to friends and family?

To eliminate thoughts, visiting a nursery or shopping online will sow the seeds of creativity in one's decision-making. During my recent trip to the UK, it was interesting to see the increase in the use of personal protective equipment. Gardening tools and gadgets are still necessities for small gardens, while machinery-mechanization and manual-still dominate.

For obvious reasons, personal protective equipment has become a necessity and should be fully implemented in the daily use of the garden. The most obvious of these is goggles, especially when using machinery such as demisters; gloves can also protect hands from rose thorns and general scratches, which can make the touch unusable.

Sound protectors-covering the ears when using chainsaws, blowers or filters-will reduce ear and hearing damage. Sturdy shoes prevent slipping while protecting the feet from external influences-hard pointed materials may penetrate the skin; lawnmower blades when cutting grass. A garden apron is a very useful garment. Many pockets can be used to store small tools and miscellaneous items such as twine and tags.

The most commonly used tools seem to be hoes, long handles and large blades at the end. I prefer the Dutch hoe. It is lighter. If used properly, you only need to skim the surface of the soil to remove sprouted weeds; it does not dig down like the large blade type.

When reviewing the needs of the garden, please consider the function of the tool. There are several types of garden rakes, each of which is designed for a specific purpose. For leaf rakes, use the Springbok sector type with flexible tines. For raking and removing rocks on rough ground, use a multi-tooth comb rake that drags or pushes the soil; if you want to rake the flowerbed into a fine slope, use a similar rake, but make more tines more leaning on. close.

Pruning is an art, if performed properly. For smaller branches, nothing beats a well-made pruning knife with an anvil blade. For thick branches, use a rootstock cutting trimmer. The parrot beak hand saw is suitable for cutting long and thin branches, while leaving the thicker branches to the chain saw to complete the work.

I don't like blowers, because practice rarely ends with collecting leaves; always, practice just spreads the leaves further away. Consider creating a three-sided holding area and composting the leaves, and then continue to use any compostable materials.

As an alternative to the blower, consider using a small vacuum cleaner to complete the same work in twice the time. Save the chopped gardening debris to become a natural source of compost for future use; recycling is a money-saving activity that pays off, and trucking away gardening waste will cost you money!

A small backpack garden sprayer should be part of any garden shed, because at certain times, pests and diseases will always visit. Garden sprayers should only be used for insecticides and fungicides; for herbicide applications, use a separate, well-marked sprayer dedicated to one purpose-the herbicide.

Trolleys or similar equipment should be considered indispensable for all gardens, because they can save labor for carrying tools, and can also store plants, garden waste, etc. They can even be used to transport garbage bins to the front of the property for garbage collection!

Hope that the above content can create some ideas that can bear fruit, so that choosing gifts will not be too difficult!

Season's greetings to everyone.

Malcolm Griffiths (Malcolm Griffiths) is a well-trained gardener and a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Horticulture. He is also the past president of the Bermuda Horticultural Society, Bermuda Orchid Society and Bermuda Botanical Society

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