These tools are worth the wait-even if they are late due to supply chain chaos or shipping delays.
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I may be a home gardener, not an arborist or a full-time gardener, but I still need tools with the professional qualities required by professionals.
Like a chef who is impatient with dull knives, I hope they can cut cleanly into any medium I use, whether it's branches or soil. And I will skip any tools with heavy handles or unnecessary weight as soon as possible.
The next tools are worth the wait-if there is a chaos in the supply chain or shipping delays, you may need to wait for some of them.
However, whether you are buying a gift or using it for yourself, there is no need to worry. Even the earliest spring missions are far away.
Cleaning is where every growing season begins and ends, so every spring the first batch of equipment is taken out of the barn—the last time it was hidden in autumn—for this purpose.
For tasks that produce large amounts of plant debris, including pruning, a basic tarp is the most effective conveyor belt and can be easily dragged to a compost pile or brush pile. But during most of the growing season, my happiest thing is to have a tip bag around me. Like Linus and his blanket, it is always within reach.
Tipping bags come in many forms, from a wide-mouth version shaped like a large and low bathtub to a slightly narrower, upright cylindrical shape, similar to a huge beer can. Those from Bosmere are the conference proceeds that I prefer to keep for weeding, headless work or cleanup after smaller cuts. (The XL hard bottom PopUp bag from Bosmere is about $48.)
The partner of the tip bag is the rake, responsible for the collection. Specifically, a flexible rake or spring rake is suitable for most daily housework. For heavier tasks, such as spreading and leveling soil or mulch, or reorienting driveway gravel scattered by a snowplow back into place, I would grab a bow harrow with a hard and short head.
But the spring rake lifts the leaves from the lawn, or more importantly, lifts the leaves from a bed full of plants. A suitable and flexible rake can do this without accidents and grab the precious growth underneath the trash.
Let's mainly skip my lament about why high-quality bamboo rakes are clearly no longer available, and replaced by irregularly shaped tines that are fixed together in a way that defines planned scrap. Likewise, we can skip my extended version of rake with molded plastic head, they are not a substitute for the original tool.
But there is hope. A few years ago, I discovered that the Yard Butler LT-20 (Ace Hardware sells for $39) has 20 steel teeth in the widest part of the 18-inch wide fan, which gave me a sigh of relief. It can handle more arduous tasks, but what I admire most is the elasticity of these teeth. They can drill into shrubs and perennials and take out unwanted materials without harming the plants.
When I realized that most everyday cuts do not require larger, heavier traditional pruning shears, my old right hand was grateful. For headless, harvesting fruits and vegetables, and for pruning vines like clematis and other unhardened woody branches, the smaller needle-nose scissors commonly called fruit trimmers are strong enough.
Yes, the traditional bypass pruning shears can handle thicker woods, but my Felco 2 weighs eight or nine ounces, while the scissors from Japan’s ARS Corporation weigh about four. ARS Corporation is a company specializing in Agriculture and gardening cutting tool company. These fine-handled fruit pruning shears are available with carbon steel blades (HP-300L, about $18 on Amazon) or stainless steel blades. Felco cut a slightly longer fruit pruner; a good third choice is from Vesco.
Why overwhelm any task, really? There are heavier (and heavier) trimmers; a couple of these people hanging in the barn are rarely called to work anymore. The reduced version of the ARS Vineyard Pruner (LPB-20S, which costs about $79 on Amazon) is 19 inches long, weighs only 1.8 pounds, is easy to operate, and is very difficult for most tasks.
Many years ago, I learned about the ARS brand from an orchard owner at a trade show, and he was stocking various lengthened pruning shears for his staff. For me, a 6-foot long aluminum model (LA-180LR18 heavy-duty long-distance pruning shears, about $160 on Amazon) means less time on the ladder, but the caveat is: you may find A lightweight four to six-footer is the gateway to longer, stronger tools, including those with saw blades on the working end.
From the first vegetable seedlings transplanted every spring to the garlic cloves stuffed in a few weeks before freezing in autumn, we dig many small holes every season.
A sharp, well-shaped trowel and a Japanese hori-hori are essential. The best performance of each product comes from the high-quality stainless steel blade, the blade is sharp, does not rust, and is attached to a comfortable wooden handle. (Sneeboer's flower bed spatula sells for $59 at Garden Tool Company; Nisaku's 12-inch Hori Hori Garden Knife sells for about $38.)
The hand-forged stainless steel trowels long produced by Dutch tool manufacturer Sneeboer & Zn make most other trowels look like rough, dull tools. I use Sneeboer's flower bed model, but the series includes wider and narrower heads, ranging from about 2 inches to 4 inches, some are semi-circular, some are slightly flatter-there is one suitable for any hand digging Purpose.
Nisaku, leather sheaths and all products are strong, shiny and widely used hori-hori choices.
Where the bed meets the lawn or the lawn meets the path, there will always be turf wars, and the grass tends to spread to other territories and blur the boundaries. A half-moon step edging machine or trimming knife is the traditional answer. Nothing makes a garden look sharper than a clean edge and some fresh mulch.
As it sounds, you step on a small metal shelf on top of the half-moon head of the tool, insert it into the soil and shake it gently. Then lift the tool, reinsert the tool one blade width, and repeat. Continue down the desired line and then fold back to remove loose, unneeded turf fragments (another job for this tip bag).
A well-built edging machine has a T-handle that can reach waist height. The head should not be too deep or sharp; we are not digging trenches here, just sharpening the lines. Sneeboer's edging tools are well-proportioned, equipped with a comfortable wooden handle and the added benefit of stainless steel, which can be used for a long time. (Sneeboer's stepped garden edge knife is priced at $129 at Garden Tool Company.)
When watering is needed, you don't want to drag unnecessary luggage. The polyurethane hose (approximately US$45 to US$210) produced by Water Right, a family-owned company in Oregon, is ultra-light and safe for drinking water, and is free of lead, BPA and phthalates. They are also very beautiful (subtle olive color is my favorite).
Water Right produces hoses of three diameters, each corresponding to a maximum gallon per minute flow rate, with lengths ranging from 25 to 100 feet. A medium diameter 50-foot hose weighs only 5 pounds.
A simple rain gauge can help you understand instead of guessing when your garden needs watering. The rain gauge can confirm whether yesterday’s downpour has any effect. Over the years, my friends and family have found that their socks are stuffed with transparent acrylic socks from Johnny's Selected Seeds (shockproof rain gauge, about $8), which can accurately measure up to five and a half inches, to the nearest tenth of an inch. One inch.
Obsessed with the weather? (Yes, I am guilty.) A simple analog rain gauge is not cold-proof, it will not display every 100 inches when it is raining; it will not record humidity, wind speed, or other weather indicators. This is the job of a digital weather station-its addictive indoor console displays all statistics in real time and keeps cumulative records-just like my Davis Vantage Vue.
Some recent mornings have seen some frost on the ground. The gardening shovel has now been retired this season and replaced with a snow removal version.
How they retire is important. Blake Schreck, who owns the Garden Tool Company in Kerrville, Texas, and his wife Anne Schreck said that tools should be hung up and not touch the floor—even if it is paved—or against the wall. Moisture is the enemy, and this point of contact provides opportunities for its destructive tendencies.
Mr. Schreck said that before your tool goes to sleep and after each use, if you adhere to the best practices, use a hard brush to remove all dirt, then rinse and dry the tool. He recommends oiling wooden handles and metal parts, especially if they are not stainless steel. Use boiled linseed oil instead of machine oil, let it soak for 15 minutes, then wipe off the excess oil. If the wood grain bulges uncomfortably on the handle, sand it with 80 grit sandpaper, and then sand with 120-150 grit sandpaper before oiling.
As for pruning tools, Mr. Schleck said that after each use, you should “treat them like silverware after dinner”. Use a nail brush or scrubbing pad, use soap and water to clean the blades at the sink, and let them dry sufficiently. If they have sap residue, use mineral spirits to remove them.
He said that once the tool is clean and dry, apply a drop of three-in-one oil on the pivot point. No, do not spray lubricant; it is too light and has a short effect.
These tools are worth every drop of special effort. They will repay it with years of reliable service.
Margaret Roach is the creator of the website and podcast A Way to Garden and the book of the same name.
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