Garden tools are one of your best kept secrets that we pros live by each time we are in our garden. Whether they are simple hand tools like pruners for dead heading flowers, or lopper for hedges, or our beloved shovels from spades to cultivators.
My favorite brand of hand pruners are made by Felco. They are reliable and easily maintained by keeping them clean and routine sharpening done with a sharpening stone. I have a video on my YouTube channel Cindy McGonagle where you can see a demonstration of the simple sharpening.
Let us not forget our hands are also our tools. I prefer to wear gloves when I garden, but not when I am dead heading delicate flowers by a pinching technique. When dead heading using a hand pruner I also like to use a holster to keep my pruners handy when I am collecting flowers for a bouquet or herbs for teas. When I first started horticulture school in San Francisco, I won a logo design contest and my prize was a pair of Felco pruners #12. For those of you with large hands these might be perfect for you but for me they are heavy. My prize also included a holster for the pruners that required a belt to hold it around my waist. Trust me that was cumbersome! So now I wear a holster that has a clip attached so I can easily slip it onto any pocket of my jeans. Voila this works excellent for me! Others may prefer using a bucket with tools, or a caddy of some sort.
Shovels
My favorite shovel is called a garden cultivator. The first time I saw someone using one in the community garden I shared I thought to myself…Why use such a tiny shovel to turn the entire 10 X 20 garden bed? So I asked her, and found out it was called a perennial spade and also a garden cultivator. She went on to tell me with its’ small blade the tool can easily divide perennials (which need to be divided every 3-5 years) as well as make quick work with the soil because you don’t get as much soil on the blade at a time and thus you don’t get as exhausted and want to quit the work until the entire bed is complete. AHH…that made sense to me some 20 years ago and is still the thought I have now.
The standard D-handled shovel is a good tool for cutting into soil, and the more common spade is also good for this. While living in Texas, the gardeners used a special shovel with a very narrow blade which easily dug through the hardpan soils of Austin.
Connecting with Nature using your intuition will make working in your garden a whole lot easier. Never understimate what I call telepathic communication, that is the ability to send and receive thoughts, clearly. When communicating with plants I suggest you begin with the oldest living tree on your property using telepathic communication. I will be discussing this in a later blog!! If you want to learn more about this tool you may send me an email as well.
Whether you use a bucket, a bag, or tarp to gather up your weeds and debris as you work in your garden or landscape, recycling is a must. Hopefully you have a compost system that allows you to aerate the pile easily. I can’t tell you how many gardens I have visited with huge unmanageable compost piles. Which in the end become an eyesore and rarely used. The secret to composting debris is the pile must have generated heat to help brake down the plant materials, and it also must be wet.
I do remember another thing about composting, visit your local garden store and ask them who delivers really good compost materials in bulk. Go visit the site and see how they do it, you will learn a great deal from the experts in your area of the country. Having great soil in your garden is one of the best garden tools and tips for all of us who love to grow and harvest and enjoy landscapes. Please remember to use a sunscreen when gardening. My tip in this area is zinc oxide ointment at 20% strength, usually available in your local Walgreens store. I mix it in my palm using a very small amount and my moisturizer and lavishly apply to my face and neck areas. I follow this with my base makeup. I hope all of you are having a good time in your gardens and share your tips with me too!! If you want a land reading to discover ways to work more closely with the Nature Spirits and plants at your residence please email me. Stay happy, Stay healthy and love the Earth where you live!!