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Always have a piece of cloth or old bag on
hand where the garden tools
are kept, and never put them away soiled and
wet. Keep the cutting
edges sharp. There is as much pleasure in trying
to run a dull
lawnmower as in working with a rusty, battered
hoe. Have an extra
handle in stock in case of accident; they are
not expensive. In
selecting hand tools, always pick out those with
handles in which the
grain does not run out at the point where there
will be much strain in
using the tool. In rakes, hoes, etc., get the
types with ferrule and
shank one continuous piece, so as not to be
annoyed with loose heads.
Spend a few cents to send for some implement
catalogs. They will
be a great source of information, even if you do
not order this year.
The Internet is also an excellent source for
finding the best garden tools.
A few dollars spent in getting the best will
save you much more in the
future.
The spade or
spading-fork or rototiller will be followed by
the hoe, or hook,
and the iron rake. The best type of hoe for use
after the spade is the wide,
deep-bladed type. In most soils, however, this
work may be done more
expeditiously with the hook or prong-hoe. With
this the soil can be
thoroughly pulverized to a depth of several
inches. In using either, be
careful not to pull up manure or trash turned
under by the spade, as all
such material if left covered will quickly rot
away in the soil and furnish
the best sort of plant food.
The rototiller and likewise the prong-hoe,
will have to be followed by the
iron rake when preparing the ground for
small-seeded garden vegetables.
Get the sort with what is termed the "bow" head
instead of one in which the
head is fastened directly to the end of the
handle. It is less likely to get
broken, and easier to use. There is quite a
knack in manipulating even a
garden rake, which will come only with practice.
Do not rake as though you
were gathering up leaves or grass. The secret in
using the garden rake is
not to gather things up. Small stones, lumps of
earth and such things, you
of course wish to remove. Keep these raked off
ahead of where you are
leveling the soil, which is accomplished with a
backward-and-forward
movement of the rake.
The tool-house of every
garden of any size
should contain a seed-drill.
Labor which is otherwise tedious and difficult
is by it rendered mere
play--as well as being better done. The
operations of marking the row,
opening the furrow, dropping the seed at the
proper depth and distance,
covering immediately with fresh earth, and
firming the soil, are all
done at one fell swoop and as fast as you can
walk. It will even drop
seeds in hills. But that is not all: it may be
had as part of a combination
machine, which, after your seeds are
planted--with each row
neatly rolled on top, and plainly visible--may
be at once transformed
into a wheel hoe that will save you as much time
in caring for your
plants as the seed-drill did in planting your
seed. Hoeing drudgery
becomes a thing of the past. There are so many,
and so varied in
usefulness, that it would require an entire
chapter to detail their
special advantages and methods of use. The
catalogs describing
them will give you many valuable suggestions;
and other ways of
utilizing them will discover themselves to you
in your work.
Valuable as the wheel hoe is, however, and
varied in its scope of work,
the time-tried hoe cannot be entirely dispensed
with. It is essential in
work such as loosening soil and cutting out
weeds. The heart-shaped
hoe is especially valuable in opening and
covering drills for seed, such
as beans, peas or corn. The scuffle-hoe, or
scarifier, is used between
narrow rows for shallow work, such as cutting
off small weeds and
breaking up the crust. It has been rendered less
frequently needed by
the advent of the wheel hoe, but when crops are
too large to admit of
the use of the latter, the scuffle-hoe is still
an indispensable time-saver.
There remains one task connected with
gardening that is dreaded by
everyone. That is hand-weeding. To get down on
one's hands and knees,
in the blistering hot dusty soil, with the
perspiration trickling down into
one's eyes, and pick small weedlets from among
tender plantlets, is not
a pleasant occupation. There are, however,
several sorts of small
weeders which lessen the work considerably. One
or another of the
common types will seem preferable, according to
different conditions of
soil and methods of work. Personally, I prefer
the Cape Cod style weeding
tool. You skim the blade underneath the surface
and cut the weeds off
at the root. It is a fast efficient way of
keeping your beds free of weeds.
There are two things to be kept in mind about
hand-weeding which will
reduce this work to the minimum. First, never
let the weeds get a
start; for even if they do not increase in
number, if they once smother
the ground or crop, you will wish you had never
heard of a garden.
Second, do your hand-weeding while the surface
soil is soft, when the
weeds come out easily. A hard-crusted soil will
double and triple the
amount of labor required.
Tools for protecting
plants
Garden Tools |
Gardening Tips | Growing Vegetables
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