STOCKING THE GARDEN TOOLSHED: CHOOSING THE CORRECT HAND TOOLS

Choosing a tool that fits the size of your body and strength is only the beginning. Even if the tool is comfortable to use, injury can happen. The main risk is overuse of a muscle or joint. Some gardeners have challenging terrains and soils.

Hand tools are designed for specific purposes. The purpose for shovels is to move materials, soil, sand, gravel or rock. Choose the right sized scoop fork to work with mulches, compost and manure. Cultivating and refuse removal is made easier with a cultivating fork or refuse hook. Read on to learn more about important must have garden tools

Every gardener needs these essential tools in their gardening arsenal!

Garden Fork

This staple vegetable garden tool is ideal for prying up rooted vegetables such as potatoes and onions. The best garden forks are usually forged and contain 4 sturdy tines. A garden fork is the best garden tool to use for soil preparation because it does not overwork the soil like tilling does. Use it if you have the time!

Garden Shovel

A garden spade/garden shovel is used for edging, shoveling soil/compost, prying up weeds, digging holes, and lifting plants. The best shovel for the vegetable garden is the short shovel with a “D” handle and forged blade. This tool will be used for a lot of prying, so be sure to purchase a garden shovel with a strong handle. Note: The long-handled construction shovels/spades are not ideal in the garden, unless you are quite tall.

Garden Hoe

Garden hoe’s are a great vegetable garden tool for trenching, cutting off weeds, and hilling and piling soil around plants such as potatoes). A wood-handled garden hoe may feel better on the hands and will be more flexible.

Garden Rake

A garden rake is a vegetable garden tool that has short, thick teeth is good for leveling soil and gathering weeds. This important garden tool may not necessarily be used only in the garden, as it is very useful around the yard in general. A hand rake is also useful to leaf collection on lawns.

Garden Trowel

A garden trowel is a must-have for transplanting, digging small holes, weeding and mixing soil with fertilizer. A garden trowel is lightest if made from aluminum. The strongest garden trowels are made from steel. A garden

trowel may be one of the most used garden tools, so it is important to find one that is strong, durable and comfortable to hold.

Pruners- hand

Few will deny the absolute indispensability of a good pair of hand pruners. You can get by with a good pair of scissors or flower shears for soft stems, but sooner or later, you’re going to have to get in there and trim, prune, or hack back hard woody stems, and you’ll be glad you have the appropriate tool.

There are 3 basic types of hand pruners. I will provide more information to this category due to the repetitive hand movements done it is critical to find a pair that works with your hand motions.

Bypass garden pruners are probably the most popular, for good reason. Thigs tool makes a nice clean cut using two curved blades that bypass each other in the same manner as scissor blades. One blade is sharpened on the outside edge, and it cuts as it slides tightly across a thicker unsharpened blade.

In contrast, anvil garden pruners have a single straight cutting blade that closes down on a flat edge or a Anvil pruners have a slicing action similar to a knife against a cutting board and work well removing brittle dead wood but not so well on flexible green wood. They tend to be a bit bulkier than bypass pruners, making it more difficult to get in close for crotch cuts.

Ratchet garden pruners are basically anvil pruners with a mechanism that performs the cutting action in stages. Ratchet style hand pruners offer more leverage for smaller or weaker hands or for when you are cutting bigger, tougher stems. If you will be doing a great deal of pruning, ratchet pruners might save your hand and wrist some strain and fatigue.

Loppers

Your two-handed loppers will come out only when larger tree and shrub branches require trimming.

They are used for medium-size branches and stems that are too big for hand pruners but are thinner than 1 to 1.5 inches.

FRUIT SAW

Useful for cuts larger than those that hand pruners can remove with moderate pressure from one hand.

PRUNING SAW

Used for branches more than 1 and a half inches in diameter Cuts only on the pull, not on the push

GARDEN KNIFE (Hori Hori)

A 6-and-a-half-inch blade Use for light digging. clearing away soil from the crown of a plant. Cut through soil, uprooting weeds. Light planting, dividing flowers and transferring small plants

Water Meter

Sure, you can stick your finger in the soil, but this is more of an art than a science, an imprecise way of figuring out what your plants need. And with this method, you can only tell what’s happening in the top few inches.

A moisture meter can tell you exactly how moist the soil is, and not just in the top few inches, but up to a foot down – or more

Gardening Gloves

Gloves are not only a barrier from soil, splinters, pricks, cuts, abrasions, insect and spider bites, skin irritants like poison oak. This also keep skin dry, prevents sunburn and fingernail damage and reduces blistering.

Water can or bucket

This one does not need much description or explanation. You may not always be working in an area with a hose nearby. You may also just have to give a drink to just one plant in an area.

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Use of the tools correctly

Always buy the best tools you can afford, especially when choosing loppers and pruning tools. Fit the size of the pruning tool to the hand and the job. Using a sharp tool that is comfortable will lessen stress. Choose hand tools that fit your size, your strength level, and the task to be done.

Gardening causes a third to half of summer recreational injuries. Back pain and knee injuries are common. Gardening activities can cause carpal-tunnel syndrome, tennis elbow and trigger thumb. How do you do it right? Keep up your training all year long. Put as much thought into conditioning to garden as you would to run a triathlon. Poor form and technique taxes muscles and puts too much pressure on joints. Possibly the most improperly used hand tool is the shovel. The proper use a shovel will prevent strain to the back and shoulders. Stand close to the material you are moving. Turn your body by moving your foot rather than twisting at the waist. Your legs should be carrying the weight instead of the back and arms. Lift less than the maximum with each scoop. Keep your back straight with your head up. Make stretching your back and legs part of your gardening workout. Cross training is important.

Focus on keeping yourself injury free rather than finishing the weeding or pruning in one unbroken time frame. Just like the gym workout, move from station to station in the garden. Lift half a bag of potting soil. Mow half the lawn. Prune 3 rose bushes. Rake the flowerbed by the deck. Stop, get a drink of water. Sit for 5 to 10 minutes. Start the circuit again. Use long handled tools when possible, to reduce bending, squatting and kneeling. Limit your time in anyone gardening activity. The main risk is overuse of a muscle or joint. Simplify and reduce your landscape to keep the joys of making things grow while reducing the aches and pains.

Why should I clean my tools and containers?

Plant pathogens like bacteria, fungi and viruses cause diseases that can kill plants. They can be transferred to and infect plants through bits of soil and plant debris like roots stuck on a shovel, tree sap on a pruner blade, or soil left on a pot.

Sometimes it’s easy to see what you need to clean. But pathogens are microscopic and, while your tools may look perfectly clean, these microorganisms may still be on your blade or tomato cage.

Prevent the spread of disease between plants by thoroughly cleaning and disinfecting your tools, equipment and garden implements.

When should I clean my tools and containers?

• In the fall before you put them away for the winter.
• In the spring before you use them if you didn’t clean them in the fall.
• After working with an infected plant and before moving onto the next plant.
• After you use your tools at another garden site and before you use them at home.

How to clean or care for:

Clean items well before disinfecting Active ingredient .1% alkyl dimethyl benzyl ammonium saccharinate Bleach (5.25% Sodium hypochlorite) Rubbing alcohol (isopropyl alcohol, 70% concentration). An easy method is buying a tub of Clorox wipes.

Here is something interesting: If you’re dealing with rust, brewing strong black tea and immersing the blades of hand tools in it for several hours should work to lift rust off. For tough rust, try sandpaper or a wire bristle brush.

Metal parts on shovels, hoes or similar equipment can be cleaned with steel wool. Wipe the metal dry and coat with linseed oil. Linseed oil is derived from the dried seeds of the flax plant and therefore a great eco-friendly alternative to standard petroleum-based oil.

Sharpen the blades of pruners, hedge clippers and grass clippers. There are methods using grinders, files or sharpening stones. Determine which method is best for you and research the technique.

Wooden handles provide the most shock absorption for long handled tools. Extend the life of the handle by oiling or painting.

Your tools work only as well as the TLC you give them. Be kind to your tools.

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