The Tools and Supplies You’ll Need For Your Garden
More Than Just Buying and Planting Seeds: The Tools and Supplies You’ll Need For Your Garden
Gardening is a great activity; it keeps you active, outdoors, and can help you to unwind and relax. It’s hugely rewarding when your once boring garden is full of colourful and interesting plants. With plants come wildlife, such as bees, birds, woodland animals, and other insects. But it’s important to remember that starting a garden is a big undertaking.
Before embarking on building a new garden, or revamping your existing one, there are a few tools and supplies you need to get your hands on. Keep reading to find out what those are.
Gardening gloves are essential for a keen gardener for a number of reasons. Of course, the most obvious reason is to keep your hands clean, warm, and protected from the elements. However, gardening often involves using sharp tools and good gardening gloves will protect your hands from getting cuts and scrapes.
Good gardening gloves should be made of a durable and breathable fabric and should fit properly. Ill-fitting gloves can create problems such as dirt getting into them, or could cause blisters and friction burns. It’s worth investing in a good pair because they do get damaged.
While long-handled shears are great for leverage and tougher cuts, a secateurs or pruning shears are crucial. These shears allow you to trim and prune small trees, such as bonsai, or hedges with the control you need for such intricate work.
Depending on what type of plants you have in your garden, you’ll also need a secateurs if you’re growing fruit or vegetables. Maintaining your blades is important because rust diminishes their ability to effectively cut through branches.
- Garden Fork
Garden forks are completely essential for turning soil and can dig into dense soil better than a spade. Garden forks should have a slight curve to the spines, to allow for scooping mulch or compost. This way they can act as pitchforks.
The type of tines you choose will have an impact on the work you can do with it, as square tines are stronger than straight or flat tines. Square tines are less likely to bend or break if they hit a rock or strong root. Straight tines are more suitable for digging compacted soil.
These are long-handled pruners that are used to trim foliage in hard to reach areas and tougher roots and branches. The long handles are great for providing leverage, allowing you to chop through roots and branches that are up to an inch thick!
When buying loppers, the material of the blades should be carbon steel, to resist wear and tear. Handles made of lightweight aluminum to make the loppers easy to carry. The most important thing to do is to ensure your blades are kept clean and rust free, to keep them sharp and efficient.
While it’s possible to do a lot of work in the garden with the tools mentioned above, a spade is the most integral tool for your garden. It’s the workhorse of your garden shed, and a good spade will see you through many seasons of gardens.
When buying a spade, a good hardwood handle is durable, but also able to absorb the shock of being pushed, and hitting obstacles beneath the surface. The head should be stainless steel because it won’t rust and are incredibly strong.
- Hose with adjustable nozzle
While we get plenty of rain, there will be times when we need to water our garden ourselves, and so having a hose with an adjustable spray head is a great tool. Depending on the type of plant, some will need delicate watering, so just turning the hose on them could damage them.
Hoses are crucial, but can also be problematic because the danger lies in it getting twists and knots in it. If this happens it can cause the hose material to crack, so a hose on a reel that retracts will be your saviour!
- Chicken wire/mesh
Not necessarily a tool, but chicken wire or mesh will be incredibly useful throughout your gardening experience. Both can keep your plants, vegetables, and fruits safe from birds, the neighbour’s cat and a range of other pests that can invade your garden.
Everyday gardeners aren’t usually pest elimination experts, but there are steps you can take to cut down the risk of invasion. These small changes can somewhat control the damage done by larger pests such as birds and mice, but there are smaller insects that require other steps to eliminate.
- Kneeling pad
No matter what age and how good your knees are, you’ll be surprised how quickly the hard ground starts to irritate them. A kneeling pad will provide a small cushion between you and the elements, allowing you to enjoy your gardening without getting calloused knees!
It’s also surprising how damp the ground can be, as even in summer the ground can stay damp for long periods of time and can seep into your clothing! Kneeling pads are inexpensive and a worthwhile purchase.
While you may think you don’t need a wheelbarrow if your garden is small, a wheelbarrow will be incredibly helpful and you’ll use it more than you think! Of course, there are obvious uses such as transporting compost, mulch, and bark. But it’s also a great way of carrying all your gardening tools around!
It doesn’t even have to be a wheelbarrow, but a sturdy wagon on wheels is a great investment. Your back will thank you for taking the burden of weight-bearing from it!
Gardening is a great activity to take part in, and with the tools outlined above, you’ll be at a great starting point. Once you have each of these tools, all that’s left is to pick what plants you want, get your compost and really get into the nitty-gritty.
Be sure you plant your flowering seeds at least one season in advance, so you don’t miss the bloom!Previous PostNext Post