How are you guys getting ready for the new gardening season? I’m happy to report that I started tomato, peppers, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, lettuces and a few flower seeds this weekend. Let me tell you, that felt good – especially after missing the window completely last year! You can see how I start and care for seeds here – with basic materials and a simple shop light set-up.
For today’s Ready…Set…Garden post, I’m listing my favorite tools (a term I use rather loosely – ‘item’ might be closer to the truth) that I use for gardening. The tools I’m recommending are both normal and maybe a bit unusual. My only criterion was that it had to be something I use every season – sometimes all season long.
Oh, wait! Before we get to the tools list, let me take a minute to remind you that NEXT WEEK is the first Tuesday Garden Party of the 2013 Season!! Can you believe it?
So mark your calendars for March 5, 2013, take pictures and write a post that you can link up and share with us! I just LOVE the inspiration I glean from your gardens and I’m especially looking forward to seeing what our southern friends gardens look like – it’ll give me hope for spring, ha!
The 10 Tools I Couldn’t Garden Without:
1. Gloves! I am NOT a bare handed gardener, which I’m sure I’ve mentioned here before. Whenever I do think I can just plant a few things gloveless I am rewarded with days of trying to get tiny, yet irritating splinters out of my hands from the compost I use in our beds. I use these type of gloves and a pack of 3 will usually see me the whole season – but by the end they will be done for.
2. Trowel, shovel, metal rake, and wheelbarrow (yes, I know that’s 4 and maybe it’s cheating, but these are the normal-any-kind-of-yardwork tools that most people have, so I felt free to lump them together). Any one of these items are used each and every time I’m in the garden.
3. Plastic Chopstick. I haven’t found anything better to make holes for seeds, lightly cover them, and then help to transplant the growing seedlings when I’m starting my plants indoors. I’ve been through lots of wooden types, but the plastic sticks last the longest, which I guess is obvious.
4. Old steak knife. If you would’ve told me years ago that an old steak knife would be on my favorite tools list I would’ve laughed. But I keep one in my garden bag, by my seed starts, and in two places out in the garden. It cuts through soil to help me transplant small seedlings, cuts twine for vertical gardening, and helps me harvest everything from lettuce heads to broccoli.
5. Bypass pruner. Well, duh – things need to be pruned and cut. A lot. And I even splurged and bought a Felco pruner after having the cheaper brands not even last a season. And it has lasted – even though I left it to rust once for weeks out in our spring rain. I thought it was a goner, but we bought a new blade, cleaned and oiled it and … no, it’s not as good as new (kicking self: maybe the item you pay $40 for is not the one to leave outside…), but it works and I still use it, which is more than I can say for the many other “throw away” brands I’ve bought over the years. Hey, I see that Amazon has a set of “lightweight” Felco pruners for under $29 – maybe I should try a new pair and see if I can keep better track of them this time!
6. Floating Row Cover. I cover my lettuce seedlings in early spring so they don’t drown, my broccoli almost all season so I don’t lose it to the aphids, and my spinach in the fall to keep it growing as long as possible. I even give my tomatoes a head start by making crazy tomato covers with it – and they love it. It’s like this stuff, but I always buy it by the foot from Pinetree Garden Seeds.
7. Red & Black plastic mulch. I’ve used red plastic mulch underneath all my tomatoes and peppers after reading that studies showed a 20%+ improvement in fruiting. It also helps regulate the soil moisture. I use black plastic to inhibit weeds, to kill early spring weeds before prepping the beds for planting, and sometimes as a mulch around plants to help regulate moisture. The link for the red mulch is to Amazon, but Pinetree also sells it by the foot. Home stores, however, are your best bet for rolls of black plastic.
8. Dibble. I thought I wouldn’t really use this quintessential English gardening tool, but when I found one on sale I bought it. And wouldn’t you know, I use it a lot. It’s the best for quickly making rows in raised beds for small seeds like carrots and lettuce and makes perfectly sized planting holes for small transplants and bulbs.
9. 5-gallon buckets. Tons of them. all. the. time. Every time I think we have too many and can get rid of some, that’s when the apple harvest comes, the beds need weeded, the onions need curing, or a million other things. And sometimes I just want to use one as a garden stool – when you’re in the thick of some garden chore, you use whatever’s available.
10. Toss-up between garden clogs and plastic plant markers. I couldn’t pick, really, although I’m not sure it either really qualifies as a “tool.” But I use them both every time I’m in the garden. I use basic Sloggers clogs – they are SO much better than the tennis shoes I started gardening with because they can get wet and it doesn’t matter. And I’ve tried wood plant markers, homemade ones from milk jugs, metal markers and “pretty” markers and the only type that lasts a season (and more) are basic, white, plastic plant markers. Nothing fancy, just some like these.
Okay, I’m depending on you not to count the actual tools from the above list – who knew it would be so hard to pick only 10? And now, fess up: what are some of your tools that you couldn’t garden without?
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And I thought I was the only one with an old serrated knife kept in the garden! Couldn’t pick squash without it, since we like crookneck squash. We also use plastic 5-gallon buckets to water our squash, drilling a small hole in the side of the bucket about an inch from the bottom. Then fill the bucket with the water hose, and walk away! Looking forward to the Garden Party–already have some sugar snap peas peeking out of the ground.
I have 2 old serrated ginsu knives in my garden. Great for dividing perennials as well!
I use kitchen shears for many of the same purposes you use that old steak knife…harvesting squash, aregula (well anything that can’t just be plucked with fingers), cutting things which aren’t thick enough for pruners.
Great list to get you started this spring! I would love to have you share this on The HomeAcre Hop this Thursday!
I also co-host a hop called Wildcrafting Wednesday for herbal remedies, natural living, real food recipes, and self sufficient living.
i love beautiful gardens and I dream of one day living in the country where i could have one myself. But I have learned that my thumb really isn’t so green! Really it’s just that I’m too lazy to do the work that needs to be done to make it successful! LOL! If you were my next door neighbor I’d be begging you to trade your garden produce for something I could sew up!
Ha! That sounds like a great trade to me, as I can’t seem to get to my sewing projects.
I’m so very excited for next Tuesday’s Garden party – its been a long winter. I use almost all of these items also. We bought a soil block maker last year and I love it, although my husband says it’s more of a toy than a tool.
Oh, I’ve thought about the soil block tool/toy – it does sound fun!
So excited to have the Garden Party back next week!
Good gloves- I am always looking for my next pair, and a long screwdriver. I have a 9 inch screwdriver with tape at the 6 inch mark. Utah is the second dryest state in the nation and its my test to see if there is enough water in the soil. If it goes in easyish to the tape we are good for a cople of days. I also use it for general poking and diging and pointing.
Oh, man, that’s a super idea Mirinda!
thanks for your list – perfect timing! We are starting our seeds looking forward to getting into the garden soon.
5 gallon buckets – oh yeah!!! we have a stack at the entrance to the garden.
I’m thinking I’ll be using gloves more, and I really want a pair of those clogs. Maybe this summer.
You’ve motivated me to get focused on the upcoming garden season – thank you!
Leather gloves, trowel, 3 time hand cultivator,wagon (can be pulled by hand or the riding lawn mower), scissors,plastic plant markers, grease pencil, metal bowl from kitchen for harvest. I go barefooted in 22 ft by 35 ft lg garden. The rest of my gardens are 13 square foot gardens that are 4 x 4 and containers all over the place.
Looks like we share a lot of the same tools – and I didn’t mention a wagon, but I appropriated my kids radio flyer years ago!