Essential Equipment for a Gardener

Whether your grounds are large or small, the rightthe potato hoe; a dibble for seedlings; a stapling
tools and equipment can speed routine tasks andgun; a pruning saw and soil sieve.
help you to successful gardening. Taking goodFor your hose, a reel is good to have, and a
care of your tools and keeping them in one placecanvas hose and into small fragments and
will pay dividends in time and effort.deposited beneath or to one side of the machine,
If you do not have a tool house or room wherewhere they sift down among the grass leaves
you can keep all your tools, and the insecticides,and form a light, protective mulch layer. This
fertilizers, stakes, wire, paint and other equipmentdecomposes after a while and adds to the organic
a well-prepared gardener should have, arrange tofertility of the lawn.
make space in your garage, or build a locker in aOther equipment to have on hand that will keep
corner of your carport or breezeway. A tool shedyou from running to the store just when you
that is like a giant kitchen cabinet can be addedwant to be out working on the grounds, includes:
lean-to fashion to your garage.plant ties, stakes, labels; burlap or canvas, chicken
There are basic tools everybody needs. Thesewire, garden line; a yardstick and a measuring cup
include a metal shank spade or, better, theand spoons; creosote and other needed paints
easier-to-handle and extremely useful spadingand a paintbrush; sand, peat moss, lime, plant
fork, and the small and handy planting shovel.foods and insecticides and other a wand for
Then, to carry in a hand box or basket, so yousoaking the soil without getting water on the
will have them when you need them, your steelleaves are valuable attachments.
shank hand trowel, hand fork and hand cultivator.The following are luxuries, perhaps, but they will
An iron or bow rake is fundamental, of course,help you do a professional job: a pressure
and so is the bamboo or broom rake. A weedsprayer, root feeder, wheel hoe and cultivator,
spud for hand removal of weeds is a favouritespreader, soil-testing kit, garden tractor and
instrument, and a good pair of shears or a handgarden lawn sweeper, or mechanical garden
pruner is indispensable. The other musts are yourmower with mulching attachment and power
hose, hand mower, roller, watering can androtary tiller, and, finally, an electric hotbed.
wheelbarrow.The mechanical, or power, machines are bringing
Not as vital but very useful are an edging sickleabout changes in gardening. The mower and
which utilizes old razor blades; lawn edger andmulcher, for example, suggest a new way to
grass-edging shears; long-handled or pole-pruninggather fall leaves and use them for mulching. You
shears, hedge shears and lopping shears.run it over the lawn in the usual way. The leaves
Also, a good sprinkler; a deep cultivator such asare cut chemicals and, finally, pots and flats.