Gardening Tools for every kind of Garden

January 17th, 2011

Success at gardening depends quite a bit on the kind of tools you choose for the job. Not everyone agrees on what exactly constitutes gardening in the first place though. To some people, working around the yard is close enough that they could want to call it gardening. To some purists, nothing short of full-blown green thumbs work on vegetable gardens and flower beds with dirt under the fingernails will qualify. To city dwellers who have nothing more than a few flower pots hanging off their balcony railings, the little chili plants they have in one and the miniature rosebush they have in the other seems to qualify just the same. Whichever kind of work it is that you do in your 'garden', they are all probably similar in the level of skill needed, and differ only in scale. When you think of buying the right gardening tools for your needs, the scale of the work that needs done is just as important a consideration as the function those tools will serve.

For your typical yard work, you'll be working with the trees there, the grass that makes up the lawn, the flowering shrubs and the hedges. You'll need tools that work with these - a mower is about your first possible investment here. Of course depending on the size of the loan, you could go for a mower that you sit on, or if it's a pocket handkerchief-sized lawn, you could make do with a push mower. It depends on the scale of your lawn, and the scale of your tastes too. Keeping your trees, your little walkways and your flower beds properly trimmed and shaped will require two tools - a string trimmer and an edger.You'll be glad you invested in them.

Of course, having trees in your lawn will mean lots of fallen leaves at all times of the year. You might appreciate a leaf rake of course; a blower might be even more useful. For the manure you'll spread on your lawn twice over the season, you'll be glad to have the use of a great spreader. Nobody enjoys working with manure and a great tool that makes it as painless as possible is a great investment. And if you really want to go all the way, you could possibly consider getting a sprinkler. The more evenly you are able to water your lawn, the more even the growth of the grass will be.

For the vegetable garden of course, you'll need, depending on the scale of the effort, a perfectly bewildering set of tools. If your garden is large enough, you could appreciate the contribution of a tilling machine. It can help you till your soil. You'll need a shovel to turn the dirt over; a hoe and rake are tools you can't do without. You'll of course need that manure spreader and a great watering system would be of excellent use. For the garden that lives in little pots, you really don't need anything other than a bit protection for yourself - knee pads and , and perhaps a little trowel to help turn the soil sometimes. Your main tools would be the flower pots themselves and the stands you buy to set them in. To most people, gardening isn't exclusively one kind or another. They'll frequently use a combination of whatever way suits them best.