You Need the Right Gardening Tools

For Vegetable Gardening Success!

When you have the right vegetable gardening tools on hand, it makes growing and harvesting your vegetables a breeze!

There are tools for use in every phase of vegetable gardening�for preparing the ground, for planting the seed, for cultivation, for protecting crops from insects and disease, and for harvesting.

First of all comes the ancient and honorable spade, which, for small garden plots, borders, beds, etc., must still be relied upon for the initial operation in gardening�breaking up the soil.

There are several types of garden spades, but any will serve the purpose. In buying a spade, look out for two things: see that it is well strapped up the handle in front and back, and that it hangs well.

For areas large enough for a large rototiller, it will be your best purchase. There are many good makes. The requirements are that it should turn a clean, deep furrow. In deep soil that has long been cultivated, plowing should, with few exceptions, be down at least to the subsoil; and if the soil is shallow, it will be advisable to turn up a little of the subsoil, at each plowing�not more than an inch�in order that the soil may gradually be deepened.

The spade or rototiller gardening tools will be followed by the hoe and the iron rake. You may be familiar with the wide, deep-bladed type of garden hoe. In most soils, however, a hook or prong-hoe may work better to thoroughly pulverize the soil to a depth of several inches. In using either, be careful not to pull up manure or trash turned under by the spade. Better to leave it covered, where it will quickly rot away in the soil and furnish the best sort of plant food.

Next, you'll need an iron rake when preparing the ground for small-seeded garden vegetables. Get the sort with what is termed the "bow" head instead of one in which the head is fastened directly to the end of the handle. It is less likely to get broken, and easier to use.

Do not rake as though you were gathering up leaves or grass. Instead, work on leveling the soil, which is accomplished with a backward-and-forward movement of the rake.

Another great gardening tool you'll want to acquire eventually is a seed-drill. It makes gardening more play than work�as well as doing a better job overall.

Marking the row, opening the furrow, dropping the seed at the proper depth and distance, covering it with fresh earth, and firming the soil are all done at one fell swoop and as fast as you can walk. A seed drill will even drop seeds in hills.

There is, perhaps, one task connected with gardening that is dreaded by everyone. That is hand weeding. To get down on your hands and knees, in the blistering hot dusty soil, with the perspiration trickling down into your eyes, and pick small weedlets from among tender plantlets, is no fun.

There are, however, several sorts of small weeders which lessen the work considerably. You'll surely find one that fits your needs in relation to your soil conditions and methods of work.

Personally, I prefer the Cape Cod style weeding tool. You skim the blade underneath the surface and cut the weeds off at the root. It is a fast efficient way of keeping your beds free of weeds. There are two things to be kept in mind about hand-weeding which will reduce this work to a minimum.

First, never let the weeds get a start; for even if they do not increase in number, if they once smother the ground or crop, you will wish you had never heard of a garden. Second, do your hand-weeding while the surface soil is soft, when the weeds come out easily. A hard-crusted soil will double and triple the amount of labor required.

It is essential that you keep your gardening tools bright, clean and sharp at all times, and in repair. Always have a piece of cloth or old bag on hand where the vegetable gardening tools are kept, and never put them away soiled and wet. Keep the cutting edges sharp.

In selecting your gardening tools, always pick out those with handles in which the grain does not run out at the point where there will be much strain in using the tool. In rakes, hoes, etc., get the types with ferrule and shank in one continuous piece, so you don't have to content with loose heads.

The Internet is also an excellent source for finding the best garden tools. A few dollars spent in getting the best will save you much more in the future.

There is a different set of gardening tools needed for fighting pests and yet another for growing and harvesting. We'll cover those in more detail in new pages in the future, but for now here is a list...

Stiff aluminum, cardboard or tar paper collars, which go around plant stems and protect from cut worms, etc.
EPA approved powder gun, to apply poison powders
Power sprayers for pesticides
Hand plow for harvesting root vegetables
Pruning shears or a sharp knife
Stakes, trellises, wires, cages for supporting tall plants

As a final word when you get ready to buy your gardening tools, I would encourage you to thoroughly investigate the different sorts available, and when buying, do not forget that a good tool or a well-made machine will be giving you satisfactory use long, long after the price is forgotten, while a poor one is a constant source of discomfort.

Get the best gardening tools you can afford, and take good care of them. And let me repeat that a few dollars a year, judiciously spent, for tools afterward well cared for, will soon give you a very complete set, and add to your vegetable gardening profit and pleasure.

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