Choosing the Right Tools for Your Garden

The range of gardening tools that are available now is quite outstanding. As gardening is one of the most popular hobbies in the world, there is a huge demand for gardening tools that can do a better job in the garden while making that job easier to complete for people of all ages.

You will need to buy the tools that make life easier in your particular garden, and that will be determined by the space you have available, the types of plants that you have growing, and your physical capabilities or limitations.

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If your garden has quite a few large trees or hedges you will also need tools that make the job of trimming at those heights easier. With the design of new garden implements concentrating on leverage for ease of use, it has become a lot easier for the home gardener to maintain plants at heights that would have normally required professional help.

Many of newer garden implements have also been designed for ease of use for people who suffer from arthritis and the elderly who don't have the strength they once had. Not only are these tools popular with the elderly but they will make the job of maintaining your garden a lot easier and more enjoyable by reducing the effort required to use them.

You will be able to select from implements that can reach to places that would be difficult without getting down into the garden, and as well as making life easier, they can also make it safer.

A friend of mine recently had to clear the ground around some small palms and without the use of a long handled garden implement she had no alternative but to get down and do this by hand. The ensuing pricks from the palm fronds made sure she went to the garden store at the earliest opportunity to ensure she wouldn't have to do that again! Fortunately she was wearing safety glasses as getting pricked in the eye by stems or sharp plant leaves can cause painful and permanent damage to your sight.

Safety glasses, or even sunglasses should be worn when working in the garden and breathing masks should always be worn when using poisons and insecticides - although as an organic gardener of course you don't use those! But safety precautions should also be taken when using organic and natural pesticides and other aids.

When in the garden, it is important to use the proper tools to preserve our own health as well as that of our plants.

For some specific suggestions and reviews of highly-rated garden tools and equipment, be sure to check back Thursday!

Video - Summer Garden Maintenance - Breaking Up Hard Soil

Mid-way through the summer, garden soils can become hard, dry, and compacted. This short video demonstrates a really cool little hand tool that you can use to break up the soil and help water penetrate into the soil. Don't get too close to the existing plants, but this is a nice way to break soil up in in-between areas where you want to plant new seeds or plants, and will help water and fertilizer get to the roots of existing plants as well.

Much less expensive, and handier to use than a motorized tiller, this type of hand tiller is a really handy garden tool to keep on hand!

 

Similar Hand Tillers:
   

Organic Gardening Supplies for Beginners

If you’re a beginning organic gardener, you’ll want to know which supplies you’ll need to invest in to get the most from your garden. Organic gardens aren’t too different from other types of gardens, except that organic gardening supplies such as fertilizers and preventative measures should be chemical and synthetics-free.

Online organic gardening sites contain a plethora of information and all the supplies you’ll need to become an enthusiastic and successful organic gardener. Here are some examples of supplies you might want to look for:

Container gardening. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Soil conditioners – Preparing the soil for organic gardening is the most important task you can do to ensure a beautiful and prolific organic garden. Products such as biostimulants can boost the soil and increase flower, vegetable, herb and fruit production. They’ll also reduce the stress that can harm some plants during planting.

Propagation supplies – These organic gardening supplies are necessary if you plan to start your own seeds. You can find flats, domes, rooting gels and powders, plant labels and other supplies that will make your organic gardening experience a positive one.

Tools and accessories – Gardening tools necessary to any type of garden include soil testing, weed control, pruning tools, stakes, ties and plant supports and soaker hoses. You might already have some of these items on hand.

Container gardening supplies – Many begin their organic gardening adventure by starting out with several “organic” containers for planting. That’s a great way to start if you’re not sure about the process and don’t want to invest a lot of money at first. You can find hydroponic supplies, organic potting mix and more online.

Pest and Disease Control – For organic gardeners, your pest and disease control supplies are especially important to reap a successful garden. Items such as organic insect sprays, repellents, traps and disease control products can help set your mind at ease about your garden being safe from pests.

Composters – True organic gardening requires compost material, and it’s much easier if you have the proper equipment. A compost crock that sits in your kitchen and holds food waste can be purchased online for under $25. Larger, compost tumblers cost more, but if you decide you’re really serious about organic gardening, it’s a clean and convenient way to recycle.

You can find all the organic gardening supplies you’ll need online – from greenhouses and hydroponic growing materials to organic sprays and fertilizers. Your efforts to maintain an organic garden can help create a sustainable environment that will help keep both you and the planet healthy.

For more on organic and sustainable gardening, including supplies and educational resources, visit http://www.newholisticliving.com/sustainablegardening.html.

Review: GrowVeg Garden Planner Software

This cool software from GrowVeg.com makes it easy and fun to draw up a plan for your garden, design the layout, decide on what plants you want and where, figure out how much space they need, and much more.

It makes crop rotation and succession plantings a snap, with built in information on what family each plant is in, how much growing space they need, what goes well together for companion plantings, and more. Want to change something? It's easy to move crops, resize beds, and make other changes with just the click of a mouse!

While you can certainly plan out your garden on paper, using this great software makes it a lot easier to modify designs and ideas later, save a record of your garden plan for later years, and have a great visual depiction that makes it easy to see where everything is planted. Plus it's just lots of fun to use!

Solve your growing problems and maximize your harvest from your available space with this helpful and easy to use software. Just click the banner below to learn more.

How To Use Indicator Plants In Your Organic Garden

Even if you've been gardening for a while, it isn't all that surprising if you've never heard of "indicator plants." The study and use of these plants is still relatively new, and so far they are being utilized more in commercial operations than in people's gardens. But they might actually be helpful to you as well, in planning what sorts of plants you can grow in the soil of your own organic garden, and in keeping ahead of potential pests and infestations.

So first of all, just what are these plants, and what exactly do they indicate? There are a couple of different types of indicator plants, that perform slightly differently but serve similar purposes.

dandelions (Photo credit: bob_jenkins)

First, there is the kind of plant that's actually closer to a weed, that grows only in certain types of soil or in the presence of specific minerals or nutrients. Things like dandelions can hint at clay soil, for example. Or certain attributes of the leaves or size of other plants show the presence of minerals or other things in the soil. Clues like this have been used throughout history to show where to find specific minerals. One such hint has been white patches on the leaves of plants, which often means there are deposits of nickel or cobalt below; some North American mines have actually begun when plants with these attributes were found growing on the surface.

So if you find certain types of weed growing in your garden, you may be able to conclude that you have the type of soil that would support them. Though spotting just one of these plants may be mere chance. However, encountering two of them – say, the dandelion mentioned above, along with chicory, which also needs clay soil – would make the "clay soil" conclusion a pretty safe bet.

When you watch for this type of indicator plant, it may reveal why other, more desirable plants are not doing well in the garden, if they need a different type of soil. Or it may help you decide which of your preferred plants to put into the garden if you don't plan to make changes in the soil.

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Another type of indicator plant is one that attracts the same sort of pests as your more valuable plants. These are especially useful if you're growing a high volume of a specific flower or vegetable. You can't inspect all of them to see if they've got mites, mealy bugs, and so on. But if you have another smaller set of plants nearby that attract the same sorts of pests as these, you can keep watch on them. If they become infested, then you know the larger plant population is in danger too. This can help you discover a problem with pests sooner, so you can take action much earlier to minimize the damage or even to save the other plants from a possibly fatal infestation.

Which types of indicator plants will reveal which specific problems is something you'll need to research yourself, because it will depend on the type of soil your garden has, and what types of plants you hope to put in the garden. But if you're looking for an early warning system for possible insects or soil problems, this type of plant may be a means of providing it for you.