It's how I do it.

[Oliver Buckle]

I was planting some tomato seeds today in a little propagator tray, and some spinach outside in a row, and as I was doing it I realised that I had a way of going about it that had developed over time
With the tomatoes I mixed up compost to plant them, I have a small coal shovel I use to measure and bring together the ingredients. It is just the right size, but they are made of pressed steel sheet, and after a bit of use they bend and snap where the handle joins the blade. trick number one, I have driven a short length of 1/2" copper tube up the groove in the blade and up into the handle, then I hacksawed it off level with the blade, that's made it good and solid. I measure out my ingredients and then mix them shovelling them up into a heap. Any lumpy bits in the ingredients roll down the outside and I chop them up with the sharp edge of the shovel, this is also a good trick if you are mixing larger quantities with a bigger shovel outside. By the time I have done it is very loose, and i overfill the try . Then I level it off by scraping across the top with the shovel, and pick it up a couple of inches and drop it two or three times. When I do that it beds down a bit and I put the seeds on the surface, then I fill with compost and do it over again, that buries the seeds a bout the right depth and firms down the soil without packing it down too hard.
With the outside seeds I stretch a line to mark the row, then run down it with a hoe and rake to get the soil nice and fine, then run a groove with the corner of the hoe, pulling the soil out to one side. To "Sow thinly" I tip a few seeds into the palm of one hand and take a pinch between finger and thumb of the other. Gently rubbing the finger and thumb together it is possible to drop the seeds almost one by one with larger seeds like spinach, and still pretty finely with smaller ones like lettuce or carrot. then I simply go back in the opposite direction and draw the earth back over them with the flat of the hoe.
That is my version of what the seed packet calls 'sow thinly a quarter of an inch deep', or an inch deep for the spinach, quite a bit I have learned over time, but was not told about, any simple tricks you use, almost without thinking about it?

 

[Oliver Buckle]

Here is a simple one, I had to prune quite a large branch recently. If you simply cut a branch off you reach a point where the weight of the branch snaps it off and tears a jagged gash, so I make the first cut underneath, cutting upwards, then I cut from the top aiming for a point an inch or so further up the branch than the lower cut. At the point where the branch breaks it breaks down to the lower cut without making that jagged tear. Simples once you know, I did a few wrong first.

 

[cpp gardener]

You will notice that when it breaks, it will tend to 'jump' away from the remaining branch. Then remove the much smaller stub without creating the tear. Standard practice for professional arborists, and you can do it too!

 

[Oliver Buckle]

You will notice that when it breaks, it will tend to 'jump' away from the remaining branch. Then remove the much smaller stub without creating the tear. Standard practice for professional arborists, and you can do it too!

Exactly, a bit like 'sow thinly', we learn how to do these things and it becomes 'standard practice', something we have always done, but there was a time when my seedlings came up in clumps and saw branches had ragged ends ready to catch disease. Trying to make life a bit easier for those starting out.

 

[Meadowlark]

... any simple tricks you use, almost without thinking about it?

I take pride in growing 6 inch+ bulb onions, and a simple trick I use to enable that without thinking about it, is to loosen the soil around the bulbs with a custom-made tool. The tool is just a claw hoe with all the claws removed except the middle one, appropriately giving the middle claw to the weeds.

I haven't seen anyone else do this...and I might add haven't seen many 6-inch onion bulbs except mine either.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

Using a hoe is an acquired art in itself. Firstly always plant things so the hoe will fit between the plants, I still take out the odd plant, but generally I can hoe right up to things without damaging them. Until you get practised handling the big hoe, or if you are hoeing plants you particularly care about, I would recommend using it on the big spaces between the rows, then between the plants, and finish of the fine work with a kneeler and a short handled onion hoe.
Generally good to break up the surface like that, Meadowlark, air and water will both penetrate better