most important hand tool in your garden

[Chuck]

What is my most important hand tool in my garden? Without doubt it is the Hula hoe or sturrip hoe. No more crawling around hurting your knees and no more bending over yanking out weeds ending up with terminal backache. Weed at a walk. I have a good sized garden and without it my garden would be nothing but a weed patch.

 

[claudine]

To me, the most important tool in my garden are pruning scissors. I use them often, because I grow a lot of roses. I have to prune them, thanks to it they produce more flowers Also, I simply like taking care of them, they're my favorite plants.

 

[Lacey]

My most important gardening tool would be my little planting shovel. I can get anywhere with it and dig great holes anywhere in my garden. It is also pointed and sharp enough to dig those tough weeds out of there too.

 

[Nahum]

It would be hard to narrow down to one tool as I use so many. I reckon it would be the shovel though. If the earth can't be moved, we're not getting much done.

 

[jmb0324]

My most important tool is definitely my clippers. Shovel I can do without because I can dig with my hands, same goes for the weed-puller, but I am NOT going to attempt breaking off stems, pruning, etc...by hand. I'd kill everything by not pulling it off right.

 

[Gardener]

I know it might sound silly, but my favorite gardening tool would be scissors. It's because they are really effective at uprooting weeds and I can also use them to cut vegetables out, as I have heard that simply yanking them out or snapping them with your hands can damage the plant and stun growth. They're also really convenient when cutting plants up to put in the compost bin.

 

[NaturalBeauty_35]

Trust me, if you're normally doing some serious gardening, such as digging big holes to plant shrubs, or digging up and transplanting larger plants, you need to use a shovel. This tiny little gem makes quick work of any shoveling or digging I need to do. So, this makes it my most important hand tool to use in my garden.

 

[Pat]

I like the little claw like tool that is used to pull up weeds. It gets in there and pulls the weeds with out having to put a lot of strength in pulling the weed out of the ground. That Hula hoe sounds interesting to me now that I am having trouble with my knees, I will have to look into getting one.

 

[Abqu]

It has to be my gardening scissors. Between pruning my dahlias and clipping mint for the celebratory mojito, I can't live without them.

 

[Marty Weil]

Last week, talking with my neighbor who has been gardening for more than 50 years, I asked him a similar question. I asked about all the tools he felt were essential. Here's what he said in response:

• Chicken wire (wrapped around 3 posts for the compost.)
• Empty cat litter bucket (any container with a lid will do) for collecting table scraps for the compost.
• Rake for collecting yard scraps.
• Shovel to prepare the beds.
• Walkways between the beds. I recommend weed-block held by logs. Some people use scrap lumber, but I've heard they become homes for slugs.
• A bin to mix soil with humus. I use a plastic storage bin.
• Frames for the vertical plants. Mine are 8 ft high with strings (sisal not nylon).
• Toothpicks for planting. I always stick a toothpick wherever I plant a seed so I can tell which sprouts are mine and which ones are weeds.
• Seed Signs to help remember what was planted where.
• A bucket for watering. I don't hose the garden but instead go around with bucket and cup so I can water and weed at the same time. It also makes it easier to avoid getting the leaves wet.
• Scissors to snip off extra sprouts, because I prefer to plant a few seeds in each spot and kill extra sprouts instead of planting one and planting again later if it doesn't sprout.
• A big light bowl for harvesting.