Your garden is more than just a space that holds your flowers beds, pots, lawn and trees and does more than add aesthetic appeal to your home. It’s a place for play with your kids and pets, a place to relax and entertain family and friends. A well-maintained garden can have a therapeutic effect on people who are ill and convalescing and offer relief to those who lead a stressful work life. For maximum pleasure and benefit, your garden needs regular maintenancenot only to keep it looking beautiful, neat and tidy but also to keep it free of pests that can damage your plants and withstand the rigours of seasonal change.
Having the right garden tools can make all the difference in maintaining a neat garden.If you are new to gardening then it is easy to feel overwhelmed by the wide variety of gardening tools available. While all of them will have their uses, there are a few must-haves to keep in your toolshed to get you started. Knowing what each tool can deliver will help you make an informed decision about what to purchase and how to use them to create a lovely garden.
Here are some of the must-have garden tools to consider.
Gloves: gloves are a gardener’s best friend. If you plan to get your hands dirty in the garden each week, consider a pair of sturdy gloves that fit well and are also waterproof. Using gardening tools regularly can cause calluses and skin abrasions on your palms. Wear gloves to keep dirt out of your fingernails and protect your palms from scratches and irritants when, cleaning pots, weeding the garden or pruning a thorny hedge.
Trowel: a trowel is a hand-sized shovel used for smaller digging purposes. It is an essential tool to have because it helps to dig holes for smaller plants, dig weeds out and make seed furrows. Consider if thetrowel you want to purchase is sturdy enough for the jobs you want to use it for as there are many sizes to choose from. As you should with all garden tools, clean it well after use o prevent it from getting rusty.
Hand fork: a hand fork is usually sold together with a trowel as a set because they both help and complement each other with smaller gardening jobs. It helps to break up hard soil and/or mix compost.
Shovel:a shovel is a large tool which has a rounded edge that is good for moving compost, earth or sand from one place to another efficiently. You will need one if you have a large garden and plan to do a fair amount of work moving compost or earth to different locations in your garden.Spade:aspade is designed with a square edge to help dig into the soil by pushing it down and pulling back with the handle to loosen and dig up the soil. Make sure the handle is sturdy enough to handle the pressure of levering hard soil.
