Gardening is a great way to relieve stress, combat loneliness, and improve your overall mood. It also makes soaking up in vitamin D quite fun. It can also help reduce your risk of dementia and serve as a fun aerobic exercise that keeps you moving.
With all these benefits, it is not surprising that gardening has become quite a popular hobby around the world. You can try it, too.
Besides seeking expert knowledge and assistance from lawn care professionals in Ovilla, Texas, you can also make sure that your yard remains lush all-year-round by ensuring you have the ten essential gardening tools listed below:
1. Gloves
Gloves protect your hands from splinters and thorns when you’re gardening. With the right pair, you can make sure you enjoy gardening to the fullest.
To choose the best one for you, look for gloves that are durable but not too bulky.
How the gloves fit your hands is also crucial. It should feel snug so you can avoid blisters and accidents that may result from the gloves slipping off. Make sure that you can handle seeds and seedlings well while wearing it, too.
As much as possible, go with ones made of water-resistant materials that breathe to keep your hands cool while gardening. Experts recommend gloves with long-cuffs since they can protect the forearms and wrists from cuts and ensure that soil doesn’t get in.
2. Hand pruner
Also called “secateurs” or pruning shears, a hand pruner is one of the handiest gardening tools you’ll need. It is mostly used to trim plants to keep unruly bushes in check and cut stems for plant propagation.
3. Loppers
Like hand pruners, loppers are cutting tools used primarily to trim plants. However, loppers have a longer handle and are mostly utilized for hard-to-reach areas. They are also quite useful for cutting thicker branches as the long handle offers leverage in cutting those that measure more than one inch in diameter.
Generally, the handle length of loppers ranges from 16 to 36 inches. It comes in two different styles: anvil and bypass. The critical difference between the two is that bypass loppers are more precise in targeting the cut location than anvil-style ones.
It is also important to note that loppers with extra-long handles can be a bit heavy, so it is best to choose those with just the right length for the intended purpose. Loppers also need to be sharpened regularly to ensure maximum efficiency.
4. Digging spades
As the name states, digging spades are quite useful for digging up soil when planting or aerating your garden. It comes in many forms, but stainless-steel types are most recommended for their durability and corrosion resistance.
5. Dibber
If you’ve tried making a hole in the ground using your hands to plant seeds or transplant bulbs and seedlings, you already have a good understanding of a dibber’s usefulness. This gardening tool makes the task so much easier.
The best part is that certain types already have calibrated rings or depth measurement guides that help create holes with just the right depth, removing the guesswork in planting.
6. Hand rake and garden fork
Hand rakes and garden forks are quite useful in manipulating soil. They are both used to remove weeds, smooth out dirt, and serve as a small garden tiller that breaks up compact soil. The only difference is that hand rakes are ideal for smaller areas, while garden forks are best used for bigger spaces since they measure almost the same as a person’s body length.
7. Hoe
Gardening hoes are used to prep flower beds and vegetable gardens. They are also useful in getting rid of weeds.
The kind of garden you have helps determine the perfect hoe for you. For a vegetable garden, you would need a broad and sturdy hoe. Gardens filled with perennials require a more delicate touch, which means you may need a thinner type of hoe.
When removing weeds, you might want to pick a weeding hoe. Also called stirrup hoes or hula, these sport an open square head that is pushed back and forth to cut top growth.
Whatever your purpose, the key is to pick a hoe with a long reach and sharp blades for comfort and ease of use.
8. Lawnmower
Ask any lawn care expert in Glen Heights, Texas, and they’ll tell you that having a lawnmower in your arsenal is crucial for successful gardening.
Lawnmowers are still the best tool to use when tending to your lawn. They are user-friendly and also make having a tidy garden space easier for lawn owners.
9. Wheelbarrow
A wheelbarrow is another must-have tool for any garden. Its deep tray-like base and wheel make it perfect for transporting all sorts of things, including soil, plants, flowers, gardening products, and even weed. It removes the strain off your back when used for small-scale transporting of items and essentially makes gardening so much easier.
10. Garden hose
Water is crucial for all types of plants, including grass, vegetables, trees, and flowers, so you need to have a sturdy and handy garden hose for watering plants.
When picking a garden hose, choose one that is long enough to reach all the spots where plants grow in the landscape. It can also affect the level of water pressure of your garden hose (longer equals lower pressure).
You also need to pick among the following basic hose diameters that have various watering capacities:
- Half-inch hoses – 9 gallons of water per minute on average
- 5/8-inch hoses – 15 gallons of water per minute on average
- 3/4-inch hoses – up to 25 gallons per minute
Besides the hose itself, there is also a selection of nozzles you can attach to one end to help you control the spray radius and water pressure.
Have Fun Gardening
Gardening is a fun activity that can be beneficial to your physical and mental health.
To get the most out of it, you need to have the tools to perform different gardening tasks, such as the ones listed in this article.