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Archive for the ‘Tools of the Trade’

Garden Gloves Are The Must Have Tool

March 09, 2010 By: Mithran Balakrishnan Category: Buildings 4 Gardens, Tools of the Trade

Garden gloves are essential for anyone who works in the garden. The positive aspects about garden gloves is that they can help protect your hands from getting dirty, and from getting irritations or skin conditions from plants, insects or dirt. When you are working outside in your garden, you want to make sure that your hands are protected while you successfully plant your seedlings. Sure you want to have your garden look great, but why not keep your hands looking the same while also protecting them from anything hazardous that nature has to offer?

The Nitrile Touch Garden Glove from Ozbo is great for any gardener. These gloves are comfortable and also breathable with a nylon back. These gloves can fit to any hand and are also resistant to any abrasion and puncture. These gloves come in all sorts of colors and sizes and fit normally easily and comfortably. When you need a glove to keep your hands looking great while out in the garden and keeping them safe and protected, then these may be the best option for you. (more…)

Using Gardening Gloves

February 14, 2010 By: Jasper Sayer Category: Tools of the Trade

One of the best things about gardening is felling warm, moist dirt in your bare hands, but you will often end up with blistered, chapped, and scraped skin. The solution to this problem is gardening gloves. The more time you spend getting down and dirty in the garden, the more you need gardening gloves. Gardening gloves will be able to ease some of the pain you would otherwise be subject to, letting you spend even more time playing in the dirt.

There are hundreds of different types of gloves on the market, and the kind of gardening glove you buy depends on the way you garden. Some gloves offer protection against specific substances or things, for example, leather gloves are not the best for working with chemicals or water. Many gardening gloves are specialized for pruning thorns, refilling gasoline tanks, or using a chain saw, while others are for general tasks such as raking, digging, and weeding.

After choosing the type of gardening glove you need, you must make sure and pick out the perfect fit. Gloves that are too big have a tendency to slip off while gloves that are too small could cause aches and cramps. Any glove that doesn’t fit could defeat the whole purpose of wearing gloves and cause blistering. To find a glove with the best fit possible, try the gloves on both hands, make a fist, and imitate the movements you make when gardening. If there is no pinching or slipping and the glove is comfortable then you have found your match. (more…)

Garden Equipment are Important in Organic Gardening

January 30, 2010 By: Jodi Reichenberger Category: Tools of the Trade

All good gardener has some type of gardening equipment. In fact, it’s nearly impossible to have a garden without using gardening tools. What kind of garden tools you use will obviously depend on the size and extent of your garden, what you are able to handle, if you want to spend a lot of time in your garden or get done quickly, and finally, how much money you are willing to spend.

While most organic gardeners do not have expensive or high-tech gardening tools, all of them have some type of gardening equipment for cultivating. Tools for cultivating can include both hand held tools and power tools. What kind you buy depends on how serious of a gardener you are. Hand tools include your everyday items like shovels, spading forks, rakes, trowels, and diggers. These can all be used to get a garden ready for planting and are relatively easy to use and do not require a great deal of strength. Other tools include a wheel cultivator, pickax, and mattock. (more…)

Word of the Day: lopping shears

January 27, 2010 By: Garden Dictionary Category: Garden Dictionary, Tools of the Trade

Long-handled pruners designed to cut branches too thick for hand pruners and too small to require a pruning saw, and to cut out roots. Also called loppers.
lopping shears

Home Gardening Tools

January 21, 2010 By: Mark Lucasa Category: Tools of the Trade

You need to have tools to be able to be an efficient home-gardener. Most of these tools are available in your local gardening stores. Buying them from the stores is not usually the best way to get your home gardening tools as they may be of poor quality. Without research, you may end up buying inferior goods in your search for tools and end up spending more than you intended to in the long run. When buying, make sure that you research well. Some stores offer high quality goods on discount. Make sure you make use of these discounts to get value for your money. It may be more expensive to buy from the internet because of the shipping fees. (more…)

Hose Pipes - types and uses

January 11, 2010 By: John Gibb Category: Create & Plan..., Tools of the Trade

Hose Pipes find enormous use in every walk of our life. The Hose Pipes are manufactured in different types, shapes and sizes. Hose pipes are made of different types of materials to suit the applications they are put to. In olden days the Hose Pipes were made of Rubber and its Compounds, which were very bulky, and could not be easily moved from one place to another. They also got damaged easily and it was difficult to repair.

Now the Hose pipes are made of Poly Vinyl Chloride the wonder chemical of the last Century that has got enormous applications throughout the World. The PVC tubing is made of Virgin Grade P.V.C. and range of Hose piping materials include: Flexible Tubing, PVC Flexible Pipes, PVC Garden Pipes & Hoses, PVC Sleevings, Sanitary Waste Connection Pipes & Tubes, Nylon Thread Reinforced Braided Hoses, Double Layer of Triple Garden Hoses, Solid Doris, PVC Strips, Belts and Profiles. (more…)

Blisters, Heat Stroke and Pick-Axes

December 29, 2009 By: Sebastien Marquet Category: Advice General, Tools of the Trade

At Le Domaine aux Quat’Saisons gardening is one of our many passions; here we describe how we planned and developed the Domaine’s substantial garden in the Languedoc, taking it from a barren field to a colourful oasis in just 2 years. Guests staying at Le Domaine can now enjoy the magical garden and swimming pool complex. How did we come to do this?In the spring of 2004 we left our jobs in the city of London in the the United Kingdom and moved to France, simple as that!. We had already bought Le Domaine aux Quat’Saisons, an elegant maison de maitre near Carcassonne. Amongst other desirable features the house was blessed with a 2 acre garden and vineyard; but there was one big problem; there was nothing attractive in the garden whatsoever, just stumpy old vines and worn out fruit trees. As we planned to open the property as a luxury chambre d’hotes accommodation for holiday makers, we set about the task of planning a suitable garden. Little did we know what we had let ourselves in for! Our first Gardening Thoughts - Despair! It was now July 2004 and the Languedoc sun burnt brightly in the sky. Gardening readers of this article may be familiar with this: “the soil, hard baked clay, was like concrete, we could not even pierce the crust with a spade; “the few plants we brought with us from the UK all died in one week after exposure to the sun; “as we cut down weeds they sprang back up like Triffids; “the vines and old fruit trees that spread across the garden area were impossible to remove by hand; tough like steel. “the area was so huge that even after a walk in the garden at midday we needed to rest in the shade and drink copiously. At this point we longed for our corner of an English Garden, with its soft light, damp earth and profusion of flowers. Get Local Help - they have seen this before In despair we turned to Gill Pound at la Petite Pepinerie in Caunes-Minervois. (more…)

Garden Sheds and Tools

December 27, 2009 By: Andrew Troatt Category: Buildings 4 Gardens, Tools of the Trade

Garden tools need to be durable, usable, strong, have effective weight, be comfortable to use and should be very efficient. There are many garden tools available in the market so choose wisely and as per your requirement. The correct tools ensure that you complete your job quickly and efficiently. Garden sheds should be spacious and made in such a way that they can store your tools in a correct manner.

How to choose your garden tools:
Today even garden tools are being innovated to be multi taskers so that you can finish your work in half the time.

• Look for ergonomic tools as they are designed in such a way that they reduce the strain on your hands and are comfortable and you don’t have any unnecessary after pains. (more…)

Hose Pipes different Uses

December 13, 2009 By: John Gibb Category: Create & Plan..., Tools of the Trade

The Hose Pipes are one of the widely used items in the Modern days. These are used in all the fields from Agriculture to Aeronautics. The Hose Pipes help in transporting fluids from one place to another and they make the fluids themselves work in a particular way in a range of applications where they are installed. Without the Hose Pipes, it may not have been possible to have different types of Machineries and their use to the Human beings.

The advancements in the manufacturing processes along with the formulation of a range of Plastic, PVC and other Polymer based materials have made it possible for the manufacture of specialized Hose Pipes that can be used in highly specialized Applications. (more…)

Different Tools For Gardening

December 11, 2009 By: Jenny Styles Category: Advice General, Gardens - Flower, Tools of the Trade

It seems that home improvement stores are making their gardening supply and nursery stocks more expansive year by year. I think this is because DIY lawn and garden care is the easiest to break into as a homeowner. You can buy gardening products in various stores or nurseries, or you can order gardening products from catalogs, or even order them online. The trick is in knowing what you need for the jobs you plan to undertake.

You will obviously need the basic gardening tools no matter what you are planting, such as a hoe, spade, and maybe even a shovel. You must have watering supplies, like a hose, sprinkler and watering can. Other possibilities include a spade, a pot (if you are pot planting), and a pair of gloves for comfort, some pruning shears and a rake. Then, of course, there are the essentials such as the lawn mower and weed whacker, but we are mainly going to focus here on the basic landscape/gardening tools and leave the grass for another day. (more…)

5 Pieces of Equipment Gardeners Can’t Live Without

December 06, 2009 By: Colin Smith Category: Tools of the Trade

Gardening is fun and rewarding and may be considered a hobby, talent or both and sometimes it’s just luck. Gardening is not as easy as it looks and involves dedication, time and consistency and many trials and errors. There are many aspects to maintaining a healthy garden, but some aspects are more important than others. An individual who likes to garden can have the knowledge to produce the best garden in the world, but without the right equipment and materials it just wouldn’t be possible.

Below you will find a list of the top 5 pieces of equipment which gardeners simply cannot live without:

1. Trowel – A trowel is a shovel-like piece of equipment which is used to dig up dirt and set small plants. There are many styles to choose from and type of handle on your trowel will determine how well it works. Easy grip, non-slide and non-slip grips are the best form of handle to choose. These will be easier to use and will require less work than any other form of trowel. A trowel with no grip will be difficult to use and could end up ruining your garden. Try one out in your hand first to ensure it feels comfortable. There’s nothing like having your hand cramp or the trowel slip while using it to dig in a beautiful, new plant. (more…)

A Brief Explaination of Gardening Tools

November 29, 2009 By: Jasper Sayer Category: Tools of the Trade

I think you know very well about the rules and regulations to keep your plants to grow healthy in your garden. For getting sustainable growth of your garden plants you do require good soil quality, sunlight and sufficient water. Although these items have been gifted by nature, you ought to require modern gardening tools to upkeep your garden in a good state. Gardening tools help a lot in taking care of your plants as well as the good growing conditions and positive effect on your plant’s health.

Defective gardening tools might have cause injury on your plants or cut your plants or totally plug your plants from the soil. In order to prevent the occurrence of such untoward incident, it is a must to look for the best gardening tools, which will provide your plants loving tender care. Once you called a tool as ‘Best gardening tools”, it refers to a tool, which will permit labor saving methods and that allows energy efficiency.

Here you can see some of the best gardening tools available in the market to provide a better care than ever for your plants in the garden.

Lawnmowers Luxus Push Reel Mower rated as best by the gardening aficionados provides large top cover that protects overhanging flowers and shrubs. Another special gardening tool called American Lawn Mower Deluxe has also been accredited as best which will be helpful to operate on elbow grease alone and also causing no pollution. But this is not conducive for too tall grasses.

Garden Shredders In general all the garden shredders have a high power motor and come with a silent crushing system. This kind of gardening tool used to accelerate your shredding activity. Garden shredders with electric shredder is an easy to assemble gardening tool, which aids in tree pruning with maximum of 40 mm and making healthy hedges. This gardening tool is considered to be a best among all the garden shredders since it is available with a plunger for increased portability and built-in wheels.

Cultivators These modern gardening tools are available with patented tines to help in cutting the hard compacted soil smoothly. Cultivators are available with a free border edger. It is perfect to use in cleaning the moss, aerating and in thatching. This garden tool helps extensively in preparing vegetable plots, flowerbeds, etc.,

Leaf sweeper These gardening tools are extensively used for smaller lawns. It is having an infinite height adjustment with 200-liter collector.

Edge Trimmer This gardening tool has also been accredited as important equipment by the gardening equipment reviewers. This aids in trimming the hedges and also aids in plant pruning.

Spading fork This is a wonderful gardening tool used for aerating and transplanting. By using this gardening tool it is possible to perform splitting grasses and perennials. In addition to this these gardening tools helps a lot as the job of a manure fork, mulch, sorting hay, for tiny gardens.

Mattock Mattock is an important gardening tool for breaking up the clay soils and also working around established trees with the roots. There is no need to have a pick and a hoe and handles in your garden, if you are having mattock with you.

Before you leave the garden center, it is highly advisable to have a look at these check list of gardening tools and confirm if you’ve got all the gardening tools you’ll need to make your garden just like that of spring to life.

About the Author:

Want to find out about how to grow grapes and how to grow plants? Get tips from the How to Grow Things website.

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Selecting the Right Garden Tools

November 27, 2009 By: Robert Meyer Category: Tools of the Trade

If you’re thinking about taking your gardening seriously and getting out there every day to increase the attractiveness of your garden, then you will want to get the right tools to help you in this. You might be tempted to go out to the store and just buy the nearest things you see, but you’ll be much happier if you put lots of thought into the styles and types of tools you’re buying. There are styles designed just for gardening, and you’ll be better off buying those.

You can find most of the tools you will need at your local gardening or home improvement shop. Usually the employees will be thrilled to assist you in finding the ideal tools. If you go to a shop that specializes in gardening, you can usually get some advice in addition to service. Gardening store employees are usually an untapped wealth of wisdom, and they are how I learned almost all that I know about gardening today.

If you are having a hard time finding the right tool or if you want to save some money, you might try looking online for the supplies you need. You may have to pay the shipping costs and wait an extra week or two, but often the total savings will be worth it. My favorite online site is Bargain Outdoor Tools at http://www.bargainoutdoortools.com. The site specializes on power tools and is also a good resource for information. The site also includes product reviews.

A great thing about this site is that it is affiliated with eBay which means your transactions are secure and if you pay with PayPal you can obtain a full refund, plus shipping costs, if your purchase is defective or not as described.

You should always buy from a reputable seller, though, and always check the seller feedback beforehand for anything negative that people had to say about their buying experience.

As far as basic digging tools go, you might already have all you’ll need. There are several types that you should get though, for different specific tasks. A round point shovel is good for digging holes for plants. A spade is necessary for all the more intricate work. A garden fork you might not use as much, but I have one in my tool shed and I’ve been thankful for it on multiple occasions. Having these different varieties of digging tools can help you to minimize the work you have to do. For example, if you try digging a big hole with a little spade then you’ll end up rather tired.

The same goes if you are attempting to do more detailed work with a big clumsy shovel. A rake is an absolute necessity. You most likely already have one, but I’m guessing it’s a lawn rake and not a garden rake. There is definitely a difference, and if you try to use a lawn rake in a garden then you will not be happy with the results. Same if you buy a grading or a contractor’s rake. You’ll want to look for a bowhead rake. I’ve found these are the best for gardening purposes. They will provide you the maximum control and accuracy, so you don’t accidentally tear up your precious plants.

As far as hoes go, I don’t believe any gardener should have less than 3. There are so many useful varieties on the market that I have a hard time recommending just one, and that’s why I’ll tell you all the ones I usually use. The one I use the most is the onion hoe, which is very lightweight and ideal for small cultivations and weeding. The Warren hoe is a larger model, with a pointed end. If you need to make a hole or dig out a pesky weed, this is the one for you. There are several other varieties, but I recommend starting with the ones I mentioned. As you progress in your gardening savvy, you will find the need for more types.

Most people believe that gardening just consists of a simple spade. But there are many, many tools with many more variations that you will use in your gardening career. Usually you can start with just a few different tools, but you’ll always find that you can use more varieties for special situations. It’s just a matter of recognizing when one tool could be more efficient than another.

If your garden is large you will want to buy a tiller. A tiller will save a great deal of back-breaking work and will do a much better job of preparing the soil for planting. Once again, I recommend Bargain Outdoor tools for buying a tiller.

You may also want to purchase a garden tractor to assist in your gardening efforts and making your yard the envy of the neighborhood as well. When shopping for a garden tractor, I recommend Riding Mower Bargains at http://www.riding-mower-bargains.com where you can often get free shipping and have the tractor delivered to your door step.

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Garden Hose Buying Tips You Should Know

November 18, 2009 By: Terry Edwards Category: Tips Tricks & Steps, Tools of the Trade

Of course, we all know that having a garden hose is necessary for anyone who has a garden or shrubs and plants around their home. But, not everyone knows what to be aware of when it comes to buying a new garden hose. Here are 3 quick tips you should know before shopping for your next hose.

1. Buy a long enough hose.

Always be sure that you buy a garden hose that is long enough for your needs. I know that sounds pretty basic, but you would be surprised at how often I hear about folks who try to save a couple of dollars by purchasing a shorter hose, only to discover they can not water the plants in the back of their yard. This is one case where having too much hose can be a good thing. You’ll save yourself some frustration of having to go out and spend more money on buying more hose. (more…)

Rainwater Collection Systems Explained

November 02, 2009 By: Michael Bowater Category: Advice General, Tools of the Trade

Rainwater Collection in modern urban areas is something that is still new and at its infancy in many respects but with many areas these days experiencing changing climates the installation of rainwater collection systems is now becoming more popular.

The biggest question for many home owners is how to go about implementing rainwater collection and what type of rainwater collection system to install. There are many types on the market but broadly speaking you can divide rainwater collection systems into above ground and below ground systems.

When making your choice there is much to consider. Below ground rainwater collection systems are obviously the most efficient at collecting as much rainwater as possible. The fact that the inlet to the tank is below ground level allows rainwater to be diverted easily by the use of gravity from all of the roof area, thus maximising the rainwater collection potential of your roof. Despite being very efficient, below ground rainwater collection systems can be expensive to install. Installation costs include excavating the site and lack of access to existing residences can make these systems prohibitive to many houses. (more…)