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Great Tools For Great Gardening
By Leilani Rolphe
One of the most popular hobbies around the world is gardening. Working in a garden can fill one with a great sense of pride and accomplishment. Digging into the warm moist earth is a pleasure unlike any other. And, seeing the beautiful results of your labor will inspire spend more time in your garden, both working in it, and enjoying it. Gardeners often describe a sense of fulfillment and peace that they experience as a result of working in their gardens.

Every gardener has tools that he or she swears by. Some use modern gadgets and equipment to tend their gardens, while others swear by the simplicity of sticking to the old-fashioned basics. Gardening without tools is virtually impossible, at least in the initial preparation stages. The selection of gardening tools you'll choose should reflect your personal gardening style, as well as the size and extent of your garden. Your tools should also complement the amount of work you're able to handle, the time you spend gardening, and, of course, the amount of money you're willing to pay.

It's not necessary to spend a great deal on high-tech gizmos or expensive tillers, but every gardener should have some type of cultivating equipment. In spring, the earth must be dug up, turned, and irrigated. Most people incorporate organic fertilizer into the cool springtime earth as well, and the right tools can certainly make this task a lot easier. Depending on how serious you are about gardening, there is a huge variety of cultivating tools available.

If you are a fan of getting some exercise while you garden, you may choose to use some of the very common hand tools. These include pitchforks, rakes, spades, trowels, and, of course, shovels. These tools are fairly easy to use and are designed to help with preparing the ground for planting. To round out your collection of useful tools, you may wish to also have a pickax, a wheel cultivator, and a mattock.

There are also many useful power tools for use in the garden. They can be more expensive than traditional tools, however, they make gardening a breeze, reducing physical labor. A tiller goes a long way towards preparing a larger garden for planting. It will mix compost and fertilizer into the soil, help to break up the earth, and cut up leaves and plants left from last year's crop. If you're not

interested in purchasing your own tiller, you can probably rent one from your local tool rental shop. Sharing tools with a neighbor can make gardening a more social experience. Ask someone with a nice garden in your neighborhood if he or she has the tools that you need. You may also find use in a shredder, chipper, or chainsaw.

Pruning tools are handy to have if you have hedges, shrubs, and small trees on your property. Pruning shears are fine to use for branches about 3/4 inches in diameter, while lopping shears can handle branches from a half inch up to about 2 inches. Taller trees and shrubs require pole pruners, which allow the gardener to extend their reach to branches as high as 15 feet from the ground. Heavy-duty hedge shears and pruning saws are also handy gardening tools to have on hand.

Plants need water in order to survive, and Mother Nature doesn't always take care of this business. So, it's essential to have tools and equipment on hand to keep your garden nicely watered. If you have a larger garden and a grass lawn, you'll definitely need to have a garden hose with a good quality spray nozzle or sprinkler. If your garden is limited to containers such as pots and balcony planters, you may be able to get away with a simple watering can. Some gardeners use drip hoses for proper irrigation, and more advanced gardens have entire irrigation system set on timers to provide accurate watering.

Getting down and dirty with nature and creating a lush, healthy garden is a dream come true for many homeowners, but trying to create or tend that garden can be a nightmare without the proper tools. You don't have to invest a lot of money; purchasing the basics including a shovel, trowel, pitchfork, and leaf rake is often all you need. And be sure to pick up a good pair of gardening gloves, or you'll quickly have calluses on your hands along with that dirt under your nails.

Leilani Rolphe is a writer for some popular magazines, on lawn gardens and lawn and garden equipment subjects.
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