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Cleaning the park of clad (no replies)
By rmptr
I tried my Fiskars garden knife in the deep grass cutting flaps... Gonna need practice with that! Managed to slice my arm, leg, and fat belly! That puppy is sharp! Need to make a sheath for it. ...
Find's Treasure Forums - Tesoro Forum - http://www.findmall.com/list.php?17
"...and how could I forget - the tools of the trade. Actually I have a few new things and a few inherited items - complete with a little family history behind them. The storm window on the left was completely new to me; someone along my morning commute was throwing it out. Likewise with all the lumber just behind it.
But:
the gardening fork belonged to my grandfather on my dad's side, and my parents used it in our family garden after that. The screen in front is for sifting soil - makes it a little easier to break up some of the clumps, strain out the little clumps of rootlets, and sticks, and rocks... very handy, and made decades ago (along with a larger, two-person model) by my dad. The orange-handled shovel is great, and I *just* bought it this spring from Fiskars at the masshort spring flower show. Apparently, vendors often do a half-off sale on the last day of a big show like that, so I got it at bargain rate. Woo-hoo! It works well (sturdy, and has slightly bent over plates at the top where you're meant to stand and drive the blade into the ground).
These aren't my only tools, but they're the ones most in-use the past couple weeks as I dig the beds. I'm hoping to plant my lettuces and peas tomorrow. "
By T.C. Conner/Correspondent
http://www.alliednews.com/aboutus
My neighbor Michele called the other day and asked if I’d come over and help her dig up a clump of stubborn irises that had wedged themselves in between the paved driveway and yard. The weather was perfect, early spring warmthBy T.C. Conner/Correspondent
My neighbor Michele called the other day and asked if I’d come over and help her dig up a clump of stubborn irises that had wedged themselves in between the paved driveway and yard. The weather was perfect, early spring warmth lured me out and I grabbed my garden fork, grinning from ear to ear, contemplating dirt and neighborly gardening gossip.
Michele found the outline of the clump before my arrival and even though the ground was moist, digging wasn’t easy. However, our duo-digging efforts proved successful and the clump was removed.
Having the right tool for the above job made the task a little easier. We always hear about new flower varieties, but little is said about new and/or innovative gardening tools. Can improvements be made to the standard pair of Felco or Fiskar pruners you’ve been using for decades? What about the common garden rake or hoe? Can these be made in such a way as to substantially decrease the efforts we expel on raking and hoeing?
While tooling around the floor of the Philly Flower Show last month, I stopped by one of the vendor booths. Fiskars makes several types of hand-held pruners and was introducing a new pair with a “powergear mechanism.” These new pruners have a power gear that increases leverage, making pruning much easier. I tried a pair after seeing the demo and found out for myself that these pruners really do make cutting easier. As for other gardening tools like shovels and trowels, well, that’s another matter.
It must be practically impossible to make improvements to the common garden shovel. I guess you could say that composites have added to the life of shovels, but plastic doesn’t make the actual digging any easier. Albeit the ergonomically designed padded handles are comforting to our palms, the business end of the tool is basically the same as it always was. Keep your wooden shovels in good shape by storing them inside and wiping the handles down with linseed oil and I can almost guarantee that they’ll last just as long as a plastic-handled shovel.
Small hand-held shovels and trowels come in a variety of shapes, sizes and colors, and are also made from composite materials. Again, the basic design (the business end) of these tools has remained the same so there’s nothing really new here. Some makers claim that their “swan neck” or “natural radius grip” gardening tools will revolutionize the way we garden when in all actuality their tools just make us look geeky with weird wands in our hands.
I suppose if you’re using one of those newly designed tools and it makes you feel like a better gardener, that’s OK; bless your heart.
TC’s Gardening Tips
ä Shovels with stainless steel blades resist rust, but do not make digging easier. I think they’re too pretty to use anyway, unless you’re having a ribbon cutting ceremony for your new garden.
ä I saw an ad for a pair of gardening gloves that read like an ad for boxing gloves: “4-way stretch spandex, elastic debris cuffs and reinforced fingers with grip dots.” These “gloves” cost 25 bucks! C’mon folks, don’t go for gimmicky stuff. A good pair of leather gloves costs half as much and gives the same, if not more, protection.
ä Be leery of ads that claim something will “last a lifetime,” or ones that say a product “will never rust or bend.” I’ve bent non-bending trowels and buffed rust from them too. Again, proper care and your tools should outlive you.
ä That clump of irises I helped Michele move proved too much for my garden fork. I had to give one last final pry and it snapped into two pieces! I think I’ll check out one of those new-fangled-space-age-composite-stainless-steel-last-a-lifetime-never-rust-or-bend garden forks!
T.C. Conner is a Master Gardener and columnist for Allied News. He can be reached at tc@thewritegardener.com.
Cinema Series Celebrates Fiskars Creative Spirit
The first task at hand was to grab a rake or hoe and break up some of the larger dirt clods in the three beds we planned on sowing. The gardeners broke into smaller groups to accomplish a number of goals. In the next few hours, we planted 8 - 4’ beds of Kennebec, Cobbler and Yukon potatoes that should be ready to harvest mid-July. 128 lettuce seedlings and 144 spinach seedlings were transplanted to begin our salad days. One flat of marigolds was evenly distributed among the 3 rows. We planted a bed of beets, a bed of carrots and lots of radishes. We hope to get at least one picking from 4 - 20’ rows of sugar snap peas by mid-June and we put in over 300 each of yellow and white onions. We should have our first salads in about 7 weeks! Several members took on the job of planting new seed trays for successive planting and seeded 5 trays of nasturtiums, marigolds and romaine lettuce.
Three hours later we began to call it a day as we finished filling the majority of the intended three 50’ x 4’ rows. Hot, dirty and tired but full of satisfaction from a job well done we parted ways after high fives, hugs and a sense of camaraderie. As soon as we left, God in his infinite wisdom gifted us with a perfect shower of gentle rain.
Cinema Series Celebrates Fiskars Creative Spirit
Earthtimes- London, UK
Linden, who builds violins and experimental bicycles, in addition to designing our innovative garden products and craft tools, embodies the spirit of ...
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Different Kinds of Pruners for Your Garden
By Market Merchants(Market Merchants)
Sponsored Link: Fiskars PowerGear Bypass Pruner. Loppers: This pruner is best used on small twigs and branches. The lopper is a manual pruner tool and has extremely large handles that give good leverage. Most lopper pole length is two ...
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