Posts Tagged ‘Garden Tools’

The Gardening Brochure – a Gardeners Visionary Tool.

Sunday, April 4th, 2010

Gardening brochures, whether they arrive as a monthly edition, or with each season, glossy or plain paper, are a handy ready-reckoner for planning the coming season’s garden display, access to hard to get plant varieties, and the replacement of worn out-tools or apparel. This is a great time of vision for most gardeners and many idle hours are taken up, traipsing through the garden in the mind. Oh! The possibilities! The imagination can run wild, with what you could do, given the time – and money.

These mini-magazines enable gardeners to buy the necessities for their gardening demands without leaving the comfort of their own home, offering a greater range at less expense, with much less trouble and also have it delivered to your front-door, ready for you use.

Gardening brochures, most of all, are very handy. Should you reside a fair distance from a nursery, or some kind of gardening center, it’s often difficult to acquire all those essentials needed keep your garden in top shape. Let’s face it, in any case -  most gardening centers do not have everything you need for a garden, not to mention the fact that the really large centers can be quite overwhelming.

Let us also not forget, that there is a definite problem of the “I want’s” in big centers, with the plants on show at their best and everything laid out just so. Gardening brochures give you more options and allow you to view everything and more, available as you sit at home, also, you are not assailed by the sensory over-load of all those colours and scents. At least with a brochure, you can take your time in the comfort of your own home (probably still get the “I want’s” though, just not as bad). Whether you are in the market for seeds, plants, protective clothing, or equipment, a gardening brochure is a great alternative to gardening centers.

Gardening brochures really are a valuable hoarde of info for either the newbie or skilled gardener. There is generally in-depth explanations about all available stock, their growth habits and flowering seasons, and also the upkeep needed, whether it be specialised, or generic. Also, information about nutrient requirements and the correct occasions for fertilising, is often included in these mini-magazines.

Gardening catalogues will often provide snippets, ideas and suggestions on things like: mower maintenance; how to control weeds and/or diseases in your garden; succession planting for colour: etc. They can give step-by-step planting instructions, such as: plant positioning; how much sun; and seasonal planting times. Reputable businesses sending these brochures, will wait to deliver your products, until, based on what climate-zone you reside in, the correct planting time arrives.

Many gardening brochures also included gardening equipment, such as roto-tillers, whipper-snippers, etc, although this is generally considered to be a specialist area of gardening supply. Depending on the supplier, if they are only showing soft supplies, or only specialise in plants, a quick enquiry will probably see them forwarding you the information you need. If nothing else, gardening type people are very easy to get along with.

If it’s hydroponics you’re into, although once again a fairly specialised field, most catalogues will probably offer things like: water pumps, tap-timers, artificial illumination, nutrient solutions, etc.

Pruning shears or secateurs, knives, hand tools, and the like are fairly standard items in most brochures. Some have a big choice of gloves, making it possible to find a pair that’s practical if not stylish, likewise a reasonable variety of protective clothing. Often there will be on offer a range of larger garden tools, generally regarded as large disposable items (this means that they will in fact wear out, or break – eventually) hoes, rakes, forks, spades, shovels, hoses, sprinklers, irrigation and drainage systems, etc.

Usually, the selection of seeds is far greater through catalogues, often including those really hard to get varieties. Also, some varieties of plants are rarely put on show in garden centers, say, if they are just too big, or some such. This is where the gardening brochure, really comes into it’s own, imagine, being able to have full-grown trees delivered to your front door.

So, get on a couple of mailing lists and have gardening brochures sent to you, so that you can plan for the next spring from your armchair, with this visionary tool.

 

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Tools for Fighting Plant Enemies

Thursday, May 14th, 2009

The devices and implements used for fighting plant enemies are of two sorts:

(1) those used to afford mechanical protection to the plants;

(2) those used to apply insecticides and fungicides.

Of the first the most useful is the covered frame. It consists usually of a wooden box, some eighteen inches to two feet square and about eight high, covered with glass, protecting cloth, mosquito netting or mosquito wire. The first two coverings have, of course, the additional advantage of retaining heat and protecting from cold, making it possible by their use to plant earlier than is otherwise safe. They are used extensively in getting an extra early and safe start with cucumbers, melons and the other vine vegetables.

Simpler devices for protecting newly-set plants, such as tomatoes or cabbage, from the cut-worm, are stiff, tin, cardboard or tar paper collars, which are made several inches high and large enough to be put around the stem and penetrate an inch or so into the soil.

For applying poison powders, the home gardener should supply himself with a powder gun. If one must be restricted to a single implement, however, it will be best to get one of the hand-power, compressed-air sprayers. These are used for applying wet sprays, and should be supplied with one of the several forms of mist-making nozzles, the non-cloggable automatic type being the best. For more extensive work a barrel pump, mounted on wheels, will be desirable, but one of the above will do a great deal of work in little time.

Extension rods for use in spraying trees and vines may be obtained for either. For operations on a very small scale a good hand-syringe may be used, but as a general thing it will be best to invest a few dollars more and get a small tank sprayer, as this throws a continuous stream or spray and holds a much larger amount of the spraying solution. Whatever type is procured, get a brass machine it will out-wear three or four of those made of cheaper metal, which succumbs very quickly to the corroding action of the strong poisons and chemicals used in them.

Of implements for harvesting, beside the spade, prong-hoe and spading- fork, very few are used in the small garden, as most of them need not only long rows to be economically used, but horse- power also. The onion harvester attachment for the double wheel hoe, may be used with advantage in loosening onions, beets, turnips, etc., from the soil or for cutting spinach. Running the hand-plow close on either side of carrots, parsnips and other deep-growing vegetables will aid materially in getting them out. For fruit picking, with tall trees, the wire-fingered fruit-picker, secured to the end of a long handle, will be of great assistance, but with the modern method of using low-headed trees it will not be needed.

Another class of garden implements are those used in pruning but where this is attended to properly from the start, a good sharp jack-knife and a pair of pruning shears will easily handle all the work of the kind necessary.

Still another sort of garden device is that used for supporting the plants; such as stakes, trellises, wires, etc. Altogether too little attention usually is given these, as with proper care in storing over winter they will not only last for years, but add greatly to the convenience of cultivation and to the neat appearance of the garden.

As a final word to the intending purchaser of garden tools, I would say: first thoroughly investigate the different sorts available, and when buying, do not forget that a good tool or a well-made machine will be giving you satisfactory use long, long after the price is forgotten, while a poor one is a constant source of discomfort. Get good tools, and take good care of them. And let me repeat that a few dollars a year, judiciously spent, for tools afterward well cared for, will soon give you a very complete set, and add to your garden profit and pleasure.

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