With the holiday shopping season almost over, you may be trying to figure out just what to give to your favorite gardener.
A few tools are on my list of essentials.
To start, my absolute favorite garden tool is a scuffle hoe. These implements are very familiar to farmers.
(Courtesy of Nicole Pinson)
A scuffle hoe is a special type of hoe with a square-shaped blade. These hoes help you edge landscape beds and remove small weed seedlings, simply by pushing the blade back and forth over an area. It’s easier on your back, and is a very powerful tool to keep beds and borders weed free.
My second favorite tool is my wide, metal trowel.
An avid weeder, I enjoy seeing progress as I move through the garden and dig out weeds. Nearly every gardener has reached down to pull out a weed, and become disgruntled when the top of the weed snaps off, only to leave the pernicious root behind. Having a trowel handy prevents this from happening, and enables you to dig a few inches into the soil, and pop out the weed quickly and effectively.
And, when you’re weeding, you may want a kneeler. Kneelers are foam pads that you rest your knees on. I have a few kneelers, but a large piece of cardboard always works in a pinch.
Last year, my husband bought me a great pair of gloves for Christmas. The gloves are Black and Decker gauntlet gloves, and they snap at the wrist so you have the option to wear them either as regular gloves for protecting your hands, or as gauntlet gloves to protect your hands, wrists and arms. These tough gloves extend all the way up to your elbow. They have proved invaluable to me when pruning my bougainvillea each year. Whereas, before I was a human pincushion, I am now more like Edward Scissorhands, and beautiful bougainvilleas result.
No matter what size your yard, a wheelbarrow can be a big help.
Wheelbarrows can move plants, mulch, bags of soil, compost and debris. They store nicely against sheds and walls.
Another favorite tool is a hand-held pruning saw. These small, lightweight saws are capable of cutting through branches too thick for pruners. My pruning saw is used every year to cut back yellow cassia.
Since I am away from home a lot, I have become a big fan of a simple, bell-shaped glass cloche and saucer for seed starting. The glass cloche covers peat pots or small containers of soil and seeds. Recently, I harvested basil seeds from spent flowerheads. I sprinkled the seeds on soil in a small plastic pot, and placed the pot on the saucer under the glass cloche. Located in bright, indirect light (on a patio table under a live oak tree), the basil seeds quickly germinated. The glass cloche provided constant humidity for the seeds. Fast forward a few months, and there are several new basil plants to plant or share. With nearly no effort, the seeds started because the cloche acted as a terrarium. You can find a cloche at arts and crafts stores, or repurpose other glass containers.
Last but not least, another favorite garden tool is a green, rectangular floral frog. Floral frogs come in many different sizes and shapes. They are used on their own, or placed in larger containers.
Floral frogs are made of metal pins or squares. You place flower stems in the pins or squares, and they hold the stems upright. I’ve created many informal bouquets in my office, gathering flowers and leaves from the Extension teaching and demonstrations gardens, and placing them in my simple, green frog.
Other best picks for gardeners: hand scrub, solar globe lights, wind chimes, birdhouses, and watering cans.
Almost every year, my husband and friends get me something related to gardening.
When I look at my garden, these gifts remind me all year of my loved ones who gave them to me. Happy holidays!
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By Nicole Pinson
Nicole Pinson is an Urban Horticulture Agent in Hillsborough County.
Published December 23, 2015
