Top 10 Tools/Gardening Items

Things that are wearing out and beat up are generally the things you like the best. It makes sense. That’s because they’re your go-to things — the items you use the most.

These are the 10 most well-worn tools, gadgets, gizmos and other gardening items you’ll find in my garage:

1.)    Pruners. I use ‘em to clip perennials, prune most shrubs and sometimes to cut wire or ham sandwiches. A very versatile invention when they’re not lost in the bushes. I’ve never sprung for the pricey, pro-grade Felco brand pruners. I’m satisfied with cheaper  Corona or Bahco bypass pruners – so long as I keep them sharp (reminder to self).

2.)  Five-gallon buckets. They haul my compost, carry my weeds to the compost pile, bring tools in and out of the yard, make handy garden seats and much, much more. And they were recycled freebie give-aways.

3.)    Garden gloves. I don’t know how they keep getting filthy and wearing out so fast because I usually take them off 5 minutes after I’m in the garden. But judging from the beating they take, they must be saving my hands a lot of wear and tear in those 5 minutes. I use tough leather ones for thorny work, rubber ones for water-garden work and mulching in the rain, sleek Foxgloves for weeding and finer work, and cheapo cotton ones for general mucking around.

4.)    Alligator Lopper. This electric tool from Black and Decker has a mini chainsaw built into a lopper body, and it cuts through even 4-inch branches like butter. Safely, too. I’ve still got all 10 fingers. It sometimes jams, and the chain occasionally dislodges, but I’ve always managed to get it back into working order. Easily my favorite power tool, even though it’ll run you about $100.

5.)    Ice chopper. It was meant for scraping ice off sidewalks, but it makes a great bed-edging tool. Just don’t jump on it to cut through rock-hard soil or you’ll break a bone in your foot. Trust me. Keeping it sharp helps.

6.)    Long-handled shovel. We older folks can’t bend over like in the good old days. The longer the handle, the better. I’ve broken cheap ones and expensive ones, so I haven’t yet found the ideal brand or model.

7.)    Garden fork. This is the kind with the long tines, not the shorter, fatter ones for digging. This tool is best for loading mulch into the wheelbarrow and for moving around compost. My generic cheapie one has served me well for years.

8.)    Wax marker, used plant tags and sandpaper. I keep track of specific plant varieties by labeling them on the back of tags from past-year’s plants. I recycle them again by erasing last year’s wax writing with sandpaper. When they finally crack from old age, then I chuck them in pieces. Even better are cut-up old vinyl window blinds. I cut a V at the bottom of the 4- to 6-inch pieces so they insert nicely into the ground.

9.)    Beat-up old weeder. A cheapie screw-driver-like tool with a V-shaped blade on the end has been loosening my weeds for 20 years. What a bargain. Anything sharp and pointy does the trick, though, including an actual screwdriver. As my back ages, I find myself weeding bigger areas with a long-handled Winged Weeder, which has a V-shaped blade on the end that you scrape back and forth, or a CobraHead Long-Handle (shown at right), which is more like a fat hook on the end of a pole. Both work pretty well if you’re careful not to get too close to plants you want to keep.

10.)            Me. I’m becoming more well-worn and beat-up by the day. It doesn’t help that things never seem to be where they should be, so I spend a lot of time looking around the garage for them.