Gardening is a joy to those who love flowers, bushes, vegetables, and generally any kind of plant or herb. The growing of all things green is good for the environment as each leaf cleans the air, while producing and leaving clean oxygen and a sweet aroma. Assorted grasses and shrubbery are also well known in helping to reduce soil from eroding and helping to keep unwanted sediment from settling in the roads and streams.
Gardening is also good for health benefits. It’s a wonderful way to exercise. All the weeding and pruning and mowing gives the body a real work out, which actually helps to lower stress and blood pressure and cholesterol. Just looking at a well-manicured garden has been known to help people with muscle tension and heart activity. All the assorted colors and luscious scents invoke a sense of tranquility and peace especially during summer. Taking a walk through a well-manicured garden is relaxing for almost anyone.
However, landscaping and keeping a garden can be very hard work. It takes time and commitment to maintain such a labor of love. There’s planting, watering, protecting, weeding, pruning, and cultivating with every plant that’s sown into the ground. With each activity also comes the proper tool to help finish that chore. It’s almost a full-time job just to maintain a good looking and healthy yard. However, there are tools to make the job easier. There are at least three essential tools needed to landscape a garden. Many people would argue that there are hundreds of kinds of equipment needed to grow a garden, but they all basically fall into these three categories.
1. Trowel
A trowel is primary for planting, whether it’s for seeds, small cuttings, bulbs, or potted plants. With gloves on and a shovel of some sort in hand, the gardener can begin his arduous task of digging into the ground to make a home for his seed or seedling. Also contained in this category is the formidable shovel. These come in all different sizes and shapes. Whether it’s a smaller size for little pots or plants, or a larger one to dig up a stump of stubborn weeds, a shovel comes in very handy to plant and maintain a garden. It’s important to note that both small and large shovels with a point are known to work better than those with a straight edge. They penetrate the soil easier, making it less troublesome to dig.
2. Shears
The next sort of essential tools to landscape a garden is the shears. Shears come in a variety of types and sizes and are invaluable for a gardener of any age. In any reputable shed, a gardener will have a variety of gardening shears, pruning shears, or even hand shears. The difference lies with what obstinate branch needs to be cut, or what needs to be trimmed back for more plants to grow. Size plays a great part in choosing the correct shear. Smaller shears are meant only for smaller branches. Larger shears can take on a multitude of uses.
The most difficult part about using shears is that they’re generally manipulated by hand. Although not much strength may go into a pair of kitchen or gardening shears, when it comes to more strenuous work, cordless grass shears that are larger and fueled by a power source may be the proper choice for cutting and landscaping. There are a variety of cutting shears on the market. The decision comes with what needs to be cut and how much labor needs to go into it.
3. Rake
One of the last essential tools to help landscape a garden is the rake. There are usually two types of rakes involved in gardening, a leaf rake, and a garden rake. The leaf rake has a very long handle and is perfect for scraping up leaves and sticks etc. off of lawns and garden beds. The tines are usually very “springy.” The garden rake is different because it has a flat back side, along with shorter, and stiffer tines. It’s used for more intricate work around plants and vegetables. For a flourishing and healthy garden, both of these tools will probably be used.
Takeaway
Gardeners of any caliber will tell you that there are many more tools needed to landscape a garden or yard. They’re correct. There are so many tools on the market for whatever issues arise while planting, digging, watering, pruning, and cultivating. It can be such tedious and tender work to even begin.
The three essential tools that are listed here are just examples from a broad band of such major equipment. It’s an arduous task to plant, landscape, and maintain a garden. The rewards, however, are plentiful and beautiful.