A garden’s beauty is a testament to the effort that goes into looking after it. While the best gardener in the world can dedicate hours to ensuring every aspect of their displays is well-tended, a truly impressive garden requires the right gardening tools.
Knowing what tool to use in any given situation can be challenging, and that’s why we’ve put together this simple and straightforward guide for identifying the perfect tool for the most common garden jobs.
Choosing the Right Tool: Two Things to Consider
Every garden job has its ideal tool, and making the right choice every time comes down to recognising what the task at hand involves. You may know which tool generally works best for a given task, but picking the perfect tool to make the job as easy and efficient as possible requires two key observations.
First, identify the task. Do you need to cut, trim, or weed something in your garden? This is the easy part, and you may get a good idea of which tool to select right away.
Secondly, you need to identify how the task at hand differs from other occasions. Whether it’s the thickness of a branch, the depth of a hole, or the length of a stem, the unique factor of your task will be pivotal in helping you to choose the right tool for the job.
To illustrate this two-step system, let’s look at some typical gardening jobs and assess which tools are best suited to them.
Every Job Has Its Perfect Tool
Your garden requires love and care, but when it comes to the most common (and important) jobs, knowing the right tool to use is paramount. If you’ve ever been caught out by not knowing which tool is right for a particular situation, let us utilise the approach discussed above to share some of our favoured tools.
Pruning Bushes
If you want a controlled, presentable, and healthy garden, pruning bushes is an essential task you have to keep on top of. Pruning eliminates dead or dying wood from your garden, and it can also support plants in blooming more fruit or flowers, but which tool is used for pruning branches?
This decision comes down to the size and thickness of your branches. For smaller stems or flowers, pruning is best achieved with a pair of secateurs, though there is a small variation here.
Bypass secateurs, similar to scissors in that they feature two blades that pass each other, are best used for cutting green stems of cut flowers. Anvil secateurs, featuring a sharp blade which slices against a flat anvil, have much more power and are better suited to cutting through dead wood stems.
When you’re up against thicker branches, loppers are most appropriate. Available in both bypass and anvil designs, loppers feature long handles, which not only help you reach branches and stems hidden deep within a particular bush but also give you better leverage for cutting.
If the branches are simply too thick or too big to be snipped with either of the above options, a pruning saw offers a straightforward alternative for cutting through thick branches.
Trimming Hedges
Garden maintenance can be both practical and presentational, and no job better proves this than hedge trimming. Not only does it improve the appearance and organisation of your garden, but removing dead or diseased branches also improves its health and promotes denser growth. To select the best tool for cutting hedges, you must decide on your primary objectives.
With a smaller hedge, which you intend to shape so that it offers an aesthetic boost to your garden, classic shears are more than up for the job, as they are lightweight and easy to operate with intent. If, on the other hand, your hedge is considerably large and you simply want to cut it back to reinstate some order, powered hedge trimmers offer faster results.
Weeding the Garden
It may not be the most glamorous job, but it’s essential for reducing the competition for sunlight and water in your garden, helping your seeds flourish. The right bit of equipment can make this typical job that little bit easier, so what is the best tool for weeding a garden?
For general weeding, opt for a simple hand fork and trowel combination, as this will give you mobility to get the job done effectively. If you’re looking to skim surface weeds, a Dutch hoe offers an efficient solution that doesn’t require you to bend down. For those deep-rooted weeds like dandelions, a specialist weeder may be required.
Find the Right Tools for the Job With Mr Fothergill’s
Even the most demanding garden jobs can be made simple with the right tool. Selecting the right tool not only makes gardening easier but also more fun! If you want to look after your garden in the most effective and efficient ways possible, check out Mr Fothergill’s gardening tools and make sure you always have the right tool for the job. If you have any questions about our tool range, feel free to contact us.
