TOOLS FOR THE MASTER GARDENER

IF YOU ARE NOT, into tools, may not know names, please check: amleonard.com or gempers.com for illustrations. I tell you one thing, if you buy anything for the first, be willing to pay the same
price for shipping as for the merchandise. A strange trick that does not make much sense to your humble servant. Caution with brands, ergonomic cute tools, some stink, are useless, Fiskars, hand pruners for example.

• Pick axes, are the best for digging. The ones I have are about 18" long, not to heavy, great for small, hard to reach places. On the other hand, 2ouglas Kndelabro, the isle gardening guru of the feeble minded, uses a monster that weights about eight pounds, with a 3/4 feet handle. More adequate for planting a palm tree. I have never seen someone looking more stupid while digging a hole to plant, lest say Petunias. So do not be a jerk; get the proper gardening tool!
  

• Nursery spade. Mine has a wooden short handle. Not expensive. Some are really works of art. I use it for digging, cutting roots, to create edges and so forth. One spade will do if you know what you are doing.
• Trowel, cultivator, transplanter are great tools if you are constantly planting/propagating in the ground or in pots.
• Grounds keeping maintenance/cleaning. 24" spring brace rake. This tool is necessary if there are leaves, grass to remove. If you have a yard with lots of these get a good, expensive if necessary rake. You will use it a lot. The handle should be adequate to your height, not too short/too long.
  
• Picking up within bushes requires a 9" shrub rake. Unless you want to spend hours like a fool, in uncomfortable hard to reach positions, organic debris within your plants.
• If you have gravel, sand, or into the ZEN bag, a wooden rake will make the surface,really neat and attractive.
  
• Push broom. It there are areas covered with concrete/pavers get one. Also a regular broom, not a wimpy for inside the house and dust pan. Save the environment, no blowers please.
  
• 30 gallon Pop Up Container. The best there is. Light weight, sturdy, weights 2 pounds closed! When you go pruning take it with you, place it close by. Cut and throw. You could use a plastic bag or drop later in one. But do not be a fool, cutting, throwing on the ground, to pick up the mess later when you are tired.
• 10 gallon Pop Up Container, just as the above for smaller shores..
• Pistol grip handle reacher. If you have, live by places where garbage, organic or not accumulates. Instead of bending like fools do here, holding the plastic bag in one hand, struggling to keep it open against the wind, and using the free hand to pick, follow the steps above. Place the pop up close by, while gripping with the handle reacher.
• Hand pruner. Like the rake, get the best your money can buy, it does not have to be expensive, just comfortable, well built. If you practice gardening with passion, no other tool is more important, you will probably use it daily, if you have a big garden.
• 18" high speed precision pruning saw. It could be of the folding kind or not. One thing I tell you. I hate loppers. They are awkward to use, not getting a clean cut always. With this saw I cut anything above 1" diameter branches. I have used it believe it or not for 6,8 inches. It is a matter of being patient, and a good saw of course.
• If you have trees, a Telescoping pole saw is necessary. Or climb twenty feet in a ladder and cut with the 18" pruning saw above. Please get someone to hold it for safety.
  
• A seat and/or cushion to kneel. This is pertinent, if you are over 55, or fat, out of shape.
• Asparagus knife for weeding. An excellent tool, particularly in concrete and other crevices.
• Glysophate. The only chemical I use, against weeds, grass or broad leaves. Do not buy Roundup. Too expensive and little of the real thing, check the labels. What you want is the highest percentage of glysophate. That is that.
• Compression sprayer. Mine is a one gallon. Get one with a filter. Otherwise, when using it with tea compost it will get clogged. Even if you filter the tea, some fibers may go free.
• After the hand pruner, broom, dust pan, the sprayer is the tool I use the most. With compost, foliage fertilizer or plain water to scare insects, particularly white flies.

Perhaps I have missed something. Maybe you have your own favorite tools. If you ask about
the budget for all these, it may reach over three hundred bucks. But not all were bought at once.
I remind new arrivals that once I tried to do landscape maintenance for hire. Not every
person into gardening may need all these tools, however I believe necessary to know of their
existence and uses. If you consider yourself a trend setter in the gardening sphere, then you need tools to set the example, some reference books, a nice collection of plants. Most important perhaps, as I often do, to demonstrate great humility...haja bilingual laugh...Time to go.....

from the editors
REASONS TO BE CHEERFUL
part I

A couple of Spindalis, were surprised
this morning while constructing their
future home in MY garden, by the
ipomoeas, cavalinnas in a pot
in the south side.