Gardening Tips - Buying the Right Tools For the Job

If you are an amateur hobbyist or just starting off on gardening, consider buying a garden tool set. They tend to be cheap but of lower quality. The advantage is that you will have almost the full range of garden tools needed to start a garden. Once you have gained more experience working on your garden, you can better assess your tool requirement and preference. There may be problems, which you can foresee the tools required until you actually work on the affected areas. Also, every gardener will have a collection of tools in which some tools are constantly used, while other tools neglected and forgotten. You can spend more money on better quality tools once you have a grip on your garden and your gardening requirement.

Maintenance of Garden Tools

When you are buying new gardening tools, you are likely to be faced with a choice between low price and low quality or higher priced and better quality tools. Good quality garden tools are designed to last, but they must be also be properly maintained. If you opt for cheap garden tools, maintaining them is less of an issue. When they break or wear out, you simply throw them away and buy a replacement.

A basic maintenance regiment for garden tools involves cleaning and oiling. Always remove all traces of soil and plants remain from your garden tools after usage. If necessary, dismantle your tool to get at the dirt. Hose down with water to remove mud and scrape off any stubborn dirt with a brush or a screwdriver. Cleanse and rinse thoroughly any tools, which have been used for application of chemicals such as fertilizer. Fertilizer is corrosive to metal. After cleaning, do not store away tools when they are wet. Allow them to air dry completely to prevent rust and wood rot. At least once a year, rub linseed oil into the wooden part of your tools to make them last longer. Before storing, wipe the metal parts of your tools with an oily rag after each use. Or use a spray to apply the oil and wipe with a clean cloth.

If you use your tools often, you can make a convenient shovel cleaner cum oiler by filling a small bucket with sand and a quantity of new engine oil. Push your metal tool into the oily sand several times to clean and oil at the same time. This neat DIY clean/oiler can also be used as a shovel stand.

You may be tempted to buy stainless steel tools, as they are more rust resistant. However, you should know that they are less robust than traditional steel garden tools. For certain functions such as garden fork and rakes, they are not a good buy unless the price is cheap. Be warn though, you may end up buying a replacement more often than you think.

Top 7 Benefits of Organic Gardening

We tend to think of organic gardening as something the hippies or greenies would be doing, but have you thought about how doing a little organic gardening might really benefit you? ... Not to mention your family and the environment.

Benefit 1: To me, the greatest benefit of organic gardening is the benefit of health. You know how you've grown your fruit and veggies, no chemicals, no sprays, just the way mother nature intended.

Sure you might get the odd caterpillar chewing on your cabbages, or a few aphids on your kale - even bird pecked or sunburned fruit - but you can be sure there's no chemicals on your home grown veggies. No need to scrub your veggies under running water for 5 minutes to be sure, you only need to remove dust.

Benefit 2: Convenience has to be right up there. How wonderful is it to stroll around the garden picking thing for dinner. No need to take a trip to the supermarket or greengrocer - just walk outside and you're there. This ties in nicely with all the recent hype about food miles.... Zero! You're doing your bit for the planet - nicely done!

Benefit 3: You get to eat your home-grown produce as fresh as it can possibly be. I believe that fresh food has its own 'life energy' and that's why it's incredibly important to eat things that are freshly picked. They still have that life force in them and when you eat them, you add their life energy to your own.

Imagine picking your veggies, preparing them for dinner and eating them, all within an hour. Food you buy at the supermarket may be days, weeks, even months old before you even buy it. How much 'life energy' is left by the time you eat it?

Benefit 4: You'll be saving a great deal of cash when you grow your own organic fruit and vegetables. Have you noticed how expensive food has become lately? It's staggering to say the least.

Growing your own veggies might seem expensive to set up (if you do it properly with irrigation and good soil etc.), but you'll be saving money in your first season. Just think: if you spend just $30 a week on fruit and veg, that adds up to $1560 over a year.

The beauty of organic food gardening is that if you are willing to save your own seeds from the plants you've grown, you'll have them for next spring and will need much less money to get set up for the coming growing season.

With the world economy in a real pickle (pardon the pun), organic food gardening is a great way to reduce your monthly expenses.

Benefit 5: There are so many health benefits when you become an organic gardener. I've already talked about the benefits of eating your wonderful produce, but there are further health benefits.

For a start you'll be outdoors more. Just that alone is a big health benefit. Most of us live in stuffy homes that don't have enough ventilation, with toxins exuding from the walls, cupboards, carpets etc.

You'll get a little more gentle exercise. You know you need more exercise! Then there's the vitamin D that you'll get from the sun - don't stay out long enough to risk skin cancer, but do get your daily quote (at least 15 minutes sunlight). Plus you'll be breathing in fresh air while you're in your garden.

And did you know that gardeners live longer than non-gardeners? I believe it is partly because of the health benefits I've outlined above, but there's another reason. Firstly you're keeping your brain active - thinking about what you're going to plant where, when etc. And secondly because you expect to be around for the next season. Planning ahead seems to be connected with keeping us alive longer.

Benefit 6: You'll finally have somewhere to put all your kitchen scraps and garden waste without polluting the planet any further. Most things that come from the earth can be returned to the earth by way of composting, mulching or creating a liquid fertilizer. So your waste doesn't need to add to the world's problems any more.

Benefit 7: (my personal favorite) An incredible sense of well being will wash through your body every time you walk through your garden. It doesn't matter if you're watching a tiny seed develop into a healthy young seedling, you're gleefully discovering an insect that eats a problem insect, you're enveloped with wonderful scents of aromatic herbs or are so very proud of growing the vegetables for your family's next meal - organic gardening is joyful. Just allow yourself the privilege of caring for your own organic food garden.

Don't start saying to yourself that you don't have the time, or "I'm a lousy gardener". It really takes quite little time to create a productive organic food garden once you've got the basics in place.

And if you're not a green thumb yet, get some information and have a go. No-one gets good at something until they get a bit of practice in. Meet some of the gardeners in your area. Or ask your relatives - there's bound to be someone who's will to share their gardening skills with you.... We love to do that