Must-have Tools for Gardening!

Gardening is a pride for many people all over the world. The word ‘Green Thumb’ means that a person has natural skills and a love for growing plants as well as caring for them. Gardening can be a great hobby, as it takes care of the environment as well as caters to one’s recreational needs. There is a lot to learn about gardening and taking care of plants before you can grow your plants in the garden. People sometimes spend their lifetime in learning about gardening and still have so much more to learn. Other then the gardener himself there are several factors that affect the growth of the plants, for example the amount of sunlight received by the plants, the quality and the amount of water received by the plants, the temperature in which the plants are grown and the soil in which the plants are grown, that is if the soil is porous enough and can provide the essential nutrients or not.

Gardening is tiring work, and there is nothing that will give you a better result than your hard work and determination. However, there are a few tools that can help you to speed up your work.

Tools to be used:
1. Wheelbarrow
The wheelbarrows are a must-have tool that is required by every gardener. They save a lot of time and effort. They are ideal for loading up of the waste and carrying it to the bins. There are many different types of Wheelbarrows available to cater to the different needs of the gardener.

• One-Wheel Wheelbarrow: it is the classic type of wheelbarrow which can be easily maneuvered and dumped. It requires a lot of strength in the upper body and arms for maintaining the balance of the cart.
• Two-Wheel Wheelbarrow: the two-wheel wheelbarrow provides stability and does not require more strength in the upper body as the two wheels help balance the heavy and unbalanced loads. They may not provide so much maneuverability as the one wheeled ones but help haul loads laterally on an inclined surface.
• Materials: the wheelbarrows are also differentiated by the materials that are used to make them, which may vary from tire types to body material. For tires, they come in Pneumatic, Semi-pneumatic, and non-pneumatic tires and for the body they have a Steel or plastic make.

2. Garden Trowel
The garden trowel is a brilliant and useful tool that can be used to dig small holes for planting seedlings and removing weed patches from the soil. It is ideal as it provides the care which cannot be provided by a full-sized shovel and also helps the kids do their gardening without the danger of hurting themselves.

• The most common type of trowel is the traditional garden trowel which has curved sides and is used to dig up hard soil and make holes for planting seedlings and flowers.
• The next in line is the transplanting trowel which is used to move seedlings and small plants from one place to another. It comes with a long and thin blade and is pointed at the tip.
• Then there is the dixter garden trowel, which comes with a rounded tip and a long thin blade and it is used for removing weeds and gardening in rock gardens.
• A ladle garden trowel is used to scoop holes and dig rounded holes for planting seeds or plants. It has a rounded small blade with a curved edge.
• A potting garden trowel comes with a high curved wide blade and as the name suggests is used to potting plants. There are many other trowels that can be used for gardening and have various usages.

3. Secateurs
Secateurs are one of the essential tools used for gardening. They are required for pruning bushes, unwanted stems & branches of plants, picking herbs and harvesting flowers. They are also known as pruners. There are two types of pruners which are the bypass and the anvil pruners. The anvil pruners work more like a knife with its sharp end pushing through the plant material on to the cutting board hence the name anvil. On the other hand, the bypass pruners have a process similar to that of a scissor and have the cutting edges on both the blades. The blades cross each other while cutting the plant parts hence the name bypass.

4. Shovel
One of the most used tools in the garden is the shovel. Nothing can beat the usefulness of a full-size shovel. They are used for digging the soil beds to add compost or holes for planting a tree.

5. Water Wand
Water wands are used to water the plants. It comes with many different types of nozzles, from a water breaker to a sprinkler head. They also have different types of handles made of rubber or wood and have an inbuilt valve to shut off the water supply from the handle. Watering the garden is a very important task as the plants require water to sustain and survive. But just pouring water to the plants do more damage than good so different nozzles are provided for the different needs.

6. Stirrup Hoe:
There are different types of Stirrup Hoe or scuffle hoe or Hula Hoe which are mainly used for weeding. The sharp steel blades of the Stirrup Hoe skim the surface of the soil and slice the roots of the weeds leaving the soil in place and undisturbed.

As a craft gardening is something that requires a lot of patience, endurance, and creativity. It instills in us a sense of responsibility. There are a lot of challenges involved in gardening and can easily be enjoyed by all age groups all over the world. There are many benefits to gardening as well. It helps to provide a good workout as well as provides mental peace. Through gardening, you can easily burn 200-400 calories every hour, as well as the spending time in the garden outside, helps reduce Depression, Stress and Anger. It also reduces the chances of occurrence of diseases like Osteoporosis and Stroke.