What basic tool or tools that you have to have

[daver]

You folks are inspiring me. I have on hand:

Rototiller
D handle shovel
long handle shovel
clippers
garden fork
hoe
steel rake
pick
leaf rake

Will buy a spade.

Have borders to clean out and redo and want to do two 12x4 raised beds.

 

[daver]

Answered my own question. Thanks anyway.

 

[digitS']

Dave, my most important tool is a long-handled spading fork.

I have a couple of rototillers, large & small.
shovels
clippers
hoe & 4-prong cultivator
steel rake
grubbing hoe and pulaski
leaf rake

The garden where I've been the longest has never seen the tillers, that I can remember. I will spade out the soil every year or so to add amendments but if I was just to use fertilizer and well-made compost, I wouldn't need to bother with that.

A garden rake is fairly important. I use it for making the drills for sowing seed. Of course, the hoe or cultivator could serve the same purpose.

The permanent paths are packed so hard that hoeing out weeds between the beds is almost out of the question. Using the spading fork when the soil in the path is moist works best for getting those weeds out. I can also cover them with mulch.

The other tools have their uses. I mean, the spading fork isn't real suitable for raking leaves, even if it works . I won't be using the fork for pruning the rose bushes either. I can't remember when I last used the grubbing hoe or the pulaski -- and that is just as well .

Steve

 

[daver]

Dave, my most important tool is a long-handled spading fork.

I have a couple of rototillers, large & small.
shovels
clippers
hoe & 4-prong cultivator
steel rake
grubbing hoe and pulaski
leaf rake

The garden where I've been the longest has never seen the tillers, that I can remember. I will spade out the soil every year or so to add amendments but if I was just to use fertilizer and well-made compost, I wouldn't need to bother with that.

A garden rake is fairly important. I use it for making the drills for sowing seed. Of course, the hoe or cultivator could serve the same purpose.

The permanent paths are packed so hard that hoeing out weeds between the beds is almost out of the question. Using the spading fork when the soil in the path is moist works best for getting those weeds out. I can also cover them with mulch.

The other tools have their uses. I mean, the spading fork isn't real suitable for raking leaves, even if it works . I won't be using the fork for pruning the rose bushes either. I can't remember when I last used the grubbing hoe or the pulaski -- and that is just as well .

Steve

Thanks for the response, I went out and did a quick inventory and I am pretty well set.

In the planning stages still and looking ahead.

Dave

 

[hoodat]

Dave, my most important tool is a long-handled spading fork.

I have a couple of rototillers, large & small.
shovels
clippers
hoe & 4-prong cultivator
steel rake
grubbing hoe and pulaski
leaf rake

The garden where I've been the longest has never seen the tillers, that I can remember. I will spade out the soil every year or so to add amendments but if I was just to use fertilizer and well-made compost, I wouldn't need to bother with that.

A garden rake is fairly important. I use it for making the drills for sowing seed. Of course, the hoe or cultivator could serve the same purpose.

The permanent paths are packed so hard that hoeing out weeds between the beds is almost out of the question. Using the spading fork when the soil in the path is moist works best for getting those weeds out. I can also cover them with mulch.

The other tools have their uses. I mean, the spading fork isn't real suitable for raking leaves, even if it works . I won't be using the fork for pruning the rose bushes either. I can't remember when I last used the grubbing hoe or the pulaski -- and that is just as well .

Steve

How do you get away with a spading fork in your rocky ground? Every time I try to use one I spend more time pounding out wedged rocks from between the tines than I do digging.

 

[digitS']

Hoodat, anything that is pulled out of the soil, gets tossed. I remember Mary wondering why I don't just rake them out. Sometimes I do but that smaller gravel often gets mixed right back in . If the rock is big enuf to not fit between the spading fork tines - it's outta there!

It takes me about 3 years and the 11 inch tines of the spading fork go a little deeper each year.

Okay, maybe, 4 years .

Steve

 

[StupidBird]

One of the best garage sale finds was the 5 foot long, solid old steel prybar. I use my trusty square-end spade to excavate to the rock, and that prybar is heavy enough to drop wedge under an edge to loosen and lift. Or, break it up.

 

[hoodat]

Hoodat, anything that is pulled out of the soil, gets tossed. I remember Mary wondering why I don't just rake them out. Sometimes I do but that smaller gravel often gets mixed right back in . If the rock is big enuf to not fit between the spading fork tines - it's outta there!

It takes me about 3 years and the 11 inch tines of the spading fork go a little deeper each year.

Okay, maybe, 4 years .

Steve

My garden is on soil that was beach a million or so years ago so it's very sandy and full of rocks that were rounded off by surf action. If there is a bottom I haven't found it yet. The drainage is great but it also dries out fast. I've been helping that by piling in compost and rabbit berries.

 

[daver]

One of the best garage sale finds was the 5 foot long, solid old steel prybar. I use my trusty square-end spade to excavate to the rock, and that prybar is heavy enough to drop wedge under an edge to loosen and lift. Or, break it up.

That was a good find!!!!


Dave

 

[Chickie2378]

I have all the usuals. But I can go thru hoes like crazy. Some I just lose in the fields and the tractor finds them later.

We farm so I have a tractor rototiller which is a wonderful thing! Does work so fast.

Couple of hand tillers in different sizes.

Lucky we have been gardening etc for many years. Our soil is now getting to that, needs less and less hard work time.
which is nice! As I get older I need it easier!