With snow melting, it’s to prepare your gardening tools

The snow is finally down to a few stubborn patches lurking in the shade and your green thumb is twitching … and that means gardening. April 14 is National Gardening Day — time to open up the gardening shed and re-acquaint yourself with the tools and containers you packed away last fall.

It’s a good idea to do an inventory of the supplies and tools you have and the condition they are in. Check gardening gloves and kneepads for wear and tear, and from there you can move on to your tools.

Bernie Whetter at The Green Spot Home & Garden shared some advice, dividing essential tools into four categories: long-handle, D-handle, hand tools and pruners.

Whetter starts with the long-handle tools.

“The round-mouthed shovel is for planting trees and digging bigger holes. You can stand to do the work and you put your foot on the edge of the shovel to shove it into the ground,” he said.

“Then there are two rakes. A flexible or plastic one for leaves, and a metal rake for smoothing things out. And finally, the hoe for weeding.”

One hoeing tool that Whetter finds especially useful is the “triangle hoe,” which comes in both long and short handles.

“It’s really nice for hoeing right in tight around plants rather than chopping or digging. You can be very specific and almost pick the weeds out,” he said.

The D-handles are about three-feet long and the handle is just what it sounds like: D-shaped. These are the spades, with either a square mouth or a round mouth for digging holes, and the fork for loosening soil by shoving it into the ground and prying back.

The most important hand tools are the trowel, and the claw.

“The trowel is one of the most useful ones for planting annuals or perennials. You’re always digging a hole with a trowel, anything from three inches up to six to eight inches. The claw is used to break down clods of soil and level things out,” he said.

Pruning tools are also essential. Hand pruners are for small stems about the diameter of a finger and handy to keep in your pocket for small branches or tomato stems. Larger stems call for pruning shears. Hedge clippers, 12- to 18-inches long, are for trimming hedges, especially good for touch-ups after using the electric clippers.

Handsaws are for larger branches.

“I like mine. It’s the shape of a banana so as you’re cutting it pulls itself into the branch. You can make nice smooth cuts in branches up to three or four inches in diameter. A chainsaw is for large branches,” he said.

Manufacturers are developing tools that are ‘ergonomic’ — designs that leverage the shape of the tool making it easier on hands and wrists. Pruners especially have improved, with both right- and left-handed available.

Tools should be cleaned after every use, especially if soil is heavy with clay. Give them a good scrape using a brush if necessary. Always dry thoroughly.

“Oiling is good, particularly for the metal tools at least once a year,” he said.

Whetter said sharpening tools with cutting and digging edges is critical.

“For the last 15 years we have run a free sharpening clinic here so people can bring in five of their tools and I’ll put them over the stone grinder and get a nice sharp edge on them,” he said.

“But it’s something that people can also do for themselves.”

Sharpening day is usually the first Saturday in May.

“People clearly have their favourite tool and you can tell that it’s well worn. Some are very particular about their tools and others come in very rough shape where they just use them and put them away. So, we try to do a little education as we go along,” he said.

Whetter said not to use garden tools to pry large clods of dirt or stones in the garden, something he cops to himself.

“I’ve bent the shafts and I’ve broken them, so my advice is resist that urge. Get a crowbar — that’s what it’s designed for,” he said.

In addition to readying your tools, it’s important to have soil amendments ready to go, including manure, humus, or sea soil.

“First thing in the spring, some of them can be worked in and some can just lay on top and they’ll work themselves in, or earthworms will do the work.”

Peat moss is no longer recommended as it does not break down and is not a renewable resource. Chemical fertilizers can burn the root hairs of young plants in spring, so hold off until fall to give it time to leach into the soil where it won’t do any harm.

Zero-till is the best practice in the garden as well.

“When you dig or till, you’re destroying the aggregate. All the micro-organisms aggregate the soil rather than have it all broken up. Earthworms and micro-organisms and roots are all down there developing a soil structure that they like to live in,” he said.

He encourages planting in rows with straw, cardboard, planks or burlap between to suppress weed growth and retain moisture. Lift it up and you’ll see earthworms creating good soil.

“Digging tools should just be used for digging holes to plant plants. We shouldn’t go digging up our black soils. Just let them do their thing,” Whetter said.

“Plus, it’s easier on our bodies.”

» wendyjbking@gmail.com