I’m one of those people who’s always on the lookout for gifts for friends and family, no matter what time of year. Knowing their individual preferences and passions, I constantly have the excuse to keep my “alert” brain button on whenever I’m out and about. Of course, the obvious resource is every nursery and garden center and online source you can think of. You never know where you’ll find a treat that matches a friend’s gardening persona. This makes any trip to the grocery store or hardware store or even big-box store a broad realm of possibilities and great fun to boot. This also is a treat for you, since this enables you to appreciate every gardening-related item you see, considering who would love to have it.
Here are some of the items that I wish someone would have purchased for me when I first began gardening some 60 years ago, so I wouldn’t have had to go through so many inferior-grade tools before figuring out that the quality ones were expensive for a reason – they’d last through my lifetime and perhaps beyond!
Hand Gloves with Elasticized Wrists
Over the years, many styles of gloves have become available. The ones I have come to prefer are of lightweight but sturdy fabric and with elasticized wrists to keep out dirt. An additional technique in keeping hands clean and not drying out while working is to lavish on hand lotion before inserting your hands into the gloves. Especially during hot weather, the lotion will combine with your perspiration, providing soothing lubrication and washing up nicely afterwards.
Hand Pruners
I prefer Corona’s pruners, and absolutely love my “small hand” type. Over the years, I’ve tried other brands, but Corona’s fit my hand the best. Make sure you choose the right size by grasping the open pruners between your thumb and fingers, as if you’re about to clip a twig. If you can easily close the pruners to make that cut, they’re the correct size. If your fingers can barely control the other handle, the pruners are too large for your hand.
Watering Wand
A great watering aid is the watering wand, which provides full-strength water quantity delivered with delicate force through many tiny holes, and the various lengths and slight bend enable many uses.
Long-Handled Digging Fork
Garden forks are more useful than shovels in accomplishing a lot of work lifting soil with less strain on your back because the soil is loosened and turned in smaller clumps. The forks are often available in a short 4-heavy-tine version with a 31” handle and a “D” or “split YD” or “T” handle grip. A better version, I’ve found, is the long-handled 4-heavy-tine style with a 48” handle because the long handle provides much more leverage when digging and lifting, and it requires much less bending. Do choose the 4-heavy-tine digging/spading fork rather than the 4-thin-tine manure fork or 5-thin-tine hay fork.
Decorative Pots
Onto the fun and pretty stuff! Pots are wonderfully attractive additions to your garden, whether unadorned clay or glazed beauties. Choose containers that are deeper than wider, to enable plants to fully develop their root systems and consistently supply irrigation water as gravity pulls it down to the bottom of the pot. You can adapt pots without drainage holes by placing another smaller pot with the plant inside the larger holeless pot. Fill the space between pots with potting mix for insulation, and tip out the accumulated water frequently.
Reference BooksThe Sunset Western Garden Book: The Ultimate Gardening Guide, Flexibound – 2012 is still the latest and most comprehensive editionUniversity of California Master Gardener Handbook –https://anrcatalog.ucanr.edu/Details.aspx?itemNo=3382
Your Favorite Local Nursery
Full-service nurseries like Armstrong’s and Green Thumb and many independently-owned nurseries are excellent in both their knowledgeable staff and the breadth of the plant choices they provide, mostly of varieties that are appropriate for their locales. They also carry a variety of seeds, cards, pots and fun “garden toys”.
Here are some of the items that I wish someone would have purchased for me when I first began gardening some 60 years ago, so I wouldn’t have had to go through so many inferior-grade tools before figuring out that the quality ones were expensive for a reason – they’d last through my lifetime and perhaps beyond!
Hand Gloves with Elasticized Wrists
Over the years, many styles of gloves have become available. The ones I have come to prefer are of lightweight but sturdy fabric and with elasticized wrists to keep out dirt. An additional technique in keeping hands clean and not drying out while working is to lavish on hand lotion before inserting your hands into the gloves. Especially during hot weather, the lotion will combine with your perspiration, providing soothing lubrication and washing up nicely afterwards.
Hand Pruners
I prefer Corona’s pruners, and absolutely love my “small hand” type. Over the years, I’ve tried other brands, but Corona’s fit my hand the best. Make sure you choose the right size by grasping the open pruners between your thumb and fingers, as if you’re about to clip a twig. If you can easily close the pruners to make that cut, they’re the correct size. If your fingers can barely control the other handle, the pruners are too large for your hand.
Watering Wand
A great watering aid is the watering wand, which provides full-strength water quantity delivered with delicate force through many tiny holes, and the various lengths and slight bend enable many uses.
Long-Handled Digging Fork
Garden forks are more useful than shovels in accomplishing a lot of work lifting soil with less strain on your back because the soil is loosened and turned in smaller clumps. The forks are often available in a short 4-heavy-tine version with a 31” handle and a “D” or “split YD” or “T” handle grip. A better version, I’ve found, is the long-handled 4-heavy-tine style with a 48” handle because the long handle provides much more leverage when digging and lifting, and it requires much less bending. Do choose the 4-heavy-tine digging/spading fork rather than the 4-thin-tine manure fork or 5-thin-tine hay fork.
Decorative Pots
Onto the fun and pretty stuff! Pots are wonderfully attractive additions to your garden, whether unadorned clay or glazed beauties. Choose containers that are deeper than wider, to enable plants to fully develop their root systems and consistently supply irrigation water as gravity pulls it down to the bottom of the pot. You can adapt pots without drainage holes by placing another smaller pot with the plant inside the larger holeless pot. Fill the space between pots with potting mix for insulation, and tip out the accumulated water frequently.
Reference BooksThe Sunset Western Garden Book: The Ultimate Gardening Guide, Flexibound – 2012 is still the latest and most comprehensive editionUniversity of California Master Gardener Handbook –https://anrcatalog.ucanr.edu/Details.aspx?itemNo=3382
Your Favorite Local Nursery
Full-service nurseries like Armstrong’s and Green Thumb and many independently-owned nurseries are excellent in both their knowledgeable staff and the breadth of the plant choices they provide, mostly of varieties that are appropriate for their locales. They also carry a variety of seeds, cards, pots and fun “garden toys”.
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