Gardening Tools - Essential Tools for Indoors and Out

Walking into any gardening department can prove to be confusing. So many areas to cover… from lawn mowing, push or riding, sprayers hand held or backpack, rakes, shovels, chemicals, saws, clippers, gloves, watering cans and wands, blowers, hoses, hose reels and other gadgets.

So many tools for so many tasks. It’s easy to fill up a tool shed with non-essential items. Tools can be almost like a kitchen appliance… really is a hot dog cooker necessary? But, where do you start? What essential “tools” do you need to take care of house plants inside or landscape plants outdoors?

I can only offer my list of essential “garden” or plant care tools. Depending on your situation you may need to make a few choices on tool type or model but in general… but I have one which is an absolute necessity.

Watering– For watering house plants inside if you’re not going the sub irrigation route you’ll need a good way to water your plants. Some like to use a watering can. I don’t I use a cheap 5-gallon bucket.

My method of watering most house plants submerges the entire root ball and then allows the soil to drain out. This way I have NO dry spots.

If we are talking outdoors spend the money and buy a premium rubber hose. A hose, which is:

• Both flexible and durable
• Made with extra strength industrial fiber reinforcement
• High burst strength

These hoses resist damage from heat, sub-zero weather and normal wear and tear. You’ll be dragging the hose around and putting some wear and tear on it. Take it from me – buy good quality!

Your hose is a tool and needs to be taken care of… hose reels make the job of rolling them up a snap!

Spraying– I NEVER recommend spraying plants indoors. However, a small pump-up sprayer, which holds a gallon, should work for most people. For myself I prefer a backpack sprayer from Solo.

Pruning– Both inside and out this one tool is an absolute must in my opinion. Just like the hose I would only buy a quality pair of pruning shears. The first name that comes to mind for me is Felco – The Felco 2 to be exact. The Felco 2 has been a solid friend by my side of over 25 years.

Those are my top 3 essential items. Yes there are others but those get you the basics - water, care, prune.

As an extra you should also consider some way to haul or carry things around. Inside the “other” 5 gallon bucket works for me, which I can use for potting soil on small plants. Outdoors the sturdy wheelbarrow is hard to beat. If you’re buying a wheelbarrow, you don’t want something that resembles a supermarket cart, Consider the two-wheeled variety, which makes balance and steering much easier.

Next time you walk into a garden center the tool section just got reduced!

Automatic Irrigation - Uses Beyond Keeping The Lawn Watered

This morning was “cold” by Florida terms. We hit in the low 30’s but those temperatures soon give way to hitting in the 60’s… the sun just needs to pop out. When my feet hit the floor this morning around 5:45 I got the coffee pot brewing and checked the outdoors. As the sun started coming it was easy to see a light frosting of our St Augustine grass.

I’ve mentioned the value of adding an automatic irrigation system to your property and how it can not only help keep plants watered but also increase property value… it’s another selling feature.

However, one area I didn’t even think of was the value beyond keeping water on the grass but also cold protection. All it took was about 20 minutes total of the pop up sprinklers hitting each of the 4 watering zones and the frost was only a memory.

Bromeliads Call for a New Home

Many house plants when looking at their “family” only have a few plants grown commercially making it easy to cover the nitty gritty details on a few pages. For example versatile spineless yucca.

However, other plants need to have their own home and website, it could be from the large variety of plants grown, their use or so many things to discuss. That being said for years I’ve held the name bromeliad.com and silently stood by waiting for the right time to create a site.

All the images sitting on my hard drive need to be shared as well as the knowledge I’ve gained with these vibrant, colorful family. Do me a favor and take a peek at Bromeliad.com and where bromeliads now have a new place to call home.

Winter House Plant Tips

I found a good little video on winter house plant care and updated the following post here… Check out the ZZ plant.

Spathiphyllum - Peace Lilly - Watch it Unwilt

Time and time again we see Spathiphyllum - otherwise known as the Peace Lilly wilt when it does not get enough water. These house plants are one of the best to use indoors and come in many different varieties and sizes.

Often we see it wilt… but check out this video and watch it unwilt!