Having the right tools

Plant Directory

Achillea millefolium

Common name: Yarrow

Alchemilla mollis

Common name: Lady's mantle

Allium schoenoprasum

Common name: Chives

Amelanchier

Common name: Shadbush

Ammi

Common name: Ami, Bishop's flower or Queen Ann's lace

Anemone

Common names: Poppy anemone, Windflower

Anemone hupehensis

Common names: Japanese anemone

Anethum graveolens

Common names: Dill

Angelica

Common names: Wild celery

Anthriscus sylvestris

Common names: Cow parsley

Antirrhinum

Common names: Snapdragon

Astrantia

Common names: Masterwort

Having the Right Tools

The Land Gardeners Tool Belt

We believe that having good tools is one of the keys to effective gardening and to help us keep small tools close to hand we have produced The Land Gardeners tool belt. The idea for the belt came from our friend, Lulu Cox, a chef who keeps her knives in a specially designed bag.

The tool belt holds some of our favourite smaller tools:

• Copper trowel - we consider this our most useful tool. Copper trowels are lightweight and long lasting, and being non-magnetic, they are believed to keep off the slugs!
• A pair of scissors - for cutting string.
• Secateurs - good secateurs are essential to achieve a clean cut; we particularly like the Niwaki and Felco brands.
• Tape measure - to work out the distances between plants.
• Tool-cleaning aids - we use Niwaki Crean Mate.
• Camellia oil - used for cleaning knives and tools, and for stopping them from rusting.
• A sharpening stone - for knives and secateurs.
• Plant labels - important for identifying plants (stone and slate labels are good for labelling beds). NB: Avoid plastic labels.
• Pruning knife - use with care!
• Gloves - lightweight are best.
• Weeder - a mini hand-held hoe.
• Shears - for trimming box hedges, shaping shrubs and topiaries, and cutting green manures.

When working in the garden, we find it very helpful to keep some of our hand tools in a holster, which we usually wear around our waist under a rather shapeless - but extremely practical - gardener's smock.

Cleaning and Sharpening Your Tools

Cleaning and sharpening garden tools keeps them in good condition and helps them last longer. We pay special attention to our secateurs and try (but don't always succeed) to clean them on a daily basis.

To remove juices and sap residue from secateurs, we apply a drop of camellia oil, rub the blades with Crean Mate, and finish the process by running a sharpening stone over the edges to smooth and sharpen them.

Note: Jakoti shears are self-sharpening, so all you need to do is to clean them.

Our Larger Tools Include the Following:

Copper hoe

Hoes are our most important garden tools, essential for getting rid of weeds. When sowing plants we sow them one hoe-width apart to enable us to cut down weeds without damaging the growing plants. Hoes with pivoting blades allow both forward and backward movements and speed up the weeding.

Copper spade

We love all copper tools, and for us, the light and sharp copper spades are a must.

Broad fork

This tool aerates the soils, helps microlife to thrive, and creates space for the roots to grow down and to enable water to move through. It also makes it much easier to dig over a compacted piece of land.

Slim spade

A brilliant tool for putting bulbs in or trying to extract deep-rooted weeds such as docks.

Garden rake

Useful for preparing seed beds and raking-in seeds or green manures.

Copper edging tool

This tool will help you keep the edges of beds and lawns tidy.

Top Tips

• If you are hoeing on a hot day, there's no need to clear the little weeds - they'll soon shrivel up and die in the sunshine.
• Hoe the ground around plants every two weeks. This way of 'tickling the soil' prevents weed seeds from developing and saves much time and effort later when the weeds grow so tall that they have to be removed by hand.
• Look for old tools at car boot sales and markets.
• Collect and use terracotta pots instead of plastic containers.

Glossary

Climate compost

An inoculum abundant in naturally occurring soil microbes, developed by The Land Gardeners to help improve soil health

Green manures

Fast-growing plants sown to cover bare soil and to smother weeds

Suppliers

Secateurs

Niwaki

Felco

Labels

Andrew Crace

Lightweight gloves

Showa

Shears

Jakoti hand shears

Holster

Floret Flowers

Climate compost

The Land Gardeners

Tool belt

The Land Gardeners

Books and Blogs

Soil to Table

Recipe book co-written by The Land Gardeners and chef Lulu Cox

Blogs

Erin Benzakein, flower farmer, seed grower and author