Basic Gardening Tools

Basic Gardening Tools

Keeping your garden looking its best will always involve an amount of care. Even basic maintenance in your garden will require gardening tools to be as efficient as possible – these will be in constant use.

Buying equipment that is as good a quality as you can afford will save you effort in the long term through ease of use and reliability. Walk into any garden centre and there is a huge choice of tools available.

Basic Tools

As a minimum you need the basic tools to cultivate your soil. These include a spade, fork, garden rake, hoe, hand trowel, and hand fork.

The spade and fork will be used for essential jobs such as removing large weeds, aerating the soil, digging new beds and if you can afford it I would recommend stainless steel, and as lightweight as you can.

Secateurs, Pruners and Pruning Saws

For deadheading and pruning, secateurs are frequently needed. Long handled pruners and a pruning saw may also be useful for mature gardens larger tasks. There are three different types of blades for secateurs and pruners – I recommend you buy ‘by-pass’ types as these have a sharp scissor-like action causing less damage to plants. Shears are mainly used for trimming hedges, but can be useful for cutting back herbaceous plants, or awkward areas of grass.

A watering can is indispensable, along with a mower if you have a lawn and a stiff broom for hard surfaces. You may also require, although less frequently a garden hose, a wheel-barrow, and sprayer (for feed or weedkiller)

Gardening gloves really are kind to your hands, and I always have two pairs – one sturdy leather pair, for jobs such as pruning and most winter jobs, and a plastic coated pair for weeding, damp days and summer jobs.

Hiring a Garden Chipper, Hedge trimmers or Chainsaws

For rare occasions you may need machinery such as a garden chipper, hedge trimmers or a chainsaw, hiring is certainly the most cost effective route. Useful links to nationwide tool suppliers and tool hire specialists can be found here.

However, you must remember when operating such equipment to carefully read the instructions first, and ensure the Hire shop has supplied you with all the necessary safety clothing required for that item.

Common safety equipment includes:

  • Gloves
  • Ear Defenders
  • Goggles
  • Face Mask.

Cammy’s other tree services include:

Which type of grass should I use for my lawn in the summer

Which type of grass should I use for my lawn in the summer

Take in consideration your climate, the amount of sunlight the lawn will receive, the traffic the lawn will take and how easy it is to maintain.

Kikuyu is the most popular of the warm season grasses, followed by LM lawn, Buffalo lawn and Bermuda Lawn.

Kikuyu Grass

Advances

  • Extremely drought-resistant.
  • Great for dry and warm climate.
  • Don’t need a lot of water.

Disadvantages of kikuyu grass

  • Don’t like to be trimmed too often and too short.
  • Kikuyu grass tends to turn yellowish in winter.
  • Kikuyu grass dies when grown under too much shade.
  • Needs full sun to thrive.

lM grass

  • It performs very well in shady and semi-shade conditions.
  • Grow well in full sun.
  • lM grass has the highest shade endurance out of all the species.
  • LM, Berea and Buffalo grass have the same root system.
  • Has a very soft long, narrow leaf and is a lighter shade of green than most lawns.
  • The LM grass is heat tolerant and can recover therefore quick from drought and heat stress
  • LM grass is used to home lawns, office parks, rough areas on golf courses and shade areas.

Buffalo Lawn Grass

  • Buffalo grass is low maintenance and tough as a turf grass
  • Adaptable to a wide variety of soil conditions.
  • Buffalo grass requires less watering than other lawn grasses.
  • This lawn requires less mowing
  • Buffalo is less invasive than other lawns.
  • It is shade tolerant, enjoys shaded from the sun, but will not grow in total shade.
  • To keep Buffalo lawn looking at its best, regular watering is required and mowing but not too short.
  • Because buffalo grass is not a thick lawn, it get easy weeds.

Bermuda Lawn

  • Bermuda grass or Kweek is a fine leafed, green colour grass
  • Kweek is well adjusted to a wide range of soil and climatic conditions and don’t like the sun.
  • Fast growing and spreading
  • Where frost occurs in winter the grass will remains brown until early spring.
  • Bermuda grass has the fastest growth rate of any of the warm-season grasses.
  • Low Maintenance.

Common uses for lawn

  • Lawns; residential and commercial
  • Open areas on golf courses
  • Hockey fields
  • Athletic fields
  • Rugby fields
  • Soccer fields
  • Ground rehabilitation
  • Light aircraft landing strips