Wednesday, July 20, 2011

My Favorite Things

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens. 
Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens. 

Everything sounds better when Julie Andrews sings it.  Sadly, she is not here to sing about my favorite things, so I’ll have to make do with the written word.  I’ve already sung a love song about my soil knife, so I won’t include it here.  But these are a few more of my favorite things…     

I’m notorious for being a bit messy.  Gardening is no exception.  When I weed, I toss the evicted invaders over my shoulder with vim and vigor.  But cleaning them up?  Eh…..not so much.  Our wheelbarrow is tall and bulky.  The effort it takes to toss my weeds in as I go slows my momentum (and believe me, any momentum I can achieve is a precious commodity).  Then along came my bucket.  It cost me $1 at the end of the season in the Target clearance aisle.  It’s plastic, lightweight and flexible.  Easy to reach into.  Tough enough to be dragged along behind a weeding mama.  Carries easily.  Hauls an armload of water, soil, mulch or weeds adequately.  I give it 5 stars.  Sadly, I’ve loved it a little too hard and now there’s a hole in my bucket.   But I think I can squeeze the cost of a replacement into our budget.




Tools ought to match the scale of the project.  Backhoes for the back-breaking jobs, and trowels for tiny ones.  Is it possible to dig a 1 gallon hole with a shovel or a trowel?  Absolutely.  Is it ideal?  I think not.  The perennial spade is scaled perfectly for working in and around perennials.  With it, I can dig out a chunk of catmint without disturbing the surrounding flora.  It is my go-to spade when gardening.    



My husband doesn’t like to spend money.  Is there an allergy for that sort of thing?  That would explain a lot.  So I was understandably bewildered when he came home from the hardware store with a set of gardening tools.  The yellow and red colors on the tools and packaging made me think he’d purchased a children's set.  Boy, was I wrong!  He gets an A+ from his horticultural honey for this selection.  The WOLF-Garten multi-tool set comes with 1 long and 2 short handles for three interchangeable tool heads.  The first attachment is a Push-Pull Weeder.  Related to a hoe, this tool obliterates weedy-takeovers with a simple push and pull.  Beds that once overwhelmed me were stripped of trespassers in minutes.  The secret to its effectiveness is the horizontal bar that runs under the roots, dislodging them.  The second tool is called a Small Sweep.  Removing dead foliage and debris from my perennials beds is a breeze, thanks to this sweet baby rake (not to be confused with a similar sounding barbecue sauce).  It maneuvers in and around tight spaces without damaging the surrounding plantings.  The last attachment is a cultivator head.  Can't say I've used it much, but I'm certain there's wonderment within, since it comes from such an innovative company.  Within minutes of finding their website, I had begun transcribing my 2011 Christmas wishlist.


4 comments:

Karen Dannenhauer said...

I couldn't find where to get those tools locally, so I turned to Amazon. They were here within days, and , WOW, they're great! I also got a soil crumbler instead of the cultivator head. I was not able to get the tools as a set, but bought them individually. Where have they been all of my (gardening) life?

Design to Grow said...

Karen, I'm so glad you got them. Aren't they magical? : ) Now you've got my curiosity up about the soil crumbler...I'm going to have to check it out. Glad to know they're on Amazon. Hadn't checked there.

Anonymous said...

I've been wanting a good sweep and the WOLF-Garten is just what I'm looking for. I like the weed annihilator, too! At what hardware store did your husband find these fantastic tools? I enjoy your columns in The Daily Journal.

Design to Grow said...

Thanks so much! I think he got them at Lowe's, but it was several years ago. One of the best features is the adjustable handle. Jobs in close quarters or jobs that are harder to reach....it handles them all equally well. I'll have to look up the weed annihilator. Thanks for the tip!

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