Retooling

Take inventory of your garden supplies - do you have what you need?

By Carol Stocker, Globe Staff, 9/4/2003

Part of the romance of gardening is a love affair with good tools. A cheap garden tool looks a lot like a quality tool, but the feel and efficiency of a fine tool adds to the enjoyment of gardening.

You only need a few garden tools. Here are our choices for the top 10. As you begin fall planting and clearing, note which tools help you to do these jobs with efficiency and ease, and which ones aren't up to the task. Toss tools that don't perform well and then make one or two well-chosen additions.

The best tools for digging, planting, cutting and weeding are made with heads of high-carbon steel. Stainless steel has the additional merit of being rust proof, and mud slides right off it.

''Go with forged rather than stamped tools. They'll last longer,'' advised Bill Winter, retail manager at Russell's Garden Center in Wayland. ''It will probably say ‘forged' on the steel. Stay away from welded tools.''

The tools you need are to some extent dictated by what you grow. Vegetable gardeners use more long-handled tools than flower gardeners, who are on their knees more, working in tight spaces with trowels and hand weeders, said Winter.

Some tools have interchangeable parts. ''Corona makes a nice line of hand tools with extendable handles for $11.99 each,'' said Winter. ''Wolfgarten has a series of detachable heads, with long and short handles. It saves space, and the quality is good. The handles run $4.99 for short plastic handles, $10.99 for long wood or plastic-coated aluminum handles, $4.99 for a three-prong cultivator head, and $34.95 for the 'crumbler' with a rolling pronged cultivator on one side and stirrup hoe on the other side.''

Other good brands to look for include Clarington Forge, Spear and Jackson, Samuel Parks, Glaser and Felco, Sandvik, and Fiskars.

If most tools are too big for you, look for adjectives like ''floral'' or ''border.'' Those words often denote smaller-scale versions. When choosing long-handled tools, choose one that reaches from ground to elbow.

The tools we're looking at here are designed to turn the soil, weed, plant, prune, and move material.

Here are the 10 most essential gardening tools:

1. Wheelbarrow or garden cart The wheelbarrow is an ingenious 1,800-year-old invention from China. Operating on the lever principle with a single wheel as the fulcrum, it can roll through an area only slightly wider than its tire, and then pour out a load in several directions. Choose one with tires at least 4 inches thick for stability. Look for a reinforced steel undercarriage and a steel tray coated with baked epoxy. Garden carts are more expensive and improve on wheelbarrow tippiness by adding a second wheel. They carry a larger load, and the flat bottom is better for wheeling around potted plants, filled watering cans, or firewood. Two popular lines made in New England are the Vermont Garden Cart ($180-$269, depending on size), made of plywood with bicycle tires; and the Smart Cart from Maine, which has a more versatile, removable, polypropylene tub on an aluminum frame. There are two wheel types and various sizes of the interchangeable tubs ($299 for the 7 cubic feet cart).

2. Bypass hand pruner Quality is key in this and all cutting tools. Felco is the top-selling brand and makes several versions, including one with a rotating handle to help prevent wrist strain or carpal tunnel syndrome, but it's too large for most women. Felco No. 6 fits a smaller hand. PowerGear pruners by Fiskars have a rotating handle and an adjustable grip for all hand sizes.

3. Bypass lopper These are like powerful hand pruners with long handles that let you reach into a shrub's interior. Newly designed versions have become more versatile, with longer or telescoping handles, and smoother cutting power through the introduction of ratchet gears or compound fulcrums. The largest ones can cut through a 2-inch branch.

4. Hoe Used primarily for weeding, there are many kinds. A big vegetable garden with open rows needs an eye hoe, also called a grub hoe, which is the only tool that subsistence farmers use in many parts of the world. Excellent for digging and even prying out rocks, their blades are fitted onto the shaft by means of an oval eye, like a mattock's. Old-timers would knock off the flat head and use it to fry up corn cakes for lunch, hence the name "hoecakes." For weeding among more tightly planted beds, there are hoes you push, called scuffle hoes, and those you pull, called draw hoes, which include the popular Union hoe and Warren hoe. The latter's triangular blade is also good for opening planting furrows for seeds.

The most popular hoe is one you both push and pull, thus the names action, hula, and oscillating hoe. Its odd appearance contributed the name stirrup hoe. The two-edged blade is on a hinge so it swings as you push and pull, making it twice as active and self-cleaning to boot.

Jon Hill of Johnny's Selected Seeds in Winslow, Maine, recommends the collinear hoe designed by Maine organic market farmer Eliot Coleman for young weeds. "You simply sweep the blade through the soil just under the surface, skimming it lightly. I gave one to my father and he said it was the first time he's had a weed-free garden," said Hill. Johnny's version ($36) is made by Glaser of Switzerland.

5. Garden spade You want a D- or DY-shaped handle. Draining spades (designed for digging drainage ditches) are increasingly popular with perennial gardeners working in tight spots, said Bill Winter, retail manager at Russell's Garden Center. "They're called poaching or rabbiting spades in England," he said. "People used them to dig rabbits up for dinner on the owner's estate because the extended 10- to 14-inch head is narrow so they could slide them down their pant's leg to hide them."

6. Round-point shovel This is the best-selling tool. The smaller border shovel is easier for women and older gardeners to handle. For heavy digging, use a mattock first to break up compacted soil and cut through roots.

7. Rake You'll need two kinds. Use a stiff flat-head or bow-head steel rake to get rocks out of the soil, level planting areas, and give grass seed contact with the soil. For raking leaves, choose one with flexible polypropylene teeth or a bamboo rake, always a bargain.

8. Weeder The three-prong weeder is most commonly used, and pops weeds right out of the soil with its spring-steel tines. There are many other types to choose from, with new ones invented every day. Most people like to have a pronged fishtail weeder, ball weeder, or asparagus fork for prying out dandelions and other plants with long taproots. The curved Cape Cod weeder gives fingertip control in tight spots.

9. Trowel Quality is not paramount in this simple tool, which often comes in a set with a three-pronged weeder and a fishtailed weeder. Still, you'll appreciate a padded handle. The best is made by Oxo, manufacturer of those "Good Grip" kitchen peelers, and features a gell insert, serrated edges, and measurements on the head.

10. Spading fork A quality garden fork is great for lifting perennials and shrubs, or prying out unwanted small trees. It also can convert hardpan subsoil into crumbling clods when turning soil. Border forks are one-third smaller, so easier to use.

Finally, here are some good sources for good tools:

- Russells Garden Center, Wayland (www.russellsgardencenter.com, 508-358-2283)

- Mahoney's

- Johnny's Selected Seeds (207-861-3901, www.johnnyseeds.com)

- Weston Nurseries (508-435-3414, www.westonnurseries.com)

- Gardeners Supply catalog (800-427-3363, www.gardeners.com)

- Gardenscape catalog (888-472-3266, www.gardenscape.on.ca)

- Lee Valley Tools catalog (800-267-8735 or www.leevalley.com)

- www.Amazon.com

- A.M. Leonard, Inc., catalog (800-543-8955, www.amlgardener.com)