There is a plethora of gardening tools that hit the stores in the early spring, and knowing what tools you need for the job can save time, energy, money, and even your landscaping. We’ve put together a list of gardening tools below that we feel are essential for the spring cleanup. For those of you that have spring cleanup tools already, take read you might see something that could help…
1. Pruning Shears
Pruning Shears are a must have for the spring cleanup. Pruning shears will be used for a multitude of tasks some examples include: cutting back last year’s growth, cutting open winter wrapped plants, pruning old perennial blooms, and remember now is the perfect time for pruning small shrubs.
2. Wire Rake
Simple wire rake is another garden essential. We prefer the flexible wire rake as opposed to a ridged plastic rake because it’s much easier to maneuver around spring blooms, and under shrubs to remove winter debris. A nice wire rake will also remove dead grass from the yard very nicely.
3. Weed Puller
Now is the time to get rid of those pesky weeds! Weed extractors are made to go deep into the ground and get at the “root” of the problem. Weeds can be extremely devastating to garden plants, and not only that but they look terrible.
4. Short and Long handled Shovel
The short handled shovel can be used to shovel fertilizer, compost, top soil, etc…into place. The long handled shovel can be used to dig unwanted plants, plant new plants, or replant old plants since now is the perfect time for planting and replanting.
5. Three Tine Cultivator
A garden hoe will open up that crusty winter frozen top layer of soil in your gardens letting in those important spring rains and air. The garden hoe is also great for mixing in compost, fertilizer, or topsoil. On a side notes I recently purchased the garden weasel, and I find it BRILLIANT!
6. Hedge Trimmers
Now’s the time to trim those hedges, and bushes back & hedge trimmers will make shaping them up very easy. A simple electric hedge trimmer is fine. Trimming hedges and bushes back in the early spring months will encourage new growth, and they’ll look much fuller over the course of the season.
7. Leaf Blower/Vacuum
Instead of trying to rake those annoying leaves blow them out or suck them up with a powered leaf blower/vacuum combo. As with hedge trimmers a simple electric Leaf Blower/Vacuum is fine. Keep in mind Leaf blowers/vacuums work great, BUT they can be heavy and a bit tougher to use. However, if you’re able to handle the weight and maneuvering the leaf blower can save you a ton of time.
8. 30 Gallon Plastic/Rubber Garbage Can
I know sounds silly right. Well the truth is when your digging, pruning, cutting, weeding, etc…there’s waste. I’ve found that a nice light rubber or plastic garbage can works great for collecting that waste for disposal. Simply load it up and dump it in your compost pile, or trash pick-up bag. Some would suggest a wheelbarrow here, but for the spring cleanup I feel the garbage can works best.
Again, these are what we feel are the fundamental garden tools for your basic spring cleanup. These tools will save you time and energy, and make the tedious spring cleanup zip by. All of the tools listed here can be found at your local hardware store, or garden center.
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