Some New Tools

Though winter is refusing to go away - another 2" or so of snow fell last night - before long, it will start to warm up, and I'll have a lot of work to do in the yard.  And now I have more equipment with which to that work.  My parents got me a couple of gifts for my birthday, including a bucket to wheel around the yard.  My grandfather passed away a couple of months ago, and he's handed down to me some of the tools with which he lovingly tended his own yards and gardens over the years.  This includes some leaf-blowing equipment that will be really helpful next fall, a hose on a cart that he had for decades, a tool that will be great for chopping ice on the sidewalk in winter, a big rake thingy to break up the soil in the garden, a pair of loppers to trim smaller branches, and a long pole with a sharp end - whatever it's called - to take care of higher, longer branches.  As you can tell, I'm not really up to speed on the names of all these things, but I know they'll all come in handy.

A Surprise...More Garden Tools!

You never know who's reading the blog.  I was approached by a friend of mine last weekend who had seen my blog post about needing a hoe and other assorted gardening tools.  He's moving away this summer and was looking for a home for his many gardening items.  Naturally, he asked if I wanted any of it.

It turns out that much of what he had will be useful to me...a couple of hoses, which will help me to reach all the way from the garden to the spigot on the other side of the house, along with a nozzle and a sprinkler...a spade/shovel...a big three-pronged pointy thing that I don't know the name of but that will be useful in clearing the weeds and breaking up their roots...and a bunch of smaller tools like shears and trowels.

The tools have been stored in the shed, and the hoses are put away in the house's workshop to keep any excess water from freezing over the winter.  They'll all be very useful once it gets warm again in the spring.  Oh, and if you're in the Ithaca area and need a hoe, fenceposts, or other gardening stuff, he may be able to offer it.

Thanks Evan!

...Got Me a Hoe...

I am now a proud hoe-owner.  My aunt and uncle were in the area this past weekend, and as regular readers of this blog, they had seen that I don't own a hoe.  So during their visit to see my house and tour the garden, they gave me my very own brand new hoe.  Thanks, Aunt Claire and Uncle Joe!

Now I can do everything you can do with a hoe.  It has a pointy end, which is great for pounding that hoe into the ground, penetrating the soil and mixing it up.  With the hoe, I can even do work in the garden throughout the winter, as the pointy end will be able to break up even somewhat frozen soil.  Not that I'll necessarily want to be out in the garden in the cold weather, but at least now it may be an option. 

I used it this weekend to clear the plants and roots out of the planter boxes in the garden.  Then I cleaned it, because no one likes a dirty hoe.  Come springtime, I can use it to dig a trough to plant seeds in, and then cover them up with soil to let them grow.  My collection of gardening tools is growing, and with it, so is my ability to do things in the garden.

I Need a Hoe

I don't have many gardening/yard tools, as you can see.  To the ones in the picture above, I've recently added a shovel...actually, two shovels - a snow shovel (which will surely come in handy this winter) and a digging shovel.  I know that in the future, I'll need more tools.  Every gardener needs a hoe, right?  As I decide what to put in my garden, and as my needs around the yard evolve, I'll need the right equipment to do what I want to do.  I'm not one to buy things for the sake of buying them; I wait until there's a demonstrated need.  And so for now, the hoe can wait.