So, although the name of this blog is ‘The Diary of a New Gardener’, we have collectively 66 years of growing experience [a bit crazy to say, but as we started growing things at the young ages of 5,7 and 9 we all have 22 years of experience each – therefore collectively 66] but we are no professionals…we have always gardened for leisure purpose and learnt through trial and error – always valuable!
We will never stop learning, the seasons will continuously change, along with a good / bad crop. We have seen and learnt a lot but there is always a new plant to try and grow, a different climate to possibly explore [dreaming of that farm in South America]. Throughout the years of growing things, we have always tended to grow things more in the usual safer realm of tomatoes / herbs / potatoes / carrots etc.
We have tried to grow things a little more explorative i.e. moringa [didn’t even sprout], we hope that we can try and grow things that we have never grown below, given the UK climate, we are somewhat restricted, although we do have a large conservatory that we try and cultivate some more ‘exotic’ plants.
Our area in Kent where we have our garden [and now an experimental allotment] the ground has a very high percentage of clay so we have to spend time treating the soil to try and make is ‘plant friendly’ as possible. We are currently doing this at the allotment and will speak about clay in another post.
So, below we have listed the tools we continuously bring out year on year. They are staples in our shed and we have only ever replaced the occasional trowel [after getting either lost or broken] but other than that, you buy the tools once, they are with you for a lifetime [sustainable joy];
1 – Our hands – probably one of the key elements to gardening – don’t undermine the effectiveness of the hand.
2 – A spade – especially useful for turning over larger surface areas of soil [without using a rotavator]
3 – A trowl
4 – A fork
5 – Gardening gloves
6 – A wheelbarrow
7 – A rake
You really don’t need a lot of tools when you garden – unless you have acres and acres of land and require machines to assist with the graft.
We try and use out hands as much as possible- feel the earth people – its good for the skin!
We will create a near future post with a list of our recommended [and personally used] top gardening tools for you to take a look at [or look for a new spade].
We hope this list will of use – if in doubt use one of the best tools we were given – our hands – they never let us down!
DIARY OF A NEW GARDENER 